"It was the best of times, it was the "blurst" of times!? You stupid monkey!!"
A few world-famous and timeless books everyone should know, add to the list in the comments:
A Tale of Two Cities:
- This has the famous opening line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
- takes place during the French Revolution
- written by Charles Dickens in 1859
The Picture of Dorian Gray:
- often mistakingly called The Portrait of Dorian Gray
- written by Oscar Wilde (his only published novel)
- Dorian wishes his own self-portrait ages instead of him, it comes true but the portrait ages and becomes more ugly as Dorian spends his longevity ruining other people's lives to fulfill his own personal desires.
1984:
- releasted in 1949 by George Orwell
- basically brought government over-control to people's minds. Many of the books ideas are all a reality today.
- takes place in fictional state of Oceania (and more directly in London)
- if you've seen (or read) V for Vendetta, you pretty much get the idea, they're similar in many ways
Moby Dick:
- "Call me Ishmael" is famous opening line by the books narrator
- The ship is called the Pequod
- Muscle-bound, tattooed harpooner is named Queequeg
- Ship's captain is the famous Captain Ahab, obsessed with taking revenge on a white whale that sunk his boat and bit off his leg.
War and Peace:
- by Leo Tolstoy in 1865-1869
- historical novel that chronicles the tumultuous events in Russia during the Napoleonic war in the early nineteenth century.
- famous for being an un-novelly novel, part historical, part fictional
- was a realistic commentary on how life in general was changing (kind of like our current world financial meltdown)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Of Mice and Men:
ReplyDelete- by John Steinbeck
- it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California
- Lennie is "slow" and ends up accidentally killing a girl so George kills Lennie before everyone else can
Black Beauty
- by Anna Sewell and written in first person told by a horse
- horse learns a lot of lessons about human behaviour as it's passes from one owner to the next.
Pride and Prejudice:
- Jane Austin mother fuckers
- five daughters but Elizabeth and Jane are the most important
- Comedy plot line, misunderstandings, love stories, they all marry in the end - hooray!
The Catcher in the Rye
- by JD Salinger
- follows a loner named Holden who gets kicked out of school and goes on a journey of self discovery
- It has been frequently challenged in the United States for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst.
Animal Farm:
- George Orwell
- follows animals in a farm who are fed up with the way they are treated by the humans.
-pigs lead a revolution and become the rulers of the farm
- the pigs abuse their power, get corrupted and take on all the qualities that the animals hated about the humans
Catch-22:
- by Joseph Heller
- follows soldiers in WWII that fly planes over enemy lines
- their job is suicidal but they must do it enough times to collect enough points to go home unless they can prove their crazy and get dismissed but in order to do their job they have to be crazy - so crazy means you can do your job... and so on
- this is where the phrase comes from, ie. "a no-win situation" or "a double bind" of any type
oh oh! I forgot!
ReplyDeleteLord Of The Flies:
- by William Golding
- crash on a deserted island and only the kids survive
- morals and ethics are fucked
- they kill piggy!
Black Beauty is from the point of view of the horse?! I didn't know that, that's fucked up. Not as fucked up as pigs throwing a coup, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI love how Lord of the Flies was a suggestion shortly after we posted this.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still didn't know what to do.
ReplyDelete