/lit/ - Literature

Ore no Diary.

>>23485269
War and Peace

My Ántonia

>>23485269
The Lord of the Rings.

>>23485269
I think it’s difficult to pick THE greatest novel ever. Some criteria are subjective, and some aren’t. There are lots of right answers, like this one >>23485317, but also lots of wrong answers, like this one >>23486827

Anna Karenina

>>23486832
Your answer is wrong, unironically.

>>23485269
Anyways, the correct answer is The Brothers Karamazov

Resurrection by Tolstoy

>>23486843
If you are alluding to Dostoevsky’s worst novels, then, indeed, I dislike intensely The Brothers Karamazov and the ghastly Crime and Punishment rigamarole. No, I do not object to soul-searching and self-revelation, but in those books the soul, and the sins, and the sentimentality, and the journalese, hardly warrant the tedious and muddled search. Dostoyevsky’s lack of taste, his monotonous dealings with persons suffering with pre-Freudian complexes, the way he has of wallowing in the tragic misadventures of human dignity – all this is difficult to admire. I do not like this trick his characters have of ”sinning their way to Jesus” or, as a Russian author, Ivan Bunin, put it more bluntly, ”spilling Jesus all over the place." Crime and Punishment’s plot did not seem as incredibly banal in 1866 when the book was written as it does now when noble prostitutes are apt to be received a little cynically by experienced readers. Dostoyevsky never really got over the influence which the European mystery novel and the sentimental novel made upon him. The sentimental influence implied that kind of conflict he liked—placing virtuous people in pathetic situations and then extracting from these situations the last ounce of pathos. Non-Russian readers do not realize two things: that not all Russians love Dostoevsky as much as Americans do, and that most of those Russians who do, venerate him as a mystic and not as an artist. He was a prophet, a claptrap journalist and a slapdash comedian. I admit that some of his scenes, some of his tremendous farcical rows are extraordinarily amusing. But his sensitive murderers and soulful prostitutes are not to be endured for one moment—by this reader anyway. Dostoyevsky seems to have been chosen by the destiny of Russian letters to become Russia’s greatest playwright, but he took the wrong turning and wrote novels.

>>23485269
Les miserables and War and Peace were pretty incredible.
>>23486833
Considering reading this

>>23485269
idk about greatest because I've read less than 100 (many of them non-classics) but this year I've read Balzac's Lost Illusions, Hugo's Les Miserables, and Nerval's Sylvie (or is that a novella?) and they were all fantastic.

>>23487132
>>23487177
I actually like Les Mis but that’s not even close. Far too many essays and random tangents to truly be the best. Swann’s way or even simply Swann in love should be considered the greatest novel of all time.

>>23487212
The essays and random tangents are the best part and elevate it. And like I've said, I didn't comment about it being the greatest, just that I've read it recently and it was fantastic.

>>23487215
Well the thread topic is about greatest of all time so pardon me for assuming your post was in some way relevant to the OP’s discussion.

>>23487219
The very idea of a 'greatest of all time' or generally ranking works the way people on the internet usually do seems juvenile and naïve, and I'm obviously not the only one ITT who thinks that, so I'd rather see the discussion simply move to what novels are great and why.

>>23485269
yes, this is how you can be different from the musical people

>>23485269
idk. catch 22 was bussing tho fr.

In terms of prose ulysses
in terms of story maybe love in the type of cholera
brothers Karamazov in terms of like the complexity of characters

>>23485269
Lolita. Greatest prose, plays with the boundaries and expectations of the novel without making that the focus.

>>23485269
you posted it
There are few things which are as emblematic of a specific feeling to me than Yossarian's pathetic attempts to comfort others in times of despair, and the dread that he feels in his inability to help. Also had me laughing quite a fair deal.

>>23485269
Don Quixote or Brothers Karamozov

>>23485269
Probably one of these. Borges works technically arent a novel but hes incomparable and essentially perfected the short story form. It could be War and Peace instead but I find it mildly imperfect in comparison to Anna Karenina

>>23485269
The one you posted is the best English language book of the 20th c. imo. But all time? Gotta be Moby Dick.

The Count of Monte Cristo, although I am perfectly capable of recognising that its more mudane themes and purposes cannot compete with, say, the all-around brilliance of FD's The Brothers Karamazov, Tolstoy's War and Peace and VH's Les Miserables.

Shit, I can recall as if it had happened yesterday when I read for the first time The Count of Monte Cristo and ED meets Mercedes for the first time after having been in prison. I literally gasped for it as I read the words and realised the moment was about to come across my eyes.

>>23489391
I was so excited I had to struggle to keep me reading from not jumping lines to somewhere near the "moment".

>>23489391
Shit, I forgot one book which I read in almost one sitting: Quo Vadis.

>>23487123
It’s underrated

I love GR

If you like c22 you'll probably like GR

>>23489403
If you read it in almost one sitting it can't be that good

>>23485269
Colonel Carthcart wasn't having sex with anybody unless there was something in it for him.