Books 2013-2014

Exit Survey »

Hello:
This is your chance to ensure we read the most exciting & uplifting novels this year (or Faulkner!).

I have divided the books into classes, short works, novels & epics. I will do any massaging to fit the chosen ones into the months ahead.

Please allocate a total of 20 points on the books you want to read. Due to my preference for not having the voting process around the end of the year, there are 14 books/sessions to be decided (taking us to June 2014). You may allocate your votes in whatever manner you please, all for one or one for all.

An Australian work will be selected provided it gets at least 75% of the votes of the work it would displace.

Standard Entries:
Jane Austen - Sense & Sensibility
Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit (one of my faves)

My choice is
Dr Wortle's School by Anthony Trollope (1881). A shorter length novel.

The deadline for your voting is the end of November (i.e. after the next meeting) so I can try to give you the results at the December meeting. Sorry it has taken so long.

Thank you very much for your time and support. Please start with the survey now by clicking on the Continue button below.

Your full name, please:

Novels:

Cousin Bette by Balzac (1846) [2 Nominations] Written at a similar time to some of the other English authors, we’ve been reading, it would be interesting to see what the French were writing. This is a story of jealousy, passion and treachery set in 1840s in Paris.

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1958) An Italian translation this time. Set it the 1860s in Sicily, its meant to be evocative, dramatic and a little bit gruesome. Is it one of Italy’s greatest novels and as one reviewer described it ‘the greatest historical novel of all time’ or Italy’s answer to Gone with the Wind, with a few corpses through in for good measure?

The Brothers Kazmarov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1879) I really enjoyed Crime and Punishment so let’s try one of his other famous works.

Ten Days That Shook The World - John ReedAn eyewitness account of the Bolshevik revolution, taking in reports from passers by to political leaders, written in a cinematic, storytelling style ... perhaps the first ever piece of New Journalism?

Nostromo - Joseph ConradOften cited as Conrad's most ambitious novel, not to mention his greatest. Spread over a broad canvas against the events of a revolution in South America, it paints human beings as social animals rather than individuals.

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel DefoeWritten in 1719, this book has been a mainstay of every arena from children's bedtime storytelling to contemporary theatre. The original castaway adventure.

Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert (1857) [2 nominations] Sex, scandal. Got your attention? Apparently Flaubert went on trial because Madame B was considered offensive on moral and religious grounds. Madame B is Flaubert's first published novel and is considered by many critics to be a masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. Though the basic plot is rather simple, even archetypal, the novel's true art lies in its details and hidden patterns. Flaubert was a notorious perfectionist and claimed always to be searching for le mot juste ("the right word"). (with thanks to Wikipedia)

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)yes it was first published in the second half of the 20th century, but surely a classic. Don't think I need to say much except that I have been missing out on "one of the greatest stylists of the 20th century" because of a moral aversion to this storyline. I'm sure that others feel the same way, so I bet this would make for a great discussion (plus then I'd have to read it). Of course, the aversion is a classic mistake in that Nabokov himself isn't necessarily endorsing his characters; perhaps he intends the opposite.

The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy (1886)The true master of tragedy. "If you find modern fiction on the whole uncheerful, that is partly because Hardy pioneered the campaign against the unrealistic optimism of some of his contemporaries." (thank ye Clifton Fadiman,"The New Lifetime Reading Plan"). So if it's all Hardy's fault, we should check him out. He is definitely AWOL from the past reading list. Plus, I'm reliably informed, by sources within the group, that this is Hardy's best novel. So I've got some votes, right? And everyone else, there'll be more than one person to blame...

Thomas Mann's Death in Venice

Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf...mainly because the writer is quoted as saying it was 'the one work which was more often and more violently misunderstood than any other"

George Elliot's Mill on the Floss(Nominated twice)

Tess of d'Ubervilles - Thomas Hardy (1891) 592pp

Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak (1952) 595pp

The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane (1895)

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift - because it was published in 1726 and has never been out of print since. That is amazing plus there are midgets!

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - because who doesn't want to move to an island when having a bad day at work. The ultimate in escapism. This should certainly be our September novel as to commemorate 'Speak Like a Pirate Day'

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - because in 1873 going around the world in 80 days was fast! It would be interesting to think about travel without 747s in the pre-pre-concord days.

Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales (14th C, but my nomination is for Peter Ackroyd's 2009 retelling)"A highly regarded and very readable approach to a work that, while regarded as one of the greatest English classics, is impenetrable to most of us in its original form."

Updike - Rabbit Run (1960)A key novel by triple Pulitzer Prize winner John Updike, one of the most important American writers of the last century

Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5 (1969)Regarded as one of the key satirical anti-war novels, alongside Catch 22. Often included in lists of the best novels of the last century, it explores fate, free will and the illogical nature of human beings

"The Return of the Native" (1878) by Thomas Hardy

"As I Lay Dying" (1930) by William Faulkner.

"The Last Man" by Mary Shelley (1826) - reflects Shelley's fears about civilization and the shortcomings of human behavior. The narrator discovers a prophetic manuscript, written in 2100 by the last survivor of a twenty-first century apocalypse, which recounts how a deadly plague spread throughout Europe and the world. The scribe, Lionel Verney, describes a world that is both fantasy, and a reflection of Shelley's reality. She used this novel to scrutinize the machinations of politics and philosophy, and reflect upon pitfalls of human behavior - selfishness, brutality, pride - that she saw in the world around her.

The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov - woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, and the foremost of Soviet satires, directed against a suffocatingly bureaucratic social order.

Short Works. These will be paired up into a 4-week month, provided they get the votes.

"The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774) by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheOh yes bring on more tragedy, but this time the sublime and the romantic German type, not the cold, hard realistic English variety. So popular was this when it was published that Goethe became a celebrity, and men were gadding about in outfits like Werther's and doing away with themselves. The authorities tried to ban it to stop "Werther fever".

"The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1886) by Leo Tolstoy[2 nominations]

"A Study in Scarlet" (1887) by Arthur Conan Doyle2 nominations

Poe - A selection of best known stories (1932 - 1949)For example, Fall of the House of Usher, Tell Tale Heart, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Cask of Amontillado, Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of Red Death

Orwell - Animal Farm (1945)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson2 nominations - because it would be interesting to see what he understood about Dissociative Identify Disorder and it was the novella that had immediate success and was one of Stevenson's best selling works... / ... A story you think you know, but what was actually in the original book? A bit of classic horror might also be worth reading.

The Time Machine by HG Wells - because I have never read the book but have seen the film. It would be interesting to see an 1895 take on time travel minus hover boards!

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving - because this would be the perfect book for Movember (he woke up with a foot long beard)!

Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe (1721) 338pp

Dracula - Bram Stoker (1897)

Siddartha, by Herman Hesse (1922)Hesse's most famous work. We don't seem to have read many Germany authors, and Hesse is a Nobel Prize winner to boot. This book is also "perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory our trouble century has produced" (wow Penguin copy writers). My copy also has written in it "Happy Birthday 2003" and was give to me as an example of great German literature by a real German person, so it's got a seal of approval (and my friend has given up asking whether I've read it, so maybe it's time to read it).

The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling (1894)Learn the law of the jungle along with Mowgli. Remember Shere Khan, Baloo the bear, Rikki Tikki Tavi? I seem to know the stories but have never read the originals. Kipling was in the naughty corner for a while because of his imperialist (read racist) attitudes (or so it seemed). But "people" are coming around to the fact that he was a great writer. In fact (thank you Wikipedia), he is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story", and his best works are said to exhibit "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling was awarded the Nobel prize for literature after all; although it depends on who you talk to... that would have had him banned from my last book group. And (yes, wikipedia?) his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature. Aww. Say no more.

Under the Greenwood Tree - Thomas HardyOne of Hardy's more lighthearted tales (yes, he could do happy!), set over four season in rural Wessex ... a gentle and picturesque tale of love and humour.

The Thirty-Nine Steps - John BuchanSet against the events that precipitated World War I, this is one of the original thrillers, a cracking read, and a real edge-of-seat adventure yarn.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898).[2 nominations] With ghosts, an unreliable narrator (a governess who may be telling us what is happening or may just have an overheated imagination) and multiple interpretations which academics are still arguing over, this one should generate some discussion.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (1958)It just misses the cut off date, but with the fame of the movie and that great soundtrack its hard not to call it a classic and Holly Golightly definitely is a classic character. It will also be interesting to see how it varies from the film.

Mathilda by Mary Shelley - Written in 1820 but not published until 1959 - due to the 'shocking' themes her publisher (her father!) refused to publish it and kept her only copy. A moody, melodramatic and undeniably Gothic novella from the point of view of Mathilda. Mathilda's mother died in childbirth and her father went into deep despair, leaving her with an aunt. Mathilda's father returns when she is 16 and they are happy for a couple of months...until her father becomes tormented and with the arrival of a 'suitor' for Mathilda develops a rather unhealthy obsession with her…

Australian Works I think the cutoff date must be more relaxed here, but of course it is about your votes anyway.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (2002)Yes this novel is very recent, but its already talked of as a classic. Do we agree? Will they still be reading it in 100 years time? A story of working class Australians in Perth from the 1940s to the 1960s. (I’ve also never read it)

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967)Its past the cutoff date, but certainly thought of as an Australian classic. I’ve never read it and always thought I should. It will be interesting to discuss the interpretations and whether or not to read the ‘final’ chapter.

For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke (1874)A convict novel, originally serialised in the newspaper, not unlike Dickens or Trollope. In fact, it was published the same year as Middlemarch and Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding crowd

Voss - Patrick White[2 nominations]

The Man Who Loved Children, by Christina Stead (1940) [2 nominations] The Man Who Loved Children is Christina Stead's masterpiece about family life. Sam and Henny Pollit are a warring husband and wife, he a fully blown narcissist and she spoiled and prone to fits of despair. Their hatred, aggravated by too little money and too many children, lies at the centre of this chilling and brilliantly observed novel about relations between parents and children, husbands and wives. The Man Who Loved Children is acknowledged as a contemporary classic of Australian and international literature.

The Harp in the South, by Ruth Park (1948) [2 nominations] Ruth Park’s Harp in the South follows the residents of Twelve-and-a-Half Plymouth Street, Surry Hills, the heart of Sydney’s “Shanty Town”. At the core of the book is a second-generation Irish Catholic family, the Darcys, including big-hearted matriarch (and hopeless romantic) Mumma; her rambunctious, often drunk but essentially good husband Hughie and their two daughters. The main character, though, is really Surry Hills itself, with its boarding houses, local prostitutes, nuns, Chinese grocers and grog shops. Park once said that she didn’t want a plot, but “just wanted to tell about these people as if they were real human beings”. And indeed, the novel unfolds much as life does — a series of small moments (beautifully rendered) that add up to tell the story of a family and a neighbourhood. The chemistry of the squabbling Darcys and their neighbours, who alternately love and loathe and niggle at each other, but essentially form a tight-knit community, is a joy to read.

Power Without Glory, by Frank Hardy (1950)Sex, politics, religion. It's all here. Squizzy Taylor, Archbishop Mannix... in 1940s Collingwood and Abbotsford

My Brother Jack - George Johnston (1964) 384pp

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin [2 nominations] - because this was a first novel written when the author was just 17. She was Australia's gender bending George Elliot and we now have a literary prize named after her.

A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - I confess this was published in 1950 so it is later than our criteria but Australia is so new we don't have a lot of classics. I am nominating because most people have heard of this book but many not have read it. It is about post war Alice Springs and the difficulties woman face living in such a rough place.

Fergus Hume - The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) [3 nominations] One of the classic mystery stories of all time - and set in Melbourne! Available in the new Text Classics series.

Henry Handel Richardson - The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney (1930)[2 nominations] Three part novel acclaimed for its rich characterizations and then-startling depiction of mental illness attacking an otherwise respectable person. Available in the new Text Classics series.

Patrick White - The Vivisector (1970)Named for its sometimes cruel analysis of fictional artist/painter Hurtle Duffield, it explores universal themes such as the suffering of the artist, the need for truth and the meaning of existence.

"Happy Valley" (1939) by Patrick White

The February epic:

"Tom Jones" (1749) by Henry Fielding

Joyce - Ulysses (1920)[2 nominations]

The Odyssey by Homer - because it has war, sex, violence, witches, cyclops and sirens. More gory than the Bible!

Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchel (1936) 1037 pp

The Iliad, by Homer (800-700ish BC)No one knows if there was a man named Homer, but there is no little doubt that the epic [censored] assembled under his name form the cornerstone of Western literature. The Iliad and The Odyssey, with their incomparable tales of the Trojan War, Achilles, Ulysses and Penelope, the Cyclops, the beautiful Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods, are familiar to most readers because they are so pervasive. They have fed our imagination for over two and a half millennia, inspiring everyone from Plato to Virgil, Pope to Joyce, Dante to Wolfgang Petersen.

A Laodicean - Thomas HardyNot his best-known, but according to the author his most autobiographical work, looking at his experience as an architect and his interest in technology. Like other Hardy works, it focuses on the problems inherent in Victorian culture concerning class, gender and relationships.

Don Quixote by Migel de Cervantes Saavedra (1605)At almost 1000 pages, its definitely an epic. Some call it the first modern novel, with writers such as Dickens, Flaubert and Melville citing it as a key influence. A satirical romance, it’s meant to quite cheeky and fun to read – will we feel that way after 1000 pages?