Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte
The secret purpose of the best of these lists is not to get the right ranking, but to have a subtext, a theme.
Here is a great one from the Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/art...061083,00.html
I call it great not because I adopt the ranking. I don't. I like how it makes a statement. The subtext? Story over literary pretense. Note Joyce gets the smack down. Ulysses is obligatory, but relegated to number 45, and nothing else from Joyce. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man always shows up on these lists, but not here. Also, there's a heavy bias for novels originally written in English (of course, the Guardian is in London), despite the ironic no. 1, which no one could strongly argue against since it is likely the first Western novel ever written. |
Aargh!
"27. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
The supreme novel of the married woman's passion for a younger man."
Why don't people ever talk about Levin! Seriously, Anna's descent is only used as a foil for Levin's rise! It's the title that throws people off.
__________________
"Now I say that I know the meaning of my life: 'To live for God, for my soul.' And this meaning, in spite of its clearness, is mysterious and marvelous. Such is the meaning of all existence." Levin, Anna Karenina, Part 8, Chapter 12
|