What is it about books written long ago that has readers enthralled today? It has to be more than puffy white shirts, right?
Anyway, a few authors here make it to my must read list, and perhaps a surprising non-inclusion.
Jane Austen: Completely love the views she has of society, the wit and the inside jokes. Part of the appeal is the timelessness of the story lines. Remakes like Clueless are popular enough to get them on television yet today, not to mention various BBC productions or their American counter parts. I irregularly read these books; in fact, I’m due for another one soon. I also find it intriguing that her novels aren’t typically included in the classification of Victorian literature by those that classify such things because they don’t follow the typical forms, like Dickens, Eliot and such. Personally, I think of them that way, hence the grouping here.
Wilkie Collins: Collins is credited as the first mystery author. I enjoyed “The Moonstone” in a college course and have read a few other titles since. Collins should be creditted with the trend of “ripped from the headlines” as he used current events to add to his story lines.
Robert Louis Stevenson: One of the earliest children’s novelist. I loved Treasure Island, and his poetry both.
Thomas Hardy: Summarizing the reading for Far from the Madding Crowd one day for perpetually behind classmate made me realize how much this story is like a modern day soap opera. The romance and drama of the small town, the scandal that rocks it. Just thinking about it is enough to make me want to read it again.
The rapid changes and developing genres is what I love best about this era in writing. I love how some of the authors and stories stick with you, even years after reading them. I love how writing starts to take hold and become the new form of writing – something novel to talk about.
(PS. Did you spot who I didn’t include? Cannot stand him. That alone is enough to make the Literary Guild take away my membership card and revoke my snobbery pass.)
The Word Nerds 