I need your help!
I've been asked to write a book blog for a retailer that is based here in Minnesota.
I'd like to offer suggestions for 'classic' books, but my list is fairly limited to Northern European and North-American literature.
Any multi-cultural suggestions you may have would be appreciated!
Rani
7 comments:
I'm so intrigued! What an exciting project. What are your perimeters? Are you supposed to focus on midwestern literature?
You might have read some of my endless bragging about finishing my Master's thesis last year. I used both modern and semi-classical literature to focus on food in literature. I used My Antonia and Giants in the Earth, mainly because I loved them but also because they both do have significant "food" episodes.
Eeek! I am no help at all with this!
To put my (Icelandic) two cents in: What about Halldór Laxness Independent People ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_People )?
Robertson Davies Deptford trilogy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deptford_Trilogy) is wonderful, and so are almost all of his books.
Sigrid Undsets Kristin Lavransdatter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Lavransdatter)
Selma Lagerlöfs The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Adventures_of_Nils)
Tove Janssons Moominland in Midwinter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moominland_Midwinter) which is just as much or even more for adults than kids in my opinion.
Oh, jeeez...I'm not sure what defines a classic....and I have some favorites, but don't know if they qualify as classics or not.
One of my all time favorite books is 'The three Musketeers'.
Nana
Sorry I can't help you out here, but what a way cool project!!
Have fun with it!
Hello,
Ravelry led me to your blog (loved the Mummenschanz.com - thanks! Hope to have a chance to see them for real one day...), and then I saw this post. As a Norwegian, I thought maybe I could offer some suggestions from the other side of the Atlantic:
Thinking of memoirs: British (of Norwegian ancestry...) Roald Dahl's "Boy - Tales of a Childhood" is an excellent read - very, very amusing, too.
German Thomas Mann is decidedly among the authors of European classics - I have yet to read him myself, I must admit, but his grand epic "Buddenbrooks" (which is also the name of the family depicted in the novel) and the novel "Magic Mountain" are central works. Thomas Mann received the Nobel Prize of Literature, by the way.
Danish author Martin Andersen Nexø (OR Nexo, as your computer probably won't accept Scandinavian vowels) wrote some wonderful epics. There's the "Pelle the Conqueror" volumes - apparently available at Amazon, I just checked - but my favourite is the novel about the girl "Ditte". Two volumes - I'm not sure which is the first of the English translations I saw at the Amazon site.
Yugoslavian autor Ivo Andric also won the Nobel Prize of Literature - his most renowned novel, "The Bridge on the Drina", is on my must-read list, by the way...
How about a great Nigerian book? Nobel Prize of Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka's "Aké - the Years of Childhood" is his wonderful memoirs of a childhood in a village in Nigeria.
Norwegian author Knut Hamsum could also be mentioned - he is definitely among the European classics. "Victoria" is one of Norwegian literature's great love stories. "Wayfarers" is a picaresque about two young men travelling the coast of Norway. "Mysteries" is hailed at the amazon.co.uk site by several readers - I think I'll pick it up myself, actually! Did I mention Knut Hamsun also won the Nobel Prize of Literature?
Since there absolutely ought to be more female authors represented here, I salute the suggestion of Norwegian Sigrid Undset made by another blogger. Yes, DO read "Kristin Lavransdatter" - it is brilliant!!!
Hope you find something both you and your readers will enjoy - good luck and all the best!
Anne (a.k.a. Blue beginnings at Ravelry)
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