Classics discussion

Most people would agree that great works of literature written during or before the so-called "long" 19th century (up until World War I), which have stood the test of time, deserve to be called "classics." But while they haven't yet endured for as long, do you all think any 20th-century works deserve that title as well, and would be appropriate for the attention of this group?

Personally, I'd extend the accolade to books like 1984; Brave New World; Darkness at Noon; The Good Earth; and some of the works of Solzhenitsyn and Sigrid Undset --just to name a few!

That's a solid list of books you mention, Werner.

You also mention Sigrid Undset, which I found a little surprising. Why would you include some of her works?

Curious Henrik

The Undset works that I read, and would include as classics, are her Kristen Lavransdatter trilogy and her Master of Hestviken series (which was published in English as an omnibus edition). I admire the epic scope of her work, the way she brings her characters to very vivid, realistic life and the deftness with which she recreates her medieval setting --not just the externals of social arrangements and material culture, but the mindset of the people. (Other things being equal, I read more speculative than descriptive fiction, but I like the latter, too --especially historical fiction.) And she was as concerned with her characters' spiritual state as with the other parts of their lives (she was an adult convert to Roman Catholicism), which I personally appreciate.

My high regard for her as a writer was evidently shared by at least some critics in her own day -- she did, after all, win the Nobel Prize for Literature!