The rough guide to classic novels

ROUGHGUIDES THE ROUGH GUIDE to Classic Novels from Don Quixote to American Pastoral Simon Mason 781843 535164 I S B N 978-1-84353-516-4 51299 Leo Tolstoy at his estate at Yasnaya Polyana, photographed by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, 1908 © Michael Nicholson/Corbis The Rough Guide to Classic Novels www.roughguides.com Credits The Rough Guide to Classic Novels Rough Guides Reference Film reviews: Joe Staines Editing: Joe Staines Layout: Andrew Clare Proofreading: Karen Parker Production:â•‹ Vicky Baldwin Editors: Peter Buckley, Tracy Hopkins, Sean Mahoney, Matt Milton, Joe Staines, Ruth Tidball Director: Andrew Lockett Publishing Information This first edition published May 2008 by Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL 345 Hudson St, 4th Floor, New York 10014, USA Email:â•‹mail@roughguides.com Distributed by the Penguin Group: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL Penguin Putnam, Inc., 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 Penguin Group (New Zealand), 67 Apollo Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 1310, New Zealand Printed in Italy by LegoPrint S.p.A Typeset in Baskerville, Gill Sans and Copperplate The publishers and author have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in The Rough Guide to Classic Novels; however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews © Simon Mason 2008 384 pages; includes index A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-84353-516-4 The Rough Guide to Classic Novels by Simon Mason www.roughguides.com Contents Preface vi Love, romance and sex Families 47 Rites of passage 77 Heroes and anti-heroes 103 Making it 133 Adventure 165 War, violence and conflict 185 A Sense of place .227 Incredible worlds .265 10 Horror and mystery .287 iv 11 Crime and punishment 303 12 Comedy and satire .331 Index 357 Themed boxes A Fine Romance, part A Fine Romance, part Sex, censorship and the novel 36 Magic Realism .62 School books .80 Novel sequences 96 Outsiders 109 La Comédie humaine 135 Bildungsroman 140 The historical novel 182 The picaresque 198 Novels of the Great War 206 The Chronicles of Bartsetshire and The Pallisers 262 Good place, bad place 277 The Complete Sherlock Holmes 291 Literary bloodsuckers 300 The first detective 311 The best of Maigret 329 Wodehouse’s world 355 ˘ Preface Classic novels are, by definition, first class They have stood the test of time – or show the qualities that make them likely to so Speaking for us, and to us, they tell the best stories and contain the greatest characters Above all, they entertain In The Rough Guide to Classic Novels the emphasis is on precisely this quality There are no novels chosen here simply for their worthiness or their prominence in literary history All merit their inclusion by being, first and foremost, great pleasure-givers In making the selection, I have also tried to be sensitive to two sorts of variety Firstly, the variety of classic novels – the extraordinary richness of fiction produced all over the world from the time of Don Quixote to the present day Here Jane Austen rubs shoulders with Milan Kundera, Dostoevsky with Raymond Chandler, Voltaire with Kenzaburo Ōe Classic heavyweights from Tsarist Russia sit alongside Modernist masterpieces from the deep American South, solid triple-deckers from Victorian London mix with mind-bending fables from Brazil and Turkey Secondly, I have borne in mind the variety of readers, whose tastes range from the traditional to the avant-garde, across every conceivable type, style and genre Whether your preference is for page-turning plots or unforgettable characters, short, challenging novels or long, spell-binding ones, there is something here for you to try The result is a selection of 229 novels (or sequences of novels such as trilogies, etc.) by novelists from 36 different countries, published between 1604 and 2002 Titles are grouped alphabetically by author in a number of thematic chapters – “Comedy and satire”, “Horror vi and mystery”, “Crime and punishment”, “Rites of passage”, “Love, romance and sex” and so on – to make them easier to locate Each main entry ends with a suggestion for further reading, usually, but not always, by the same author, and for each work originally written in a foreign language, a recommended English translation is provided Short reviews are also provided for any outstanding film or television adaptations of the novels discussed, and there are boxes throughout the book on a range of topics, such as the historical novel and Magic Realism As its title suggests, the guide is limited to novels Authors whose main achievement is in short stories – Chekhov, Maupassant and William Trevor are obvious examples – appear only in the suggestions for further reading, alongside other great exponents of the genre, such as Hemingway and Nabokov, who are also included as novelists Inevitably the selection is a personal one, and not likely to be precisely the same as anyone else’s Some novels choose themselves: who could exclude War and Peace or In Search of Lost Time or Moby Dick? But other choices are less obvious, perhaps more controversial Together, they form a representative selection intended to stimulate readers’ curiosity about some of the world’s greatest novels Enjoy! Simon Mason April 2008 vii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Jamie Attlee, Philip Atkins, Jerry Boyd, Amit Chaudhuri, Craig Clunas, Lucas Dietrich, Ben Goodger, Dewi Harries, Eluned Harries, Michael Holyoke, Allan Hunter, Cecilia Kenworthy, Eddie Lambert, Andrew Lockett, Gwilym Mason, Richard Milbank, Suzy Oakes, Stephen O’Rahilly, Neil Palfreyman, Andrew Peerless, Tony Sloggett, Joe Staines, Will Sulkin and Martha Whitt About the author Simon Mason is a publisher and author His novels for adults are: The Great English Nude (1990), Death of a Fantasist (1994) and Lives of the Dog-Stranglers (1998) He has also written a series of novels for younger readers: The Quigleys (2002), The Quigleys at Large (2003), The Quigleys Not For Sale (2004) and The Quigleys in a Spin (2005) viii CWfi 6a\VgkZ 6bhiZgYVb 6cYVajX^V 8dhiVYZaHda 6g\Zci^cV 6i]Zch 6jhigVa^V 7VgXZadcV 7Zga^c 7dhidc8VbWg^Y\Z 7g^iiVcn 7gjhhZah 8Va^[dgc^V 8]^XV\d 8]^aZ 8dgh^XV 8dhiVG^XV EVcVbV 8gZiZ 8gdVi^V LVh]^c\idc98 NjXVi{cEZc^chjaV F^hWi[Xeeai 8gdVi^Vc 8oZX] 9jiX] :\nei^Vc6gVW^X ;gZcX] ciZgcZi BVXhDHM BnHeVXZ EaVnHiVi^dcEdgiVWaZ LZWh^iZ9^gZXidgn cYZeZcYZci ;^ab 7g^i^h]8jai8dbZYn 8]^X`;a^X`h 8dbZYnBdk^Zh 8jaiBdk^Zh ;^ab ;^abBjh^XVah ;^abCd^g iVan @ZcnVCdgi]Zgc IVcoVc^V A^hWdc AdcYdc Adh6c\ZaZh BVYg^Y BVaVnh^V BVaadgXV BVggV`Zh] BZm^Xd B^Vb^@ZnLZhi BdgdXXd CZl:c\aVcY CZlNdg`8^in CZlOZVaVcY Cdgi]ZgcHeV^c EVg^h EZgj Edgij\Va EgV\jZ EngZcZZh6cYdggV GdbZ HVc;gVcX^hXd H^X^an Hdji]6[g^XV Hdji]>cY^V HeV^cEdgij\Va Hg^AVc`V IZcZg^[Z I]V^aVcY Idgdcid Ig^c^YVYIdWV\d Ijc^h^V Ijg`Zn IjhXVcn KZc^XZ K^ZicVb!AVdh 8VbWdY^V HEK=>=K?:;I 7\h_YWC_ZZb[;Wij 8VeZIdlc i]Z