Recommend Classic Literature

[Thread Killer]

Changing my topic. It's pretty much what the title says. There a number of great sites such as Bartleby online or Literature Network where a lot of classics are available. If you have a recommendation, or something you wouldn't recommend, than let us know.

My recommendations are The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

I also recommend Gaston Leuroux 's Phantom of the Opera.

 

[Ogion]

The first that came to mind right now is Henry David Thoreau.

I mean, there is so much things, so many books, i think it would be a real task to make a list, and it wouldn't be complete. But a thread in a forum is already better than one person trying to do it, so let's go ahead

Ogion

 

[Thread Killer]

"Henry David Thoreau."

I read an essay by him in one of my classes. He's a very interesting fellow. I think he might actually be INTP. Maybe.

 

[Ogion]

Yeah, could be. Although i read 'just' the tractat about Civil Disobedience, and Walden and other things i still have to read (and i am going to, it is quite fun to read )

Ogion

 

[Kidege]

There's one book that showed me the links between imagination, intelligence and ambition. Everytime I re read it it teaches me something new. I also love it because it is a nice warning on how stupid I -and other strong, imaginative people- can be.

The Red and the Black, by Stendhal.

 

[fullerene]

Just because this came up after reading one of cobersts threads (although I'm not sure if it's old enough to be considered "classic"... it's famous enough they made us read it in ap english back in high school), I highly recommend Brave New World. I don't even like to read, and I loved this book.

It's basically a critique on where Huxley saw the American culture headed back in the 1930s by taking it to the extreme... brings up questions of the importance of the individual or society, the value in individuality, the dangers of a consumer culture, and how all of these things affect the growth and maturity of humans. It also touched on things like genetic engineering and whether it's ethical to breed/condition people so that they're only happy when they're doing what you want them to do at the time you engineer them.
The layers in that book are incredible... well worth the read.

 

[Ermine]

My favorites are

Night - Elie Wiesel (kind of classic, right)
Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
Anthem - Ayn Rand
1984 - George Orwell
Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Candide - Voltaire

and I also like Brave New World.

 

[Agent Intellect]

Just because this came up after reading one of cobersts threads (although I'm not sure if it's old enough to be considered "classic"... it's famous enough they made us read it in ap english back in high school), I highly recommend Brave New World. I don't even like to read, and I loved this book.

It's basically a critique on where Huxley saw the American culture headed back in the 1930s by taking it to the extreme... brings up questions of the importance of the individual or society, the value in individuality, the dangers of a consumer culture, and how all of these things affect the growth and maturity of humans. It also touched on things like genetic engineering and whether it's ethical to breed/condition people so that they're only happy when they're doing what you want them to do at the time you engineer them.
The layers in that book are incredible... well worth the read.

i agree, i loved that book. 1984 was great too, had a lot of interesting theories and observations on sociology and psychology.

 

[altarego]

I second Le Rouge et le Noir.

Also, a random selection from my bookshelf:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Maia by Richard Adams (the guy who wrote Watership Down, also a good book)

 

[October]

Well, I've just finished reading Jane Eyre and I've quite liked it, putting aside some extreme coincidences there, but overall it was a nice read.

And I also recommend:

'To the lighthouse', 'The waves', 'Mrs.Dalloway' by Virginia Wolf
'Sons and lovers' by D.H.Lawrence
'The mysteries of Udolpho' by Ann Radcliffe
'Turning of the screw' by Henry James

Other authors: Guy de Maupassant, Balzac, James Joyce, Johan Bojer etc.

I'm quite a fan of 'classical' literature - classical by my standards (till the 1930's or so) because Wolf for example is a rather experimental modern - ... while not liking contemporary too much.

 

[Anti-socialite]

Changing my topic. It's pretty much what the title says. There a number of great sites such as Bartleby online or Literature Network where a lot of classics are available. If you have a recommendation, or something you wouldn't recommend, than let us know.

My recommendations are The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

I also recommend Gaston Leuroux 's Phantom of the Opera.

I'm a fan of historical politics so I'm rereading Machiavelli's The Prince. Good read.

 

[grrreg]

I love Classics, it's so nice to share that with other people...
my most recent is Middlemarch by Elliot and I loved it. So witty and pulls you into the time frame, the characters, fantastic!

 

[October]

^ I've been meaning to read George Elliot. Could you tell me what that novel is about? Only a few details, if you please.

 

[saorsa]

GOETHE!


Faust, of course, and perhaps the Wilhelm Meister books as well. I liked
Elective Affinities and am anxious to read some of his autobiography, not that
I've even bought it yet.

Kafka and Dostoevsky (note: read Brothers K after you've read some of his other major works, else you'll be disappointed in them). For Kafka I recommend The Trial and some of the shorter stories...haven't read The Castle or Amerika yet...didn't quite understand why Metamorphosis is so popular, as it seemed a little two-dimensional (oh, wait...). as for D, Notes from the Undergound is the classic place to begin, then probably Crime and Punishment and maybe The Idiot. (Demons is still on my shelf unread, dammit!)

much love for Thoreau! contra the earlier suggestion, though, I think he must have been an S

Kant is definitely the best of all for me, but the drift here seems to be more towards matters literary than philosophical, so I'll just leave it at that...

 

[Sylzarra]

Saorsa you forgot The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. I totally fell in love with that book.

Other recommendations would be Malgudi Days by R K Narayan and anything by Victor Hugo.

Another recommendation, if you do not wish to claw your eyes out in disgust refrain from reading anything by Jane Austen

 

[EloquentBohemian]

The Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer.
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.
Steppenwolf, Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game), Demian, and Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.
Ulysses and Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
The Wasteland by T.S. Elliot.

...and so many more.

 

[Sylzarra]

I know that the Iliad and the Odyssey are exalted pieces of literature, however I never could get myself to enjoy them or acquire a taste for them. I feel that they are long winding unplanned stories with a cliched and weak plot line. Am I missing something?

 

[FusionKnight]

I second The Fountainhead and Don Quixote. Some other's I'd recommend:

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

 

[Chronomar]

"Henry David Thoreau."

I read an essay by him in one of my classes. He's a very interesting fellow. I think he might actually be INTP. Maybe.

I have read some of Thoreau's work, and I concur that he is either an INTP or something really close to it.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

I know that the Iliad and the Odyssey are exalted pieces of literature, however I never could get myself to enjoy them or acquire a taste for them. I feel that they are long winding unplanned stories with a cliched and weak plot line. Am I missing something?

The Greek classics are an acquired taste perhaps. They are epic narratives and take a long time to read.
I was introduced to them in 9th grade while taking Latin and Greek. These two by Homer were what initiated my deep interest in mythology. From these, I began exploring the myths of the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Sumerians/Babylonians. It escalated from there into every mythology I could get my hands on and eventually into mysticism.
The translation of Illiad/Odyssey is important. I used to have a verse translation instead of the usual prose one and I loved it. I'm still trying to find it again.

 

[Ermine]

I read the Odyssey, and I found it overly repetitive and predictable.

 

[ElectricWizard]

Lord Dunsany. Pretty much everything he wrote, other than poetry (his poetry's not horrible, but not brilliant either), especially his fantasy works.

Of course, there are quite a few other good books in this thread, such as 'The Red and the Black', and Kafka's stuff.

 

[krisa]

voltaire - candide...
full of irony..but still very funny. one of my favorites

 

[Kidege]

The Greek classics are an acquired taste perhaps. They are epic narratives and take a long time to read.
I was introduced to them in 9th grade while taking Latin and Greek. These two by Homer were what initiated my deep interest in mythology. From these, I began exploring the myths of the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Sumerians/Babylonians. It escalated from there into every mythology I could get my hands on and eventually into mysticism.
The translation of Illiad/Odyssey is important. I used to have a verse translation instead of the usual prose one and I loved it. I'm still trying to find it again.

I was introducted to them with pictures and comic books when I was 4. So I got to play "let's kill the guy who kills Achilles" with my imaginary friends.

I read the long versions when I was in 8th grade. It was a nice enough translation and it didn't seem too odd.

But it was only recently that I found (a fragment of) a better translation, and I loved getting reacquainted with the nasty motherfuckers I pretended to save or kill when I was a kid. Of course I also love Illiad fanfic. The way I see it, the best way of approaching "literary monuments" is treating them like any other tale. The time for being picky about the version, the style, etc., comes later.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

Agreed. As a child, the only 'comic books' I was allowed when I surpassed the insipid Disney comics was Classics Illustrated. Possibly my interest was stirred here.

 

[Kidege]

Bohé, unless I'm much mistaken, you had a signature with a quote by Antonin Artaud. Mind telling me what it was? I just remember I liked it.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

We do not die because we have to die; we die because one day, and not so long ago, our consciousness was forced to deem it necessary. - Antonin Artaud

In my opinion, Artaud and his Theatre of Cruelty altered theatre forever, along with playwrights form the Theatre of the Absurd such as Thomas Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Eugene Ionesco.

 

[Kidege]

Thank you!
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with them.
I'll put them in my to read list.

 

[lupejones]

I like Hemingway and Steinbeck. Homies for lyphe.

 

[Da Blob]

Jack London, The Brothers K., Victor Hugo, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll (Not Alice, the others) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Frost...
Steinbeck's Cannary Row, Ayn Rand, Animal Farm, Appleton, Absalom, Absalom..etc.
Ray Bradbury...?

 

[FacetiousPersona]

Jack London, The Brothers K., Victor Hugo, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll (Not Alice, the others) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Frost...
Steinbeck's Cannary Row, Ayn Rand, Animal Farm, Appleton, Absalom, Absalom..etc.
Ray Bradbury...?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H. P. Lovecraft are excellent writers.

 

[Anling]

I don't know if it would be considered classic, but I really like A Sand County Almanac by Leopold. Well, environmentalists often consider it one anyway.

 

[nemo]

Austen, Tolstoy and Arthur Conan Doyle are all good... I got Crime and Punishment the other day, but haven't started on it yet. >_>

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Crime and Punishment is good (even though I read it just a few pages at a time and it took forever and I read about 20 other books during that time).

Lord of the Flies is good. I also like Faulkner, Homer and some Steinbeck.

 

[FusionKnight]

A few I've finished recently:

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

I've been going through the best 100 list of English-language novels. The Big Sleep is amazing!

 

[Sugarpop]

I'm halfway through The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. The best book I've read in ages.

 

[Melkor]

Just finished the portrait of Dorain gray.

Currently reading crime and punishment.

Next, I think I'll go for david copperfield.


I'm considering making a topic for Dorain gray.....

 

[travelnjones]

There are moments in "On the Road" by jack Kerouac that i feel understood.

Confederacy of Dunces is a another good INTP read

 

[nemo]

A few I've finished recently:

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

I've been going through the best 100 list of English-language novels. The Big Sleep is amazing!

I'm doing Gatsby as a text study in Lit class right now. It was a good book, but not great, in my opinion...maybe because I read it in so many parts.

 

[travelnjones]

I have to disagree. Gatsby's determination to rig fate is freaking great. The whole thing with EJ Ecklbert/God coming to his party and being the only mourner to come thats some sweet symbolism. Also just take the poetry of the words.

 

[nemo]

I'll re-read the book with that in mind...sometime soon.

I started reading Wuthering Heights last year, but didn't get very far, since the introduction basically ruined the book. The intro for Gatsby is also almost the same length of the book. >_>

 

[dwags222]

there are some books that are obvious that i was surprised were not mentioned

catcher in the rye (perhaps the quintesetnial coming of age book for intp's??)
catch-22
anything by annie dillard
anything by vonnegut
a portrait of the artist as a young man
pulp by bukowski
sidartha
hemmingway is decent

walden was already mentioned, but i feel this is another quintesential intp reading.

I know that the Iliad and the Odyssey are exalted pieces of literature, however I never could get myself to enjoy them or acquire a taste for them. I feel that they are long winding unplanned stories with a cliched and weak plot line. Am I missing something?

check out julian jaynes "the origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind" for an explanation of why this might be so. very intriguing and much easier to read than the title suggests.

as an aside, i am reading the biography of einstein by walter isaacson, a good intp read considering einstein was an intp.

 

[naberus]

"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

I've only ever read the first few chapters, but it is a very entertaining book (which coming from me is a lot since I don't normally like reading novels).

 

[Sugarpop]

I'm halfway through The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. The best book I've read in ages.

I'm wholeway through it now, and it's a unique read.

 

[polarmonk]

I'm going to have to recommend Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. Seriously, that man was ahead of his time.

 

[FusionKnight]

Just finished 1984 (in audiobook form). That is a terrifying read. It really makes me re-evaluate many of the things going on in out world (political, philosophical, sociological, etc) in terms of control.

 

[Melkor]

I read that about a year ago fusion.


Fantastic book no?

 

[EditorOne]

"My recommendations are The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas."

Yes. Great read.

It first appeared as a serial in a newspaper, a new chapter every week. You can see reflections of that "architecture" in the way many of the chapters "leave you hanging" at the end. So you buy next week to find out what happens next, of course, but it's also a storytelling technique still widely used, not just in novels, but even in movies. You can see it best in unashamed action adventures like Indiana Jones, where the protagonists lurch from one exciting challenge to another.

I suspect the protagonist in "Count" has special appeal to INTPs, a guy who gets to wear what amounts to a permanent mask over his real self while carrying out his carefully constructed plans. :-) "I'm not who you think I am." Sound familiar?

 

[FusionKnight]

I read that about a year ago fusion.


Fantastic book no?

Yeah, it's the parallels to the real world that make it so intriguing and so frightening. When I look at American politics today, both the politicians and the populace seem to be able to practice double-think expertly. One week they argue for one thing, the next week the argue for the opposite, for exactly the same reasons!

 

[Kidege]

"My recommendations are The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas."

Yes. Great read.

It first appeared as a serial in a newspaper, a new chapter every week. You can see reflections of that "architecture" in the way many of the chapters "leave you hanging" at the end. So you buy next week to find out what happens next, of course, but it's also a storytelling technique still widely used, not just in novels, but even in movies. You can see it best in unashamed action adventures like Indiana Jones, where the protagonists lurch from one exciting challenge to another.

I suspect the protagonist in "Count" has special appeal to INTPs, a guy who gets to wear what amounts to a permanent mask over his real self while carrying out his carefully constructed plans. :-) "I'm not who you think I am." Sound familiar?

I think it'd be even more appealing to INTJs. The guy reshapes himself from zero and takes systematic revenge. I find it creepy, but my childhood INTJ friend loved it.

Twenty years later is more to my tastes, where Dumas is concerned. It has adventure but is also strangely melancholic without degenerating into angst. The characters wear masks but deep down are still friends.