I also think that at a very minimum we should wait 50 years after something is published to call it "great". Doctor Zhivago is just old enough; The Unbearable Lightness of Being isn't. I'm sure the latter will end up being considered great, as it's one of my favorite works of fiction, but I wouldn't put it in the "great" category.
Henryk Sienkiewicz seems to be more on the Dumas level of literature, rather than the Dostoevsky level. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but that is the impression I got from Quo Vadis, the only work of his I'm familiar with (it was made into a terrible movie, by the way).
Henryk Sienkiewicz seems to be more on the Dumas level of literature, rather than the Dostoevsky level. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but that is the impression I got from Quo Vadis, the only work of his I'm familiar with (it was made into a terrible movie, by the way).
Of course, most of the authors I named were published more than 50 years ago. As for the Sienkiewicz, I've read part of his Trilogy and it is very different from Quo Vadis, which I liked a lot but agree might be a bit too Romantic Lite. It was the Trilogy that garnered him one of the first Nobel Prizes in Literature, I believe.
What about the Finnish Kalevala?
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
I think I'm through with translations
- 29/12/2010 04:53:47 AM
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Well, you might need it for part of José María Arguedas' Los ríos profundos
- 29/12/2010 05:56:31 AM
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I'm sure they're good writers, but are they GREAT writers?
- 29/12/2010 10:14:11 PM
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Thiong'o is
- 29/12/2010 10:46:00 PM
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Since I can read Spanish the question of who is or isn't great in Spanish is moot.
- 29/12/2010 11:57:18 PM
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I agree on the Spanish
- 30/12/2010 12:47:30 AM
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If the Kalevala were actually historic I might be tempted.
- 30/12/2010 05:27:00 AM
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It's a common 19th century thing, I'll admit
- 30/12/2010 10:49:42 PM
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Sadly, a lot of people STILL think The Da Vinci Code was historically accurate.
- 31/12/2010 12:04:40 AM
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Ha!
- 31/12/2010 03:53:32 AM
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Norwegian? or other Scandinavian languages?
- 29/12/2010 01:44:46 PM
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No, no interest.
- 29/12/2010 10:10:26 PM
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Re: No, no interest.
- 29/12/2010 10:11:45 PM
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I'm basing this on others not being translated or mentioned or discussed. *NM*
- 29/12/2010 10:14:48 PM
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Seriously?
- 29/12/2010 11:24:34 PM
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I'm dismissing authors that don't have general acceptance in the literary canon.
- 30/12/2010 12:01:18 AM
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You are only going to read what people read in college?
- 30/12/2010 12:08:43 AM
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Let me state it otherwise: no one outside Scandinavia reads those people.
- 30/12/2010 05:25:28 AM
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August Strindberg definitely is a big name. And as for Blixen...
- 30/12/2010 07:00:42 PM
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Ew...Out of Africa...I hated that movie.
- 30/12/2010 09:41:35 PM
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See my point? 
- 30/12/2010 10:23:27 PM
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- 30/12/2010 10:23:27 PM
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Oh, and I read and loved Kierkegaard.
- 29/12/2010 10:15:05 PM
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in translation? *NM*
- 29/12/2010 11:58:13 PM
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Yes, in translation. I don't know Danish and am not going to learn. *NM*
- 30/12/2010 12:02:14 AM
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Seems to me like you're just ignoring the books in languages you don't speak, tbh...
- 29/12/2010 09:58:15 PM
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Odd question prompted by this. Has The Lord of the Rings ever been published in Elvish? *NM*
- 01/01/2011 04:21:21 AM
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