As a child, while my parents were traveling, I was occasionally farmed out to the homes of their friends. One blustery winter night, in the snug attic bedroom of Mrs. Kilduff's huge and somewhat frightening house, I found her now grownup son's copy of David Copperfield. It was a magic moment, and the beginning of a lifelong relationship. I too felt like an abandoned child in the Rookery, meeting for the first time, my brother David. Fortunately, things went a bit better for me than for David - my parents returned and I was not consigned to a blacking factory.
Charles Dickens
One thing I love is a good mystery. And one thing Wilkie Collins does is write the absolute best mystery - that is The Moonstone, or course. Really, it is the first detective novel, and is still untopped. Another thing I love is a gothic thriller, and while not the first, The Woman in White is certainly one of the best. I can't say THE best, because there is Uncle Silas to consider. His other books are somewhat uneven, but all fun to read. If weird characters and quirky humor are your game, Collins is your man.
Wilkie Collins
I was thinking about how to characterize Trollope, and my first thought was "clean!" Not in the prudish sense, but in the sense of smooth, pellucid . His novels just flow, and hence are impossible to put down. In my opinion, the last two Barset novels - The Small House at Allington, and Last Chronicles of Barset - are really one, and together are perhaps rival Our Mutual Friend as the greatest novel of the 19th century. Well, maybe not quite!
Anthony Trollope
I know that I loved Bowen, and read a huge number of her novels, but it was a long time ago. I am now inspired to reread them, and will report back when I have.
Uncle Silas is the gothic novel to top all others - even better than Dracula. No vampires here, but the wickedest governess in literature. Le Fanu does do vampires, however, and his are beautiful ladies preying on other beautiful ladies. What more could one want?
Note that Marilyn apparently is reading the Molly Bloom soliloquy. Did she read the whole book, or just skip to the naughty bits? I bet she read it all.
Murdoch combines heavy-duty philosophy with brilliantly developed characters, and if that is not enough for you, she tells a thrilling tale! Real literary page-turners! The blurb of one of her books said, "adultery, incest, murder, castration....." After my daughter read it, she said disappointedly, " But there was no castration." It must have been emotional.
Irish cousins writing about life in the Irish country side. Written with kind-hearted humor depicting lots of weird characters -from the Anglo-Irish upper classes to the country folk, and of course, including the dogs, the horses, and even the cats. The Real Charlotte is stunning! One of the great novels of the 19th century.
Once again, life in the Irish country side and in Dublin - this time, the humor not always so kind hearted, but bitingly funny.
What can one say? I adore Oscar Wilde. The plays, of course, are supremely amusing, but his fiction, Dorian Gray and the Fairy Tales, are true morality tales. They are sometimes extremely disturbing pictures of modern greed and obtuseness.
Can this be the world's greatest novel? Better than Dickens' Our Mutual Friend? That would be hard to say, but surely one or the other is the tops.
20th Century favorites
reminds me of Roman Polanski in several ways. Not only are their works brilliant and immensely enjoyable, but each one is totally different from the others. Mann has consistent themes - the dark-eyed sensitive intellectual vs. the blue-eyed worldly success, but his novels are totally individual. The romance of Royal Highness, the dark brooding of Dr. Faustus, the witty Transposed Heads, the wondrous Joseph and His Brothers - each is nothing like the others.
Very funny, and, thankfully, very prolific!
The apex of domestic novels. A typical Pym crisis might be - who maneuvers to sit next to the vicar at tea! As good as Jane? I think maybe so. I was once was practicing the organ in church, and far below, the ladies were arguing about placement of the flowers. I later said to the office manager, 'that was a very Barbara Pym discussion you were having down there." She said - "It didn't matter what they decided - I knew that I could change them after the others left." Tres Pym.
The Raj Quartet may be a milestone in 20th English novels. Told from various points of view, these four novels trace the downfall of the British Raj in the forties - following the fate of several families, both Indian and English through the troubled and violent years.
I was undecided as to whether these novels belonged here or on my "favorite trashy novels" page. Trollope is mistress of the modern domestic drama - troubles with ex-spouses and their children, or with the coping problems of one's own children, etc. The Brass Dolphin is a Romance, written under a nom de plume. Set in Malta during WWII, it is a real page turner.
Wesley published her first novel when well into her seventies. These are lovely books, sensitive and intelligent. These tales of everyday people caught up in seemingly insuperable domestic crises, can be depended upon to end well, with the evil ones getting their just deserts (sometimes that is simply a snub, but a satisfying snub.)
