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/lit/ - Literature

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11903663 No.11903663 [Reply] [Original]

Can anybody recommend me any good novels set in the countryside or in small towns, preferably from Germany or France?

>> No.11903669

>>11903663
The Red and the Black by Stendhal (French).

>> No.11903672

Grand Meaulnes

>> No.11903696

>>11903663
"The Last Juror" by John Grisham. "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. Both are set in small towns in the southern united states, both have murder trials as major plot points.

>> No.11903708

>>11903663
Again France: "A Sport and a Pastime" by James Salter is a hyper-intense erotic novel set all over the French countryside. Also he's an invite-only master prose stylist, so you will get lots of lit. cred by reading him (not /lit/ cred, though, obviously).

>> No.11903773

>>11903663
Anna Karenina, at least partially

>> No.11903778

>>11903669
OP has no idea how good an answer this is

>> No.11903788

>>11903663
The Way of a Serpent by Lindgren

>> No.11903812

>>11903663
La Terre (The Earth) which I even think among Zola's best (w/ Germinal, Nana).

>> No.11903943

>>11903663
Anything by Herman Hesse.

>> No.11904380

>>11903778
I think im gonna start reading this. What am I in for?

>> No.11904388

>>11903663
die leute von seldwyla by Gottfried Keller

>> No.11904400

>>11903663
Growth of the Soil

>> No.11904716

>>11904400
Came to post this

>> No.11904827

>>11903773
This is what I thought of first

>> No.11905382

probably some giono

>> No.11905776

in search of lost time

>> No.11905781

The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

>> No.11905809

>>11903663
The Sorrows of Young Werther
"Bouvard and Pecuchet" and most of "Madame Bovary" by Flaubert
"Fathers and Sons", "Sportsman's Sketches" and "On the Eve" by Turgenev (in fact most of his novels; he's very underrated on /lit/ because he isn't Dostoevsky)
"O Pioneers!" and "My Antonia" by Willa Cather (US)
Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Iceland)
"Pan" and "Mysteries" by Hamsun (Norway)
All of Thomas Hardy's novels, though especially "Return of the Native" and "Tess of the D'urbervilles"
"The Rainbow" by D. H. Lawrence
"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson (US)

if you want poetry i would suggest Thomas Hardy (again) R. S. Thomas, John Clare etc.

>> No.11905942

>>11903663
Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring
Sometimes sold together as The Water from the Hills

>> No.11905993

Diary of a Country Priest

>> No.11906001

>>11903672
Great book!

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is an essential country book.

>> No.11906073
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11906073

>>11903663
Die Judenbuche (The Jew's Beech) by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff

>> No.11906116

>>11906073
I'm not OP but am interested, could you tell a bit more ? Like, how good is it ? What can it be compared to - maybe Balzac ? There's someone on Goodreads that says the author is a female Goethe.

>> No.11906160
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11906160

Adam Bede
The Mill on the Floss
Silas Marner
Middlemarch
And the Barsetshire series by Trollope (who is never discussed here)

>> No.11906332

>>11906116
Well, female Goethe might be a bit of an exaggeration, although I can see why they're compared (her poetry is actually top tier). Haven't read Balzac yet, so can't comment on that.
It's a very nice novella taking place in a small westphalian village during mid-18th century. Partly a coming of age story, partly a commentary on social relations/village life of the time and also partly a murder mystery. Would def recommend.

>> No.11906571

Kostolyani - Skylark.

>> No.11906663

>>11906332
thanks, I'll probably give it a try. I had never heard her name before.

btw Effi Briest could be another rec for OP (it's great).

>> No.11907029

>>11903663
Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland

>> No.11907037
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11907037

>>11903663
Not France or Germany but this is a masterpiece

>> No.11907039

>>11903663
The last part of death on credit

>> No.11907584

>>11903812
This is very good XIXe naturalism but with lots of sexuality, a drunk donkey scene and even a flatulist character called Jesus Christ.

>> No.11908168

bump

>> No.11909799

Das Gemeindekind by Ebner-Eschenbach

>> No.11909806

Unironically A Time for Everything.

>> No.11909814

The Magic Mountain

>> No.11910013

Higurashi.

>> No.11910085

Malone by Beckett

>> No.11910449

>>11907584
Let's not forget goose girl..
but all this aside it's custom made for what OP claims to want.

>> No.11910568

a balcony in the forest

on the marble cliffs

>> No.11910703

>>11905809
Seconding The Rainbow.