Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1890's, pt.1 (1890-1894)

This one is hard, could vote for at least five of these.

Quincas Borba by Machado de Assis
The Defense Of A Fool by August Strindberg (https://www.norvikpress.com/book-detail.php?i=112)
Hunger by Knut Hamson

^ I'll go for Defense of a Fool (or The Defence of a Madman). Its quite a trip!

I should re-read Hamsun.

I can't believe how few of these I've read. Oh well, always good to have a reading list, I guess.

Read these:

The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde - Very different from his plays, on the whole, moralistic in a way, but very modern in the compassion in its morality, the preface is all-time of course.

The Sign Of The Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Worst of the Sherlock novels, the plot may have been original at the time but is no more than a cliche now, also it is a shockingly racist novel.

La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola - Translated as 'The Beast In Man' - Zola's psychological thriller, a film noir story about a homicidal train driver, gripping!

Hunger by Knut Hamson - Very modern in its rich detail of a troubled existence, like a more kitchen sink version of Kafka's The Castle or a less journalistic Down and Out In Paris & London. Excellent despite its author's later actions.

The Diary Of A Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith - Brilliantly drawn comic novel, still immense fun to read, I think of it as a 19th Century Adrian Mole.

New Grub Street by George Gissing - Tedious grimness without point or redemption, "a cheap holiday in other people's misery"

Tess Of The D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy - Think this still stands up, just about. A really very angry book, and an indictment of all the male characters, and by implication the patriarchy, though Hardy would certainly never put it like that.

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen - Basically an H P Lovecraft novella, published the year he was born. He said “No one could begin to describe the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds… …the sensitive reader reaches the end with an appreciative shudder.”

Thanks! I've read the first two and Tess. Tried New Grub Street but couldn't get into it, will try again.

Don't bother with New Grub Street, by "read these" I mean "I have read these" (so in this case you don't have to)

Would reccommend The Picture Of Dorian Grey, La Bête Humaine, Hunger, The Diary Of A Nobody and The Great God Pan. Also probably Tess Of The D'Urbevilles.

Hamusn is terrific: terse and hallucinatory in a modern ay.

Tess is all-time.

Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks!

The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde - Very different from his plays, on the whole, moralistic in a way, but very modern in the compassion in its morality, the preface is all-time of course.

Always felt a bit of a disconnect between Wilde's aestheticist positions and his fiction, which tends to have pretty clear morals, Picture of Dorian Grey very much included.

(voted for it, btw)

Grub Street was ok. it was grim, yes.

read 4 or 5 of these - the late 19th really is a hole in my reading - but voted for another grim book, one that made me angry.

This is quite tough. Somewhere between Tess, Hunger, Dorian Grey, Great God Pan and Diary of Nobody. It might be the latter, actually. I was reading it when my son was born and bought it for the midwife to say thank you (maybe not the *best* title, in retrospect).

Oh, and Trillby! What a strange novel.

Just realised there was no Jekyll and Hyde on the previous list.

I tend to exclude novellas, and Jekyll & Hyde is a short one at that.

Bruges-la-Morte.

Aye, fair enough. And, enduring concept aside, I'm not even sure J&H is actually any good.

xp

Diary of a nobody is such a beautiful picture of mundane existence. It’s so timeless, which makes the humour work so well.

Aye, fair enough. And, enduring concept aside, I'm not even sure J&H is actually any good.

I read it and remember next to nothing. The collection I was reading also had "The Merry Men" in it and I found that far more memorable, which is bizarre since J&H is about a man who makes the potion that turns him into a big monster and "The Merry Men" is about...waves hitting rocks.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

New Grub Street is great, you people are nuts.

Voted for Zola, sans regret.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1890's, pt.2 (1895-1899)