Bright Young Things discussion

I've put together a reading challenge specifically for the Bright Young Things that will involve reading a novel published in each of the years 1900 to 1945.

You do not have to read them in order, although that might be an interesting way to approach the challenge as it will potentially show how literature changed during that period.

You do not have a time limit to complete the challenge (unless, of course, you'd like to set one for yourself!) and you can cross off those you have already read (unless you fancy a re-read of course!).

Please use this thread to tell us how you're doing!

1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I hope I have chosen a good mixture of authors and genres as well as a mixture of well known and unknown titles so that there is something to both suit your tastes but also to expand your reading horizons!

Good Luck!

Great list, Ally.

Very interesting idea.

I just downloaded Lord Jim - it is free on the kindle.

A couple of them I have read - Brideshead, Grapes of Wrath - although I have been wanting to do a re-read lately, Sound and the Fury, Whose Body and Call of the Wild - although I am planning to re-read that since I picked up another copy.

I have read four of the others and the Dubliners I used to re-read on a regular basis. Haven't lately - primarily because I don't know where my copy is. Although when I was reading Ulysses I could have used it since he brings several characters over from the stories to the big book.

I think a fair few of them will be available for free from Project Gutenburg.

I've read 18 of these (some back in the Jurassic age). Others hold no interest. However, there are a few I may read just for fun.

Great list....and I am pleased to see that I have some of them under my belt already. The search will be fun....thanks for compiling this list.

Great list, Ally. I have only read 3 of the books but many of them are on my to-read list, others weren't on my radar but might be now:) I'll skip Evelyn Waugh though, as I didn't much like Brideshead Revisited and have no interest in his works, but the rest looks great;)

Nina - you should try Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh - it's great fun and it may change your mind about Waugh...Having said that, I'm about to pick up Brideshead Revisited for the first time when we read it next month for our group read. Maybe it'll be me that changes my mind about Waugh! ha ha.

I liked Brideshead. I picked it up after the TV show years ago. But I have liked almost nothing else of his that I have tried so far. I didn't really like Scoop or Vile Bodies, but I am still working on them. I guess I keep hoping that maybe they will pick up.

There is a very definite tone and style to Waugh's books isn't there - I can see that he might be one of those 'love him or loathe him' authors. - I think with Vile bodies, which I've read twice now, I loved it because I was also reading around the whole 'bright young things' set in London, the Mitfords etc - there are recognisable characters within Vile Bodies!

Ally, I hope I will be the one to change my mind about Waugh:) I have just been reading through a few reviews of Vile Bodies and it does seem more interesting to me than Waugh's other novels. I will give it a try and see how it goes

(Plus, I just found out that my beloved Stephen Fry directed the film Bright Young Things - based on Vile Bodies - starring my beloved James McAvoy so for that reason alone I am tempted to read the book:D)

Great idea, thanks for putting this list together.

I've only read five of these! How embarrassing, lol. I own a few more that I haven't read, so I might try to read some more of them. Great list. :)

Don't worry Bronwyn - I've only read one (The House of Mirth). - I deliberately chose titles we hadn't read before as a group. This list is as much about encouraging me to read more as it was for the benefit of the group. I'm looking forward to expanding the number of these books that I can cross off as read.

I've read more of these books (12) that I thought I had.


1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

This looks like fun. I'll have to see how things look once I'm done with my thesis and am able to read for fun again.

1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus
1943: The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I may reread the six I've already read just because I enjoyed so many of them or feel like I need to reread them (especially The Sound and the Fury!).

I'm fairly new to classic novels and have just read one of these books yet but I'd love to tackle this list :D

1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Well, here's mine so far:

1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I've also read part of The Grapes of Wrath back in high school, but not enough to count it.

Wonderful list! I'll be keeping a watch on these from now on. I've only read five still.

Lessee. Of the nine of these I haven't read, I'll go for the Mansfield, Heyer, and Allingham. I might be able to fit that many into my few remaining years.

I'd completely forgotten I'd read the Allingham. I'm now up to #3 in her books - Look to the Lady

Charles wrote: "Lessee. Of the nine of these I haven't read, I'll go for the Mansfield, Heyer, and Allingham. I might be able to fit that many into my few remaining years."

My goodness Charles - I think you're by far the one to beat in this challenge then! that's a good number of the list under your belt!

Of the many you've read which would you say has been your favourite?

Ally wrote: "Of the many you've read which would you say has been your favourite? "

All of them ... (:-> Going by how often I re-read it, The Magic Mountain, but that seems unfair to many of the others which have emigrated to somewhere far away and we can only share e-mails...

This is a great list. I've only read ten of these and there are a lot of people on the list who I've never read *anything* by ... I think I'll use this as a starting point to tackle a few of those.

Many thanks, Ally, for codifying something I've "sort-of" been doing over the last year or so! This is a wonderful list, even though it does include a couple of my "NOT gonna read, noway, thankyouverramuch!" authors! (grin) Joyce (have tried to read his work innumerable times and just can't), Proust (ick - one page was enough), Faulkner (yes, I know, I know, I'd *ought* to read/enjoy him, but he gives me the creepy-crawlies...).

I've read 15 of your list, and also have many on my list that are also on yours. I will gladly, happily, add a bunch more of yours I've missed to my own list (yes, it's rather larger, I'm one of those who always sets the bar FAR too high, kwim?). The variety of your list is wonderful, you've obviously worked hard to make it very inclusive, thanks!

I've also got a non-fiction list that doesn't have every year but a great many along with a bunch of memoirs and suchlike written later than 1945 but covering the 1900 through 1945 period if anyone is interested, but you're going to have to show me how to make the titles clickable on GR as I've never been able to do that! And I can't do the "line through" business either... (sigggh)

and I haven't been ignoring you all lately, I've not been posting much these days; computer time is limited but I've been reading a lot of posts. Still 'way behind with reading a lot of discussions, though... (siggggh)

To make titles clickable, above the comment box is a little link that says "add book/author" which you click, type in the title or author and click the add button when you find the right one. :)

The strikethrough is that you put <*s> before what you want to strike through, and <*/s> after it (removing the asterisks which were there just to show you what it looks like). You can do the same for underlining by using u instead of s, italic using i instead of s, bold using b instead of s, and so on. :)

many thanks, Bronwyn! Will start work on the nonfiction list tomorrow, and try to post it sometime this week, if anyone is interested in it. Here's my annotated version of Ally's List:

1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett [in current TBR]
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James [want to reread]
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad [to reread]
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster [to reread]
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust {NO!}
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce {NO!}
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner {NO!}
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus {NO!}
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

OK, here goes - let's see if this old dog can learn a new trick...

I would be interested in your non-fiction list.

I wouldn't be so quick (and maybe you are not quick) to put the kibosh on Dubliners. This is a collection of short stories. Many of the characters do appear in subsequent works.

And I'm more likely to give a resounding NO to Waugh than to Faulkner.

And I don't know that I am ready for Proust yet either.

Hi Jan:
nope, not at all quick re. Joyce - have tried *numerous* times over the decades to read ANYthing of his, and simply can't. Certainly wish I could, but it seems to be a lost cause for me, just can't concentrate on his writing, kwim?

I love Waugh, both book and screen versions, and am sorry he's not your cuppa! (grin) Guess I won't recommend Aldous Huxley's social stuff to you, then... (several of his 20s novels read like the 1930s Waugh books on acid...) sort of frothy society goings-on mixed with a very dark "attitude problem". I love that sort of thing.

Faulkner would be a maybe/ought to try again as I've always wanted to be "well-read" (grin), but the older I get the less I want to read un-fun sorts of books. And for me he's definitely in that category, as are Proust and Camus. This ex-student (philosophy and psychology) has waded through enough darkness and nihilism for one life, thanks.

admittedly, my sense of "fun!" ain't everyone's, though... (grin)

Abbey - I'd love to see your non-fiction list. Why not start a new thread for a non-fiction BYT Challenge? I'm sure lots of us would thank you for something like that! how exciting.

Ally wrote: I think a fair few of them will be available for free from Project Gutenburg.

When you click on the links on the list, you'll come to the page for that book, and to the left side under the cover photo you should see a tab/button that says "read this book" if it's available for free. It takes you to a GR reading program that shows you that actual e-book. If you aren't seeing that button on the booklisting page, then I think you can set your pages to display one (when available for a book) via your preferences/settings.

Ally, do you know anything more about the GR arrangements for ebooks? I do know that many, if not most, of the books originally printed prior to 1923 *ought* to be available as free ebooks "somewhere".

And another excellent source for free ebooks is
manybooks.net

plus your public library also likely has a separate catalog of scanned ebooks also available, mine also has increasing amounts of videos and audios too. And it might also, like mine, be connected to the Overdrive system - that offers downloadable audio and print books through your library, reserved online and usually through your general library catalog, unlike the ebooks collections themselves which are usually a separate catalog within the library website.

Hope this helps with availability. Overdrive offers free Kindle downloads via Amazon, but you need either the usb connector cable (mine doesn't work, alas) or wifi to get them downloaded to your actual kindle; you can read them on the pc, Amazon offers a free app for that too.

Ally wrote: I'd love to see your non-fiction list. Why not start a new thread for a non-fiction BYT Challenge?

thanks, Ally. I'd love to do so, but it might take me until later this week to set it up, is that OK?

Abbey wrote: "Ally wrote: I'd love to see your non-fiction list. Why not start a new thread for a non-fiction BYT Challenge?

thanks, Ally. I'd love to do so, but it might take me until later this week to set it..."

No problem at all - take all the time you need!.

Ally wrote: "I think a fair few of them will be available for free from Project Gutenburg."

I've just checked the first ten, ALL of them are available for free. If there isn't a GR button ("read this book") under the cover image, you can find a downloadable copy under the "booklinks" button that is in the "purchase information" line of buttons that you personalize with your choices for shopping for books. It usually shows up near the bottom of the book description. There may also be a separate button at the end of that line of buttons that says "download this book" which takes you to a page on GR that will download a copy to your pc (various formats, including Adobe).

I'll check out the rest of the books soonish, but since I've become so damned chatty (grin) I've forgotten lunch. "Talk" to you later, I and the felines need food...

Charles wrote: "Ally wrote: "Of the many you've read which would you say has been your favourite? "

All of them ... (:-> Going by how often I re-read it, The Magic Mountain, but that seems unfair to many of the o..."

From the list, I'm finishing the Allingham, which is quite unlike other Campions in respect to derring-do, and the picture of Lugg in action in his former career. But then, it was only the second one. I've snagged the Mansfield,in the form of a "Collected Stories" in which I find that "In a German Pension" is a posthumous compilation never published as such in her lifetime, and have been provoked into a less perfunctory survey of this author so significant in the formation of literary Modernism. I looked into the Heyer and found it quite uncongenial. So I guess I would settle for 39 of the 46. Ally asked which was my favorite, and I demurred, but couldn't resist compiling a list anyway of 50 personally significant books. I'm a neurotic list-maker.

Query the group: are there any characters in Greene that Johanna might like? I don't think so. These books are about loss of faith, spiritual crisis, and defeat. They do not hold out hope, except through the Greek tragedy principle of catharsis. For myself, some of Greene was formative for me, and I still like the movies, but at my advanced age I find I can no longer read Greenish books. And moreover, I no longer care to find out why. A loss.

I enjoyed Travels with my Aunt when it came out. Other than that, I tend to stick with his non-fiction.

The only Graham Greene I've read is The End of the Affair. I found it a little grim but the writing was really good - I think I gave it 4 stars at the time. I've always meant to read Brighton Rock but haven't yet got round to it.

I just got The Making of a Marchioness as a late birthday present. So I hope to read that soon, but I have a few in the queue already.

I've read these...

1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

1920: Chéri by Colette

1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I'm half-way through...

1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

...the rest I will aim for in time!

Great list! I'm going to start at the top and work my way down in order. Love the idea of reading chronologically by publish date. I've read six, but will re-read those.

I don’t quite get how this works. Is this just a reading list or will there be some discussion? The books I have not read are

1901 The Making of a Marchioness
1904 The Master of the World
1906 Railway Children
1909 Ann Veronica
1917 Summer
1919 A Damsel in Distress
1930 Mystery Mile
1935 National Velvet
1937 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
1941 Mildred Pierce
1943 The Magic Faraway

Should I get cracking? Is there something I can contribute about the others?

It was initially just a suggestion to invigorate our member's reading choices but if you want discussions I'm always open to that!

The 'long' way is to nominate these books for group reads and discuss them that way.

Alternatively please feel free to use this thread for discussions - if it gets too complicated and unwieldy we could consider opening a new section for this challenge but with the groups other reading commitments I think that might be a less popular answer...I'm ready to be told otherwise!

I have read almost all on the list above, and I'm willing to discuss any of them if a discussion thread gets going..

I want to start reading more from this period so this list is a huge help to me! Thanks!

I wasn't planning on doing this but then realised that, in addition to currently reading Brideshead Revisited, this year I have also read Black Mischief and Of Human Bondage. I'd like to read many of the titles. So count me in.

Here's what I've read so far...

1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - CURRENTLY READING

I can strike out a few more now...


1900: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
1904: The Master of the World by Jules Verne
1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1907: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
1908: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1910: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
1911: In a German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield
1912: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
1914: Dubliners by James Joyce
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916: Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1918: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
1919: A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
1920: Chéri by Colette
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1922: The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1923: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
1924: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
1925: Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
1926: Blindness by Henry Green
1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1928: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf
1932: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
1933: Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
1934: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1936: Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1938: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
1941: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
1942: The Stranger by Albert Camus
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
1944: The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I have just taken Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson out of the library. I think it's the book that Cold Comfort Farm is mocking.

Also keen to read Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, so they will be my next ports of call, though not sure exactly when.

Nice list, Ally. How do you do the strikeout thing? I try it by copying over to Word but when I copy back the strikeout disappears. So here are the ones I haven't read.
They all look interesting except National Velvet, which I have been not reading for years.

1901: The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
1906: Railway Children (Wordsworth Collection) by E. Nesbit
1909: Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells
1917: Summer by Edith Wharton
1921: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
1930: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
1935: National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
1937: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
1943:The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

Charles wrote: "How do you do the strikeout thing?."


A bit of cunning html.

< s > text here < / s >

but without the spaces.