I can’t remember if I’ve ever previously joined in with a Top Ten Tuesday, run by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s been going since 2010, so it’s about time – when better to join than with the 592nd topic?
I actually saw it at What Cathy Read Next, and the topic of ‘authors I haven’t read, but want to’ really interested me. Because I’ve been slowly chipping away at that list in my head – and there aren’t really that many on my bucket list. Obviously there are an awful lot of authors I’ve not read, and many that others would think vital, but not that many that feel quintessentially Simon. A while ago, Beverley Nichols and Georgette Heyer would have been on that list, and obvi I now love them.
I’ve gone for authors who are already on my shelves for this list (because it’s clear that I DO want to read them if they’re waiting there.) These are in no particular order, but do let me know which I should race to!
1. Marcel Proust
I have the first couple volumes of Remembrance of Lost Time waiting for me, but have been a bit more reluctant to start them since I learned that they might not be the best translation. I think the book is either going to become a touchstone of my reading life, or something that I don’t get at all. I have read three books *about* reading Proust, and particularly recommend Phyllis Rose’s.
2. Leo Tolstoy
I’m starting with all the classics. I’m pretty poorly read with all the Russians, and the only reason some of them aren’t here is that I have read slender, minor works. But I haven’t read a word of Tolstoy, and I really ought to try Anna Karenina and see what all the fuss is about.
3. Ethel Mannin
From a classic author to one who isn’t super well-known today – but she’s on the list because she turns up all over the place if you research interwar women’s writing. I have Cactus, Proud Heaven, and Rolling in the Dew on my shelves.
4. Vera Brittain
Somehow I haven’t read Testament of Youth, which is bizarre because obviously I’d love it. I also haven’t read anything else by her, of course.
5. Sinclair Lewis
My ex-housemate often mocks me for buying a book because of the sound it makes when it closes – and then getting home and finding out I already had a copy. That book was Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, and I still haven’t actually read it – or Free Air, the other book I have by him.
6. Enid Bagnold
I even have a signed book by Bagnold (her autobiography) and I still haven’t read anything by her. I don’t even really have an understanding of what her writing is like. The other Bagnolds I have on the shelf are The Loved and Envied and Serena Blandish.
7. J.R. Ackerley
I think I started buying Ackerley’s books because I’ll always pick up an NYRB Classic to see what it’s like. And that snowballed into me having four of his books without reading a word of any of them. My Father and Myself, My Dog Tulip, We Think The World of You, and Hindoo Holiday. Would love any advice on where to start.
8. Elizabeth Goudge
Maybe the most cherished author on this list? I know so many people love her, and I don’t doubt I’d be among that number. At the moment, the options I have for starting my Goudge journey are Scent of Water, The Bird in the Tree, or The Runaways.
ETA: I’ve now remembered that I did read The Middle Window, and really enjoyed it! I’ll leave her on the list – but, for the sake of completeness, please consider George Gissing as a substitute.
9. Elizabeth Jolley
I think Kim of Reading Matters was the person who first alerted me to Jolley, and she sounded great. I have Foxybaby, Mr Scobie’s Riddle, and Woman in a Lampshade waiting to go.
10. Elizabeth Hardwick
Possibly the author I know least about on this list – but I’ve bought a few, following the theory that anybody liked by Virago and NYRB has to be good. I have some books to choose from (of course) – Sleepless Nights, Simple Truth, and Ghostly Lover are on my shelves.
I’d love to know your tips for where to start with any of these authors – from the books I already have, of course. Please don’t suggest I start by buying more books!
Of these I’ve only read Tolstoy, Bagnold and Hardwicke, but in each instance only one of their novels, so I can’t really advise on where to start! I did enjoy them all though. I have a Jolley novella lined up for May (Milk and Honey) which I’m looking forward to.
Ethel Mannin sounds like someone I’d enjoy, I’ll look forward to hearing how you get on with her.
Oo maybe I’ll check the length of the Bagnolds I have, and see if I can line up for May too.
There are a few on your list whom I haven’t read either, so I cannot comment on some of them, but yes I think Vera Brittain, Enid Bagnold and Elizabeth Goudge might be just your thing. I would start with The Bird in the Tree as the first in the Eliot family series, which I got quite involved with back in my youth (it felt very grown-up to me at the time, the way it handled adultery and other such matters, very unEnglish in some respects, by which I suppose I mean unsqueamish).
Elizabeth Hardwick is very different, very experimental, and Sleepless Nights is quite a powerful elegy and meditation on what it means to be a woman in the mid-twentieth century.
I do love some of Tolstoy’s works (Anna Karenina is one of them), but not all of them, and Proust too, but you do need to be careful of which translation you use, as the wrong one (for you) could put you off both of these authors. Not sure how to suggest you find the best translation, because in the end it is a personal matter and we all have our preferences.
Thanks Marina! Yes, really tricky with translations – Phyllis Rose wrote really well about this in THe Shelf, IIRC. And thanks for Goudge recommendation – sounds like I can’t really go wrong with her.
Nice to see Elizabeth Goudge here, though those three are not my favorites. I’d like to put in a word for A City of Bells, which is a charming tale set around a cathedral and bookshop in the city of Wells (called Torminster in the book). I also especially loved the middle Eliot book, Pilgrim’s Inn, AKA The Herb of Grace.
I read Anna Karenina in a recent translation by Rosamund Bartlett and as far as I could tell it was well done. There are so many choices, it must be one of the most variously translated novels of all time. Hope you can find one that works for you.
I really want to read Testament of Youth, too! My e-library does not have it but someday maybe I’ll score a copy.
Yes, Pilgrim’s Inn or Herbof Grace is great. Also, not historical fiction!
Since writing this, I’ve remembered that I have actually read a Goudge novel, I just don’t own it :D A City of Bells sounds wonderful, and I know Wells a bit, but I should start with what I already have, I suppose…
I’ve read Brittain, Tolstoy, and Goudge from your list, and the last is a particular favorite of mine.
I know you don’t want us to recommend more books, but I really liked Testament of Friendship which is about Brittain’s friendship with Winifred Holtby. Brittain tends to be over dramatic, but it talks about how the friendship helped her move back into life after losing her fiancee.
I’m going to do it again, but I greatly preferred War and Peace over Anna Karenina.
And with Goudge, I actually haven’t read two of the ones you mentioned. The Scent of Water is one of the best that I have read, and I’ve read quite a few of her novels. It’s also not historical fiction (a lot of her writing is), so it should be right up your street. It’s about a middle aged career woman who retires to a house in a village. The previous owner suffered from mental illness, and the current owner and the previous owner’s stories are interwoven.
Luckily I also have Testament of Friendship! I wasn’t sure if it mattered which I read first.
And your description of The Scent of Water is perfectly calculated for me to pick it up asap :D
What an interesting list! I have some of the same writers on mine, particularly Hardwick & Ackerley (NYRB Classics does great flash sales & it’s hard not to stock up). I’ve also had Jolly around for many years, unread.
It took me years and 3 or 4 false starts to get Proust. I loved his work. I read the newer translations by different authors (Penguin sponspored the project, I think), which was a little uneven between volumes but worked for me. Lydia Davis did Swann’s Way and was fantastic. Most people, however, seem to prefer some version of Moncrieff’s translations but this never worked for me.
Babbit is o.k. if you’re interested in a certain version of the America of yore (white, small town, midwestern). It’s been years since I read it, however, so not sure how it holds up. This goes for Sinclair Lewis in general IMO, his stuff is like a time capsule.
I prefer War & Peace to Anna Karenina. You can always skip the chapters on T’s philosophy of history without losing the story, which is titanic, awesome & wonderful.
Vera Britain is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I skipped several days from my classes when a student to read it and felt, afterwards, that (1) I’d living in another world and (2) I’d made absolutely the best choice on how to spend my time!
Oo that is a very good recommendation for Brittain, thanks! And I am not against a time capsule Sinclair – sometimes things from a great distance feel less alienating than something from e.g. the 90s, which feels too recent to be so different.
I agree with so much! Yes, please read War and Peace – it’s a real page turner – would be perfect for a long vacation.
Good advice about Sinclair Lewis. If you feel there is nothing wrong with a time capsule, then begin with Main Street.
Testament of Youth is a different kind of time capsule – It will take you into the world of WWI and those everlasting poets.
George Painter’s biography is a wonderful way to begin to read Proust.
Thank you Anon! See note about not buying new books though ;) So probably won’t begin with War and Peace or Main Street, but can take the enthusiasm to the books I do have!
Anna Karenina is fabulous, have never been able to make it all the way through W&P. If even AK is too long, try The Kreuzer Sonata for a Tolstoy starter.
That one isn’t on the shelves :)
I agree with so much!
War and Peace is a page turner, perfect to read during a long vacation,
If you don’t mind time capsules, then Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street might be the place to start.
Testament of Youth is another kind of time capsule. You ‘ll enter the world of those everlastingly revered WWI poets – you might even be inspired to travel to the beautiful cemeteries in France where Roland Leighton and other poets are buried (inscription by Kipling, monument by Lutyens).
George Painter’s biography is a very good way to ease into Proust.
I don’t have Main Street or War and Peace or Painter’s biography, so shall start with the ones I have – but thank you!
Sinclair Lewis wrote some very interesting stuff. May you enjoy his work.
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-authors-i-havent-read-but-want-to/
Thanks Lydia!
I love Elizabeth Jolley and my favorite is Miss Peabody’s Inheritance. Buy or borrow it if you can! Of the titles you have, I’d read Mr Scobie’s Riddle or Foxybaby first. Your post sent me to my bookshelves to make my own list.
Darn it that consensus seems to be for the one I don’t have, but will try one of the two you mention that are there!
As far as Proust goes, i’ve read a few so far, in the revised Moncrieff translation and have no issues with it at all. Tolstoy is excellent and if you have Ann Karenina, go for it! I’ve read Hardwick’s Sleepless Nights and it’s marvellous so I highly recommend!
Excellent, thanks Karen!
I’ve read Tolstoy–War and Peace and Anna Karenina both long ago, and would recommend both as well minus the hunting scenes which I skipped over. Goudge I’ve read only A Little White Horse which was excellent.
Proust has been on my list of to reads from forever, and I always meant to pick up Ackerley because of the dogs and because of India being in some of his books.
Ah yes, I can see myself skipping hunting scenes too.
I find it reassuring that you have names like Vera Brittain on your list, funny how the most obvious people just somehow don’t get read. I started the Russians with my classics club list and have now read 5 – all the usual suspects but Anna Karenina will be on my next list!
Yes, somehow they remain on the list forever until finally I pick them and discover that they’re just as wonderful as everyone says! The usual pattern.
One of my recurring jokes is that I have read Peace, because I attempted to read War and Peace during the Vietnam War, when everyone my age was militantly against war, and so I skipped over all the war parts. Anna Karenina is a better book, I think, although I am considering putting War and Peace on my next Classics Club list just to see how I fare with it these days. I was big into Russian language and literature in my school days, so I’m surprised I’ve gone so long without trying it again. I have to say that I have never been more bored than when I studied Swann’s Way in college, though, skipping to another author on your list. I am not so familiar with some of the others on your list, but I used to love Elizabeth Goudge when I was younger. I was surprised, upon revisiting her, to find she isn’t always the best writer.
Oh shame to hear that about Proust! And funny about Peace :D Tbh the current state of the world might mean it isn’t the best time to try it either.
I hope you love all of these authors when you get to them.
thanks Deanna!
Testament of Youth is a great book – heartbreaking, but such an inspiration! I also love Elizabeth Goudge. So far I’ve only read her historical fiction, which I know isn’t really your thing, but Towers in the Mist is set in Elizabethan Oxford, with some beautiful descriptions of the city and university. I’m sure the three books you already have will be wonderful too.
Thanks Helen! Yes, I will have to be careful with Goudge that I don’t stumble into her historical stuff – as you say, the description of that one makes me v much not want to read it.. :D
I’ve read Proust in the newer Penguin translations and the older Modern Library Moncrief ones, and I think it’s really down to personal preference which one you’d prefer. I’ve started Swann’s Way both times with the older version – it’s more Edwardian and flowery in tone than Lydia Davis’ which is more technically correct and clean – I felt like that helped me get back into the older time period better. Later on when I was really into it, I switched to the newer translation and then went back and forth between them at times. The beginning of Swann’s Way is like the overture to the whole story and I feel that it has to lull you into this dreamlike state, so for me the older translation does this better.
Also the first time I read Anna Karenina I preferred an older translation by Constance Garnett (also a Modern Library edition) and the second time a newer one by Pevear & Volokhonsky.
Really interesting on the different translations, thanks Carolyn. I would also like to try something by Constance Garnett, having read so much by and about her son.
I’ve read 2 of Elizabeth Jolley’s novels and both were quite remarkable. Miss Peabody’s Inheritance I actually read twice and loved both times. It’s comic but also poignant and very clever in its use of meta fiction
I wish I had that one, it seems to be the general favourite!
We read Anna Karenina in my advanced placement English class in high school. Our teacher was Russian and it had been one of his favorite books, but after our class finished dissecting every piece of symbolism in it, he said he never wanted to read it again.
Oh, thanks for linking to my blog. So pleased to have brought Ms Jolley to your attention. Me Scobie’s Riddle is amazing. She really writes about old people so well. I haven’t read the other novels by her that you mention but I’m sure they’re wonderful. My favourite is probably The Well, so if you ever see that so snap it up! I recently read The Orchard Thieves and loved it… a beautiful, almost tortured, portrait of what it is to be a grandmother.
Oh gosh!
I’ve read pretty much nothing on this list, so I’m no help at all! I do hope you enjoy these authors when you read them.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Thanks Susan :D
I love Elizabeth Goudge, despite not sharing her religious views. My story about The Bird in the Tree is being given it as a Sunday school prize by our then vicar, who was rather whacky, shocked many of his elderly ladies but was a rather wise chap. This was just the book for a lonely, romantic child who loved reading and needed to know how to survive in an unsympathetic world. Her characters are emotionally robust and find inner strength and joy in apparently small lives. Sadly I lent my much loved copy and it was lost. I suspect it’s one of those books you needed to find at a young age, but I do hope you enjoy it.
Oh that’s a fun origin – sorry it got lost along the way. I haven;’t seen Christianity prominent in many novels, and would enjoy seeing it there.
Testament of Youth I consider essential reading. I read it at an impressionable age and it shaped my attitude to war (absolute horror), along with Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Somehow I have never returned, even though I now also have Testament of a Generation as well as Testament of Friendship. Last year I read my first Elizabeth Goudge for decades, City of Bells, and though I loved it, I was surprised just how much religious sentiment there was in it. There are quite a few of her books set in and around cathedrals, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I recently inherited a whole boxful of Goudges and, reading other people’s comments, I realise that the ones I have read in the past were all aimed at children or teenagers. I will have to try one of her books with a more adult cast of characters and themes. Proust I haven’t even opened. I have a two-volume set. Paperback, but they are weighty paperbacks. Perhaps I should read them before I become too frail to lift them! War and Peace would definitely have to be an ebook.
I do love a cathedral city novel – possibly just influenced by Miss Hargreaves, my fave novel, being one.
Start with the Vera Britain… trust me on this. I’m really not into non-fiction, but she writes like it is fiction. I loved BOTH Testament of Youth and Testament of Friendship, and they are books I keep on my shelf that I will never give away. Okay, so I let my sister read them both, and she totally adored them as well!
Good to have your vote for it, thanks Davida!
I am gradually trying to read all of Brittain’s work. Testament of Youth is incredible, as was Testament of a Generation. I still haven’t read Testament of Friendship but I HIU. Her fiction is interesting but clunky because it was the ideas she was trying to impart that mattered to her, plot not so much. Her poetry is a mixed bunch as is her other non-fiction writing.
I have also read some Goudge of which one is historical and set on Guernsey in Victorian times so I paeticularly enjoyed that.
I may be alone in this feeling but i was bored witless by Anna Karenina. I coudn’t wait for her to die and the dreariness to end. The ony character I felt sorry for was the porr train driver who was going to suffer but I doubt the author cared. I gave up after a 100 pages and have no intention of ever trying again.
I must say, the comments about Anna Karenina are, on the whole, more negative than I’d anticipated they’d be. Won’t rush to that one!
I read Ackerley’s Hindoo Holiday last month and it was quite interesting and a quick read. I read it as a gateway to A Passage to India (apparently Forster enabled/inspired Ackerley to take the position as secretary to the Prince of a small Indian state). However I didn’t get on as well with the Forster so APTA is still on my list. HH was accessible and readable so at least I have that one done. HH could be problematic depending on how you see his contemporary attitudes to the indigenous population. My final goal is the Raj Quartet and Staying On of Scott,
I read Bagnold’s National Velvet many years ago and it deserves a reread. I have her Great War memoir Happy Foreigner on my TBR mountain. I have read W&P a couple of times in different translations, first Rosemary Edmonds and decades later Anthony Briggs and enjoyed in both times. I tried AK a few times but it never clicked. I have the Pevear & Volkhonsky translation on the shelf waiting.
I was wondering a bit how that one would sound to modern ears, and thought I might go to others first. I didn’t much enjoy A Passage to India, FWIW, but Howards End is brilliant.
I am one who loves Vera Brittain and much of Goudge as well. Unusually, I saw the Testament of Youth BBC miniseries first, then found the book at the library. I really became fascinated by her as a teen and with all the young women trying so hard to get to Oxford. That part made more of an impression on me than her pacifism (at the time) because I was at that age where I was applying or about to apply to Harvard and Yale. It actually broke my heart (spoiler) that when she finally gets there the war breaks out and she cannot enjoy it. I brought my family to see the recent movie and the theater was full of people who just wanted to see the actor from Game of Thrones, which was disappointing.
Goudge is interesting because of the way she infuses her religious views into most of her books. Her two children’s books are classics and they are the only ones I reread often. The Little White Horse is very sentimental and Victorian but at least to me quite delightful. My mother preferred Linnets and Valerians which is more like the non-magic Nesbit books. I can’t distinguish between the different adult titles except The Child from the Sea, which was a big bestseller about Charles II’s mistress and quite compelling. She did make me want to visit Wells, where her family lived.
Interesting, thanks! I am very keen to read more Goudge after seeing the comments – as noted in my edit, turns out I have already read one (!) but it’s one that nobody seems to think is her best. Since I enjoyed it, I assume I’ll love the others!
I have only read from 1, 2, and 8, and highly encourage you to do so. For Proust, at least the fist book, and maybe you’ll catch the bug.
I’m French, so read it all in French. We have a very old English translation at home, and I used it to share some beautiful passages with my English speaking husband, and actually, t was not bad at all.
thanks, that is encouraging!