Greatest Authors of the 19th Century....American and English
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Ivan
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Ivan
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Here the take on the American novel by PBS: The American Novel | PBS
Curt
Puritan Board Graduate
Not in universities, evidently.
Ivan
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And to their detriment.
yes,- I do. At least, not American so much. I never had much time for Twain -- I quite enjoyed Tom Sawyer as a child, but when I tried reading it to my own children I was completely put off by the hero's total indifference to truthfulness, which the author seems to be presenting as acceptable if not admirable (luckily they hadn't especially taken to it and didn't mind abandoning it barely started) I admire Uncle Tom's Cabin very much, but I find it harder to read as I get older - too harrowing. I think Longfellow is pretty good (some fluff).
When it comes to nineteenth century English literature, you're absolutely spoiled for choice! I know who I find most edifying, but I would have a hard job deciding who to put first in any objective ranking.
Ivan
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ok - Jane Austen (assuming you don't want to relegate her to the previous century), the Brontes, Scott, George Eliot, Thackeray, Dickens, Tennyson, Browning, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Carlyle, Trollope, Hardy...
That's just in the order in which they came off the top of my head (and studiously NOT excluding anyone on the grounds that they're anathema to me personally)
That's just in the order in which they came off the top of my head (and studiously NOT excluding anyone on the grounds that they're anathema to me personally)
Ivan
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Would you venture to say that this was the Golden Age of English Literature?
America - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Very interesting philosophical works. His philosophy is not Christian, but it has had a profound impact on America and American philosophy of life, so it's worth reading and it's very interesting. Read his Nature and read Self-Reliance especially. They're short.
Very interesting philosophical works. His philosophy is not Christian, but it has had a profound impact on America and American philosophy of life, so it's worth reading and it's very interesting. Read his Nature and read Self-Reliance especially. They're short.
I might.... It's certainly the age when you could be surest of an abundance of clean, wholesome, edifying and uplifting (and also literarily meritorious) writing. Nobody in a University English department would consider that a qualification for the title of THE golden age, but who cares?!
a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
Jenny, this happened to me too -- I thought it was another instance of my ability to disturb technology, but as it is a global phenomenon I won't take credit: I would guess that it means things are getting tweaked.
a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
Keats is splendid; I also love Shelley and Swinburne, though my favorite poet from that century simply because of how much her poetry has comforted and given me words in sorrow is Christina Rossetti. Joseph Conrad could possibly have at least a leg or something trapped in that century as well (he is considered a British writer), with a few novels previous and Heart of Darkness published in 1899 and Lord Jim published in 1900 -- he is a brilliant and significant writer, much better in his craftsmanship than Dickens and many others in my opinion (though I love Charles Dickens). Robert Louis Stevenson is very much worth reading -- he wrote beautifully -- I don't know that anyone can describe things, like the color of wave or the way rain falls etc., so perfectly true to life as he does.
For Americans, I think Henry James though again overlapping a bit should get a mention, and he was superb technically -- I think he was much better technically than Mark Twain (though I have laughed very hard over 'Cannibalism in the Cars'). But sometimes I feel a little impatient with him, because for all the developing tension beneath the intricately wrought surface of everyone's interactions, there is very little eternity in it all. I would like to read more of Poe -- I found his writing difficult to read when I tried as a teenager because of the sort of dark resurgence. Ruben quotes things to me which I love, and tells me they are by Poe (mostly, I think, he quotes from 'The Conqueror Worm').
I will always think of Shakespeare, the man himself, as the golden age of English literature, though
. It doesn't hurt that John Donne was his contemporary.
For Americans, I think Henry James though again overlapping a bit should get a mention, and he was superb technically -- I think he was much better technically than Mark Twain (though I have laughed very hard over 'Cannibalism in the Cars'). But sometimes I feel a little impatient with him, because for all the developing tension beneath the intricately wrought surface of everyone's interactions, there is very little eternity in it all. I would like to read more of Poe -- I found his writing difficult to read when I tried as a teenager because of the sort of dark resurgence. Ruben quotes things to me which I love, and tells me they are by Poe (mostly, I think, he quotes from 'The Conqueror Worm').
I will always think of Shakespeare, the man himself, as the golden age of English literature, though
. It doesn't hurt that John Donne was his contemporary.
a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
(Oh, I forgot to say, that if you're not really terribly grown up as I'm afraid I'm not, there is also Lewis Carroll and George Macdonald and the Jungle Books -- who are all perfectly wonderful
Skyler
Puritan Board Graduate
Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" series was good.
Also, though not originally in English, Maurice LeBlanc's "Arsene Lupin" series was literarily excellent, though its main character was a kleptomaniac and, assuredly, unconfessional.
Baroness Emma Orczy's "The Scarlet Pimpernel" was also good, though some of the sequels began to get repetitive.
I also enjoyed G. K. Chesterton's "Father Brown" series. Despite his being Catholic I found many things to appreciate in his writing.
Those are my favorite series from that time period--all late 19th to early 20th century authors. Maybe you're looking for earlier writers, though?
Also, though not originally in English, Maurice LeBlanc's "Arsene Lupin" series was literarily excellent, though its main character was a kleptomaniac and, assuredly, unconfessional.
Baroness Emma Orczy's "The Scarlet Pimpernel" was also good, though some of the sequels began to get repetitive.
I also enjoyed G. K. Chesterton's "Father Brown" series. Despite his being Catholic I found many things to appreciate in his writing.
Those are my favorite series from that time period--all late 19th to early 20th century authors. Maybe you're looking for earlier writers, though?
Ivan
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I'm only looking for what others appreciate.
a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
I only know about literature I appreciate , which leaves me with a lot of glaring gaps. I think for later Americans that Edith Wharton is very skilled but somewhat icily regular; and I have loved things by Sara Teasdale, Emily Dickinson, Harper Lee, Dorothy Parker, Madeleine L'Engle, Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping is one of the best books I've read), James Marshall who writes about hippos that wear Indian headdresses and such so you can imagine how much I enjoy it and Stephen R. Donaldson. Also, I'm not sure Charles Schulz can be classed as an 'author' -- but his books are some of my favorites.
For more contemporary British people, I enjoyed things by E. M. Forster of whose style Katherine Mansfield justly said that 'the teapot is beautifully warm -- but there ain't gonna be no tea', Katherine Mansfield herself who is intensely wonderful, Rupert Brooke's poetry, and Eliot's, anything by C. S. Lewis (though my favorite book of his is Till We Have Faces) and Tolkien, T. H. White's Once and Future King which is a hysterical and heartbreaking retelling of the Arthur legend that I have reread and hope to reread again, Huxley's Brave New World, Virginia Woolf's stately and undisturbed consciousness of everything, Dorothy Sayers who is again very skilled, though again I lack patience with some of her fiction -- most especially her more romantic mysteries, which seem to promise more significance than they possess, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan, P. G. Wodehouse (who needed a more ruthless editor but I think he's always enjoyable), Edith Nesbit who wrote really charming childrens' stories, George Orwell (he is very good writer, but I love him most for his sense of human dignity and his rectitude); George Bernard Shaw who I find more mentally stimulating than terribly significant [edit: though Shaw was actually halfway in the 19th century]; and I think Chesterton's novels are also wonderful -- The Man Who Was Thursday is one of my favorite books (and his biographies, though not terribly biographical, do I think give a flavor of the person he is writing about, and are also worth reading because of his own flavor).
, which leaves me with a lot of glaring gaps. I think for later Americans that Edith Wharton is very skilled but somewhat icily regular; and I have loved things by Sara Teasdale, Emily Dickinson, Harper Lee, Dorothy Parker, Madeleine L'Engle, Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping is one of the best books I've read), James Marshall who writes about hippos that wear Indian headdresses and such so you can imagine how much I enjoy it and Stephen R. Donaldson. Also, I'm not sure Charles Schulz can be classed as an 'author' -- but his books are some of my favorites.For more contemporary British people, I enjoyed things by E. M. Forster of whose style Katherine Mansfield justly said that 'the teapot is beautifully warm -- but there ain't gonna be no tea'
, Katherine Mansfield herself who is intensely wonderful, Rupert Brooke's poetry, and Eliot's, anything by C. S. Lewis (though my favorite book of his is Till We Have Faces) and Tolkien, T. H. White's Once and Future King which is a hysterical and heartbreaking retelling of the Arthur legend that I have reread and hope to reread again, Huxley's Brave New World, Virginia Woolf's stately and undisturbed consciousness of everything, Dorothy Sayers who is again very skilled, though again I lack patience with some of her fiction -- most especially her more romantic mysteries, which seem to promise more significance than they possess, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan, P. G. Wodehouse (who needed a more ruthless editor but I think he's always enjoyable), Edith Nesbit who wrote really charming childrens' stories, George Orwell (he is very good writer, but I love him most for his sense of human dignity and his rectitude); George Bernard Shaw who I find more mentally stimulating than terribly significant [edit: though Shaw was actually halfway in the 19th century]; and I think Chesterton's novels are also wonderful -- The Man Who Was Thursday is one of my favorite books (and his biographies, though not terribly biographical, do I think give a flavor of the person he is writing about, and are also worth reading because of his own flavor).
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a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
Ivan, that's very kind, but I'm sincerely not all that impressively well read: I read slowly and only what I enjoy reading and very much like a housewife and not a truly literary person; most people I know have easily out-read me (perhaps in different areas).
Books *are* one of the consolations of being unwell -- unfortunately my concentration suffers now with illness and I find it much more difficult to read anything of sustained length than I used to (and I rarely read fiction with the small concentration I have anymore -- but thinking about these books makes me want to reread a couple of them -- I was thinking that perhaps it would help 'exercise' what capacity for focus I have.
Books *are* one of the consolations of being unwell -- unfortunately my concentration suffers now with illness and I find it much more difficult to read anything of sustained length than I used to (and I rarely read fiction with the small concentration I have anymore -- but thinking about these books makes me want to reread a couple of them -- I was thinking that perhaps it would help 'exercise' what capacity for focus I have
.
Wayne
Tempus faciendi, Domine.
Heidi:
Have you read anything by Alexander McCall Smith? Particularly his more recent works all began in newspaper serial form, and so are written in shorter chapters.
That might lend well to your current problems with concentration.
Probably requiring more attention, but a hoot for those who know literature, Jasper Fforde's novels (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, First Among Sequels, etc.) have to be mentioned.
But then I'm reminded that this is supposed to be a thread about 19th Century authors. Pardon my digression.
Have you read anything by Alexander McCall Smith? Particularly his more recent works all began in newspaper serial form, and so are written in shorter chapters.
That might lend well to your current problems with concentration.
Probably requiring more attention, but a hoot for those who know literature, Jasper Fforde's novels (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, First Among Sequels, etc.) have to be mentioned.
But then I'm reminded that this is supposed to be a thread about 19th Century authors. Pardon my digression.
Ivan's right, Heidi, you are impressively well-read!
If it's taken on into the early 20th C I'd pick out the poetry of Housman, sad and beautiful, but on the other hand he's a good example of a dilemma I have especially with that turn of the century period. There's lots of good writing, but the world-view is an unsurmountable obstacle.
Without saying they aren't any good as writers, I can't bear Hardy or E M Forster or Woolf or Galsworthy (of the Forsyte Saga), or going forward a bit, D H Lawrence. I don't even like Edwardian children's books much - such as E Nesbit and especially Frances Hodgson Burnett (does anyone in America know The Secret Garden?) - though the Swallows and Amazons books are good, and The Wind in the Willows and A A Milne of course!!! (not Disney)
Actually you have quite a little clutch of children's authors across the Atlantic too which are a bit of a turn-off - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by whoever it's by, and Anne of Green Gables and even What Katy Did - I liked that as a child, but what on earth religion exactly was the egregious Cousin Helen promulgating??
If it's taken on into the early 20th C I'd pick out the poetry of Housman, sad and beautiful, but on the other hand he's a good example of a dilemma I have especially with that turn of the century period. There's lots of good writing, but the world-view is an unsurmountable obstacle.
Without saying they aren't any good as writers, I can't bear Hardy or E M Forster or Woolf or Galsworthy (of the Forsyte Saga), or going forward a bit, D H Lawrence. I don't even like Edwardian children's books much - such as E Nesbit and especially Frances Hodgson Burnett (does anyone in America know The Secret Garden?) - though the Swallows and Amazons books are good, and The Wind in the Willows and A A Milne of course!!! (not Disney)
Actually you have quite a little clutch of children's authors across the Atlantic too which are a bit of a turn-off - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by whoever it's by, and Anne of Green Gables and even What Katy Did - I liked that as a child, but what on earth religion exactly was the egregious Cousin Helen promulgating??
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