Coming up: A list of noteworthy, accomplished and exciting authors…
…and the books that didn’t quite work.
Not all of these classics are total failures or trainwrecks – but with all of them, the author either has much better alternative books (I’ll work out a list with recommendations next month)… or the book just wasn’t a very profound or joyful reading experience.
If I could travel back in time and prevent my younger self from wasting time with certain „classic“ books… these would be my candidates:
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Chingis (Tschingis) AITMATOV: ‚Jamilia‘ (Dschamilja), 1958
Martin AMIS: ‚Time’s Arrow‘, 1991
Jane AUSTEN: ‚Pride and Prejudice‘, 1813
Simone de BEAUVOIR: ‚All Men are mortal‘, 1946
Thomas BERNHARD: ‚The Loser‘ (Der Untergeher), 1983
Georg BÜCHNER: ‚Leonce & Lena‘, 1838
Mikhail BULGAKOV: ‚Master and Marguerite‘, 1942
Albert CAMUS: ‚A Happy Death‘, 1971
Lewis CARROLL: ‚Through the Looking Glass‘ / ‚Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland‘, 1871 / 1865
Bruce CHATWIN: ‚Songlines‘, 1987
Paulo COELHO: ‚Veronika decides to die‘, 1998
J.M. COETZEE: ‚Disgrace‘, 1999
Don DeLILLO: ‚Falling Man‘, 2007
Junot DIAZ: ‚The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao‘, 2007
Ford Madox FORD: ‚The Good Soldier‘, 1914
Richard FORD: ‚The Sportswriter‘, 1986
E.M. FORSTER: ‚Howard’s End‘, 1910
Nathaniel HAWTHORNE: ‚The Scarlet Letter‘, 1850
Gerhard HAUPTMANN: ‚Lineman Thiel‘, 1888
Ernest HEMINGWAY: ‚To Have and Have not‘, 1937
S.E. HINTON: ‚The Outsiders‘, 1967
James JOYCE: ‚Portrait of the Artist as a young Man‘, 1916
Uwe JOHNSON: ‚Speculations about Jakob‘, 1959
Heinrich von KLEIST: ‚The Marquise of O‘, 1808
Guiseppe Tomasi di LAMPEDUSA: ‚Il Gattopardo‘, 1958
Margaret LAURENCE: ‚The Diviners‘, 1974
Klaus MANN: ‚Pathetic Symphony‘, 1935
Gabriel Garcia MARQUEZ, ‚Love in the Time of Cholera‘, 1985
W. Somerset MAUGHAM: ‚Of Human Bondage‘, 1915
Ian McEWAN: ‚Enduring Love‘, 1991
Haruki MURAKAMI: ‚Afterdark‘, 2004
Vladimir NABOKOV: ‚Transparent Things‘, 1972
Juan Carlos ONETTI: ‚A Brief Life‘, 1950
Annie PROULX: ‚The Shipping News‘, 1993
Jean-Paul SARTRE: ‚The Words‘, 1964
Andrezej SZCZYPIORSKI: ‚The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenmann‘, 1972
Ingo SCHULZE: ‚Simple Storys‘, 1998
Birgit VANDERBEKE: ‚Das Muschelessen‘, 1990
Thornton WILDER: ‚Theophilus North‘, 1973
Virginia WOOLF: ‚Orlando‘, 1928
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What books did you regret? What classics are overrated? Let me know in the comments!
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