My list of French literature I've read is extremely short, so, um, Racine? Yourcenar?
Legolas Send a noteboard - 22/05/2012 08:17:49 PM
I've been reading a lot in Italian recently and am probably going to read il Decamerone with a view to tracing the structural elements and personal aspects from Boccaccio's life. However, I realize that I haven't read anything worthwhile in French since I finished Les Misérables, having been diverted down the sewer pipe of Maurice Druon. I did read the biography of Louis XIV that DomA recommended, and it was quite good and very thorough, discussing the factions at court and the various wars and domestic policies in detail. However, I need to read something literary again, and I'm looking for suggestions from those of you who read good French literature.
Hey now! Druon isn't that bad.
The only things I've read in French that I can still recommend to you are Racine's Phèdre and Andromaque, Jean Anouilh's adaptation of Antigone, and Marguerite Yourcenar's Mémoires d'Hadrien. I'm just noticing the classical antiquity theme in that list... pure coincidence.
The same goes for German, since I haven't read anything literary since I finished Narziß und Goldmund by Hesse last year, though I feel a bit less urgency there. I've been musing Musil, but it's a very long book and I might want something shorter.
I pass on the German. I'll read Der Steppenwolf at some point in the future. An anti-recommendation, though: Franz Kafka's unfinished novel Amerika is, despite some strong moments, a strange and not particularly impressive read.
What should I read next in French and German?
- 22/05/2012 08:05:38 PM
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My list of French literature I've read is extremely short, so, um, Racine? Yourcenar?
- 22/05/2012 08:17:49 PM
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Re: My list of French literature I've read is extremely short, so, um, Racine? Yourcenar?
- 23/05/2012 03:23:37 AM
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That would require yet another Pléiade purchase
- 23/05/2012 04:10:48 AM
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How about one of the Greek Novels?
- 23/05/2012 03:47:58 AM
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*browses shelves*
- 23/05/2012 06:43:38 AM
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I bought 16 books of Jung and 4 of Freud.
- 23/05/2012 01:44:16 PM
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Don Carlos
- 23/05/2012 06:21:48 PM
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Yeah, I have that. *NM*
- 23/05/2012 09:30:48 PM
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And if you were to read the Spanish versions, there are two well-known plays
- 23/05/2012 11:57:45 PM
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Okay, I looked at Don Carlos. I see no resemblance to Don Juan.
- 25/05/2012 08:40:05 PM
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I mentioned it because Don Juan appears in it, but is not the star of it
- 25/05/2012 10:24:20 PM
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It's hard for me to get excited about Spanish literature.
- 26/05/2012 02:18:40 AM
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Carlos Fuentes said as much in his 2011 non-fiction book, La gran novela latinoamericana
- 26/05/2012 03:24:22 AM
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Re: *browses shelves*
- 23/05/2012 06:57:22 PM
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I have the two-volume anthology of French poetry from Pléiade (book series, not the poet group).
- 23/05/2012 09:32:51 PM
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Re: I have the two-volume anthology of French poetry from Pléiade (book series, not the poet group).
- 24/05/2012 01:38:45 AM
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You could read the world's first Sci-Fi novel, Lucian of Samosata's Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα.
- 27/05/2012 03:08:30 PM
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Having read more about that, I'm tempted to say genre fiction has always been bad.
- 28/05/2012 03:40:45 AM
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