I said I would post the next 5 books on Monday, but I realized today that Monday is Spring Break and I will not be coming into my office so I will post them today. How can you top the top the last five, it was difficult, but I think I have been successful. So here you go the top five most important novels.
5. Charles Dickens. Again I could not come up with just one. When all his works are put together I think he may be the greatest author of all time. Most of his works were a social commentary on life in Victorian England and the greatness of their poverty which tended to lead to crime. His other great importance is his sheer volume of works and how his characters are such a part of everyday life. How many people every Christmas watch some version of the Christmas Carol, from Scrogged to the Muppets Christmas Carol (my personal favorite version). I will just name a few, but there are many more. Many of these have been made into classic plays and films
Oliver Twist, Christmas Carol, Davis Copperfield, Great Expectations, and my personal favorite, Tale of Two Cities.
4. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo, 1862. I think I am biased towards the book, not so much because of the book, but because I love the play so much. To me the play is hands down, no comparison, the best Broadway play ever. But the reason the play is so good, yes the music, but other plays like Phantom have just as good of music, but it is the story. Les Miserables dives into the biblical ideas of good v evil. As a religious man, I like how it talks about repentance, and how justice and mercy work together. I look at it as a religious text. For those of you who LDS, you might know Vaughn J. Featherstone. I heard him talk once when he said that Les Mis was the most inspired work after the standard works of the gospel. With that alone it makes my top ten.
3. Last of the Mohicans (also the Deer slayer) James Fennimore Cooper, 1826. These two books are so important because they started America’s greatest gift to the literary and movie world, The Western. Most genres are universal, but not the western, it is uniquely American. By 1826 in Europe there was no wilderness. If you walked into the woods you come to another town or down the road another country. Most of the land was taken. If you lived in England in 1826 and did not own land, then you would never own land. But in America if you started walking west, but the time you reached western NY or PA you were in the sticks, if you kept going you were in the middle of nowhere, the wilderness, the end of civilization. Cooper created the character of the tough loner, who came from the wilderness and without saying much could solve everyone’s problems. His characters of Natty Bumppo and Hawkeye were the first John Wayne, the first cowboy. Take a classic western like Shane. The tough stranger rides out of the wilderness, does not talk much, but has the skills necessary to get the job done. This is the same story just told in a different way than Last of the Mohicans. The Western is Americans most authentic expression and it began with Last of the Mohicans. By the way the 1992 movie based on the book staring Daniel Day Lewis, may just top the list of my favorite movies.
2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852. Most are familiar with this story. It describes the horrors of slavery and was meant to awaken the American people against its evils. There is so much that I can say about the importance of this book, and it could be in the number one slot, but I will give one quote that justifies its high position. When President Lincoln met Stowe for the first time he said to her, so you are the little lady that caused this great war. If that is not power, than what is.
1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1884. Not only is this my favorite book, but I think Twain is the most important American author. No writer has had more insight than Twain, and he expressed it with so much humor. Any major subject during his life time, you can find a quote from Twain. This is not from Huck Finn, but my favorite line comes from Roughing It. Twain said Mormon women were the homeliest women he had every seen, and why a man would want to marry one, let alone two or three, was beyond him. Not important, just funny. As for Huck Finn he takes on several issues, most importantly racial problems in America. This book has been very controversial over the years, today for his use of the word nigger (which today makes the book bad), but traditionally the book had always been seen as pro-black, showing the ignorance of today’s Huck Finn bashers. After Huck ran away with Jim he comes to respect Jim, yet his society tells him Jim is less of a man because of his color, and that even God wants Jim to be a slave. There is a part where Huck renounces God, saying if God wants Jim to be a slave than he (Huck) would rather go to hell. Very powerful. In the day this was the controversial part of the book, a boy renouncing God. Yet when you understand what he is saying, he does not renounce God, just his society’s version of God, so he is renouncing his society, buy seeing Jim as a man. Deep stuff for a kid’s book. This is a story about adventure, innocence, and wrongs of society, and in the end it tells a great story, with an important message.
I hope you agree these are great books. If not tell me what I have missed. What makes lists fun is debating them.
5. Charles Dickens. Again I could not come up with just one. When all his works are put together I think he may be the greatest author of all time. Most of his works were a social commentary on life in Victorian England and the greatness of their poverty which tended to lead to crime. His other great importance is his sheer volume of works and how his characters are such a part of everyday life. How many people every Christmas watch some version of the Christmas Carol, from Scrogged to the Muppets Christmas Carol (my personal favorite version). I will just name a few, but there are many more. Many of these have been made into classic plays and films
Oliver Twist, Christmas Carol, Davis Copperfield, Great Expectations, and my personal favorite, Tale of Two Cities.
4. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo, 1862. I think I am biased towards the book, not so much because of the book, but because I love the play so much. To me the play is hands down, no comparison, the best Broadway play ever. But the reason the play is so good, yes the music, but other plays like Phantom have just as good of music, but it is the story. Les Miserables dives into the biblical ideas of good v evil. As a religious man, I like how it talks about repentance, and how justice and mercy work together. I look at it as a religious text. For those of you who LDS, you might know Vaughn J. Featherstone. I heard him talk once when he said that Les Mis was the most inspired work after the standard works of the gospel. With that alone it makes my top ten.
3. Last of the Mohicans (also the Deer slayer) James Fennimore Cooper, 1826. These two books are so important because they started America’s greatest gift to the literary and movie world, The Western. Most genres are universal, but not the western, it is uniquely American. By 1826 in Europe there was no wilderness. If you walked into the woods you come to another town or down the road another country. Most of the land was taken. If you lived in England in 1826 and did not own land, then you would never own land. But in America if you started walking west, but the time you reached western NY or PA you were in the sticks, if you kept going you were in the middle of nowhere, the wilderness, the end of civilization. Cooper created the character of the tough loner, who came from the wilderness and without saying much could solve everyone’s problems. His characters of Natty Bumppo and Hawkeye were the first John Wayne, the first cowboy. Take a classic western like Shane. The tough stranger rides out of the wilderness, does not talk much, but has the skills necessary to get the job done. This is the same story just told in a different way than Last of the Mohicans. The Western is Americans most authentic expression and it began with Last of the Mohicans. By the way the 1992 movie based on the book staring Daniel Day Lewis, may just top the list of my favorite movies.
2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852. Most are familiar with this story. It describes the horrors of slavery and was meant to awaken the American people against its evils. There is so much that I can say about the importance of this book, and it could be in the number one slot, but I will give one quote that justifies its high position. When President Lincoln met Stowe for the first time he said to her, so you are the little lady that caused this great war. If that is not power, than what is.
1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1884. Not only is this my favorite book, but I think Twain is the most important American author. No writer has had more insight than Twain, and he expressed it with so much humor. Any major subject during his life time, you can find a quote from Twain. This is not from Huck Finn, but my favorite line comes from Roughing It. Twain said Mormon women were the homeliest women he had every seen, and why a man would want to marry one, let alone two or three, was beyond him. Not important, just funny. As for Huck Finn he takes on several issues, most importantly racial problems in America. This book has been very controversial over the years, today for his use of the word nigger (which today makes the book bad), but traditionally the book had always been seen as pro-black, showing the ignorance of today’s Huck Finn bashers. After Huck ran away with Jim he comes to respect Jim, yet his society tells him Jim is less of a man because of his color, and that even God wants Jim to be a slave. There is a part where Huck renounces God, saying if God wants Jim to be a slave than he (Huck) would rather go to hell. Very powerful. In the day this was the controversial part of the book, a boy renouncing God. Yet when you understand what he is saying, he does not renounce God, just his society’s version of God, so he is renouncing his society, buy seeing Jim as a man. Deep stuff for a kid’s book. This is a story about adventure, innocence, and wrongs of society, and in the end it tells a great story, with an important message.
I hope you agree these are great books. If not tell me what I have missed. What makes lists fun is debating them.
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