favorite piece of classical literature? why? or what did you learn from it?

[J.T.]

One of my favorites-

The Metamorphosis by Kafka.  I identified with the main character in many ways, and there isn't just one way to read that tale.  A man wakes up and is a giant "disgusting" insect, enough said!

[Fer]

One of my favourite books as a child was Laurie Lee Cider with Rosie. It is autobiographical, about his participation in WW2, but he looks after his increasingly senile mother.  The line I (vaguely) recall as my favourite is...

She saw shades, spoke to visions, and then she died.
We buried her under the oak tree next to my father

Its just so eloquent and beautiful, and paints a thousand images in a few words.  Another of my favourite lines comes from A Passage To India when Forster is describing the unfamiliar landscape, particularly the mountains...

The earth lies flat, heaves a little, then is flat again

You can just picture them! But my all time favourite is Samuel Beckett -Waiting For Godot.  Its so full of time frittered away doing the routine and mundane, yet its so full of humour, almost slapstick at times, and Im sorry not to be able to narrow it down to one example as there are so many.

I dont mean to sound bleak, but there you are. A few of my favourite pieces of literature.

[Yvonne]

So hard to choose but a really great question. From childhood I would say Robinson Crusoe was my favourite book , closely followed by Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway tree.
As an adult I would have to say anything by Terry Pratchett (Is that literature Har de har!) 'cos he makes me weep with laughter and I love A Prayer for Owen Meany and Life of Pi. I have been considering this but it is too hard to choose just one because as soon as you think of one others come to mind and it is impossible!

[Dorothy]

One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I love Marquez's creativity and sequencing the most, and it kind of puts me in the mind of "Pulp Fiction". You have this story that is told through a mixture of flashbacks and present tense narratives and at the end you have this magical ending that blows you away, and adds a sense of unity to all of the disjointed parts. At times the book contains too many unimportant details that make the storyline drag, but the overall story was entertaining and I really loved the ending.

You can never go wrong with Cervantes, Tink.  He is, too, one of my favorite authors.

[Pica Pica]

I do like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I'm trying to do the whole magical realism thing myself, but make it more English in style...it's getting some interesting results, I'm not there yet though.

[Butterfly]

I could never pick a favourite one but I can mention a few decent writers and great novels.

For pure fun and laughs you cant go wrong with a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett or the farcical, P.G Wodehouse, Jeeves and Wooster series.

For wonderful story telling and charactures the Pickwick Papers by Dickens is, probably, his best and funiest work. Marcel Proust In Search Of Lost Time is Epic and grand and quite beyond imagination.

Bill Bryson is unmissable as a writer and so is Alan Coran.

[Pica Pica]

U once told an interviewer that PG Woodehouse is one of my favourites (though whether it is classic yet, i am unsure). They laughed at me! They didn't understand that well written comedy is double the difficulty of tragedy.

[Butterfly]

U once told an interviewer that PG Woodehouse is one of my favourites (though whether it is classic yet, i am unsure). They laughed at me! They didnt understand that well written comedy is double the difficulty of tragedy.

Are you following me, Pica Pica?  ~laugh~ Joke!  for anyone to understand Woodehouses comedy, they have got to understand his style and satirical jokes.

[Pica Pica]

and his phrasing, that's what i like best. The small descriptive capsual, that actually makes me laugh out loud.

[The Middle Way]

Well it appears the classical label went by the boards some time ago in this thread, so I am going for
Huit Clos (No Exit) by J-P Sartre.

The theme is: Hell exists where you get more than two people in a room.

(I am not advocating that philostophy, but it is a brilliant play)

N

[RebeccaFog]

I just realized that I screwed up the difference between 'classic' and 'classical'.  In order to make amends, I will shout ELECTRA by Sophocles. Maybe I'm confusing it with MEDEA by Euripides?

Am I insane? Why can't I recall the difference?   Why do you look 67 feet tall and have horns on your elbows?

[MeghanAndrews]

Hmm, classics, I guess that is left open to interpretation. I have a degree in English Lit, I've always enjoyed reading and writing so much.

I think one of the most life-changing books I've read would be Kerouac's "On The Road." Might be a little cliche to a younger person trying to find their way in society, but I really found his journies liberating. Just the idea that you can be so unbound and just explore. The writing style was extremely loose as were his journies. I read it in my early years in High School and it really kind of opened me up to a lot of different experiences.

I also read a lot of poetry and was really drawn to confessional poets like Plath, Sexton and others in that style.  Something about the honesty of emotion, raw, that I was drawn to, but I'll leave that to Tink's "Favorite Poems" section Meghan

[Ell]

One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I love Marquez's creativity and sequencing the most, and it kind of puts me in the mind of "Pulp Fiction". You have this story that is told through a mixture of flashbacks and present tense narratives and at the end you have this magical ending that blows you away, and adds a sense of unity to all of the disjointed parts. At times the book contains too many unimportant details that make the storyline drag, but the overall story was entertaining and I really loved the ending.

i'm a little put off by the way he weaves reality and surrealism on the same strand. i often felt like telling him, "just four beats to the bar, please." his Autumn of the Patriarch was more accessible.

[Pica Pica]

I like reality and surrealism together, especially if reality is slowly stretched to allow the surrealism in.

[RebeccaFog]

A Confederacy of Dunces, anyone?

[katia]

One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I love Marquez's creativity and sequencing the most, and it kind of puts me in the mind of "Pulp Fiction". You have this story that is told through a mixture of flashbacks and present tense narratives and at the end you have this magical ending that blows you away, and adds a sense of unity to all of the disjointed parts. At times the book contains too many unimportant details that make the storyline drag, but the overall story was entertaining and I really loved the ending.

i'm a little put off by the way he weaves reality and surrealism on the same strand. i often felt like telling him, "just four beats to the bar, please." his Autumn of the Patriarch was more accessible.

i just finished reading this book last night.  in all honesty, though, i was expecting something completely different going in. i wasn't quite sure what kind of book i was reading when it's called One Hundred Years of Solitude, yet had me laughing out loud within the first ten pages. i think i was expecting something more melancholic, philosophical, introspective...i'm not sure what i was expecting, but that certainly isn't what i got. which isn't necessarily a bad thing all the time, don't get me wrong; quite on the contrary, i really enjoyed marquez' nobel prize-winning classic. and i suppose that the fact that i was taken off guard right from the get-go was part of the whole illusion.

[tinkerbell]

Gossip:  *giggling devilishly*  Did you know that Gabriel Garcia Marquez refused to go back to Spain when the Spaniards implemented visa requirement laws for Colombians?  I don't think he has visited Spain since then.  He's still upset about it. 

tink

[The Middle Way]

I like Metamorphosis by Kafka. I like the fact that the author strenuously denied that it was metaphorical; it's about a guy, woke up one day as a bug, period.

[RebeccaFog]

I like Metamorphosis by Kafka. I like the fact that the author strenuously denied that it was metaphorical; it's about a guy, woke up one day as a bug, period.

I like that one too. That actually happened to me. I woke up and I was a giant ant. Unlike the guy in Kafka's story, I was able to get out of my room, but I couldn't find anything to eat because there were no giant crumbs. Fortunately, the next day I awoke as a tiny elephant and had no problem finding food.

[The Middle Way]

 

Rebecca, have you seen the film A Scanner, Darkly (from the Phil K Dick story Through A Scanner, Darkly)?