Please vote for the works you feel represent the best or most important works of literature AROUND THE WORLD! Feel free to add books (please see guidelines below), especially if a culture is underreprested on this list. Thank you!
What belongs on this list:
Major classics, literature, drama and poetry from around the world published prior to 1970. Please add complete unabridged works translated to (if not originally in) English.
Please do not add every book by your favorite author, excellent though they may be. I would like to keep this list diverse and multi-cultural, so please only add or vote for the best works of literature in a given era and culture.
What does NOT belong on this list:
1) Books published after 1969. While any cut-off date can only be arbitrary, to be considered a classic, a work should have stood some test of time.
2) Abridged works.
3) Children’s books. There are many excellent children’s classics, but the focus of this list is on adult literature.
What belongs on this list:
Major classics, literature, drama and poetry from around the world published prior to 1970. Please add complete unabridged works translated to (if not originally in) English.
Please do not add every book by your favorite author, excellent though they may be. I would like to keep this list diverse and multi-cultural, so please only add or vote for the best works of literature in a given era and culture.
What does NOT belong on this list:
1) Books published after 1969. While any cut-off date can only be arbitrary, to be considered a classic, a work should have stood some test of time.
2) Abridged works.
3) Children’s books. There are many excellent children’s classics, but the focus of this list is on adult literature.
Tags:
around-the-world, best, classics, diversity, drama, epic, international, literary-fiction, literature, poetry, saga, translated, well-read, world, world-literature
Erin
2880 books
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Luke
6007 books
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Alice
592 books
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siriusedward
5651 books
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Fiona
1655 books
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Sue
3098 books
438 friends
438 friends
Paul
1003 books
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Rayroy
1454 books
308 friends
308 friends
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Comments Showing 1-13 of 13 (13 new)
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Luke
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Oct 16, 2018 06:29PM
Great list. Would Memoirs of Hadrian count as transcultural fiction?
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Aubrey wrote: "Great list. Would Memoirs of Hadrian count as transcultural fiction?"I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this or if there is another term that would be more appropriate... The cut-off date makes the prohibition irrelevant for the two examples, but I don’t know if there are older books that are similar... Would it be appropriate to define culture more broadly as in both the subject and author of Memoirs of Hadrian are of Western culture?
Erin wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "Great list. Would Memoirs of Hadrian count as transcultural fiction?"I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this or if there is another term that would be m..."
It seems both examples you cite fall under Orientalism, so if that's what you're trying to avoid, 'Memoirs of Hadrian' would work. I just don't want to steer your list in a direction you don't like.
Aubrey wrote: "Erin wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "Great list. Would Memoirs of Hadrian count as transcultural fiction?"I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this or if there is another term th..."
I appreciate it! 😊 I had included that prohibition after seeing too many lists of “books around the world” that are mostly written by western writers instead of actually from the culture and see Memoirs of a Geisha on lists professing to be classics while none of the many excellent books by Japanese authors are included! It is not only Orientalism but those were the books I knew of and, I confess, become inordinately indignant when I see them listed among “classics.” 😅 I looked around and I think that the cut-off date of 1970 excludes most such books so I removed the separate prohibition.
That's a fair choice to make. Also, what I think happened was I added MoH, removed it and asked you whether it belonged when I thought about the transcultural rule, and then responded to your comment without knowing that you had added it instead. It probably made it seem like I was questioning your decisions instead of my own. Confusing stuff. Anyway, glad all that's worked out.
Aubrey wrote: "That's a fair choice to make. Also, what I think happened was I added MoH, removed it and asked you whether it belonged when I thought about the transcultural rule, and then responded to your comme..."Not at all! No worries! And regardless, I welcome discussion and suggestions for improvement! 😊
Hi Erin - are you wanting people to just add books directly to this list? or would you rather we make suggestions in these messages and you add them yourself?
Darren wrote: "Hi Erin - are you wanting people to just add books directly to this list? or would you rather we make suggestions in these messages and you add them yourself?"By all means, feel free to add books! I only request that people not add more than one book per author. Thank you! 😁
ok so I added:Beowulf: A Verse Translation
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Howards End by E.M. Forster
hope they're all ok :o)
Darren wrote: "ok so I added:Beowulf: A Verse Translation
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
The Devil to Pay i..."
Thank you! Several of those I was considering adding myself and I had never heard of They Were Counted — added to my TBR shelf! 😁
Could a GoodReads librarian please combine or remove the duplicate of Les Misérables? It is currently at both positions 35 and 76.There are also two editions of Their Eyes Were Watching God at 8 and 128 and The Odyssey at 24 and 253.
I would add Henry Miller's "Tropic of Capricorn"And perhaps "Diary of a Drug Fiend" Crowley
I swear I didn't see "Moby Dick" anywhere on the list. This seems criminal.
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