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Underrated novels
Here is a new list from The Guardian (I'll second the call for Alasdair Gray's Lanark). Here is an only slightly older list from New York magazine, I like David Markson too.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 4, 2007 at 01:52 PM in Books | Permalink
Comments
Maybe Flannery O'Connor is underrated in the U.K. I've seen that book on numerous lists of the best works on the 20th Century.
Posted by: Ted Craig at Sep 4, 2007 2:08:25 PM
We were Heroes .Brussig
The Mill by the Floss . George Elliot.
A Farewell to the Arms. Hemingway
A I Lie Dying. The Best Faulkner by far.
The Duel.Joseph Conrad ,far better than the heart of darkness.
Wilhelm Meister. Goethe the best pro market novel ever.
Michael Kolhas. Kleist. On moral duty and the law
Life and Fate. Grossman tghe best russian xx century novel
We , Zemyakyn the original of 1984 and A brave new world
Pantaleon . Vargas LLosa , a volterian novel
Justine . the Marquis of Sade version of Zadig by Voltaire
Dangerous Liason. Laclos.Unknown but for the movies
Trhree Muskeeters By Dumas . a high quality novel
Posted by: juancarlos at Sep 4, 2007 2:13:57 PM
I wonder what the contributors' evidence was for thinking their choices underrated. Even if one thinks a book very good, one does not necessarily ask everyone one knows if they have read it. (I think Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor is a wonderful book; have no idea whether it's well-known.) Literary journalism is confined almost entirely to new releases; the fact that a book is never mentioned in the press doesn't tell one very much. If it's out of print that still doesn't show much: there may be a brisk secondhand trade, but that wouldn't register with its publishers, who really have no way of knowing if there's a market for the book.
Posted by: Helen DeWitt at Sep 4, 2007 4:01:21 PM
I would say R. A. Lafferty's "The Devil is Dead". A bizarre allegorical tale with one of the best openings for a novel, ever.
Posted by: Tim R. Mortiss at Sep 4, 2007 4:26:10 PM
"Far Places" by The Push Kings. Oh wait, that's an album.
Posted by: Paul N at Sep 4, 2007 8:42:50 PM
juancarlos, I am unsure how closely it follows the story but The Duellists is a wonderful movie based on Conrad's story.
Posted by: bob at Sep 5, 2007 4:39:36 AM
Interesting to see that Alasdair Gray's Lanark has crossed the pond.
I am pleased to report that I was the first person to write a graduate thesis on 'The Literature of Alasdair Gray' (MA - University of Durham, UK; 1988) - some of this thesis was re-printed in The Arts of Alasdair Gray (Edinburgh University Press, 1991).
I would also recommend Gray's Unlikely Stories Mostly, and 1982 Janine.
Posted by: Bruce G Charlton at Sep 5, 2007 6:27:39 AM
For better or worse
http://www.complete-review.com/rest/underapp.htm
http://www.complete-review.com/best/underate.html
Posted by: nnyhav at Sep 6, 2007 8:26:58 AM
Wow, I've loved Markson's books for a long time. GLad to see him getting a bit of recognition. But Wittgenstein's Mistress, Reader's Block and Springer's Progress were better than the two works mentioned in the article, in my opinion.
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