Maybe I’m misreading the signs, but it looks like we’re due for a round of worlds-enough-and-time! In this case, the publication of Pierre Bayard’s How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read opens the door for literary types to name the “great books” that they’ve never read (and likely will never get around to).
In this case, Slate has followed up 2001’s Literary Critic’s Shelf of Shame with a new piece: The Great Novel I Never Read. While the former canvassed critics (duh), this new feature garners responses from contemporary authors.
I’m usually leery of this sort of exercise, as it can degenerate into people disparaging some legitimately great novels because they’ve never gotten around to reading them. I used to think that I keep that gigantic list of all the books I’ve finished since I began college in 1989 just to scare people out of asking my opinion about any particular book. After looking over this article, I’m starting to think that my real reason is to justify not having read some of those great books, myself: “Ferchrissakes! Look at how many other books I’ve read! There are only so many hours in a day!”
(Of course, I’m guilty of disparaging great books on flimsy grounds, most recently in my rant about the immediate sense of alienness (not alienation) I got when starting Middlemarch
Fortunately, that snide attitude isn’t on display in the new Slate piece. Instead, I noticed something funnier: while I’ve read a number of the books cited in this article, I’ve actually read only one book by any of these contemporary authors (Little, Big
Now back to Raffles & Bulstrode! (which means I’m just about to finish book five)
I’m reading middlemarch too with the kids here. Hey, maybe you can lend me your expertise. Before getting to Rosenbaum, I want the kids to read essays (1000 words or less–a NYTimes column I guess) from all different writers. Can you suggest a few places to go on the web that I can cut and paste these? Thank you.
Opening night on Thursday! I can’t believe my gym looks this way!
Ooh, I’m gonna have to defer to Elayne on that one. I’ll drop her a line today to see what she suggests.
How sad/Jamesian is that scene with Farebrother & Mary Garth?
Arete! Have a great season!
Just wait until you get to the end; the book is so amazing I can’t believe a woman wrote it!
Just kidding….
Speaking of women named George, have you watched Impromptu this decade?
How did you guys avoid this book at St. John’s? I wrote my senior essay on Middlemarch.
Ancient GI secret!
Not since I lived in Annapolis; then, I seemed to watch it once a week.
Hey, for Johnnies reading this thread, can you answer this question for me? I recall in a question session after a Friday lecture, Middlemarch came up, and someone mentioned an image from the book of a pair of dice on fire (and the ramifications of science, the modern world, blah, blah, blah). Can you tell me where to find this in the novel? For the life of me, I swear I heard it but can’t find it anywhere. Thanks.
bobo
I’m around 600 pages in, and I have NO IDEA what you’re talking about. I think all the gambling is whist, not dice.
It reminds me of a lyric from an Underworld song: “Today, I saw a man with a flaming 8 Ball tattooed on his arm.”
If I see any flaming dice in Vegas this weekend, I’ll take a picture for you.