Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1890's, pt.1 (1890-1894)

Thanks! I've read the first two and Tess. Tried New Grub Street but couldn't get into it, will try again.

Don't bother with New Grub Street, by "read these" I mean "I have read these" (so in this case you don't have to)

Would reccommend The Picture Of Dorian Grey, La Bête Humaine, Hunger, The Diary Of A Nobody and The Great God Pan. Also probably Tess Of The D'Urbevilles.

Hamusn is terrific: terse and hallucinatory in a modern ay.

Tess is all-time.

Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks!

The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde - Very different from his plays, on the whole, moralistic in a way, but very modern in the compassion in its morality, the preface is all-time of course.

Always felt a bit of a disconnect between Wilde's aestheticist positions and his fiction, which tends to have pretty clear morals, Picture of Dorian Grey very much included.

(voted for it, btw)

Grub Street was ok. it was grim, yes.

read 4 or 5 of these - the late 19th really is a hole in my reading - but voted for another grim book, one that made me angry.

This is quite tough. Somewhere between Tess, Hunger, Dorian Grey, Great God Pan and Diary of Nobody. It might be the latter, actually. I was reading it when my son was born and bought it for the midwife to say thank you (maybe not the *best* title, in retrospect).

Oh, and Trillby! What a strange novel.

Just realised there was no Jekyll and Hyde on the previous list.

I tend to exclude novellas, and Jekyll & Hyde is a short one at that.

Bruges-la-Morte.

Aye, fair enough. And, enduring concept aside, I'm not even sure J&H is actually any good.

xp

Diary of a nobody is such a beautiful picture of mundane existence. It’s so timeless, which makes the humour work so well.

Aye, fair enough. And, enduring concept aside, I'm not even sure J&H is actually any good.

I read it and remember next to nothing. The collection I was reading also had "The Merry Men" in it and I found that far more memorable, which is bizarre since J&H is about a man who makes the potion that turns him into a big monster and "The Merry Men" is about...waves hitting rocks.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

New Grub Street is great, you people are nuts.

Voted for Zola, sans regret.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1890's, pt.2 (1895-1899)