The Rough Guide to Classic Novels

by Simon Mason

Get the low-down on the best fiction ever written. Over 230 of the world's greatest novels are covered, from Quixote (1614) to Orhan Pamuk's Snow (2002), with fascinating information about their plots... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1843535165
• ISBN13: 9781843535164
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 370 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.6" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

From Don Quixote to American Pastoral

I love booklists. It's an occupational disease: I'm both an avid reader and a bibliographer, and any volume that lists "the best books"--on any subject, fictional or non--is grist to my mill. This little pocket-size item, while not as comprehensive as Good Books, is unique in my experience. It's filled with mini-essays on "229 novels or sequences of novels" published 1604-2002, each offering a sketch of the plot, theme, and critical importance of the particular item under discussion, and each followed by a suggestion of "Where to Go Next" (as in The Prentice Hall Good Reading Guide, which it somewhat resembles) and, often, information about screen adaptations or recommended translations. The essays are intriguing and may very well hook your interest regarding books you've never sampled before, and the organization of the volume (by subjects such as "Love, Romance, & Sex," "Heroes & Anti-Heroes," "A Sense of Place," and nine others) is unusual and may help you see relationships you hadn't previously considered. In addition there are 19 "themed boxes" such as "A fine romance," "Bildungsroman," Balzac's "La Comedie humaine," and "The first detective." If you're trying to figure out where to start, or continue, among the classics, or even what constitutes one, this handy and inexpensive volume may be just what you're looking for.

An Essential for Every Bookshelf

Creating a guide to Classic Novels would seem to be an impossible task, yet Simon Mason has produced a superb book that reaches far and wide - and yet it wears its considerable learning lightly. It's a breathtaking book, truly, yet it never makes you feel overwhelmed. This has in great measure to do with the descriptive sections on the books, which are so engagingly written that they made me want to go out immediately and purchase the books, since it was clear I'd missed a lot of good stuff in my reading life. The book is cleverly divided into themes, such as Love, Family, War and so on, and includes novels by non-English language writers. Next to each entry is a 'where to go next' and 'screen adaptations' section, both of which are hugely useful, and thoroughly intelligent. I suspect that many people don't ever get to read the classics because they have no idea what they are. They get turned off by reading Dickens when they're eight and they assume that there are no other classics. This book can change that, and inspire any reader, young or old. I promise you you will find yourself introduced to many authors whose works you may not have thought about, or even known about, and there's not a dud in the bunch. I'm sure some people will miss a favorite author here or there, but remember, this is a guide - it will show you what you really need to know in broad terms and it does not aim to include everything. That's part of its charm. It'll show you the really good stuff and allow you to by-pass those novels by famous authors that, well, are not their finest work. It's a delicious book; small, compact, fits easily in a pocket, and its full of excellent things. I'm getting some more copies as gifts for a bunch of people. Hey, they'll actually thank me for this gift! Dr. Allan G. Hunter author of 'Stories We Need To Know' and 'The Six Archetypes of Love' www.allanhunter.net