[Cajka]

Originally Posted by ys

No wonder, four of Dostoyevski novells are chosen in the list of Top 100 most significant books.
I though prefer "Besy" ( Demons )

I personally find him very tough to read even in Russian. Very complex language of the book, very tough to see when he is ironic and when he is serious, as he is never openly ironic. Comparing to his language, Tolstoy's stuff is so much simpler. I wonder if the Dostoevsky's translations simplify the text..

I tried to read it in Russian, but my Russian is not good enough. Serbian translations are fine. The languages are similar, so it all can be done very well if the translator is talented. When you read the poetry it's something else, of course. It's like reading a completely new poem, which can be a disaster or surprisingly good. But, still, it's a new poem.

[le bon vivant]

1.) Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
2.) Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
3.) Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
4.) The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
5.) Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
6.) Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
7.) Go Tell It On The Mountain, James Baldwin
8.) Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe
9.) Black No More, George Schuyler
10.) Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

Invisible Man and the Bluest Eye literally changed my life. And the story/character of Phillip Pirrip connected and resonated with me on multiple levels.

[NyCPsU]

1. Great Expectations - Dickens

Have to think about the rest.

[Tala Igasho]

1. L'Étranger - Albert Camus
2. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
3. The Catcher in The Rye - J.D. Salinger
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
5. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
6. The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
7. The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe
8. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
9. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
10. The Fall - Albert Camus

*Notable mention to 'Låt den rätte komma in'/'Let The Right One In' by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It affected me profoundly; though I am still unsure whether this is due to my relating to/love of Oskar or the sheer violence of the novel. I found much of it very disturbing.

Currently reading 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens and I just know once I finish it; it will rank very highly in my top 10. I also begin an English and History degree in September. No doubt my entire top 10 will take a battering then .

[Xepher]

I am not well-read enough to pick five let alone ten

[ico4498]

A Wreath for Udomo - Peter Abrahams
Green Days By The River - Michael Anthony
Brother Man - Roger Mais
The Leopard - V.S. Reid
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy
Don Quixote - Cervantes
Native Son - Richard Wright
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain
Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane

novels, novellas, etc ... its either a satisfying tale or bust, efficient writers shouldn't be penalized. in no particular order, the 10 above are the most memorable just now.

[edificio]

This is incredibily difficult. I can't keep the list to ten, and I could add more. A couple sentimental faves are included. I could read them all again tomorrow and still want to read these books again.

In no particular order.

The Trial, Franz Kafka
Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky (sorry, can’t help putting both)
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
Middlemarch, George Eliot
The Stranger, Albert Camus
Don Quixote, Cervantes
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Madame Bovary, Flaubert
Light in August, William Faulkner
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
A House for Mister Biswas, V. S. Naipaul
The Red and the Black, Stendhal
Our Mutual Friend, Dickens
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

Childhood favorites: My Antonia, Willa Cather, and The Secret Garden, Frances H. Burnett

[Sam L]

Originally Posted by ys

I personally find him very tough to read even in Russian. Very complex language of the book, very tough to see when he is ironic and when he is serious, as he is never openly ironic. Comparing to his language, Tolstoy's stuff is so much simpler. I wonder if the Dostoevsky's translations simplify the text..

I wish I could read Russian. I guess there's still time to learn.

Originally Posted by edificio

This is incredibily difficult. I can't keep the list to ten, and I could add more. A couple sentimental faves are included. I could read them all again tomorrow and still want to read these books again.

Of course. The whole point is to weed them out and see which are the most special to you.

[Sam L]

Originally Posted by Cajka

I tried to read it in Russian, but my Russian is not good enough. Serbian translations are fine. The languages are similar, so it all can be done very well if the translator is talented. When you read the poetry it's something else, of course. It's like reading a completely new poem, which can be a disaster or surprisingly good. But, still, it's a new poem.

I think translated prose works a lot better as it should. Poetry is not just about conveying the meaning so it won't work as well.

[Jalil Sherman]

Bish, do I read?

[Sam L]

Originally Posted by kwilliams

I'm including some epic poetry because it's narrative.

It may be narrative but it's not a novel. You can list your plays here if you like: http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=466482

[Cajka]

Originally Posted by Sam L

I think translated prose works a lot better as it should. Poetry is not just about conveying the meaning so it won't work as well.

Yes, it definitely is easier to translate prose, but still it can be very complicated. There are writers who write both - poetry and prose, so when you read their novels, there's so much melody in those sentences, it must be a real hell for translating. Then when you have such a specific writer like Dostoyevsky, you must be not only very talented to translate it, but you also have to be in it completely. Dostoyevsky is not only describing human thoughts and feelings, he's mainly interested in disturbed minds. You must be a very skillful translator to make it sound good. Imagine just describing Raskolnikov's train of thoughts. It must give you a shiver, you must feel his madness, his anxiety, you must feel his fever, his doubts and pangs of conscience.

So, in that sense, Dostoyevsky's language is really remarkable, so I think it might be easier to translate it to other Slavic languages, if for no other reason, then it will be easier at least because of the order of words in sentence.

[Siderophyre]

The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (McCullers - staggering how young she was when she wrote this)
The White Hotel (Thomas)
Of Human Bondage (Maugham)
Cancer Ward (Solzhenitsyn)
Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
Look Homeward, Angel (Wolfe)
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Murakami)
The Stone Angel (Laurence)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera)

[edificio]

Originally Posted by Sam L

Of course. The whole point is to weed them out and see which are the most special to you.

I can't! And you can't make me. Na na na na na!

[kwilliams]

Originally Posted by Sam L

It may be narrative but it's not a novel. You can list your plays here if you like: http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=466482

That's why I called it epic poetry.