Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1921

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Proust again, really warming to his subject.

dow, Monday, 30 November 2020 18:11 (three years ago) link

Write-in for Louis Aragon’s Anicet ou le panorama, ‘cause I’m a sucker for poetic novels about poets (Rimbaud is looming in the background). Otherwise: Proust 4evah.

pomenitul, Monday, 30 November 2020 18:15 (three years ago) link

'Vera' is a pretty good portrait of domestic psychological abuse, rather different from von Antrim's other books.
'Chrome Yellow' is enjoyablecomedy-mode Huxley.
'Švejk' is great, but yes, it does just stop, but to be fair that's because it was being serialised and Hasek dropped dead.
'Capillaria' by Frigyes Karinthy I have just bought but not yet read: overtly science-fictional Hungarian sequel to Gulliver's Travels
'The True Story of Ah Q' is very interesting. Lu Xun was obsessed with stamping out cannibalism, though how much of a problem this was I don't know.
'A Dark Night's Passing' I also own, but I haven't read it yet.
'Alice Adams' is good melodrama, but nothing earth-shattering.
Proust for the win, though.

Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Monday, 30 November 2020 23:51 (three years ago) link

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
Always on my bedside table

Et Dieu crea l' (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 13:39 (three years ago) link

Kafka, I believe, said that Hasek was found funny and he depressing, and that opinion was inverted.

Et Dieu crea l' (Michael White), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 13:42 (three years ago) link

Švejk is v good. i’m curious about the de la Mare, which i’ve never read. many of his short stories are excellent.

Fizzles, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 13:43 (three years ago) link

did he?! didn’t know that but i think it’s otm. kafka is v funny i think but that was only something i picked up on recently. švejk has a sort of melancholy undertow.

Fizzles, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 13:44 (three years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link

i stopped reading Alrdtp part of the way through Sodom & Gomorrah. Not because it was bad but because I was forgetting the events of the earlier books.

wasdnuos (abanana), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 10:14 (three years ago) link

Depressingly, although I've heard of many if not most of these, I haven't read a single one. I have spent my entire life thinking I should start reading Proust

Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 10:48 (three years ago) link

I knew that if any poster would be able to give a rundown of more tan two or three books per poll in this, it would be James Morrison!

Švejk an iffy case on my part - it got listed on wiki because this is the first year it started being serialized, I should've probably waited for the year it was (un)finished but was worried it wouldn't be listed and I'd forget.

Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 10:49 (three years ago) link

went into town yesterday and into charity shops taht had just reopened after several weeks of lockdowqn.
I scored a copy of tthe DK art booik I had missed in the same charity shop a coupl eo fyears ago.
& i saw but didn't pick up 2 volumes of Tarzan omnibuses, one of which included Tarzan the Terrible.
Wonder if I should try to grab it , though not goingto be in town for another couple of days.
BUt its one of the Tarzan visits to Pel Ul cidar the land where dinosaurs survived and evolved. Tarzan's gone there looking to avenge the death of Jane who he's just been travelling the world trying to avenge.
Not sure I'd actually get around to reading it though but if i need a book about the travails of a great white saviour I'm sure I could do worse.

Stevolende, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 12:39 (three years ago) link

Proust, easily, as I've not a single other book of the list. Will definitely search out Švejk though.

A Scampo Darkly (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 13:05 (three years ago) link

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

System, Thursday, 3 December 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link

Švejk as it's the only one I've read. great wee book though, very funny.

I'm starting on proust soon, got the first book, will probably get cracking over the Christmas break

Politically homely (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 3 December 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link

I wonder what's going to win 1922. I can think of no possible books. Certainly not one of the greatest works ever written. No sirree.

emil.y, Thursday, 3 December 2020 03:03 (three years ago) link

I wonder what's going to win 1922. I can think of no possible books. Certainly not one of the greatest works ever written. No sirree.

Strong support there for Albert Payson Terhune's classic dog novel Further Adventures Of Lad, but I would tend to agree, seeing as how it includes the stories of Lad's initial arrival at the "Place", the death of his mate, and the day of his own death, as well as the one where Lad is taken to compete in a dog show in Beauville.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1922

Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 3 December 2020 13:52 (three years ago) link


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