Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1907

I have read two: The Man Who Was Thursday, which I found hectoring and obnoxious, and The Longest Journey, which used to be my fav Forster, by virtue of being my first and identifying with the saddo protagonist; I read/re-read all of Forster last year and it didn't quite hold up, but still gets my sentimental vote.

Now let's talk about this "Secret Of The League" book:

The Secret of the League is a 1907 dystopian novel by Ernest Bramah, which describes the overthrow of a democratically elected British Labour Party Government through a carefully prepared plot by members of the upper classes, and depicts such an overthrow as being a positive and desirable outcome.

George Orwell credited the book with having given a considerably accurate prediction of the rise of Fascism, and also with reflecting "the mentality of the middle classes" and the brutal measures which members of these classes might condone or actively support, should they feel threatened with a revolution -"even such a decent and kindly writer as Ernest Bramah", in Orwell's words.[1]

Going with Les onze mille verges, which is just ridiculously fun.

Finally able to vote for Apollinaire! 'Les onze milles v(i)erges' is unchaste and very funny.

lol xp's vmic

*fist bump*

The Secret Agent > The Man Who Was Thursday in the battle of terrorist bombing novels

The Leroux novel is an early locked-room mystery that was much admired by later exponents of the form; it's still fun if you enjoy genre fiction of this era.

^ Watched a movie adaptation of that with my wife's (French) family over x-mas, was fun.

Yeah, that was an entertaining film adaptation. The 'totes-not-Ravel' soundtrack was amusing as well.

It'd have to be the Machen over Chesterton. These lists are reminding me I should read more Conrad. And some Forster.

Enchanted Castle all the way. E. Nesbit's masterpiece. She has such incredible control over her atmosphere: it's an extraordinary blend of humor, prosaic realism, flashes of transcendent beauty, and this deepening sense of the uncanny that keeps the story walking the border between fantasy and horror.

Now let's talk about this "Secret Of The League" book:

The Secret of the League is a 1907 dystopian novel by Ernest Bramah, which describes the overthrow of a democratically elected British Labour Party Government through a carefully prepared plot by members of the upper classes, and depicts such an overthrow as being a positive and desirable outcome.

i want to read this now -- you sold me.

i've only read ozma of oz and the man who was thursday. i kind of like chesterton's writing but something about this book didn't sit right with me. i assume his worldview and mine are fairly incompatible but i guess i did enjoy the book well enough right up until the denouement. so i guess i'm going with ozma, which was my favorite of the oz books back in the day (also the source of most of the plot of return to oz).

Leroux's Yellow Room is a great mystery but boy is the prose in the English translation bad.

Here's the start of a paragraph from a random page: "The boy-faced reporter speedily made himself many friends, for he was serviceable and gifted with a good humour that enchanted the most severe-tempered and disarmed the most zealous of his companions."

The original flows a bit better but its sequence of tenses is clumsy, to say the least:

Tout de suite, le rédacteur imberbe se fit beaucoup d'amis, car il était serviable et doué d'une bonne humeur qui enchantait les plus grognons, et désarma les plus jaloux.

xpost: can't help but read that paragraph in mr burns's voice

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I feel guilty about not knowing any of these

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

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1908