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My List Of The 25 Landmarks Of World Literature

Posted on 02/13/2017 11:09:14 PM PST by goldstategop

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To: goldstategop

Instead of Proust or Marx you should have included The Pilgrim’s Progress

And if you haven’t read it you should. I agree with another poster CS Lewis...any and all


41 posted on 02/14/2017 12:33:54 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Nifster

I read Moby Dick as an adult, after having “read” it in high school, meaning I didn’t actually read it.

I read it at the beach one year, on vacation, and I loved it. I was in my forties.
Great book. Everybody says it’s a great book, and it is a great book.

One thing I learned was why I didn’t actually read it in high school, as the thought constantly occurred to me, “How could anybody expect a kid to read this?”

‘nuf said.


42 posted on 02/14/2017 12:45:12 AM PST by dr_lew (I)
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To: dr_lew

Yeah sometimes you just don’t have enough life experience to appreciate some things


43 posted on 02/14/2017 12:52:22 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: goldstategop

Great list! You might have excluded non-fiction, but ok. And since “everyone has an opinion”...

- Faust by Goethe
- Rules for Radicals by Alinsky (sigh)
- Principia by Newton
- Two Treatises of Civil Government by Locke
- Atlas Shrugged by Rand
- Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes
- 100 Years of Solitude by Marquez [Latin American representation]
- Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard
- Civization and its Discontents by Freud (sigh)


44 posted on 02/14/2017 1:05:54 AM PST by ReaganGeneration2
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To: goldstategop

Any list that fails to have the Bible as runaway Number One . . .


45 posted on 02/14/2017 1:08:38 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Liberalism is a mental disorder" On FULL Display NOW BOYCOTT Mexico NFL PepsiCO Kellogg's)
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To: goldstategop

Maybe you can help me out. Many years ago, I read a book or short story, about a man who wanted to experience the world. He ended up being captured by Bedouins, and no matter what experience he endured, he was extremely philosophical about it. He finally ended up getting his tongue cut out, but even then, he looked upon that as an interesting experience. I’ve racked my brain trying to remember the title and author, without success. I was thinking it was Pascal, but apparently not. Hope someone can solve my mystery.


46 posted on 02/14/2017 1:15:13 AM PST by Flaming Conservative
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To: goldstategop
The Law by Frédéric Bastiat for immunity before exposure to Marx or his friends or followers.

The Genius of Christianity or his posthumous memoirs (Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe) by Chateaubriand, and

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer.

So many others, though... I've heard the most dedicated and 'healthy' readers can read

47 posted on 02/14/2017 1:16:20 AM PST by Prospero (Lex est rex)
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To: Vendome

LOL! You left out Harlequin Romances. Knew a woman once, who bragged about the number of books she read per week. She was referring to Harlequin Romances. I had to stifle the laughter. But then, who am I to judge? Agatha Christie is one of MY favorite authors.


48 posted on 02/14/2017 1:20:52 AM PST by Flaming Conservative
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To: latina4dubya

You and your sons received a fine education in the liberal arts!


49 posted on 02/14/2017 1:24:51 AM PST by Maine Mariner
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To: goldstategop
These are just books you like, I guess, since many of them were/aren't on all that many people's reading lists and some, many people never read/tried to read and found the book/s wanting in the extreme.

Personaly, I can't stand TLOTR and that series, plus THE HOBBIT, prior to the boring movies, weren't books that all that many even heard of.

Montaigne's essays? Well, I've read them ( own my mother's copy which is illustrated with Dali paintings ), but haven't ever known many people , all of whom are very well educated, who even know his name, let alone read any of his work.

Proust? REALLY ? And James Joyce?

What about UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by H.B. Stowe and all of the works by Dickens? These books changed American and Brit views about all kinds of different social problems/institutions and have been read and enjoyed worldwide.

Not anything at all by Orwell?

Nobody reads Augustine anymore and I bet that most Catholics aren't familiar with his writings and haven't been for a very long time.

You did put up an interesting list, but I doubt that you'll get anyone to agree with it in toto. :-)

50 posted on 02/14/2017 1:40:01 AM PST by nopardons
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To: Maine Mariner

Hi!


51 posted on 02/14/2017 1:40:32 AM PST by nopardons
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To: goldstategop

Good list. The KJV Bible (1611) and First Folio Shakespeare (1623) would be a good start. Lincoln had about one formal year of schooling but he was a student of these and that’s about as solid a rock bottom of bedrock to build any education on. In a campaign piece on Lincoln William Dean Howells wrote “that Mr. Lincoln is a diligent student of Shakespeare, to know whom is a liberal education.” Just so. To me these two excavate more deeply into the human heart than anything ever written. Again, a very good list.


52 posted on 02/14/2017 1:41:13 AM PST by donaldo
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To: goldstategop

You left out a whole bunch of 19th century authors as well.


53 posted on 02/14/2017 1:42:25 AM PST by nopardons
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To: goldstategop

Laws of Power.


54 posted on 02/14/2017 1:42:58 AM PST by TheNext (REPEAL requires simple 50% Majority, not 60%)
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To: goldstategop

Bump for #11


55 posted on 02/14/2017 1:44:01 AM PST by MomwithHope (The pendulum is swinging our way!)
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To: goldstategop

Goethe instead of Mann and Dumas pere and Fils instead of Camus.


56 posted on 02/14/2017 1:44:13 AM PST by nopardons
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To: goldstategop

Bet you catch rainwater in your nose, every time it rains. Seriously, come ON; you know “most people” have not read the books on your list. I’m not criticizing your list. I am more well read than the average American, but I have only read a few from your list. I’m working on it, but I don’t move in academic circles, and it is frustrating to read great literature, and have no one to talk with about it. I enjoy reading; it is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but I can enjoy light reading, almost more than serious reading. Reading about ideas certainly does educate a person, but reading about happenings is fun. I would be hard pressed to condense a twentieth century “must read” list down to twenty-five books. Most books popular with the general public would not make a serious list. One book that is almost too marvelous to behold, is Daniel J. Boorstin’s, “ The Discoverers: A History Of Man’s Search To Know His World And Himself”. What a grasp of the magnificent, this man had!


57 posted on 02/14/2017 1:58:34 AM PST by Flaming Conservative
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To: Flaming Conservative
LOL! You left out Harlequin Romances. Knew a woman once, who bragged about the number of books she read per week. She was referring to Harlequin Romances. I had to stifle the laughter. But then, who am I to judge? Agatha Christie is one of MY favorite authors.

You can't be serious!

Leaving out the most outstanding philosphers of the 20th Century...

No, not Santayana and Eric Hoffer.
Calvin and Hobbes...

58 posted on 02/14/2017 2:10:16 AM PST by publius911 (I SUPPORT MY PRESIDENT!!!)
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To: goldstategop
Montesquieu - The Spirit of Laws.

A major influence on the Founding Fathers and many others.

59 posted on 02/14/2017 2:20:43 AM PST by deadrock (I is someone else.)
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To: publius911

LOL! There’s just no way to limit this list to twenty-five! There’d be no room for ANY of the great works of Stan Lee, not to mention Ed Wood! (I insist upon screenplays being included; if Shakespeare’s plays get in, it would be immoral to leave out Ed.)


60 posted on 02/14/2017 2:20:43 AM PST by Flaming Conservative
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