Dedicated to classics and hits.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Pre 18th century Adds to the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die 2008 edition

    The overriding theme of the original edition of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list is the domination of the west, and specifically, the English/English language tradition of the novel as articulated by critics of the mid 20th century- themselves English speakers and academics.  Ironically, looking at the list of books dropped by the pre 18th century selections from the second edition of 2008, we see a net loss in the 18th and 19th century of  eight titles to the pre 18th century period.   Within the books dropped women are dramatically over-represented,  with Maria Edgeworth getting two of her three books dropped from the first revision and Jane Austen and Fanny Burney each losing a minor title. 

 The other drops from the 18th/19th century are all English, and all authors with multiple titles on the original list:  Austen, Fielding, Smollett, Defoe and Swift all have other titles left over. 

  The adds- all from before the 18th century- demonstrate the increased literature on non-Western novels written prior to the 18th century "birth" of the English novel.  Only one book is in English, with places like China entering the list for the fist time.  The exclusion of the Chinese tradition from the first edition of the 1001 Books list is one of the signal failures of the original project.   The other major novel component to the 2008 edition of the 1001 Books list is the Spanish romance, which likewise has seen a revival of interest from English language academics seeking to redress omissions of scholarship from the past century. 


Adds:

Pre 18th century

269. The Adventurous Simplicissimus – Hans von Grimmelshausen
270. The Conquest of New Spain – Bernal Diaz del Castillo
271. The Travels of Persiles and Sigismunda – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
272. Thomas of Reading – Thomas Deloney
273. Monkey: Journey to the West – Wu Cheng’en
274. The Lusiad – Luis Vaz de Camoes
275. The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes – Anonymous
276. Amadis of Gaul – Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo
277. La Celestina – Fernando de Rojas
278. Tirant lo Blanc – Joanot Martorell
279. The Water Margin – Shi Nai’an
280. Romance of the Three Kingdoms – Luo Guanzhong
281. The Tale of Genji Murasaki – Shikibu
282. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter – Unknown 

Drops:
18th/19th century

269. Persuasion – Jane Austen
270. Ormond – Maria Edgeworth
271. The Absentee – Maria Edgeworth
272. Cecilia – Fanny Burney
273. Amelia – Henry Fielding
274. Roderick Random – Tobias George Smollett
275. Roxana – Daniel Defoe
276. A Tale of a Tub – Jonathan Swift

Pre 18th century
277. The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
278. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit – John Lyly
279. Aithiopika – Heliodorus
280. Chaireas and Kallirhoe – Chariton
281. Metamorphoses – Ovid
282. Aesop’s Fables – Aesopus



18th Century Literature 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (2006)

Hyperion – Friedrich Hölderlin (11/1/09)
The Nun – Denis Diderot (4/28/12)
Camilla – Fanny Burney (1/17/12)
The Monk – M.G. Lewis (3/13/10)
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (4/17/12)
The Mysteries of Udolpho – Ann Radcliffe (04/24/12)
The Interesting Narrative – Olaudah Equiano (3/05/12)
The Adventures of Caleb Williams – William Godwin (4/21/12)
Justine – Marquis de Sade (5/1/12)
Vathek – William Beckford (1/21/10)
The 120 Days of Sodom – Marquis de Sade (2/16/10)
Cecilia – Fanny Burney (4/22/10) (DROP 2008)
The Confessions – Jean-Jacques Rousseau (5/7/12)
Dangerous Liaisons – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (5/21/12)
Reveries of a Solitary Walker – Jean-Jacques Rousseau (5/8/12)
Evelina – Fanny Burney (3/28/10)
The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (11/1/08).
Humphrey Clinker – Tobias George Smollett (1/30/12)
The Man of Feeling – Henry Mackenzie (4/12/12)
A Sentimental Journey – Laurence Sterne (4/23/11)
Tristram Shandy – Laurence Sterne (10/19/08)
The Vicar of Wakefield – Oliver Goldsmith (9/25/08)
The Castle of Otranto – Horace Walpole (04/26/12)
Émile; or, On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau (4/14/12)
Rameau’s Nephew – Denis Diderot (4/13/12)
Julie; or, the New Eloise – Jean-Jacques Rousseau (*)
Rasselas – Samuel Johnson (3/30/12)
Candide – Voltaire (3/23/12)
The Female Quixote – Charlotte Lennox (5/10/10)
Amelia – Henry Fielding (4/20/12) (DROP 2008)
Peregrine Pickle – Tobias George Smollett (4/19/12)
Fanny Hill – John Cleland (05/10/12)
Tom Jones – Henry Fielding (9/24/08)
Roderick Random – Tobias George Smollett (10/05/08)  (DROP 2008)
Clarissa – Samuel Richardson (4/30/12)
Pamela – Samuel Richardson (10/12/08)
Jacques the Fatalist – Denis Diderot (05/4/12)
Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus – J. Arbuthnot, J. Gay, T. Parnell, A. Pope, J. Swift (3/21/12)
Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding (2/8/08)
A Modest Proposal – Jonathan Swift (3/26/12) (DROP 2008)
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift (04/25/12)
Roxana – Daniel Defoe (4/18/12) (DROP 2008)
Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe (2/10/08)
Love in Excess – Eliza Haywood (11/1/08)
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe (2/11/08)
A Tale of a Tub – Jonathan Swift (2/12/08) (DROP 2008) 

Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) by John Lyly


Book Review
Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578)
 by John Lyly

   Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit is a strong contender, along with several other pre-18th century selections from the original 1001 Books list for "least pleasant read."   From what I'm able to gather- Euphues is an example of  humorous prose writing that was a la mode in the 16th century.  Nearly every sentence is a quote from some earlier, almost entirely non English, source.  Erasmus is a favorite- he wrote in latin, but Lyly also draws directly from what was known of Roman and Greek literature after the Renaissance.

  The copy I read had footnotes for nearly every sentence, sometimes multiple footnotes from a single sentence.   There is some kind of plot, based around Euphues and his life and times, with an emphasis on correspondence. Later chapters consist of letters directly modeled on the letters of the stoics of the late Roman Empire.

  It is all quite tedious, and no surprise it was dropped from the first revision, replaced by Tirant lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell from 1490.  Tirant lo Blanc is an example of chivalric romance, which is a category which has been excluded from the "history of the novel" narrative promulgated by English language academics in the 20th century.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Aethiopica (200-400 AD) by Heliodorus


Book Review
Aethiopica (200-400 AD)
by Heliodorus
Aethiopica (Wikipedia)

   Like many disciplines in the humanities, literature has gone through decades of "revisionism" led by scholars of the "isms," socialism, feminism, post-modernism.  Inevitably, this process would grow to include the narrative of the creation of the novel itself, since academic categorizing is a favorite target of all groups seeking to amend the status quo. The traditional explanation for the "creation" of the novel is that it happened in the 18th century, in England, and that it was preceded by several influencing traditions, notably the continental tradition of the "Romance," and the popular press of 16th and 17th century England.   The revisionist approach moves the horizon back thousands of years and across continents, making the case that the novel is a global phenomenon that includes important contributions from the near east and an entirely separate tradition in East Asia. 

  To me, this argument misses the point of the underlying argument locating the creation of the novel in 18th century England because, in my mind, it is a combination of writer and audience, and the AUDIENCE for novels could not exist in any serious way before the creation of the printing press and the impact that invention had on the availability and popularity of printed literature.  It's possible to read a book like Aethiopica and imagine an ancient audience, but when it comes to, how exactly, the books were created and disseminated it gets a little dodgy.  What was the literacy rate in a pre-printing press society, and how were books made to reach a mass audience?  Even a cursory  consideration of these factors would seem to indicate against the idea that the novel "existed" in Ancient Rome.

  Like almost all examples of ancient novel-like prose fiction, the story of Aethiopica involves a variation on the boy meets girl, girls is kidnapped by bandits or pirates, boy finds girl.   The expansion of Aethiopica into the political power politics of the ancient near east is noteworthy, especially since Greeks themselves feature onl peripherally, with the major contest being between rogue Egyptian bandits, an Ethiopian polity and the Persian Empire.    Written firmly in the Roman era, Aethiopica harkens back to time before Rome, and in that sens it is a historical novel.

Blog Archive