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American Literature vs British Literature
I read a variety of American authors, when younger, and the one which made the greatest impression was "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane.
I no longer read American books, having learned a great deal more about the English language, and a great deal more history, but I remember that novella.
Its fairly irrelevant but I must agree that saying "guys" is to be deplored. Worse still, when someone tries to get everyones attention by saying "guys!guys!" It is quite common throughout the UK, but so is spitting on the pavement - not everyone does it.
JK Rowling is popular, but really isn't great shakes as a prose stylist. Like Clive Barker, Stephen King, John Grisham and so forth she is a good story teller and can be entertaining but I am not exactly going to finish one of her books and feel that I have been enriched by it or learnt anything about life, which may be part of a definition of a great novelist. I'm not saying that great novels shouldn't be entertaining though. Both Britain and America have produced great novelists, or perhaps I should say that people who have written great novels have been born in those countries, as well as in many others. For other people with the same passport as these talented writers to claim some kind of reflected glory in them or any other of their countrymen is foolish and lazy thinking which cheapens their personal individual achievements and equates to a kind of theft. By the way, why did no one mention: Julian Barnes JG Ballard Graham Swift Iain Banks Ian Mcewan Graham Greene from the British writers' list? A top ten is a daft idea anyway. A top 100 might be more useful as an indication of good things to read...but then I wouldn't limit it to writers who wrote in English, as I think lots of excellent translations are available of works on other languages (or you could learn other languages...)
<< For other people with the same passport as these talented writers to claim some kind of reflected glory in them or any other of their countrymen is foolish and lazy thinking which cheapens their personal individual achievements and equates to a kind of theft. >>
I can equate that to waving your country's flag, its certainly not feasting on the glory of others; its a matter of pride and appreciation. Besides, the greatest beneficiaries of the works of these writers are usually not their own country men (and women). And no matter how much you think you know about "all-that: which belongs to your country," there is always someone from another country that knows more. << from the British writers' list? A top ten is a daft idea anyway. A top 100 might be more useful as an indication of good things to read >> How many people would want to begin a "reading journey" of a hundred (100) books (when there is always something to do on the internet); and certainly not when you can have the top ten and be proud you've read the best. Besides, this thread is about "the great books," not the career of authors. I asked for a list of the "best books of the 20th century," there wasn't supposed to be too much emphasis on the personalities or the nationalities of the authors!!! - is someone listening?
Well, I am listening. Or perhaps that should be reading.
You did indeed ask for books not authors. Oh and I forgot Mervyn Peake - or should I say the Ghormenghast trilogy. Better than Tolkien and CS Lewis, from the same little phase of 1940s escapism. I can handle a list of 100 authors - you get to pick and choose, and at least some of the books will be easily available wherever you are. You didn't say it was supposed to be some kind of reading list for a Literacy Foundation Skills 101 course. Not sure if I am all that keen on "waving your country's flag" - but then again if I was from some small country which had only recently got its independence (back) like Latvia for example then I'd probably be more keen on it. As it is I'm from one of those countries which made lots of other people wave their flag who didn't always want to, so I'll pass for now.
Adam's list is a joke, but like everything he writes I suppose that it was meant to be. I can imagine that Yeats especially would't be pleased to be considered British. Conrad was Russian. TS Eliot was from Missouri and lived in the US until his forties. A more interesting question would be a comparison between American and Russian literature. The UK is an also-ran here.
<<Conrad was Russian.>>
No, he wasn't - he was born in the Ukraine and was a native Polish speaker. And he's classed as a British writer, whether you like it or not. As for Eliot, I personally would consider him to be American, but he did become a British citizen, so that's why he's sometimes described as a British writer. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jconrad.htm
I got another list by an organization named "The Modern Library," below is the list of the top ten from their top 100 best novels (of the 20th century). Its mostly American authors, I was shocked to see LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding as number 41 (strange).
1. ULYSSES by James Joyce 2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald 3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce 4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov 5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley 6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner 7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller 8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler 9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence 10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck What do you make of this list, and to think William Faulkner's "AS I LAY DYING" is number 35 on the list, I always thought it was his best book. And it gave me a very big scare when I saw Ernest Hemingway's "A FAREWELL TO ARMS" at number 74. What do you make of this list, is it credible?
<< How many of the novels in the full list weren't by American authors? >>
I think about 24 out of the 100 (not very sure).
I love reading books. Mainly non-fiction. At the moment I'm reading about 4 books at the same time.
In the Waterstones bookstore in Bolton town centre, they have just opened a coffee shop. The store has two floors and on the top floor, at the back of the room, they have got rid of some of the bookshelves and installed a counter and 9 or 10 tables and chairs. I don't know why they have put in a coffee shop in a Waterstone's bookstore, but I like it. As I was wandering around looking at the books, all the time there was a strong smell of coffee - and the smell of coffee has got to be one of the nicest smells in existence. I was thinking: "My God. There's nothing better than wandering around the bookstore and looking at the books whilst being able to smell coffee." There was something old-fashioned and posh about it.
"Adam's list is a joke, but like everything he writes I suppose that it was meant to be. I can imagine that Yeats especially would't be pleased to be considered British. Conrad was Russian. TS Eliot was from Missouri and lived in the US until his forties. A more interesting question would be a comparison between American and Russian literature. The UK is an also-ran here. "
They were all British, you burke.
"If Adam wants to claim T.S. Eliot, then I think Americans get to claim Vladimir Nabakov.
Isaac Asimov " Isaac Asimov was born in Russia. So, in that case, if you claim Asdimov as you're own then we have every right to claim TS Eliot.
More 20th Century British authors (some lived in 2 centuries) -
Bram Stoker (1847 - 1912)(Author of Dracula) Peter Ackroyd (1949 - ) W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973) Julian Barnes (1946 - ) Algernon Blackwood (1869 - 1951) Angela Carter (1940 - 1992) Lord Edward Dunsany (1878 - 1957) (One of the harbingers of modern fantasy) John Fowles (1926 - )(award-wining author of The French Lieutenant's Woman) Sir William Golding (1911 - 1993)(Best known for Lord of the Flies) Graham Greene (1904 - 1991) Rosamond Nina Lehman (1901 - 1990) Josephine Aimee Campbell Leslie (1898 - 1979) David Lodge (1935 - ) Dame Rose Macaulay (1881 - 1958) John Wyndham (1903 - 1969) J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973) E. Nesbit (1858 - 1924) Terry Pratchett (1948 - ) Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - ) E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970) Doris Lessing (1919 - ) Malcolm Lowry (1909 - 1957) Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901 - 1935) A.S. Byatt (1936 - ) Charlotte Mew (1869 - 1929) Mary Renault (1905 - 1983) Paul Sayer (1955 - ) Muriel Spark (1918 - )
"I can imagine that Yeats especially would't be pleased to be considered British. "
Considering that Yeats was British, and born in Britain, I don't think he'd mind too much.
" I suppose that everyone here agrees that Alfred Hitchcock was an American director? "
He was British for 81 years and British/American for only 24. Unlike TS Eliot, who completely got rid of his American citizenship for a British one, Hitchcock never got rid of his British citizenship. |