[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 977 KB, 1500x2359, 91EWBiFTnGL.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12532145 No.12532145 [Reply] [Original]

Okay I finally fucking read Tartt's Secret History. I enjoyed it a lot. Thank you /lit/.

The first half was comfy as fuck. I wanted to major in classics when I was a teen, and all the references to Greek grammar and literature give me a warm nostalgic feeling.
I want to read something else with the academic and cozy feel of the first 5 chapters. Any recommendations? Already read Forster's Longest Journey. Should I put Brideshead Revisited on my list? Should I read more Tartt?

However, I feel like the second half was mostly dead weight with a couple highlights towards the end. The second half feels like the author is writing fanfiction for her own characters almost. The book should have ended after the murder imo.

>> No.12532231

>>12532145
That’s true
saving thread in case there’s book recommended
I’ll check out 2 you mentioned

>> No.12532244

>>12532145

Just got the goldfinch and now I want to read this

>> No.12532365

>>12532244
Its high points make up for its shortcomings imo. I do recommend it.
>>12532231
Thanks for the bumps you guys.

>> No.12533145

>>12532145
Thank god I'm not the only one who felt a weird quality drop at the second half. You mentioned Forster's Longest Journey, do I need to read the first one? I too am on lookout for great campus novels and would appreciate any reccomendations

>> No.12533308

>>12532145
Brideshead Revisited is wonderful but not really a campus novel.

>> No.12533764

some campus novels:
lucky jim, kingsley amis
pnin, nabokov
the masters, cp snow
the rebel angels, robertson davies

>> No.12534030

>>12533145
>Longest Journey
I read it a few years ago and although it's definitely a different type of novel, it's good, but maybe a little melodramatic towards the end iirc. I'm gonna reread it because I forgot everything.
>>12533308
Yeah it looks like more of a rich kids fucking around novel.

>>12533764
Thanks for this. I'll look into these.

>> No.12534038

>>12532145
>academic and cozy feel
Pale Fire

It's a very pop fiction choice, but I'd say Stephen Fry's The Liar has that feel.

I think Stoner as well. Bleak but IIRC also strangely cosy.

David Lodge wrote a bunch of 'campus novels' but I've never read any.

>> No.12534041

>>12534038
...and while I'm talking about books I haven't read, Iris Murdoch's The Book and the Brotherhood looked spookily like The Secret History

>> No.12534063

>>12534038
>>12534041
>Pale Fire
I read a lot of biographies so at first glance this looks really interesting to me.
>while I'm talking about books I haven't read
Geez I can't believe someone would do that. I definitely 100% can't relate.
Thanks for the recs.

>> No.12534129

Not OP, but are there any French campus novels? Can't imagine nobody's written about black pullover-clad intellectuals smoking, drinking and arguing incomprehensibly in cafés.

>> No.12534145

>>12534129
Honestly, I think Proust is not far off because most of the characters are well educated and discuss art, music, lit etc constantly.
Definitely cosy too, while it can be challenging to get into just because the prose is so dense you feel like you're reading very very slowly to take everything in.

>> No.12534196

Jude the Obscure might be an interesting anti-cosy take on that, because it's about a poor working class boy/man who wants to study theology at university, literally teaches himself Greek and Latin to study and read the Classics and religious texts in his spare time, but just gets fucked over by his social class and the fact he's in a Thomas Hardy novel.

>> No.12534693

>>12534196
I love Hardy so that goes on my list.