Literary Treasures
On Sunday The Guardian published an interesting article asking 50 celebrated writers to nominate their favorite literary treasure--brilliant but underrated novels that deserve a second chance to shine.
So I asked myself, "Of the novels I've read, which would I say is the most underrated?" My answer: Dead Souls by Nicolai Gogol. Flannery O'Connor declared Gogol "necessary along with the light." I couldn't say it better.
So I ask you, "what is your favorite literary treasure?"
2 comments:
I have two literary treasures that are fantastic. One is a sci-fi masterpiece by Orson Scott Card while the second is a biography by Jacques Lusseyran.
Aside from Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card also wrote a series of science fiction novels compiled into "The Worthing Saga." It is the story of Jason Worthing, a telepath, who escaped his dying civilization and began one of his own with a ship full of convicts whose memories were wiped. His telepathy perpetuates and amplifies through the generations of his ancestors until... You'll have to read it.
Second, is the biography of a blind French patriot of WWII who was put into a concentration camp for being involved in the French Resistence. Entitled, "And There Was Light," the short book is both inspiring and insightful. Akin to the much aclaimed "Mans Search for Meaning," by Frankl, but without the psychology.
Diomedes-
I've seen the Worthing Saga before and have wanted to read it for some time now. You say that it is a series of novels compiled into the Worthing Saga. So if I pick up the single book titled, "The Worthing Saga," I'll be reading all of those books in order?
I second what you say about "And There Was Light." I particularly enjoyed and often think about how he described playing sports as a blind child.
Jayme-
I would have to say that my gem is "Lonesome Dove." The characters, both the good guys and the bad guys, are so entertaining and funny. The story is great and the author makes the reader experience all ranges of emotion.
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