Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

First of all: This is not a complaint. It is a list of inspiration, combined with wishful thinking and maybe a bit of dreaming.

What are obvious old school classics we have not read?

The tread is very much inspired by Luffy’s post that “many of the obvious choices have already been read.“ We have had many similar treads before, and it is fun and inspiring to later see how much we have improved.

According to me from the top of my head:
Something by Plato. I would personally prefer The Trial and Death of Socrates and The Symposium


Michel de Montaigne: Essays of Montaigne, Volume 1. The complete essays are on the World library top 100 list. Maybe we could start with vol 1 or a selection?

The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

The Quran
Tao te king
Bhagavadgita

Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Søren Kierkegaard

Ved Vejen by Herman Bang
or The Fall of the King by Johannes V. Jensen Nobel Prize in Literature in 1944. (These two are considered major Danish classics - at least by the Danes....)

Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot. Yet a World library top 100 book.

Are we done with Fyodor Dostoevsky? I am not. At the very least I would like to read The House of the Dead and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.

Are we done with William Shakespeare? No Sonnets?

Are we done with Voltaire? Edgar Allan Poe? Alexander Pushkin? Hans Christian Andersen (The Snow Queen - now as Disney movie....). Alexandre Dumas (The Man in the Iron Mask)?

Ancient plays:
Medea Yet a World library top 100 book.
Oedipus Rex. You never guessed: Yet a World library top 100 book.
Electra. (This one isn't).

Monkey: The Journey to the West

Not so ancient plays:
Tartuffe
Erasmus Montanus by Ludvig Holberg (or perhapsThe Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground)

Oroonoko

The Constitution of the United States of America
The Communist Manifesto
Civil Disobedience

Charles Baudelaire

Quo Vadis

Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings Ferdowsi, Abolqasem 1010
The Alexiad Comnena, Anna 1148
The Lusiads Camões, Luís de 1572
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady Samuel Richardson 1748
The Adventures of Roderick Random Tobias Smollett 1748
The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 1766
The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni 1827
East Lynne Mrs Henry Wood 1861

J_BlueFlower wrote: "First of all: This is not a complaint. It is a list of inspiration, combined with wishful thinking and maybe a bit of dreaming.

What are obvious old school classics we have not read?

The tread is..."

Those are some excellent suggestions.

A few of us are doing a buddy read of Monkey King: Journey to the West, though it is an abridged edition.

Here are some more old school classics that are not on the shelf that I'd enjoy reading or re-reading:

Other books by authors already on shelf:

Christopher Marlowe: Edward II

Honoré de Balzac: Cousin Bette

Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim, Nostromo, The Secret Agent

Gustave Flaubert: Sentimental Education, A Simple Heart

Anthony Trollope: The Way We Live Now

Molière: Tartuffe

Herman Melville: Billy Budd, Sailor

Guy de Maupassant: Bel-Ami

Henrik Ibsen: Hedda Gabbler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Peer Gynt

Jane Austen: Sanditon: Jane Austen's Last Novel Completed

Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus

authors not on shelf:

Euripides: Medea

Olive Schreiner: The Story of an African Farm

Virgil: The Aeneid

I'll probably go back and edit this as I think of more. That way when nomination cycles come up, I can refer to it. I like several of your ideas as well Darren and J_BlueFlower!

I agree re Oroonoko, and that Balzac and Conrad are woefully under-represented

oh, and I forgot to mention:
The Faerie Queene Spenser, Edmund 1590
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Henry Fielding 1749
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Laurence Sterne 1759
The Red and the Black Stendhal 1830
Germinal Emile Zola 1885

Darren wrote: "I agree re Oroonoko, and that Balzac and Conrad are woefully under-represented

oh, and I forgot to mention:
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Henry Fielding 1749."

Ah yes Darren, I have never read The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and that is one I have been eager to read for a long time!

And J_BlueFlower, I would love to re-read Oroonoko or Montaigne.

There are several others I thought of; I'll have to go back and edit my list later. Some longer poetical works might be too tough to tackle in a month, like The Fairy Queen (Edmund Spenser) or Astrophel And Stella (Philip Sidney), but others should be do-able.

One that just occured to me was "Everyman" (Everyman and Other Miracle and Morality Plays). That one shouldn't be too much to tackle.

I agree with many of the named bo9ks and can think of many more but I think a little thought or planning must go into the nominating of these books to get them selected or to generate forum participation. I have been trying to learn from my nominations. I nominated Ovid's Metamorphose for a December read and there was barely any participation, so I felt I did that classic an injustice. I nominated The Pilgrim's Progress and Portait of an Artist as a Young Man this month, two books that one would want to read if interested in literature and neither have much attention. The Pilgrim's Progress did not even get one second yet it is an essential background read for books as varied as Little Women, Vanity Fair, or Slaughterhouse-Five. Eventually these books will be chose I hope but with bingo slots competing for selections and then buddy reads ciphering off potential future voters, perhaps we need a little more organization to get certain "canon must-reads" selected. Another thought might be to request a two month read selection that might encompass both 400 plus page works and works that are prticularly difficult.

Sam wrote: "I agree with many of the named bo9ks and can think of many more but I think a little thought or planning must go into the nominating of these books to get them selected or to generate forum partici..."

Sam, I wanted to participate in Metamorphoses, but a month wasn't enough to do it justice and I had other things going on. I do agree that certain older classics require more time, especially the longer ones! Those are not books that can be read through quickly, or at least, I would have a hard time doing that. :)

I have read both The Pilgrim's Progress and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but I wouldn't mind re-reading either of them.

Lots of German and Austrian authors never read or not even known by readers
Other European countries except UK, Russia and Scandinavian countries
Not many Classics of the Antiquity or the Middle Ages have been read
Also suggest more female authors, more non-white authors etc!

10th c. - Ibn Fadlān and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North - Ahmad ibn Fadlān

11th c. - The Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu
The Pillow Book - Sei Shōnagon

12th c. - Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám - Omar Khayyám
The Alexiad - Anna Comnena

13th c. - Collection of Choice - Rumi
Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali - Mamadou Kouyaté

14th c. - Outlaws of the Marsh - Shi Nai'an

15th c. - The Book of the City of Ladies - Christine de Pizan
The Book of Margery Kempe - Margery Kempe

16th c. - Three Kingdoms - Luo Guanzhong
The Heptameron - Marguerite de Navarre
The Journey to the West - Wu Cheng'en

18th c. - Evelina - Frances Burney
The Story of the Stone - Cao Xueqin
The Coquette - Hannah Webster Foster

19th c. - Six Records of a Floating Life - Shěn Fù
Indiana - George Sand/Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin
Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak: Dictated by Himself - Black Hawk
Aurora Leigh - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands - Mary Seacole
Lady Audley's Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains - Isabella Lucy Bird
Epitaph of a Small Winner/Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas - Machado de Assis
The Saga of Gösta Berling - Selma Lagerlöf
Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen - Liliuokalani

Aubrey wrote: "10th c. - Ibn Fadlān and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North - Ahmad ibn Fadlān

11th c. - The Tale of Genji - ..."

Wonderful Aubrey!!

Several of these are new to me, but there are quite a few that I've read and are excellent or that I've been wanting to read for quite a while, including The Tale of Genji, The Pillow Book, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (good translations of this are superb!), Rumi (sadly I leant my favorite translation of him to a friend and they lost it), The Book of Margery Kempe, Indiana (haven't read this yet but have been intrigued by it ever since I read Winter in Majorca), and Aurora Leigh (I've only read and enjoyed excerpts of this one, but I'd love to read it in its entirety).

Thanks for your additions - some great ideas!

Great list, Aubrey! Saga of Gösta Berling was a buddy read, when I remember right. Others were nominated before, but never voted for.

I've got The Alexiad, Gosta Berling and Oronooko still in my plans for the rest of this year if anyone is interested.

I'll add a few with a focus on non-English authors:

1000:
Vis and Ramin by Fakhraddin Gorgani

1100
The Alchemy of Happiness by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
The Song of Roland
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bédier
The Conference of the Birds by Attar of Nishapur

1200
The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli
The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris

1300
Poems by Hafez
Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō by Yoshida Kenkō

1500:
Peony Pavillion by Xia Da

We're also missing Sappho.

Carolien wrote: "I'll add a few with a focus on non-English authors:

1000:
[book:Vis and Rami..."

I am only familiar with a few of those Carolien, but they look interesting - I will check them out! Thanks for your additions!

We´re not only missing Sappho, but also Roman authors like Gaius Julius Caesar or Marcus Tullius Cicero. Added a lot of the older authors to my tbr list. :)

Michaela wrote: "We´re not only missing Sappho, but also Roman authors like Gaius Julius Caesar or Marcus Tullius Cicero. Added a lot of the older authors to my tbr list. :)"

Yes, much writing of antiquity hasn't been read yet, only Homer I think?

Greg wrote: "Yes, much writing of antiquity hasn't been read yet, only Homer I think? .."

It is not quite so bad as that.

We have read
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Aesop's Fables (on going)
The Art of War. Sun Tzu
Antigone by Sophocles
Metamorphoses
Marcus Aurelius

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Greg wrote: "Yes, much writing of antiquity hasn't been read yet, only Homer I think? .."

It is not quite so bad as that.

We have read
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Aesop's Fables


Yes and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight listed as 1397 may not be ancient but still quite old

Sorry Lynn and J_BlueFlower, I stand corrected!

And I certainly didn't mean it as a judgement; if it came across that way, I'm very sorry about that! I just meant to say that there is still a lot of new ground to cover in that area.

Greg, there is always new ground, regarding centuries, genres, countries, genders etc. Everyone sees Classics differently and can add more to a list. :)

Greg wrote: " I just meant to say that there is still a lot ..."

No problem at all. I did not see it as a judgement. We definitely agree here.

Greg wrote: "Sorry Lynn and J_BlueFlower, I stand corrected!

And I certainly didn't mean it as a judgement; if it came across that way, I'm very sorry about that! I just meant to say that there is still a lot ..."

No worries. I was not insulted : )