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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) The Greatest Novel (Read 26886 times)
Keano
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #42 - 01/16/12 at 15:05:07
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IMJohnCox wrote on 11/08/11 at 00:08:28:
I would go for Anna Karenina, which I also suspect would be the winner of a global poll, certainly if one allowed for a bit of time weighting. It made me wonder why anyone else bothered writing novels when I read it, and I haven't changed my feeling.

Is Lord of the Rings a 'novel', exactly? I don't think I'd call fantasy a novel, more a genre of its own.


what about War and Peace from the same chap?

I'll give a controversial choice because some of the book reads like gibberish - Ulysses - James Joyce, its still an epic achievement.
Of the English writers I thought MiddleMarch was a good book.
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #41 - 01/11/12 at 18:15:40
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The Castle? I haven't heard of that one. I will have to check it out.  Thanks.
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #40 - 01/10/12 at 22:56:40
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Yes, I have, including the Cold War novels of Le Carré and The Castle by Kafka. That one I rate higher than The Process.
  
The book had the effect good books usually have: it made the stupids more stupid, the intelligent more intelligent and the other thousands of readers remained unchanged.
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #39 - 01/10/12 at 19:41:01
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Has anyone here read anything they weren't forced to read in university english/Literature class?


I can't decide so here are some of my favorites.

Nelson Demille's The Charm School
Jim Butcher's series, The Dresden Files
Geroge R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones series
Almost anything written by John Le Carre
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #38 - 01/10/12 at 16:38:10
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I like most of books posted here. One to mention, probably my TOP5 is "Shogun" by James Clavell
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #37 - 11/21/11 at 16:56:15
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Candide 
Gulliver's Travels
A Confederacy of Dunces
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #36 - 11/21/11 at 16:47:28
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I've read a lot of great novels but in my mind Don Quixote is in a class of its own.
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #35 - 11/21/11 at 16:40:28
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I forgot one, which shows my bias. The ultimate Carribean novel is written by a Dutch Antillean:

http://www.nlpvf.nl/basic/auteur1.php?Author_ID=85

Arion should have received the Nobel Prize, not Naipaul, even if only for his debut

http://www.nlpvf.nl/book/book2.php?Book=236

The first alinea is an understatement. The book is even better than that.
  
The book had the effect good books usually have: it made the stupids more stupid, the intelligent more intelligent and the other thousands of readers remained unchanged.
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #34 - 11/21/11 at 11:42:32
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Agree with IM John Cox and Alias. My two cents:
War and Piece - Tolstoi
Don Quixote - Miguel Cervantes
Divine Comedy - Dante
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #33 - 11/10/11 at 07:04:39
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"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme." Herman Melville.
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #32 - 11/09/11 at 14:22:54
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Stigma wrote on 11/08/11 at 07:18:21:
My favorite novel at the moment is Nick Hornby: About a Boy.

Before you shoot me, I actually made a decision to read more serious novels a couple of years ago. Got through Auster's New York Trilogy, Camus: The Plague, Golding: Lord of the Flies, Dostoevsky: The Gambler and Saramago: All the Names before I realized I was boring myself to death and stopped  Embarrassed Is there any certified Great LiteratureTM out there with enough humour and/or suspense for me to read without falling asleep?



Try one of Robertson Davies' trilogies, The Salterton Trilogy, The Deptford Trilogy or the Cornish Trilogy. 

Others will have to decide if they are great literature, but I think you will find them wise and witty and not likely to bore you
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #31 - 11/09/11 at 10:19:30
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Dear All,
    Using the definition "a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes" I can't see why "The lord of the Rings" doesn't qualify as a novel. However, as Willempie sagely said there's no arguing about taste.
 
          I would also agree that I enjoyed "The Old man and the Sea". Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" is usually one that splits opinions. I enjoyed it but know several people who couldn't be bothered to finish it !
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #30 - 11/09/11 at 07:42:37
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One more in english: "The Old Man and the Sea". One more in another language: "The Stranger".

And the best book in swedish I've read in a long time is Johan Kling's "Människor helt utan betydelse".
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #29 - 11/09/11 at 06:12:28
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I'm really looking forward to Murakami's latest novel, 
1Q84. I have it on hold at my local library. I'll let you know whether it's as good as its advance press.
  
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Re: The Greatest Novel
Reply #28 - 11/08/11 at 22:43:50
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Anna Seghers: Das 7. Kreuz (eng. The 7th cross)

Peter Weiss: Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (eng. The Aesthetics of Resistance)

Erwin Strittmatter: Der Wundertäter (I doubt that an English text exists)

There's no greatest novel for me. Posting this only for the demand of great German novels. Btw - the greatest German literature is poetry by Heine, Brecht and Gernhardt.

A great Japanese novel:

Haruki Murakama - Kafka am Strand (umibe no kafuka - Kafka on the shore)

  
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