Listmania!
the history of the novel in novels
Leucippe and Clitophon (Oxford World's Classics)Leucippe and Clitophon (Oxford World's Classics) by Achilles Tatius
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £3.56
The Greeks did it first.
The Golden Ass (Oxford World's Classics)The Golden Ass (Oxford World's Classics) by Apuleius
Buy used from: £4.00
Funny entertaining roman writting. And one of the sources of Midsummer's Night Dream. Love, Sex, Adventure. Enjoy.
The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel: Vol 1, The Golden Days (Penguin Classics)The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel: Vol 1, The Golden Days (Penguin Classics) by Cao Xueqin
Buy new: £9.74 / Used from: £4.40
enchanting chinese writting, I started learning mandarine after reading that.
Journey to the WestJourney to the West by Cheng'en Wu
Buy new: £19.95 / Used from: £20.01
Very enjoyable and an interesting introduction to chinese belief system. If it seems too long for you can try Monkey. It is a short but very good adaptation of this.
The Tale of Genji (Penguin Classics)The Tale of Genji (Penguin Classics) by Murasaki Shikibu
Buy new: £12.34 / Used from: £9.66
Japanese classic. Soo good, too bad the book is too heavy for me to carry around and read on the tube.
Arabian Nights: Tales from the Thousand and One Nights (Penguin Classics)Arabian Nights: Tales from the Thousand and One Nights (Penguin Classics)
Buy new: £6.49 / Used from: £3.92
As with Boccaccio it is a stories-within-the-story book but I thought as a piece of phenomenal story-telling I should include it in my novels list.
The Decameron (Penguin Classics)The Decameron (Penguin Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio
Buy new: £7.14 / Used from: £6.03
Well there must be a reason Shakespeare was so obsessed with that.
Don Quixote (Wordsworth Classics)Don Quixote (Wordsworth Classics) by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01
fight the good fight.
Gargantua and Pantagruel (Penguin Classics)Gargantua and Pantagruel (Penguin Classics) by Francois Rabelais
Buy new: £11.04 / Used from: £10.12
A whole aspect of our life is Rabelaisian. Don't you want to know what is that all about?
Les Liaisons Dangereuses (English Translation)Les Liaisons Dangereuses (English Translation) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Buy used from: £5.23
I found the film dull. Read the book.
The 120 Days of Sodom (The New Traveller's Companion Series)The 120 Days of Sodom (The New Traveller's Companion Series) by Marquis de Sade
Buy new: £9.07 / Used from: £15.60
Try something new today.
The Sorrows of Young Werther (Classics)The Sorrows of Young Werther (Classics) by Johann Goethe
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £2.00
A lot of people killed themselves over that book. Maybe you should try Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, its funnier, though not as celebrated.
Tom Jones (Wordsworth Classics)Tom Jones (Wordsworth Classics) by Henry Fielding
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01
Looove this book. Witty, witty, witty.
The Three Musketeers (Wordsworth Classics)The Three Musketeers (Wordsworth Classics) by Alexandre Dumas
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01
All for one and one for all. The best friendship novel ever. don't you ever wish life was like that?
Old Goriot (Penguin Red Classics)Old Goriot (Penguin Red Classics) by Honore Balzac
Buy new: £5.24 / Used from: £1.50
Balzac, Balzac, Balzac. When I was a child I used to know this by heart. Such a storyteller.
Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics)Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics) by Jane Austen
Buy used from: £0.01
Jane Ausen at her best.
Crime and Punishment (Wordsworth Classics)Crime and Punishment (Wordsworth Classics) by F.M. Dostoevsky
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01
Well, I might be pervy but this book makes me happy.
War and Peace (Wordsworth Classics)War and Peace (Wordsworth Classics) by L.N. Tolstoy
Buy used from: £0.01
One of the best studies on the evelution of the human character. Mmm, sounds a bit wood talk but it is.
Dead Souls (Penguin Classics)Dead Souls (Penguin Classics) by Nikolai Gogol
Buy new: £6.74 / Used from: £3.43
Very dark humour. But so humourous.
The Master and Margarita (Penguin Modern Classics)The Master and Margarita (Penguin Modern Classics) by Mikhail Bulgakov
Buy used from: £5.39
Russians again, I try not t have any favorites but this is short of my favorite. You have to read it or Devil will come and get you.
The Magic MountainThe Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £3.44
Well, Mann and Proust need a bit of patience for the first 30 pages or so but once you get past that you will be an addict.
In Search of Lost Time: The Way by Swann's v.1: The Way by Swann's Vol 1 (In Search of Lost Time 1)In Search of Lost Time: The Way by Swann's v.1: The Way by Swann's Vol 1 (In Search of Lost Time 1) by Marcel Proust
Buy new: £6.74 / Used from: £2.64
Read it, Read it, Read it. It is a greater experience than backpacking on the Chinese wall.
Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics)Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics) by James Joyce
Buy new: £6.49 / Used from: £4.95
any questions??
The Unbearable Lightness of BeingThe Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Buy new: £9.09 / Used from: £7.18
There are a lot of Kundera novels that you may prefer (Joke, Immortality) but this was the one that made everyone talk about him.
FerdydurkeFerdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
Buy new: £5.81 / Used from: £4.96
Kundera's suggestion. I found Pornografia more accessible but Ferdydurke is undoubtedly his boldest work. A study on the rites of passage.