’Obvious’ classics missing on our bookshelf.

[J_BlueFlower]

Are there any mega-classics we are still missing on our book shelf?

Over in The “What Are You Reading Now? ” tread Lilly wrote: "I decided to start my challenges with a reread of Dubliners by James Joyce and just noticed that it is not on the group shelves. That kind of astonished me, as it is the ..."

Here are some books I think belong on our shelf:
Hunger by Knut Hamsun (Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920)

Something by Anton Chekhov

Something by Honoré de Balzac

Kristin Lavransdatter. Sigrid Undset "received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. Most of the praise was for her medieval novels, including the trilogy about Kristin Lavransdatter."

And possibly also Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

This tread is not meant as a complaint... more like inspiration/wishful thinking/yet another list of books....

We have had similar treads before, for example "All time top 3 books"
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
included "Top 3 books that you have read and think are missing on our group book shelf". It is good to see that quite a few book in that tread have found their way to our shelf since then.

[J_BlueFlower]

Also possibly:
The Shining by Stephen King.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

These are the top most books from the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die "
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
that we do not have on our shelf.

[Lynn]

I agree on Honoré de Balzac and Anton Chekhov.. Also sometimes we might have one book by a particular author when another is left out.

1. I think The Good Earth by Pearl Buck might be one. It has been decades since I read it. The book was published in the 1930s, so I do not know how well it would come across today.

2. I would also second Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

3. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather or something from the pioneer trilogy.

[Kathleen]

Great topic to get us thinking about some possible nominations, J BlueFlower.

I'm happy to see we may be adding Their Eyes Were Watching God to the shelf soon! 🤞

I'd also think these would be worthy additions:
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
and
Orlando by Virginia Woolf

[Janelle]

I agree with Orlando and Androids.

The biggest hole for me is there’s nothing by Émile Zola

[J_BlueFlower]

Janelle wrote: "The biggest hole for me is there’s nothing by Émile Zola"

Yes. I agree. I remember seeing Germinal quite a few times in the polls. Maybe we should try J'accuse! "the greatest newspaper article in history" (according to a link in Wikipedia). Actually I remember reading it in history class in school as an example of tendencies in history leading to to WWII.

[J_BlueFlower]

J'accuse!

English translation online here:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/zola...

It looks very short ~6-10 normal pages.

[Nente]

Hm, I'm not sure it would be comprehensible to someone unfamiliar with the Dreyfus case. Not that I'm all that knowledgeable about it - I read Harris's novel An Officer and a Spy and supplemented it with Wikipedia articles, but all that was long ago.
As far as I understand the context, it was aimed at the public who were actually in the midst of a whirlwind of rumour and accusations about the case.

[Peter]

For Balzac, Lost Illusions or Père Goriot would be good choices. For Chekhov Anton a short story or collection of stories might be best, which puts me in mind to suggest Maupassant as another short story author to add to the list.

[J_BlueFlower]

You probably meant to link to Guy de Maupassant.

Maybe this one: The Necklace, 48 pages since the collection is called The Necklace and Other Stories: Maupassant for Modern Times.

[Peter]

Yes, there were a bunch of Maupassant links, and I couldn’t find the right one. Thanks!

[Ryan]

I think Proust is a big gap on the bookshelf. Even if the group only read Swann's Way (Vol I), that would give everyone an idea of his writing style and themes. I am reading Sodom and Gomorrah (Vol IV) right now, and plan to finish all six volumes around June.

Reading Proust would also provide plenty of background on the Dreyfus affair.

[Lynn]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "You probably meant to link to Guy de Maupassant.

Maybe this one: The Necklace, 48 pages since the collection is called [book:The Necklace and Other Stories: Maupassan..."


Yes, "The Necklace" by Maupassant is an excellent story. It is used in schools here in the United States.

[Erin]

I definitely agree that Sigrid Undset, Selma Lagerlöf and Marguerite Yourcenar should be on the group bookshelf!

Another glaring omission is The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. I would also add the great classic novels of China, but those might be too long, even for a group long-read, being close to or well over 2,000 pages. I would love to see more recent works by Asian authors added as well — less obviously missing I suppose, but I think could especially be beneficial to read as a group, assuming most of us are primarily familiar with English literature.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I agree with you, Erin, and Sigrid Undset is such a marvelously readable author! I need to read all the others you have mentioned, so the gap is not only in the bookshelf but in myself!

[Brian E]

I have read 3 novels by Selma Lagerlof which were fine but not great and have had a used copy of Memoirs of Hadrian on my TBR pile for at least 4 years as I never seem inclined to place it near the top of the pile. Actually, my copy of John Williams' Augustus, bought right after this group read his Stoner, has also remained low on my TBR pile. So I guess the Roman historical aspect intimidates me. Yet I liked I, Claudius.

While Lagerlof was just OK, Sigrid Undset does write books that I consider great. I read Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter in 2017 and loved it. The relatively recent translation by Tiina Nunnally was wonderful.

Then in 2020. I decided to read The Axe, the first volume of Undset's The Master of Hestviken tetralogy and enjoyed it so much that I went on to read the other 3 volumes. I was hesitant at first because it was still the older 1928 translation.

Shortly after I finished the tetralogy, I discovered that Tiina Nunnally was working on a translation of the four books in the Master series, with the first volume, Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows published in November of 2020. Although I did very much enjoy the series, if I had known Ms. Nunnally was working on this new translation I probably would have waited.

So those who have considered reading The Master Of Hestviken might consider waiting to start until at least 2 or 3 volumes of Nunnally's newer translation are published.

[LiLi]

I remember reading "The Necklace" in French class. We also read "The Legend of Mont St-Michel" by the same author.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Brian, thank you for the heads-up on the new translation of the Undset works. I have the Master of Hestviken series on my TBR. I loved the Kristen Lavransdatter books--devoured them.

[Marilyn]

Has anyone read Undset's earlier books Marta Oulie and Jenny? My library has Nunnally translations of both books.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I read Jenny, Marilyn, and I loved it. I have not read Marta Oulie, so I need to add that to the interminable TBR.

[Luke]

Marilyn wrote: "Has anyone read Undset's earlier books Marta Oulie and Jenny? My library has Nunnally translations of both books."

I've been trying to track down a copy of 'Jenny' for a while now, and I'd be interested in your thoughts, Marilyn.

[Brian E]

Aubrey wrote: ".I've been trying to track down a copy of 'Jenny' for a while now..."

I have this Nunnally translation of in my Amazon shopping cart patiently and hopefully awaiting a price reduction from the current $19 American. Amazon also has non-Nunnally translations of Jenny as a $1 Kindle and $10 and $14 paperbacks. Book Depository has non-Nunnally translations of Jenny for about $13 and $17, but no Nunnally edition available.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I bought this translation some time ago for $3.99, Brian. Hang in there, it might well come down in price.

[Darren]

I think our shelves cover the majority of "Mega" Classics pretty well

the omissions tend to be either very long or non-english language (or both!), for example:
as already mentioned:
Tale Of Genji
Kristin Lavransdatter
two that I'd add:
Tom Jones
The Red And The Black
and a short&english one that springs to mind:
The Wind In The Willows

[Lynn]

Darren wrote: "I think our shelves cover the majority of "Mega" Classics pretty well

the omissions tend to be either very long or non-english language (or both!), for example:
Tom Jones
The Red And The Black
Tal..."

I think you are correct about the length. I did a data analysis of the page length of books nominated vs. those that won. Very long books have a much decreased chance of winning in any of the categories other than the obvious Long Read. With only four long-reads a year numerically there are just fewer of these books on the Group Bookshelf.