Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1913

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lol I have an idea of how this one's going to go...

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust 8
Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier 4
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather 3
Sons And Lovers by D.H. Lawrence 1
The Patchwork Girl Of Oz by L. Frank Baum 1
V.V.'s Eyes by Henry Sydnor Harrison 1
Petersburg by Andrei Bely 1
The Custom Of The Country by Edith Wharton 1
Dingo by Octave Mirbeau 0
Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hémon 0
The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomerey 0
The Witness For The Defense by A.E.W. Mason 0
The Way Of Ambition by Robert Hitchens 0
The Village In The Jungle by Leonard Woolf 0
Undergrowth by Francis % Eric Brett Young 0
Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley 0
Zaynab by Mohammed Hussein Heikal 0
The Sacred Hill by Maurice Barrès 0
The Secret Of The Night by Gaston Leroux 0
The Red Mirage by Ida Alexa Ross Wylie 0
The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne 0
When Eve Was Created by Rosauro Almario 0
Tears Of A Woman by Mamerto A. Hilario 0
Gospodin Franjo by Fran Maselj - Podlimbarski 0
The Brave Adventures Of Lapitch by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić 0
The Bright Star At Panghulo by Patricio Mariano 0
Der Tunnel by Bernhard Kellerman 0
Peter Voss, Thief Of Millions by Ewald Gerhard Seeliger 0
The Rocks Of Valpré by Ethel M. Dell 0
The Amateur Gentleman by Jefffey Farnol 0
Virginia by Ellen Glasgow 0
John Barleycorn by Jack London 0
Seven Keys To Baldpate by Earl Der Biggers 0
The Return Of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs 0
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter 0
The Inside Of The Cup by Winston Churchill (not that one) 0
The Gods Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs 0
Domnei: A Comedy Of Woman Worship by James Branch Cabell 0
Chance by Joseph Conrad 0
Child Of Storm by H. Rider Haggard 0
The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle 0
The Passionate Friends by H.G. Wells 0
Old Friends And New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel To The Novels Of Jane Austen by Sybil G. Brinton 0
The Mystery Of Dr.Fu Manchu by Rohmer Saxon 0
The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes 0
The Little Nugget by P.G. Wodehouse 0
The Laughing Cavalier by Baroness Orczy 0
The Fourth Plague by Edgar Wallace 0
The End Of Her Honeymoon by Marie Belloc Lowndes 0
The Case Of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart 0


Daniel_Rf, Monday, 12 October 2020 14:14 (four years ago)

A no-brainer, yeah (with apologies to Alain-Fournier).

I was not expecting to see Maria Chapdelaine btw, so props for that.

pomenitul, Monday, 12 October 2020 14:19 (four years ago)

three of those in my TODO pile, zero in my read pile.

koogs, Monday, 12 October 2020 14:37 (four years ago)

I could vote for my favourite novel ever, but Le Grand Meaulnes is stunning also. I've not yet read Cather.

jmm, Monday, 12 October 2020 14:46 (four years ago)

Only one winner.

Read Petersburg also. Remember it being ok without agreeing with the lavish praise from the likes of Nabokov.

xyzzzz__, Monday, 12 October 2020 14:53 (four years ago)

"Anticipates Joyce" made me raise an eyebrow as I was reading the wiki entry for that one.

Daniel_Rf, Monday, 12 October 2020 14:59 (four years ago)

Yeah lol, a lot of wild discourse on that one from émigré Russians. Real desire of Russians to join the modernist fun but a lot of that comes in from the poets (who also wrote wild prose if not novels), and maybe Platonov.

xyzzzz__, Monday, 12 October 2020 15:07 (four years ago)

Austen fanfic isn't my thing, but it's interesting to learn that someone was doing it in obscurity this early.

Very little is known about Sybil Grace Brinton. She was born in 1874 at Stourport-on-Severn in Worcestershire and was subject to ill health throughout her life. She married in 1908 and died in 1928. What she termed her "little attempt at picturing the after-adventures of some of Jane Austen's characters"[3] was her only book.[4] Only a few editions were published, and it remained relatively unknown until it was reprinted in 1998, after it had passed into the public domain.[5]

jmm, Monday, 12 October 2020 15:07 (four years ago)

O Pioneers! is magnificent.

Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Monday, 12 October 2020 20:22 (four years ago)

I've read four of these, by Jack London, Wodehouse, Cather, and D.H. Lawrence. I have not read Swann's Way. I voted for O Pioneers!

the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, 12 October 2020 20:48 (four years ago)

Oh, I've also read the Wharton, so make that five of them.

the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, 12 October 2020 20:49 (four years ago)

Sorry Proust, but I've started this book umpteen times, recognized its quality, but didn't find myself moved to keep reading. The Custom of the Country, on the other hand, is arguably the Great American Novel. It's kind of mean, it's kind of merciless, it's absolutely true to its material and it's all-time.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 12 October 2020 21:24 (four years ago)

The Custom of the Country is a great novel, but it concerns the quiddities and agonies of the wealthy, who are scarcely representative enough of the nation to be the sole subjects of the Great American Novel. And it's up against a truly magnificent opponent in O Pioneers!.

the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, 12 October 2020 21:35 (four years ago)

OK that is a fair point, though not enough to change my vote. (And I really like Pioneers too.)

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 12 October 2020 21:38 (four years ago)

have only read swann's way (the only proust i've read so far, sadly) and patchwork girl of oz. so i guess i'm going with ol' swann.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 12 October 2020 22:56 (four years ago)

I will try Proust one day honest. But I've read Le Grand Meaulnes at least three times.

neith moon (ledge), Tuesday, 13 October 2020 07:39 (four years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 00:01 (four years ago)

I've read Proust and Lawrence. For me, the most memorable moment in Sons and Lovers is a description of the father's calm anticipatory morning routine before he goes down in the mines - partly because I have the received idea of mining as one of the most horrible ways to earn a living, and partly because I associate mornings before work with anxiety, pickaxe or no. It was sort of revelatory to see this man looking forward to his shift in the pits with his coworkers.

Proust is probably a better writer in total, though.

Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 00:40 (four years ago)

Really want to read some more Lawrence. Really liked a lot of the poetry, and a couple of short story collections.

xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 09:06 (four years ago)

I reckon his short stories and novellas are his best work, really phenomenal at times, and no space for the Do
You Seeisms of his big novels.

Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 11:03 (four years ago)

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

System, Thursday, 15 October 2020 00:01 (four years ago)

I've never finished The Custom Of The Country but have tried a few times. Maybe the comic tone of it is harder to tune in to. Wharton is amazing though and The House of Mirth may be my favourite novel.

Gerneten-flüken cake (jed_), Thursday, 15 October 2020 00:04 (four years ago)

Allons enfants de la Patrie!

jmm, Thursday, 15 October 2020 17:23 (four years ago)

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1914

Daniel_Rf, Monday, 19 October 2020 12:31 (four years ago)

the aforementioned 3 things on my todo list all came within the top 4... maybe i should add o pioneers as well...

koogs, Monday, 19 October 2020 12:57 (four years ago)


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