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Thomas Hardy - Other authors to check out - Reading Suggestions?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by FranchiseBlade, Mar 13, 2007.

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  1. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Member
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    I have only read Tess of the d'Urbervilles by him. I didn't care for it. His picture of Tess made her seem too weak for a protagonist, and some of her choices while not necessarily unrealistic, the portrayal of them are just too far beyond belief to make her seem like a credible character.

    In truth I only read it because it was required in college, and the professor's opinion of the book might have negatively affected my own.

    But others have told me that I shouldn't give up on Hardy, and read more. So I thought about reading Return of the Native.

    Has anyone else read much by him. I am really pretty ignorant of his works other than the names, and I was curious if Return of the Native was a good one to read, or should I try something else? Should I just give up on Hardy all together and write him off as something just not my style?

    My own tastes are varied, from Cervantes, Orwell, Dumas, Fitzgerald, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, JD Salinger, EL Doctorow, Vladimir Nabokov, George RR Martin, Hunter Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Jane Austen(I am a guy, but I still like her novels) Victor Hugo, Sir Walter Scott, Somerset Maugham, only select novels by Hemingway, and even fewer more select ones by Steinbeck, etc.

    My tastes are pretty varied, but I am still kind of picky about the books I like. But if there are other suggestions besides Hardy on something to read I would love hear them

    Any opinions at all would be welcome. Thanks.
     
    #1 FranchiseBlade, Mar 13, 2007
  2. lost_elephant

    lost_elephant Member

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    Other than Tess, I have read Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure.

    You and I have some similar tastes in authors, I am sure you would like ROTN.

    [Edit] Unlike Tess, ROTN has somewhat of a happy ending (critics at the time demanded a happy ending from Hardy for once).
     
    #2 lost_elephant, Mar 13, 2007
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  3. lost_elephant

    lost_elephant Member

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    You should also read everything by John Galsworthy. It is a wonderful social critic of the elitist upper middle class in the late victorian period and beyond. The Forsyte Chronicles is a collection of a couple trilogies and a couple novellas that took Galsworthy half of his life to complete. He won the Nobel prize for the books in 32? and died a year later.

    Also, ofcourse look into EM Forster, Edith Wharton, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, George Elliot, Henry James
     
    #3 lost_elephant, Mar 13, 2007
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2007
  4. deepellumrocket

    deepellumrocket Member

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    Faulkner.

    Start with As I Lay Dying and then read Sound and the Fury.

    And if you haven't read Pale Fire by Nabokov, do that too.
     
    #4 deepellumrocket, Mar 13, 2007
  5. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Member
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    Cool, thanks. I will make a list of your suggestions.

    I definitely need to read Galsworthy. I appreciate it.

    I have read two of the Bronte sisters(Emily and Charlotte), but I haven't read much from Ann. I did see a great play about them, and their brother.

    I am eager to get cracking on the all the reading I have lined up.
     
    #5 FranchiseBlade, Mar 13, 2007
  6. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Member
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    Faulkner is someone I've been meaning to get into recently as well. I started Sound and the Fury a long time ago, and then got sidetracked. I will definitely add these to my lists.

    This bbs is awesome.
     
    #6 FranchiseBlade, Mar 13, 2007
  7. thadeus

    thadeus Member

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    Pale Fire is one of my favorite books - poetry and commentary that adds up to an amazing story.

    I like Jane Austen too FranchiseBlade. These threads usually wind up being filled with way too many suggestions to make any impact, so I think you should just ignore every other reading suggestion and listen to mine:

    Read 'Illywhacker' by Peter Carey.
     
    #7 thadeus, Mar 13, 2007
  8. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Member
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    LOL. It does take time to read a lot of books, but I will make lists for future reference.

    You are a good salesman, so I will move your suggestion high up on the list. :cool:
     
    #8 FranchiseBlade, Mar 13, 2007
  9. ico4498

    ico4498 Member

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    yah must be a well rounded and of stable mind to read Hardy.

    anyone less grounded will be jumping off cliffs and such like ... the guy is seriously depressing.
     
    #9 ico4498, Mar 13, 2007
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