Forgotten but good novels before about 1960
May 2, 2024 8:04 AM Subscribe
I have a book group. Members have some pretty specific preferences and are unfortunately well-read. I'm looking for lesser known classics that meet certain criteria:
1. Published before about 1960 for a variety of reasons, especially cost.
2. Available in inexpensive used paper copies. We can do a little reading of ebooks, but it is fatiguing for some participants.
3. Notably well-written. There are a lot of interesting old books that are just so-so from a literary standpoint, but that's not what we're looking for here.
4. Should NOT have a plot that is basically "a loner whose life is hard either spirals down due to injustice and the human condition or has a life-affirming experience". These get us down.
5. NOT science fiction or fantasy. Pre-1960 thrillers or detective fiction are all right if they meet the other criteria.
We do read a few contemporary books, depressing spiral books, etc, but we have no trouble finding these.
On the one hand, these books often aren't going to align with our politics, but on the other we don't want to read things where racism, anti-semitism, misogyny, etc are constantly foregrounded.
Books/authors that have been a big success: The Raj Quartet*, Arnold Bennett's Clayhanger books, Penelope Fitzgerald, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Toni Morrison, Fielding.
We've read many of the English-language greatest hits of the last 200 years, either in the book group or just as part of general reading. We've read Dickens, Thackeray, Austen, Smollett, the Brontes, Woolf, the Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk, etc. Basically if you'd encounter a writer in an undergraduate survey, we've read them.
There's stuff we'd like to read that is just too expensive - members are mostly on fixed incomes and don't have consistent enough library access that everyone could get the same rare book at the same time, so if something sounds perfect but costs $20, it probably won't work. This has held us back from some translated books we'd like to read.
There must be other books we haven't considered! Do you have favorite lesser classics?
*Seriously, you think it's just a big old potboiler and it sure isn't about India from an Indian standpoint, but if you're looking for a series of books about how participation in colonialism corrupts every enterprise and how you cannot be a "good" colonialist even if you are in fact truly and genuinely a decent person, well, those are your books, especially the first two.
1. Published before about 1960 for a variety of reasons, especially cost.
2. Available in inexpensive used paper copies. We can do a little reading of ebooks, but it is fatiguing for some participants.
3. Notably well-written. There are a lot of interesting old books that are just so-so from a literary standpoint, but that's not what we're looking for here.
4. Should NOT have a plot that is basically "a loner whose life is hard either spirals down due to injustice and the human condition or has a life-affirming experience". These get us down.
5. NOT science fiction or fantasy. Pre-1960 thrillers or detective fiction are all right if they meet the other criteria.
We do read a few contemporary books, depressing spiral books, etc, but we have no trouble finding these.
On the one hand, these books often aren't going to align with our politics, but on the other we don't want to read things where racism, anti-semitism, misogyny, etc are constantly foregrounded.
Books/authors that have been a big success: The Raj Quartet*, Arnold Bennett's Clayhanger books, Penelope Fitzgerald, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Toni Morrison, Fielding.
We've read many of the English-language greatest hits of the last 200 years, either in the book group or just as part of general reading. We've read Dickens, Thackeray, Austen, Smollett, the Brontes, Woolf, the Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk, etc. Basically if you'd encounter a writer in an undergraduate survey, we've read them.
There's stuff we'd like to read that is just too expensive - members are mostly on fixed incomes and don't have consistent enough library access that everyone could get the same rare book at the same time, so if something sounds perfect but costs $20, it probably won't work. This has held us back from some translated books we'd like to read.
There must be other books we haven't considered! Do you have favorite lesser classics?
*Seriously, you think it's just a big old potboiler and it sure isn't about India from an Indian standpoint, but if you're looking for a series of books about how participation in colonialism corrupts every enterprise and how you cannot be a "good" colonialist even if you are in fact truly and genuinely a decent person, well, those are your books, especially the first two.
Not really forgotten, but how about Mary Renault? In particular The King Must Die and The Bull From The Sea, The Praise SInger, The Charioteer...
posted by Rhedyn at 8:10 AM on May 2 [7 favorites]
posted by Rhedyn at 8:10 AM on May 2 [7 favorites]
Early Margaret Drabble books are 1963- 1965. They are very classical in technique and structure. I see copies of A Summer Bird-Cage available online for $5-6.
posted by BibiRose at 8:21 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
posted by BibiRose at 8:21 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
How about the quasi-autobiographical, often silly, the Grass Harp by Truman Capote?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:22 AM on May 2
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:22 AM on May 2
Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes has some supernatural elements, but I would not consider it sci-fi/fantasy.
Vicki Baum's Grand Hotel is a trifle soapy, but well-done, nonetheless.
These are both NYRB re-issues, as "lesser-known but solid works of the earlier 20thC" is their wheelhouse, so I suspect you might find more to your liking in their catalog.
posted by praemunire at 8:25 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
Vicki Baum's Grand Hotel is a trifle soapy, but well-done, nonetheless.
These are both NYRB re-issues, as "lesser-known but solid works of the earlier 20thC" is their wheelhouse, so I suspect you might find more to your liking in their catalog.
posted by praemunire at 8:25 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
Straying further abroad, I wouldn't call these "lesser classics," but maybe in the context of the contemporary Anglophone world: Joseph Roth's Radetzky March and Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country. I have both of these in cheap used paperbacks, as they get taught a lot in foreign-literature college classes, but of course local availability may differ.
Mitteleuropa produced a lot of these, again from the standpoint of the contemporary Anglophone world, but Roth is most likely to turn up in cheap used paperbacks, I think. Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk might be another.
posted by praemunire at 8:30 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Mitteleuropa produced a lot of these, again from the standpoint of the contemporary Anglophone world, but Roth is most likely to turn up in cheap used paperbacks, I think. Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk might be another.
posted by praemunire at 8:30 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
"To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Published July 1960 and I believe widely available in paperback.
That was my fav but you could also try these as well:
Stella Gibbons - While she's best known for "Cold Comfort Farm," her other works like "Nightingale Wood" and "Westwood" might be worth exploring. They offer satirical yet charming insights into English society of the time.
E.F. Benson - His "Mapp and Lucia" series offers delightful social comedy set in small-town England. The characters are quirky, and the humor is sharp.
Barbara Pym - Her novels, such as "Excellent Women" and "Less than Angels," provide witty observations of middle-class life in mid-20th century England. Her writing is subtle and astute.
Elizabeth von Arnim - "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" is a delightful semi-autobiographical work that offers a humorous and insightful look into the life of an Englishwoman living in Germany.
Georgette Heyer - If your group is open to historical fiction, Heyer's Regency romances like "Regency Buck" or "Frederica" are entertaining, well-written, and offer a vivid portrayal of the era.
Dorothy L. Sayers - Known for her Lord Peter Wimsey detective series, Sayers' novels like "Gaudy Night" offer not only engaging mysteries but also sharp social commentary and well-crafted characters.
Josephine Tey - Her mystery novels, such as "The Daughter of Time" and "Brat Farrar," are cleverly plotted and offer unique perspectives on historical events.
Anthony Trollope - While he's not exactly lesser-known, his works beyond the Barsetshire and Palliser series, such as "The Way We Live Now" or "Orley Farm," might offer fresh avenues for discussion.
These authors and works should be relatively affordable in used paper copies and offer rich literary experiences without necessarily fitting into the typical "loner spirals down" plot.
posted by bkeene12 at 8:35 AM on May 2 [7 favorites]
That was my fav but you could also try these as well:
Stella Gibbons - While she's best known for "Cold Comfort Farm," her other works like "Nightingale Wood" and "Westwood" might be worth exploring. They offer satirical yet charming insights into English society of the time.
E.F. Benson - His "Mapp and Lucia" series offers delightful social comedy set in small-town England. The characters are quirky, and the humor is sharp.
Barbara Pym - Her novels, such as "Excellent Women" and "Less than Angels," provide witty observations of middle-class life in mid-20th century England. Her writing is subtle and astute.
Elizabeth von Arnim - "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" is a delightful semi-autobiographical work that offers a humorous and insightful look into the life of an Englishwoman living in Germany.
Georgette Heyer - If your group is open to historical fiction, Heyer's Regency romances like "Regency Buck" or "Frederica" are entertaining, well-written, and offer a vivid portrayal of the era.
Dorothy L. Sayers - Known for her Lord Peter Wimsey detective series, Sayers' novels like "Gaudy Night" offer not only engaging mysteries but also sharp social commentary and well-crafted characters.
Josephine Tey - Her mystery novels, such as "The Daughter of Time" and "Brat Farrar," are cleverly plotted and offer unique perspectives on historical events.
Anthony Trollope - While he's not exactly lesser-known, his works beyond the Barsetshire and Palliser series, such as "The Way We Live Now" or "Orley Farm," might offer fresh avenues for discussion.
These authors and works should be relatively affordable in used paper copies and offer rich literary experiences without necessarily fitting into the typical "loner spirals down" plot.
posted by bkeene12 at 8:35 AM on May 2 [7 favorites]
Peyton Place. Published in 1956, this book has gotten a reputation as being pablum, but it's a fascinating look at life is small town America around the time of World War II, and it deals with some very difficult social issues, things we are still grappling with. It really is subversive in its way. I was shocked when I read it a few years ago.
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. Published in 1962. Some might count this as "a loner whose life is hard either spirals down due to injustice" but it's so much more than that, including a look at attitudes towards women in the 1950s, the history of the Communist Party in Britain, and mother/daughter relationships, to name just a few. Plus hugely influential and written by a Nobel laureate.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:35 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. Published in 1962. Some might count this as "a loner whose life is hard either spirals down due to injustice" but it's so much more than that, including a look at attitudes towards women in the 1950s, the history of the Communist Party in Britain, and mother/daughter relationships, to name just a few. Plus hugely influential and written by a Nobel laureate.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:35 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
I was surprised and delighted to enjoy The Pursuit of Love and its sequel. These books are closely based on real life and they are just the worst people, in a delightful aristocratic way.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:37 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 8:37 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
Sienkiewicz may also be available in cheap paperback, especially Quo Vadis. Big long books but very readable, Nobel prize winner.
Wilkie Collins may be worth trying - technically pulpy masteries but quite complex for the genre.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 8:38 AM on May 2
Wilkie Collins may be worth trying - technically pulpy masteries but quite complex for the genre.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 8:38 AM on May 2
Nevil Shute, especially his last dozen books (although we'd have to exclude On The Beach which ends with some major spiraling down. Unfortunately that's his novel that everybody knows, because of the movie.) But Round The Bend, The Rainbow and the Rose, Trustee From The Toolroom? All great stuff, which doesn't deserve being forgotten. And all still in print, via Pan? Not sure about that.
posted by Rash at 8:44 AM on May 2 [7 favorites]
posted by Rash at 8:44 AM on May 2 [7 favorites]
John P Marquand, The Late George Apley; H M Pullman, Esq. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the first one. You might look up best selling novels per year/decade on Wiki.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:46 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:46 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
+1 to suggestions for Stella Gibbons and Barbara Pym
Georgette Heyer is a notorious post-World War II anti-Semite and I don't think would fit your group well.
I would also suggest Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Shirley Jackson if you have an interest in horror/creepy, Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier for a thriller. I realize those are 'undergraduate survey' type recommendations, but aren't mentioned in your question. The other books by Jackson, Hurston, and DuMaurier are less widely read and very good too.
posted by lizard music at 8:49 AM on May 2 [8 favorites]
Georgette Heyer is a notorious post-World War II anti-Semite and I don't think would fit your group well.
I would also suggest Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Shirley Jackson if you have an interest in horror/creepy, Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier for a thriller. I realize those are 'undergraduate survey' type recommendations, but aren't mentioned in your question. The other books by Jackson, Hurston, and DuMaurier are less widely read and very good too.
posted by lizard music at 8:49 AM on May 2 [8 favorites]
Somerset Maugham could work for this group. During his life he described himself as "in the very first row of the second-raters"; personally I think he's a shade better than that.
Of Human Bondage is the big stodgy classic, but The Razor's Edge or The Moon and Sixpence might be a better fit for your group. Both have colonialism-adjacent themes but nothing truly egregious in the context of the era, as far as I recall.
posted by terretu at 8:55 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]
Of Human Bondage is the big stodgy classic, but The Razor's Edge or The Moon and Sixpence might be a better fit for your group. Both have colonialism-adjacent themes but nothing truly egregious in the context of the era, as far as I recall.
posted by terretu at 8:55 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]
Yes to Lolly Willowes! I actually found my copy in a Little Free Library a few years ago after hearing about it. I love coincidence.
posted by Kitteh at 9:01 AM on May 2
posted by Kitteh at 9:01 AM on May 2
These seem kinda obvious - not forgotten - so probably you already read them but maybe there is a novel or two in here you haven't read yet? Graham Greene, Highsmith, Nabokov, Jack London, Nancy Mitford, Orwell, Astrid Lindgren. I just finished the newly reissued Seventh Cross which I don't think was well remembered in the US before the re-issue. It's kind of an exciting adventure as well as brutal tale of a communist fleeing a nazi camp, but it may or may not be a depressing spiral.. It has elements of that anyway. I do have some post-war faves but I guess they basically all have depressing-spiral at their hearts, given the political moment that was.
posted by latkes at 9:04 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
posted by latkes at 9:04 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
Raymond Chandler. The Big Sleep is probably his most well known (due to the excellent film), but they're all pretty good!
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:15 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:15 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
Rumer Godden, particularly In This House of Brede
Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver books are light mysteries, The Gazebo is one of my favorites, nicely twisty with great character sketches.
Paul Gallico wrote a lot of books, including the Mrs Harris books, and The Posiedon adventur.
Anything by Gerald Durrell.
posted by Enid Lareg at 9:18 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]
Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver books are light mysteries, The Gazebo is one of my favorites, nicely twisty with great character sketches.
Paul Gallico wrote a lot of books, including the Mrs Harris books, and The Posiedon adventur.
Anything by Gerald Durrell.
posted by Enid Lareg at 9:18 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]
Oh Pale Horse Pale Rider is moody but not spiraling. I think this one meets your criteria.
posted by latkes at 9:21 AM on May 2
posted by latkes at 9:21 AM on May 2
I enjoyed Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker, originally published in 1944. It looks like inexpensive used copies are available. The young woman protagonist and her mother are unremarkably competent and confident in a way that surprised me a little, given when the book was published.
posted by Redstart at 9:25 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
posted by Redstart at 9:25 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
This is precisely what the Backlisted podcast tries to answer.
posted by dobbs at 9:32 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by dobbs at 9:32 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Perhaps you've already read it but I recommend Pulitzer Prize winning 1924 novel So Big by Edna Ferber.
posted by paradeofblimps at 9:33 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by paradeofblimps at 9:33 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Boilerpress brings forgotten and often difficult to find books back into print. They sell packs of four books together for £45 (~$56) including shipping. You could also directly contact them for a bulk price.
posted by Lucubrator at 9:34 AM on May 2
posted by Lucubrator at 9:34 AM on May 2
Perhaps some Willa Cather? My Antonia is where I started.
posted by PussKillian at 9:45 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by PussKillian at 9:45 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Taylor Caldwell seems to have been all but forgotten. She's a terrific novelist.
posted by Czjewel at 9:49 AM on May 2
posted by Czjewel at 9:49 AM on May 2
Thomas Mann?
I still haven't finished Buddenbrook, but both The Magic Mountain and Death in Venice were good reads for me.
And speaking of classic books that became classic films, The Leopard is a truly great novel.
posted by mumimor at 9:54 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
I still haven't finished Buddenbrook, but both The Magic Mountain and Death in Venice were good reads for me.
And speaking of classic books that became classic films, The Leopard is a truly great novel.
posted by mumimor at 9:54 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
For a very mellow novel loosely based on her ancestors, Jessamyn West‘s Friendly Persuasion about a Quaker farming family in the time of the Civil War, and the sequel Except For Me and Thee.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:59 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:59 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
I was surprised and delighted to enjoy The Pursuit of Love and its sequel. These books are closely based on real life
A word of warning: I will say that I found the casual treatment of (background, off-screen) sexual abuse in Love in a Cold Climate very offputting, to the point that I didn't finish what is, after all, a short book. I think it reflects more the fucked-up nature of that family in particular and that culture at that time than any uniquely oblivious or cruel quality in the writer (she writes from the female characters' POV generally), and it's not the focus, but I was overcome by a feeling of "man, I don't want to be in this world, this isn't fun," and I suspect those more sensitive to such issues than me might feel the same.
posted by praemunire at 9:59 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
A word of warning: I will say that I found the casual treatment of (background, off-screen) sexual abuse in Love in a Cold Climate very offputting, to the point that I didn't finish what is, after all, a short book. I think it reflects more the fucked-up nature of that family in particular and that culture at that time than any uniquely oblivious or cruel quality in the writer (she writes from the female characters' POV generally), and it's not the focus, but I was overcome by a feeling of "man, I don't want to be in this world, this isn't fun," and I suspect those more sensitive to such issues than me might feel the same.
posted by praemunire at 9:59 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
They were published in the 1960s-1970s, so maybe not quite fitting your criteria, but Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles series? Historical fiction, very well researched and well-written, full of great characters and meaty plots. Plenty of used paperbacks at under $10. I prefer the prequel series, The House of Niccolo, but those were published later on.
posted by yasaman at 10:23 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
posted by yasaman at 10:23 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
Hey, since Gerald Durrell is mentioned above, his brother Larry (Lawrence) wrote Justine, which is a classic (I found the rest of The Alexandria Quartet not as interesting, except for completion).
Since I've mentioned a series, here are two good long series with suggested parts:
Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time series is swell. For one title, A Buyer's Market is the first one that I read and I think's it the best of all.
C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series is also something. The Light and The Dark is my favourite.
As always , Graves' I Claudius and the sequel are personal favourites of mine.
posted by ovvl at 10:27 AM on May 2 [6 favorites]
Since I've mentioned a series, here are two good long series with suggested parts:
Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time series is swell. For one title, A Buyer's Market is the first one that I read and I think's it the best of all.
C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series is also something. The Light and The Dark is my favourite.
As always , Graves' I Claudius and the sequel are personal favourites of mine.
posted by ovvl at 10:27 AM on May 2 [6 favorites]
Seconding Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier) and I, Claudius (Robert Graves) as great book club reads!
posted by paper scissors sock at 10:33 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
posted by paper scissors sock at 10:33 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
Lolly Willowes
The Dud Avocado
Really any Dawn Powell.
It's post 1960 but I really cannot recommend Fran Ross's Oreo enough
Barbara Pym. Patricia Highsmith. Dorothy Hughes. Elizabeth Taylor. Jean Stafford.
What you're describing is essentially what my book club loves. I know you said no sci-fi/fantasty but this is also where I have to say that Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet is an absolute delight.
I realize this is going to feel very NYRB classics heavy, but they put out a lot of these (you can get some good ideas from scrolling their catalog--see also Penguin Modern Classics, McNally Editions, and Dalkey Archive Essentials, all of which include books in translation)
posted by thivaia at 10:44 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
The Dud Avocado
Really any Dawn Powell.
It's post 1960 but I really cannot recommend Fran Ross's Oreo enough
Barbara Pym. Patricia Highsmith. Dorothy Hughes. Elizabeth Taylor. Jean Stafford.
What you're describing is essentially what my book club loves. I know you said no sci-fi/fantasty but this is also where I have to say that Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet is an absolute delight.
I realize this is going to feel very NYRB classics heavy, but they put out a lot of these (you can get some good ideas from scrolling their catalog--see also Penguin Modern Classics, McNally Editions, and Dalkey Archive Essentials, all of which include books in translation)
posted by thivaia at 10:44 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
Is children's literature off the table? The Pushcart War is delightful, has been reissued multiple times (lots of cheap used copies), formally innovative and politically astute.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:46 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:46 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
I am not going to be able to describe what makes this novel so terrific, but I think you would really enjoy South Riding by Winifred Holtby. It's set in Yorkshire in the 1930s and was published in 1936, and it loosely follows the local county council as it makes planning decisions that are going to affect the fortunes of everyone in the area. There are a handful of main characters, but it also radically perspective hops, so you get inside the heads of people from all walks of life. It's a remarkably humane novel: Holtby sympathetically depicts people with whom she clearly disagrees politically, like the member of the local gentry who is trying desperately to hang on to his heavily-mortgaged estate, and she lets the reader see the humanity of people whom she clearly considers fairly villainous, like a lay preacher who thinks of himself as a victim of a seductive temptress even as the reader realizes he's abusive and predatory. It's definitely, profoundly not a "loner spirals down due to injustice" kind of novel, but it is a bit death-haunted, because Holtby was dying when she wrote it (it was published posthumously), and also because she was a political radical and former international journalist who very much saw the writing on the wall with respect to the Second World War. I didn't find it depressing, but there are a couple of characters who are sick, and some characters, including an important one, die over the course of the novel.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:04 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:04 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
Laurie Lee? The classic is "Cider with Rosie", but I have only read "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" which I enjoyed. I was also going to suggest Erskine Childers "The Riddle of the Sands", which is a spy novel, so very much in the thriller genre. On the offchance that you haven't read her already, Elizabeth Gaskell is a good choice probably starting with "North and South".
posted by plonkee at 11:39 AM on May 2
posted by plonkee at 11:39 AM on May 2
Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (1889) is a light and gentle story about not much of anything. It's available on Project Gutenberg and as an audiobook on Librevox.
Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time series is a lot (12 books) but available fairly cheaply used and each books is a quick read. It pairs well with
Marcel Proust Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time is widely available relatively cheaply in the Moncrief/Kilmartin edition. It will be more expensive, but your group can easily spend 9 months reading it (at about 10 pages /day) and the book rewards that kind of leisurely journey.
The first one is breezy and light, the latter two are mountains, but well worth the climb.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:54 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time series is a lot (12 books) but available fairly cheaply used and each books is a quick read. It pairs well with
Marcel Proust Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time is widely available relatively cheaply in the Moncrief/Kilmartin edition. It will be more expensive, but your group can easily spend 9 months reading it (at about 10 pages /day) and the book rewards that kind of leisurely journey.
The first one is breezy and light, the latter two are mountains, but well worth the climb.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:54 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
I came to suggest Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and was pleased to see it mentioned above.
posted by Sassyfras at 12:04 PM on May 2 [3 favorites]
posted by Sassyfras at 12:04 PM on May 2 [3 favorites]
The Woman Chaser by Charles Willeford is a great pulp crime novel
posted by Chenko at 12:17 PM on May 2
posted by Chenko at 12:17 PM on May 2
I didn't know about Frans G. Bengtsson's The Long Ships (1941; English translation by Michael Meyer 1954) until someone recommended it in another thread here. It's a good adventure story and a superb, lyrical, funny translation.
posted by offog at 1:04 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by offog at 1:04 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Another shout for The Leopard, which is great.
And I wouldn’t normally suggest this for a book group because it’s a real doorstop, but you’ve read some other big C19th novels, so you could look at The Maias by José Maria de Eça de Queiroz. It’s a big sprawling Portuguese novel from 1888 which I enjoyed. I don’t know how easily available copies will be, though.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:06 PM on May 2 [1 favorite]
And I wouldn’t normally suggest this for a book group because it’s a real doorstop, but you’ve read some other big C19th novels, so you could look at The Maias by José Maria de Eça de Queiroz. It’s a big sprawling Portuguese novel from 1888 which I enjoyed. I don’t know how easily available copies will be, though.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:06 PM on May 2 [1 favorite]
Many of Virago's Modern Classics series would probably fit the bill- that whole line is about reprinting unfairly forgotten books by women.
posted by Shark Hat at 1:16 PM on May 2 [4 favorites]
posted by Shark Hat at 1:16 PM on May 2 [4 favorites]
Oooh oooh! Lost Horizon! It's so great. Or, Kristin Lavransdattar, a historical epic that was huge in the 20s and which my mother made me read at age 13 for no discernible reason. I hated it but it's stuck with me. I recall it as being pretty dark.
Going to enthusiastically second Doris Lessing; she is unfairly often overlooked nowadays and she is a great, great writer. The Golden Notebook is not one my favorites of hers* but it was so enormously influential. Also, nthing recommendations for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (careful, though, there's some major 1930s racism in there) Shirley Jackson, Anthony Powell, Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Graves, Nancy Mitford, Lawrence Durrell (who was an absolute horrifying shit of a human being, so always keep that in mind, but Justine is an amazing novel) and maybe Gerald as well - My Family and Other Animals is light and charming and on PBS in a weirdly updated feel good 2020s version that elides a lot of the somewhat problematic stuff from the text. I reread it in conjunction with watching the show and the contrast was really interesting. And, how about I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which is also charming and light.
Not a novel, but reads like one: Seven Years in Tibet and it's good to read alongside Lost Horizon.
And, since you did the Raj Quartet, you might want to consider Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, although it's much later than 1960 I think it's a good counterpoint. There are approximately 800 billion paperback copies of Midnight's Children out there in the world and I loved that book back in the day.
* So this is not for your book club, because it's both well after 1960 and science fiction but I love the Canopus in Argos series so very much that I must recommend it in general for anyone who may not have come across it.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:16 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Going to enthusiastically second Doris Lessing; she is unfairly often overlooked nowadays and she is a great, great writer. The Golden Notebook is not one my favorites of hers* but it was so enormously influential. Also, nthing recommendations for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (careful, though, there's some major 1930s racism in there) Shirley Jackson, Anthony Powell, Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Graves, Nancy Mitford, Lawrence Durrell (who was an absolute horrifying shit of a human being, so always keep that in mind, but Justine is an amazing novel) and maybe Gerald as well - My Family and Other Animals is light and charming and on PBS in a weirdly updated feel good 2020s version that elides a lot of the somewhat problematic stuff from the text. I reread it in conjunction with watching the show and the contrast was really interesting. And, how about I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which is also charming and light.
Not a novel, but reads like one: Seven Years in Tibet and it's good to read alongside Lost Horizon.
And, since you did the Raj Quartet, you might want to consider Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, although it's much later than 1960 I think it's a good counterpoint. There are approximately 800 billion paperback copies of Midnight's Children out there in the world and I loved that book back in the day.
* So this is not for your book club, because it's both well after 1960 and science fiction but I love the Canopus in Argos series so very much that I must recommend it in general for anyone who may not have come across it.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:16 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
You could try Chaka by Thomas Mofolo, as well. It’s about a violent warlord, so content warning for various kinds of violence, but I thought it was quite something. From Lesotho, published in 1939.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:18 PM on May 2
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:18 PM on May 2
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Good Earth
The Grapes of Wrath
I, Claudius
Middlemarch
The Age of Innocence
The Forsyte Saga
Gaudy Night
I thought of these and then deleted them because of the ‘no down-up arc’ criteria:
Remains of the Day
Rebecca
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
posted by bq at 1:32 PM on May 2
The Good Earth
The Grapes of Wrath
I, Claudius
Middlemarch
The Age of Innocence
The Forsyte Saga
Gaudy Night
I thought of these and then deleted them because of the ‘no down-up arc’ criteria:
Remains of the Day
Rebecca
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
posted by bq at 1:32 PM on May 2
George Perec’s Life a users manual — a narrative tapestry of an apartment building in Paris. Used available for under 10 bucks
posted by Lucubrator at 2:01 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by Lucubrator at 2:01 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Passing, by Nella Larsen. Published in 1929, written by a Black woman. Harrowing, complex, short, well worth reading.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 2:47 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 2:47 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
If you're open to a short story collection as your selection, how about Saki? Wonderful, witty, and delightfully deft at sketching out memorable characters in amazingly few lines.
I'd recommend Beasts and Super-Beasts, chiefly because it has several of my favorite stories (e.g. "The Story-Teller" and "The Schartz-Metterklume Method").
His stories are generally in the public domain so finding e-book collections is cheap and easy, but they're also frequently collected in "complete works" collections that should be easily and affordably found new or used.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:52 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
I'd recommend Beasts and Super-Beasts, chiefly because it has several of my favorite stories (e.g. "The Story-Teller" and "The Schartz-Metterklume Method").
His stories are generally in the public domain so finding e-book collections is cheap and easy, but they're also frequently collected in "complete works" collections that should be easily and affordably found new or used.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:52 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths (1950), Barbara Comyns. A young, artsy couple gets married; it doesn't go well.
Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy (1960-1965), Olivia Manning. A young couple gets married and moves to Bucharest in 1939; it doesn't go well.
The advantage to Fortunes of War is that there was a TV series around 40 years ago, so used copies with an earnest looking Emma Thompson on the cover are plentiful and cheap.
posted by betweenthebars at 3:08 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy (1960-1965), Olivia Manning. A young couple gets married and moves to Bucharest in 1939; it doesn't go well.
The advantage to Fortunes of War is that there was a TV series around 40 years ago, so used copies with an earnest looking Emma Thompson on the cover are plentiful and cheap.
posted by betweenthebars at 3:08 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
If you liked The Raj Quartet, I feel certain you would also like A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. It is one of my top 5 books of all time (as is Raj Quartet!).
posted by mulcahy at 4:22 PM on May 2 [4 favorites]
posted by mulcahy at 4:22 PM on May 2 [4 favorites]
Seconding the reccommendations for Lolly Willowes; it is also worth looking out for Sylvia Townsend Warner's other novels, especiallyThe Corner That Held Them, about a medieval convent deep in the countryside, where nothing much happens. If you like Somerset Maugham, you may also like Anthony
Burgess' Earthly Powers, which is a sort of heavily fictionalised biography of Maugham, and has one of the best opening lines ever (look it up).
Err, I should also mention that Saki, while excellent, can be very antisemitic indeed, even by the standards of his time, so choose your stories carefully. That said, Sredni Vashtar and The Open Window are some of the best short stories ever written.
posted by Fuchsoid at 4:38 PM on May 2
Burgess' Earthly Powers, which is a sort of heavily fictionalised biography of Maugham, and has one of the best opening lines ever (look it up).
Err, I should also mention that Saki, while excellent, can be very antisemitic indeed, even by the standards of his time, so choose your stories carefully. That said, Sredni Vashtar and The Open Window are some of the best short stories ever written.
posted by Fuchsoid at 4:38 PM on May 2
Ice by Anna Kavan
someone already mentioned Patricia Highsmith
I'm a big fan of James Jones - From Here to Eternity, Some Came Running, Thin Red Line
Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky
Lawrence Durrel's Alexandria Quartet
Samuel Beckett's novels - Malloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable
Dashiell Hammet
Kipling - I enjoyed Kim a great deal
posted by dunhamrc at 9:00 PM on May 2
someone already mentioned Patricia Highsmith
I'm a big fan of James Jones - From Here to Eternity, Some Came Running, Thin Red Line
Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky
Lawrence Durrel's Alexandria Quartet
Samuel Beckett's novels - Malloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable
Dashiell Hammet
Kipling - I enjoyed Kim a great deal
posted by dunhamrc at 9:00 PM on May 2
T. H. White is best known for The Once and Future King, but that's fantasy, so why not go off the beaten path and try his semi-detective novel Darkness at Pemberley? ("Semi" because all the crime parts are actually wrapped up pretty early in the book, and then the story gets wilder from there.)
Will second Three Men in a Boat, as good a comic travelog as will ever be written.
Hesitant to suggest, because I do think it veers off into gothic fantasy at times, but since you mentioned Udolpho and The Monk: Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is wild (if really really long). Like The Canterbury Tales on meth. Also, a hell of a good movie.
posted by the tartare yolk at 9:04 PM on May 2 [3 favorites]
Will second Three Men in a Boat, as good a comic travelog as will ever be written.
Hesitant to suggest, because I do think it veers off into gothic fantasy at times, but since you mentioned Udolpho and The Monk: Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is wild (if really really long). Like The Canterbury Tales on meth. Also, a hell of a good movie.
posted by the tartare yolk at 9:04 PM on May 2 [3 favorites]
There's quite a lot of early- and mid-century English-language novels by women that are excellent and yet strangely (?) forgotten.
My book club has been running for 27 years now, and we're often looking for the same kind of thing that OP is looking for.
I can second the recommendations for Lolly Willowes, Ex-Wife, and Gaudy Night (although in my circles Sayers is hardly unknown).
I can also add:
The Time of Man by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, set in Kentucky/Tennessee in the early 1900s. I thought it was remarkably powerful, and claustrophobically parochial.
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald, which is significantly less twee than the plot summary might make one think.
House Made of Dawn by M. Scott Momaday, first novel by a Native American to win the Pulitzer. I liked it more than anyone else in the club did, but it is very consciously literary.
Tomorrow Will be Better by Betty Smith, which was well-written but pretty grim.
Germinal by Zola, so very well-written but shockingly disturbing and grim. Won't reread that.
As a counterpoint, Ladies' Paradise by Zola is much more optimistic. Really I cannot recommend Zola enough, he's so good.
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazard. Set in SE Asia after the end of WWII. Hazard is another writer who has been kind of forgotten.
In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden, which I just really loved.
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis. Almost cynical enough for the current age.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Both lesser-known, and I think both rather better than Wuthering Heights.
So Big by Edna Ferber.
Sorry I cannot dig up all the links, but nearly all of this is in print.
posted by suelac at 9:09 PM on May 2 [4 favorites]
My book club has been running for 27 years now, and we're often looking for the same kind of thing that OP is looking for.
I can second the recommendations for Lolly Willowes, Ex-Wife, and Gaudy Night (although in my circles Sayers is hardly unknown).
I can also add:
The Time of Man by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, set in Kentucky/Tennessee in the early 1900s. I thought it was remarkably powerful, and claustrophobically parochial.
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald, which is significantly less twee than the plot summary might make one think.
House Made of Dawn by M. Scott Momaday, first novel by a Native American to win the Pulitzer. I liked it more than anyone else in the club did, but it is very consciously literary.
Tomorrow Will be Better by Betty Smith, which was well-written but pretty grim.
Germinal by Zola, so very well-written but shockingly disturbing and grim. Won't reread that.
As a counterpoint, Ladies' Paradise by Zola is much more optimistic. Really I cannot recommend Zola enough, he's so good.
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazard. Set in SE Asia after the end of WWII. Hazard is another writer who has been kind of forgotten.
In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden, which I just really loved.
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis. Almost cynical enough for the current age.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Both lesser-known, and I think both rather better than Wuthering Heights.
So Big by Edna Ferber.
Sorry I cannot dig up all the links, but nearly all of this is in print.
posted by suelac at 9:09 PM on May 2 [4 favorites]
As a follow-up, the New Yorker often does reconsiderations of writers who are less well-known, which is where we found Ursula Parrot. And I found a great article in The Guardian some years ago with a list of semi-forgotten women novelists, nearly all of whom were well-worth reading.
I'm still astonished that Elizabeth Madox Roberts has been forgotten: she's very good indeed, but was apparently written off as a regional novelist.
posted by suelac at 9:12 PM on May 2
I'm still astonished that Elizabeth Madox Roberts has been forgotten: she's very good indeed, but was apparently written off as a regional novelist.
posted by suelac at 9:12 PM on May 2
Seconding The Once and Future King. This is actually a collection of four novels. Only the first one, The Sword in the Stone, has fantasy elements, and is often considered a children's book. The other three books have no fantasy, adult themes, and are quite a bit darker.
posted by JonJacky at 9:15 PM on May 2 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 9:15 PM on May 2 [1 favorite]
Two imprints that publish long out of print books that might be of interest as a source for future reads: Persephone Books, which is mostly focused on mid-century women's fiction and McNally Editions, which has a slightly broader bent. For Persephone, I have too many recommendations to list, but maybe start with The Fortnight in September. For McNally Editions, maybe Rattlebone. (All of these books are widely available online).
posted by MeadowlarkMaude at 10:42 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by MeadowlarkMaude at 10:42 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
If you haven't read it already, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
posted by emd3737 at 3:58 AM on May 3 [2 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 3:58 AM on May 3 [2 favorites]
Yes yes yes to I Capture the Castle!
I can't believe this ask has gotten this long without someone mentioning The Diary of A Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield. So funny and relatable from the 1930s.
posted by Jenny'sCricket at 5:24 AM on May 3 [4 favorites]
I can't believe this ask has gotten this long without someone mentioning The Diary of A Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield. So funny and relatable from the 1930s.
posted by Jenny'sCricket at 5:24 AM on May 3 [4 favorites]
You might have success with minor classic Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell. It's available via IA.
posted by codhavereturned at 5:31 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]
posted by codhavereturned at 5:31 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]
Sinclair Lewis!!! Babbitt, Elmer Gantry, Main Street, It Can’t Happen Here—all great!
posted by epj at 12:02 PM on May 3
posted by epj at 12:02 PM on May 3
Ice by Anna Kavan mentioned above is unfortunately about a spiraling loner and is possibly science fiction! (But is also interesting and formally experimental). This question is generating such cool answers!
posted by latkes at 9:19 PM on May 3
posted by latkes at 9:19 PM on May 3
As a resource, I recommend that you peruse Another Look Book Club from Stanford University for books for my book club. They are worthy and rather short novels from the past that maybe have fallen from favor. They should be widely available enough to get them secondhand (though not past best sellers so they won't be everywhere but they are more likely also to not have been read by your members in the past).
I enjoyed So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell and The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis, which I selected from the book club. I've also read a handful of others in my past reading life.
posted by vunder at 1:09 PM on May 4
I enjoyed So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell and The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis, which I selected from the book club. I've also read a handful of others in my past reading life.
posted by vunder at 1:09 PM on May 4
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It's in the public domain so you can download a copy for free off Project Gutenberg, get one of your library's copies, or buy the paperback for quite cheap.
Also it's a fun read.
posted by phunniemee at 8:08 AM on May 2 [3 favorites]