Archive for the ‘Musil’ Category
My Top Ten novels
The Idiot – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian, I read it in Swedish though.The novel that has all you need, violent love, tender love, crime, religious debate, ridiculous scenes, doubtful business dealings, all of it. And a rather ambiguous message: the title figure gets into catastrophe, but I feel that in the heart of it, he is the only sane person and all the others sick.
Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften – Robert Musil, in German. The Man Without Qualities. A counterpart to the above: a very thick unfinished novel with thin contents, but intellectually fascinating and partly very funny.
War And Peace – Lev Tolstoy, Russian. A huge painting of Russia in wartime with all kinds of people running into and out of it, with Emperor Napoleon in an important role.
Le Rouge et le Noir – Stendhal, French. The Red and the Black. Youthful passion crushed by corrupt society. Also a harsh criticism of the Catholic Church.
Brothers Karamazov – F. Dostoevsky. Much like The Idiot, but with a plot of murder as an important issue. I read it twice but still I am not sure whether Dimitri gets convicted for killing his father, or not.
Fröknarna von Pahlen – Agnes von Krusenstjerna, Swedish. The Misses von Pahlen, a series of seven novels about social life in the early 20th century, focusing on a girl who is raised by her unmarried aunt because both parents are dead. Not outspokenly feminist, but still a pioneer in writing about women and men as women see them.
For Whom The Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway. Spanish Civil War through the fate of an American volunteer who goes there because he loves the country, not really liking to fight.
Das Glasperlenspiel – Hermann Hesse, in German. The Glass Bead Game. The end of civilisation, and mysterious beginnings of a new one.
Villette – Charlotte Brontë. Of all characters in all novels I know, the one that is most like me is the main character of this one – a woman!
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen. As usual in Austen, a young girl who wants to be married, but this one also tells about her childhood in a poor family, and about some complicated affairs of another family that takes care of her.n – Fjodor Dostojevskij
