Carolien's Millennia of Reading challenge

[Carolien]

I want to see if I can read a book published in each century of a millennium, so will keep track here of my reading:



400-499BCE Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Lysistrata
300 - 399BCE
200-299BCE
100-199BCE
99-0BCE
1-100CE
101-200CE
201-300CE
301-400CE
401-500CE -
501-600CE
601-700CE
701-800CE
801-900CE
901-1000CE
1001-1100CE The Diary of Lady Murasaki (1010)
1101-1200CE The Lais of Marie de France
1201-1300CE The Saga of the Jomsvikings
1301-1400CE
1401-1500CE The Book of the City of Ladies (1420)
1501-1600CE
1601-1700CE
1701-1800CE
1751-1760 Candide (1759)
1761-1770 The Castle of Otranto (1764) The Vicar of Wakefield (1766)
1771-1780
1781-1790
1791-1800
1801-1900CE
1801-1810
1811-1820
1821-1830
1831-1840
1841-1850 The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales (1841)
1851-1860
1861-1870 The Count's Millions, Baron Trigault's Vengeance (1870)
1871-1880
1881-1890 A Study in Scarlet (1884)
1891-1900 Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891)

[Terris]

Very ambitious! Good luck on finding books for each century :)

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Wow this is a tough one. Good luck. Sounds like the search will be fun.

[Luke]

What an epic challenge, Carolien. I'll be looking forward to what you settle on for 200-800 CE. That's a pretty sizable gap in my own collection.

[Carolien]

Aubrey wrote: "What an epic challenge, Carolien. I'll be looking forward to what you settle on for 200-800 CE. That's a pretty sizable gap in my own collection."

I have a suspicion that I'll either read a lot of Arabic or Asian books for that period! Or church meditations or something.

[Carolien]

Reading the Silk Road

All books planned, unless date and rating added.

1101-1200:
1201-1300: The Essential Rumi, The Knight in the Panther's Skin (Georgia),
1301-1400:
1401-1500:
1501-1600: The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, The Peony Pavilion (China), Monkey: The Journey to the West (China)
1601-1700: Li Yu (China)
1701-1800: A Dream of Red Mansion (China)
1801-1810:
1811-1820:
1821-1830: Flowers in the Mirror (China)
1831-1840:
1841-1850: Dead Souls (Ukraine)
1851-1860:
1861-1870: War and Peace, Notes from Underground (Russia)
1871-1880: Jalaleddin: A Portrayal of His Incursion (Armenia)
1881-1890: Recollections from Childhood (Romania)
1891-1900: Under the Yoke (Bulgaria)
1901-1910: Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy (Greece)
1911-1920: Rabindranath Tagore (India)
1921-1930: The Fatal Eggs (Ukraine)
1931-1940: Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea (Russia), The Old School (Tajikistan), Ali and Nino (Azerbaijan), Love in a Fallen City (China)
1941-1950: Days in the Caucasus (Azerbaijan)
1951-1960: The Time Regulation Institute (Turkey)
1961-1970: Farewell Gul'sary (Kyrgyzstan)
1971-1980: The White Ship (Kyrgyzstan), A Man Was Going Down the Road (Georgia)
1981-1990: Samarkand (Lebanon)
1991-2000: Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (Pakistan)
2001-2010: The Dancer from Khiva: One Muslim Woman's Quest for Freedom, The Railway (Uzbekistan), The Forty Rules of Love (Turkey)
2011-2020: The Tale of Aypi (Turkmenistan), A Land without Jasmine (Yemen)
2021- I'm in Seattle, Where Are You?: A Memoir (Iraq), Daughters of Smoke and Fire (Kurdistan)

Non-fiction:
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road
The Travels of Marco Polo
In Xanadu: A Quest

[Cynda]

Carolien, I will be considering more if your Reading the silk road list. I have added to my list of possibilities Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. . . . .I have read The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. While many of the nonfiction group I read with fell out from the group read, I and a few others stuck with it. It was a complete idea opener for me. Not an easy read, but a worthwhile one for some of us.

[Carolien]

Cynda wrote: "Carolien, I will be considering more if your Reading the silk road list. I have added to my list of possibilities Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. . . . .I have read The Silk Roads: A New History o..."

I'ts been percolating in my mind for a while. I want to read a book from each of the Stans and this seemed like a way to cover a lot. I started The Silk Road just before Covid on audio and then abandoned it when lockdown struck. I hope to get back to it next year as it was very interesting.

[Carolien]

A Century of South American authors

All books planned, unless date and rating added.

1881-1890: The Slum (Brazil)
1881-1890: Torn From the Nest (Peru)
1880-1889: The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (Brazil)
1890-1899:
1900-1909:
1910-1919: The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma (Brazil)
1920-1929: Doña Bárbara (Venezuela)
1930-1939: Forgotten Journey (Argentina)
1940-1948: Corentyne Thunder (Guyana)
1940-1948: The Invention of Morel (Argentina), Where There's Love, There's Hate
1950-1959: The Naked Woman (Uruguay), Zama
1960-1969: No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories (Columbia)
1960-1969: The Guyana Quartet
1970-1979: Conversation in the Cathedral (Peru)
1970-1979: Clarice Lispector
1980-1989: The Cost of Sugar (Suriname)
1980-1989: I the Supreme (Paraguay)
1990-1999: Piano Stories (Uruguay)
2000-2009: Turing's Delirium (Bolivia)
2010-2019: Ramón Díaz Eterovic (Chile)
2020-2023: Isabel Allende, Sharon Maas

Also:

The President
The News from Paraguay
The Invisible Mountain
Invisible Country

[Carolien]

If anyone has more ideas for South America, please let me know. (I'm dealing with Central America and the Caribbean separately, so this should just be the South American continent).

[[deleted user]]

Wonderful projects, Carolien! Really inspiring.

For turn-of-the-century South America why not try Rubén Darío and Adela Zamudio? More suggestions in their Spanish-language wiki pages.

I was also thinking of reading some Latin American classics at the start of next year: Jean Rhys, J. Cortazar, O. Paz, poetry...

[Wayne]

Another possibility for the 30s is Jorge Icaza's The Villagers, set in Ecuador.

[Luke]

Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay) put out some works, probably mostly short stories, during the 1900s decade. I'll have to look at my copy of his The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories to see specific ones (GR lists the entire collection as 1909, but the most recent story came out 1935).

There's also The Slum (1890) by Aluísio Azevedo (Brazil).

[Carolien]

Thanks for all the suggestions, they all look like good additions!

[Carolien]

Century of Australian literature

All books planned, unless date and rating added.

1831-1840: Quintus Servinton : A Tale founded upon Incidents of Real Occurence
1841-1850
1851-1860
1861-1870: Force and Fraud: A Tale of the Bush
1871-1880
1881-1890
1891-1900: The Family at Misrule, The Man from Snowy River
1901-1910: We of the Never Never, A Little Bush Maid
1911-1920: The Magic Pudding, Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1919-1927) Jonah
1921-1930: Up the Country
1931-1940: Capricornia
1941-1950: The Harp in the South
1951-1960: Patrick White or Christina Stead
1961-1970: Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Gone-Away Man: An Australian Outback Romance
1971-1980: The Thorn Birds or The Glass Canoe
1981-1990: My Place
1991-2000: Rabbit-Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time or Cloudstreet
2001-2010: Malicious Intent
2011-2020: The Yield, Where the Trees Were, The Rules of Backyard Cricket, Bitter Wash Road
2021-2023: The Waterhole

[Wayne]

You can give it a smidgen of South Africa by including something by Peter Temple, whose books I am keen to read in the near future.

[Carolien]

Wayne wrote: "You can give it a smidgen of South Africa by including something by Peter Temple, whose books I am keen to read in the near future."

I enjoyed the Temples I've read so far, The Broken Shore and Truth are both excellent.

[Luke]

As a follow up, here are the short stories in the Quiroga collection I mentioned that will fit in the 1900-1909 bracket:

The Feather Pillow (1907)
Sunstroke (1908)
The Pursued (1908)
The Decapitated Chicken (1909)

[Carolien]

Aubrey wrote: "As a follow up, here are the short stories in the Quiroga collection I mentioned that will fit in the 1900-1909 bracket:

The Feather Pillow (1907)
Sunstroke (1908)
The Pursued (1908)
The Decapitat..."

Thank you, very helpful!

[Carolien]

Female authors through the centuries

All books planned, unless date and rating added.

1551-1560: The Heptameron (French)
1561-1570:
1571-1580: Interior Castle (Spanish)
1581-1590:
1591-1600: The Worth of Women: Wherein Is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men (Italian)
1601-1609:
1611-1620: The Tragedy of Mariam
1621-1630: Mary Wroth: The Countess of Montgomery's Urania (Note: read with The Old Arcadia)
1631-1640: The Disenchantments of Love (Spanish)
1641 -1650: The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America
1651-1660: A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia
1661 - 1670: The Blazing World
1671 - 1680: The Princesse de Clèves (French)
1681- 1690: Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister
1691-1700: The Fairy Tales Of Madame d'Aulnoy, Persinette (French), A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest
1701-1710: The Busie Body
1711-1720: The New Atalantis, Love in Excess
1721-1730: Fantomina; or, Love in a Maze
1731-1740: The Beauty and the Beast (French)
1741- 1750: The Governess; or, The Little Female Academy
1751-1760: The Female Quixote
1761-1770: Millenium Hall, The History of Emily Montague (Canada)
1771-1780: Evelina, Poems of Phillis Wheatley, The Sylph
1781-1790: Emmeline, A Sicilian Romance
1791-1800: A Simple Story, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Castle of Wolfenbach: A German Story
1801-1810: Belinda, Zofloya
1811-1820
1821-1830
1831-1840
1841-1850
1851-1860
1851-1860
1861-1870
1871-1880 The First Violin Completed 20 October 4 stars (1877)
1881-1890
1891-1900
1901-1910
1911-1920: The Mother (Italy)
1921-1930
1931-1940
1941-1950
1951-1960
1961-1970
1971-1980
1981-1990
1991-2000
2001-2010
2011-2020
2021-

[[deleted user]]

Carolien wrote: "Female authors..."

Few Italian names coming to mind.

Veronica Gambara (1485-1550)
Complete Poems

Gaspara Stampa (1523-1554)
The Complete Poems (1554)

Marchesa Colombi (1840-1920)
A Small-Town Marriage (1885)

Big names:

Ada Negri (1870-1945):
> 26 publications

Grazia Deledda (1871-1936)
> 66 publications, 1926 Nobel Prize

Sibilla Aleramo (1876-1960)
> 21 publications

[Carolien]

Fed wrote: "Carolien wrote: "Female authors..."

Few Italian names coming to mind.

Veronica Gambara (1485-1550)
Complete Poems

Gaspara Stampa (1523-1554)
[book..."

Brilliant, thank you!

[[deleted user]]

Thank you! For earlier centuries, I thought of some mystics:

• Hildegard of Bingen, 1100s;
• Marguerite Porete, 1200s;
• beguine movement (see below), 1300s.

Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete

[Carolien]

Fed wrote: "Thank you! For earlier centuries, I thought of some mystics:

• Hildegard of Bingen, 1100s;
• Marguerite Porete, 1200s;
• beguine movement (see below), 1300s.

[book:M..."

Marguerite Porete looks like a very interesting read. I definitely need to read Hildegard von Bingen, I have a biography of her somewhere.

[Carolien]

French literature

1691-1700 Persinette
1701-1710
1711-1720
1721-1730 Persian Letters
1731-1740 Manon Lescaut
1741- 1750 The Dispute
1751-1760 Zadig
1761-1770 The Social Contract
1771-1780 The Devil In Love
1781-1790 Les Liaisons dangereuses
1791-1800 This Is Not a Story and Other Stories
1801-1810 Atala / René, Corinne, or Italy
1811-1820 Ten Years of Exile
1821-1830 The Red and the Black
1831-1840 Notre-Dame de Paris The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
1841-1850 The Devil's Pool
1851-1860 Madame Bovary
1851-1860 Les Fleurs du Mal, Les Malheurs de Sophie
1861-1870 Thérèse Raquin
1871-1880 The Clique of Gold
1881-1890 Bel-Ami, The Princess of Bagdad: A Play in Three Acts, Le Disciple
1891-1900 New Grub Street, Cyrano de Bergerac
1901-1910 The Phantom of the Opera
1911-1920 Remembrance of Things Past: Volume I - Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove
1921-1930 Cheri and The Last of Cheri or The Devil in the Flesh
1931-1940 Wind, Sand and Stars
1941-1950 The Stranger
1951-1960 Bonjour tristesse
1961-1970 The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun
1971-1980 Delta of Venus
1981-1990 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
1991-2000 I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere
2001-2010 The Elegance of the Hedgehog
2011-2020 Looking to the Woods
2021-2023

[[deleted user]]

Two noteworthy French authors:

Madeleine de Scudéry, for 1640s-80s;
Anatole France, for 1870s-1920s.

[Carolien]

Fed wrote: "Two noteworthy French authors:

Madeleine de Scudéry, for 1640s-80s;
Anatole France, for 1870s-1920s."

Thank you so much! Will see where I can add them.

[Cynda]

Hi Carolien.
French literature idea, not really a suggestion: The Lais of Marie de France (1160). If you are interested in the idea, let me know. I have the Penguin edition sitting in my bookcase.

[Carolien]

Hi Cynda, I would definitely be interested if we can do it first quarter next year. I'll get my hands on the same edition in the meantime.

[Cynda]

Okay. Sounds good. Let's touch base begininng of year.

[Carolien]

1910: The Tears, The English Translation of Al-Abarat: Mustafa Lutfi Al-Manfaluti, Translated by Majid Khan Malik Saddiqui Completed 11 June 4 stars
1920: The Prophet (Lebabon) Completed 27 February 4 stars
1930: The Blind Owl (Iran)
1940: Madonna in a Fur Coat (Turkey) Completed 29 July 4 stars
1950: Jamila (Kyrgyzstan) Completed 28 February 4 stars
1960: Children of the New World (Algeria) or The Open Door (Egypt)
1970: The Harafish (Egypt) Completed 28 January 4 stars
1980: Naphtalene (Iraq)
1990: Touba (Iran)
2000: Once upon a country (Palestine)
2010: The Ardent Swarm (Tunisia) Completed 19 January 4 stars
Celestial Bodies Completed 17 July 4 stars
2020: The Island of Missing Trees (Cyprus) Completed 24 May 5 stars

[Carolien]

Started in 2022.

Century of Scandinavian literature
1860: The Snow Man and The Ice-Maiden and Other Tales (Contains The Ice Maiden, Butterfly, Psyche and The Snail and the Rose Tree) by Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark) Completed January.
1870: A Doll's House(Norway) Completed 24 February 4 stars
1880: Hunger (Norway)
1890: Gosta Berling's Saga (Sweden)
1900: The Iron Chariot: The Original Scandinavian Crime Novel (Norway) Completed 29 June 3.5 stars (or Sidsel Longfrock (Norway)
1910: The Dangerous Age (Denmark) Completed 5 August 4 stars
1920: The Wreath (Norway)
1930: Independent People (Iceland) Or Seven Gothic Stories (Denmark)
1940: The Children of Noisy Village (Sweden) Completed 3 June 4 stars
1950: The Long Ships (Sweden) Completed 30 May 5 stars
1960: Roseanna (Sweden) Completed 12 August 4 stars
1970: The Summer Book (Finland)
1980: The Dog (Sweden) Completed 26 February 4 stars
1990: Her Enemy (Finland) Completed 14 September 4 stars
2000: Flatey Enigma (Iceland)
2010: Hummingbird (Finland)