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/lit/ - Literature

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1989397 No.1989397 [Reply] [Original]

Hey /lit/, I'm looking for book recommendations, and yes, I did read the sticky and look through it, and I don't feel like it really covered my question.

Basically, I've been reading H.P. Lovecraft, but what I'm beginning to like more and more is his fascination with old towns, where stories are set. I love reading about the rolling Vermont hills and the crazy farmers that live there, and the old houses and suburbs and family lineages of New England, but I'm getting a little tired of "unspeakable horrors" and "indescribable images" I suppose.

I'm not sure how to describe it really, perhaps it's a mix of anthropology and genealogy fiction, I'd like to read books focused on the lives of people, real or not, set anywhere from the early 1800's all the way until the early 1920's. I don't really know if the type of books I'm looking for even exist, or that aren't just history textbooks. I'd like it to be personal, maybe like diary entries but it's not required. I know a lot of Victorian era books exist which fit the bill, but I don't really want any romances or anything.

Do any genres like this exist /lit/?

>> No.1989401

It sounds weird but people pretty much stopped writing entirely during that exact period you're interested in. Its a dayum shame.

>> No.1989420
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1989420

I feel like Dr. Watson could hardly shut up about the Dartmoor scenery in Hound of the Baskervilles. It takes place in 1889 and was published in 1902. Personally I really like how he describes houses and landscapes in all of the stories. He might not focus on it quite as much as you're looking for, though, and in HOUN he does aim to spook the reader out a little bit--but thankfully not through deeming everything he sees as being horrifically beyond all human imagining.

>> No.1989425

>>1989420
Oh, and I meant to mention that the story revolves around someone's heir and a few other curious family relations and neighbors.

>> No.1989426

Thomas Hardy and Hermann Melville.

>> No.1989427

Not the good timeframe but maybe you could try "The Pillars of the Earth"

>> No.1989428

>>1989420
I used to like the way Lovecraft wrote, now I just can't take it seriously.

No, those hills are not horrifically oppressive to all of humanity, Howard. They're just hills

>> No.1989433
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1989433

>>1989428
dem hills, man. They gon' GET YOU

>> No.1989445

David Copperfield could also be something of what you're after. It follows the kid's whole life, as well as the billion people he meets or is related to. I haven't read it since HS so I can't give you a very detailed description. I don't recall many old towns in it, but if you're hot for genealogy and the minutiae of peoples lives it could be good stuff.

>> No.1989452

A novel that might fit your bill would be "The Rainbow" by Lawrence. It covers three generations of the Brangwen family. Though it does focus on "romance", it doesn't do so in a sappy way. Personally, I feel it's Lawrence's best work of fiction, since after it, Lawrence uses his fiction almost propaganda for his personal philosophy.

>> No.1989454

>>1989428
for a moment i thought you meant robert e.
your shit was about to get slapped