Not a fanIf that man is the father of the English novel, I wish he had pulled out because Maul Flanders nearly made me drop out of my literature degree in week one. We have personal beef.
Review 1 of 3
Moll Flanders (1722)
Others: Negative These are the true confessions of a remarkable and passionate young woman are thought to have been based on the adventures of a real prisoner in Newgate where Moll was born. ostensibly written as a warning to wrongdoers, the moral of Defoe's candid and cautionary tale is often lost in the sheer vitality of Moll - one of the supreme characters of English comic fiction. Her fortunes and misfortunes - 'twelve years a Whore, five times a Wife (once to her own brother), twelve years a Thief, eight years a transported Felon' - plunge the reader into the exciting world of the eighteenth-century low life.
- ISBN:
- 9781788882057
- Length:
- 308 pages
Lists: …
Similar books
1 of 6
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Gawain Poet
2017 · 68 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThe Green Knight, a mysteriously powerful creature, tests the honor and courage of King Arthur's youngest knight.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists53%Also classics and poetryPersonalize your recommendations47%Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season
Forough Farrokhzad
2022 · 3 reviews
Others: PositiveIn the years since her tragic death in a car accident at age thirty-two in 1967, Forough Farrokhzad has become a poet as iconic and influential as Lorca or Akhmatova, celebrated as a pioneer of modernist Iranian literature and as a leading figure of contemporary world literature. Farrokhzad, as Elizabeth Gray writes in the preface, “remains a beacon to artists, especially women and marginalized artists, who seek freedom in all its forms.” This thoughtfully curated, deftly translated selection of Farrokhzad’s poems includes work from her whole writing life, early to late. Readers will thoroughly treasure this expansive poet of the quotidian; of longing, loss, and desire; of classical reinvention; of lexical variation and sonic beauty; of terrifying wisdom, hope, and grief.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and poetry50%On the same reading listPersonalize your recommendations50%Death in Venice
Thomas Mann
1954 · 404 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveIn DEATH IN VENICE, an elderly, famous, and wealthy writer named Aschenbach goes on vacation. He becomes fascinated with Tadzio, a young teenager who is staying with his family at Aschenbach's hotel. As his obsession grows, and despite warnings that a plague is threatening Venice, Aschenbach remains at the hotel hoping to make a connection with the elusive Tadzio. Mann's novel is celebrated for its subtle characterization, and its exploration of the struggles of the artist--the longing for transcendence and ideal beauty vs. the need to sacrifice for one's art.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists56%Also classicsPersonalize your recommendations44%Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
1861 · 484 pages · 9 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveGreat Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a bildungsroman; a coming-of-age story). It is Dickens' second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes. The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens's most celebrated scenes, starting in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped convict Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is full of extreme imagery – poverty, prison ships and chains, and fights to the death – and has a colourful cast of characters who have entered popular culture. These include the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold Estella, and Joe, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith. Dickens's themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. Great Expectations, which is popular both with readers and literary critics, has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists54%Also classics31%A creator reacted alikePersonalize your recommendations15%Women
Charles Bukowski
1978 · 290 pages · 2 reviews
Others: MixedLow-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last. Now, at fifty, he is reveling in his sudden rock-star life, running three hundred hangovers a year, and maintaining a sex life that would cripple Casanova. With all of Bukowski's trademark humor and gritty, dark honesty, this 1978 follow-up to Post Office and Factotum is an uncompromising account of life on the edge.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and poetry91%On the same reading list7%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations2%Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
1686 · 276 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveDuring one of his several adventurous voyages in the 1600's, an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 5+ of the same lists67%Also classics and poetryPersonalize your recommendations33%
Not a fan