tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post3303738950829892298..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: The Best Books of the Year - 1811 - I shall not cease from Mental FightAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-22840407164214008022011-12-21T09:53:13.727-06:002011-12-21T09:53:13.727-06:00Great, thanks, I'll look for it!Great, thanks, I'll look for it!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-30899701747538878592011-12-20T22:45:20.147-06:002011-12-20T22:45:20.147-06:00A good place to find Undine, and some other nice t...A good place to find <i>Undine</i>, and some other nice things, is in a Penguin Classics book titled <i>Romantic Fairy Tales</i>.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-28367229944731341832011-12-20T18:44:39.899-06:002011-12-20T18:44:39.899-06:00I do like these wrap-up posts from decades past, e...I do like these wrap-up posts from decades past, even if I've not read most of the books you list. (<em>Sense and Sensibility</em>, predictably, the exception.) I'd not heard of <em>Undine</em>, but now I believe I shall have to read it--the George MacDonald description tempts me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-8192710608670869722011-12-20T10:10:40.488-06:002011-12-20T10:10:40.488-06:00Yes, the number and quality of the English novels ...Yes, the number and quality of the English novels written by women is a major historic event, and one of the reasons I think of the 19th century English novel as one of the great achievements of civilization.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-14942804150604044282011-12-20T09:45:50.174-06:002011-12-20T09:45:50.174-06:00Yes, the next generation is amazing.
But what I li...Yes, the next generation is amazing.<br />But what I like in the English literature of that period is that there are more women.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-7025571208061012162011-12-20T08:46:35.140-06:002011-12-20T08:46:35.140-06:00I am tempted by 1911, but I know the books so poor...I am tempted by 1911, but I know the books so poorly. I have read so few and am unsure of their reputation. I have not spent enough imaginative time in 1911. The results would just be a repeat of my <a href="http://wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-books-of-year-1909.html" rel="nofollow">Best of 1909</a> piece.<br /><br />Chateaubriand, Mme de Staël, and Benjamin Constant - I think that about covers Napoleonic-era French literature, or what is still read. Chateaubriand seems to have published a travel book in 1811: <i>Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem</i>.<br /><br />That next generation is amazing, isn't it? Hugo and Balzac (and Stendhal, although he is quite a bit older). Lamartine and the two Alfreds. Gautier and Merimée and Sand.<br /><br />Something similar happens during the American Civil War. For a few years, American literature dries up. Post-Civil War, it roars back to life.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-81024003130807731602011-12-20T02:33:42.056-06:002011-12-20T02:33:42.056-06:00I love this entry, it's a great idea. Will you...I love this entry, it's a great idea. Will you write one for 1911?<br /><br />The only writers I could think of for French literature at the time are Chateaubriand and Madame de Stael. No idea if they published anything in 1811.<br />All the great French writers are before the Revolution or after 1815, when a new generation came. Troubled times weren't good for French literature,apparently.<br /><br />But 1811 is the year Théophile Gautier was born, so this year brought something to French literature anyway. <br /><br />PS: I don't think I've read a book published in 2011 this year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84188535251430111772011-12-19T19:23:26.385-06:002011-12-19T19:23:26.385-06:00All right, Tony, what's your count for 1861? ...All right, Tony, what's your count for 1861? Mine is coming tomorrow.<br /><br />A single book, Emily? I think I read 12, including books newly translated this year. So that would make a heck of a useful Top 10. That book about ants was good.<br /><br />nicole, that is half of my fun with these posts, that disjunction, which leads readers a few years later - e.g., Poe and Carlyle to read Goethe and Kleist and <i>Undine</i> and try to haul their special qualities over into English, where they are transformed into something else.<br /><br />I'm glad some people enjoy my annual indulgence in literary history and canon-noodling.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-907599494129603012011-12-19T18:15:28.257-06:002011-12-19T18:15:28.257-06:001811 is a bit before my preferred time - now if we...1811 is a bit before my preferred time - now if we fast-forwarded fifty years or so...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07546287562521628467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-72052592736716100322011-12-19T17:03:39.845-06:002011-12-19T17:03:39.845-06:00I forgot these retrospective best-ofs were on thei...I forgot these retrospective best-ofs were on their way! Truly a highlight of the year-end wrap-up blogging world, I have to say.<br /><br />Having read only a single book actually published in 2011, I am radically underqualified to spot the <em>Sense & Sensibility</em> of the modern age. It's good to be reminded that I wouldn't be able to spot it even if I had read them all.Emilyhttp://www.eveningallafternoon.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-81751794505057845652011-12-19T15:58:55.455-06:002011-12-19T15:58:55.455-06:00I could have seen ending Michael Kohlhaas alone by...I could have seen ending <em>Michael Kohlhaas</em> alone by shooting myself in the chest. In a good way, I mean.<br /><br />I feel a bit bewildered that that came out the same year as <em>Sense and Sensibility</em> (which I have not read). Austen and Kleist do not seem like they could have inhabited the same universe.nicolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17532641082944082516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-63440980334370845102011-12-19T11:14:14.589-06:002011-12-19T11:14:14.589-06:00Oh, yes, actually predicting the future like this ...Oh, yes, actually predicting the future like this is hopeless, and doing it with contemporary poets is worse.<br /><br />Even the novels - I think you've got the right idea, but to really match the Austen model you would have to pick the promising debut of the writer whose <i>really</i> beloved & important novel is a couple of years in the future, which is not critical prescience but luck, just luck.<br /><br />An assumption of all of this looking backwards then forwards, by the way, is that we <i>should</i> be readers of our time, as if we had any choice. The game I am playing here is rigged.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-85713345745883433212011-12-19T10:30:05.012-06:002011-12-19T10:30:05.012-06:00So the more top ten lists that include genre mix w...So the more top ten lists that include genre mix works, like A Visit from The Goon Squad or (a few years back) The Gone-Away World, the closer we may be to finding what will be read 200 years from now? And crackpot visionary poets--it's hard to even take a stab at that, there are so many. My favorite of this year is Dorianne Laux, but I think I am very much a reader of my time, as far as poetry is concerned.Jeannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01374498643286099244noreply@blogger.com