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Chargement... How to be Well Read: A guide to 500 great novels and a handful of literary curiositiespar John Sutherland
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As the annual flood of published novels grows ever greater, it's a hard a job to keep up, let alone sort the wheat from the chaff. Fortunately, literary sleuth and academic John Sutherland is on hand to do precisely that. In the course of over 500 wittily informative pieces he gives us his own very personal take on the most rewarding, most remarkable and, on occasion, most shamelessly enjoyable works of fiction ever written - the perfect reading list for the would-be literary expert. His taste is impressively eclectic. An appreciation of Apuleius's The Golden Ass - arguably the first-ever novel - is followed by a consideration of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger. The Handmaid's Taleis followed by Hangover Square, Jane Eyre by Jaws.There are imposing Victorian novels, entertaining contemporary thrillers and everything in between, from dystopian works to romance.The flavour of each is brilliantly evoked and its relative merits or demerits assessed. At the same time, John Sutherland shows how the work fits into a broader context - whether that of the author's life or of other books from the same genre or period. And he offers endless snippets of intriguing information- did you know, for example, that the Nazis banned Bambior that William Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying on an upturned wheelbarrow; that Voltaire completed Candide in three days, or that Anna Sewell was paid e20 for Black Beauty?Encyclopedic and entertaining by turns, this is a wonderful dip-in book, whose opinions will inform and on occasion, no doubt, infuriate. It is also effectively a history of the novel in 500 or so bite-sized pieces. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)809.3Literature By Topic History, description and criticism of more than two literatures FictionClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Most of the books included were 20th/21st century, but Sutherland says he didn't include books that he's considered in his other books (i.e. Victorian), and that he tried to include a variety of genres. There were some books I would consider "contemporary classics" and there were some books/authors I haven't heard about that look interesting. As long as you are aware that this book mostly includes popular fiction, it's worth a look. I mostly skimmed it.
2 1/2 stars
ETA--I went back and looked at the list of books I gleaned from this book, and see that it is quite varied and contains a lot of what look to be, or are known to be, very good books. So maybe I am being too dismissive in saying that it "mostly" includes "popular" fiction. I think I was just taken aback by some choices that I found to be unexpected from someone considered to be a literary scholar. I'm not "Not Recommending" this book. ( )