Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

So sometimes we enter a Guardian list spiral where books in the list talk about other books on the list. I started thinking about this as a possible thread when I read "Look at Me" by Anita Brookner and found that she mentioned "The Ordeal of Richard Feverek" by George Meredith and I wondered how often this happens.

So I shall update this opening comment whenever we get an addition. only rule is that the book itself must be explicitly mentioned - not obliquely referenced or just quoted. Page references will also be handy (although not essential).

*****************
29. In A Far Cry form Kensington by Muriel Spark, Frankenstein, Villette and Lucky Jim are mentioned.

28. In Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery, Becky Sharp, as governess allows her charges to read Smollett, which their uncle approves of, not knowing it's The Expedition of Humphry Clinker which they are reading

27. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Frank wants to go the cinema but the only film on is The Tin Drum and he can''t because he remembers that it's a book that his dad bought for him, so he has an irrational dislike for it (he also mentions Myra Beckinbridge in this section, but that book's not on THE LIST).

26. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin mentions No Orchids for Miss Blandish.

25. In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, Sandy reads Kidnapped by herself and Miss Brodie reads Jane Eyre to the group sewing class.

24. Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi mentions loads of LIST books. On The Road, Candide, Tender Is The Night, Vanity Fair, Woman In White, Tropic Of Cancer, Lost Illusions and The Red And The Black.

23. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, when the narrator and Belbo have their first conversation Belbo asks him about his name, “Casaubon. Wasn’t he a character in Middlemarch?”

22. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Gulliver's Travels is mentioned.

21. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje Kim, Rebecca, The Charterhouse of Parma and Lorna Doone get a mention.

20. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. Uncle Tom's Cabin gets a mention.

19. The Idiot by Dostoevsky. The Three Musketeers and Don Quixote are mentioned.

18. Pale Fire by Nabokov. Kinbote thinks it unseemly to be teaching Finnigan's Wake (sic) and Dr Zhivago is listed as a soviet achievement.

17. A Month in the Country by Carr. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is discussed over bread and jam and hot methodist tea.

16. Under the Volcano by Lowry. All Quiet on the Western Front is on the consul's bbookshelves. He's also often reminiscing about reading (and memorising chunks of) War and Peace.

15. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Mentions *deep breath* Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Anna Karenina, Parade's End, Wuthering Heights, Crime & Punishment, Pride & Prejudice, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, Burmese Days, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Brothers Karamazov, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Barchester Towers and
The Power and the Glory . Phew!

14. Swann's Way by Proust. Near the end. the narrator talks about Stendahl's Charterhouse of Parma

13. New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Three List books are mentioned. In City of Glass, the character Paul Auster is writing a book about the authorship of Don Quixote. And in the final novella, Fanshawe as a child carries around a copy of Robinson Crusoe, and later Sophie buys the narrator an illustrated copy of Moby Dick

12. Children of Men by P D James. For the adult college course Theo runs they study Middlemarch, Portrait of a Lady, Vanity Fair and Cranford. Later Theo finds a copy of Emma in the car he's stolen and reads it aloud to Miriam and Julian.

11. A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry. At the start of chapter 16, the soldiers of the 16th Battalion read The Idiot in the trenches. This book passes on Weekes' death to the main character Willie. His sister Dolly ends up taking it with her to America.

10. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, Captain Brown discusses how much he likes Charles Dickens' book The Pickwick Papers and even presents a copy to Miss Debra.

9. Affinity by Sarah Waters, after her sister leaves to be married Margaret reads Little Dorrit to her mother.

8. One of Ours by Willa Cathers - about 75% through she muses that a view reminds her of one in RL Stephenson's Kidnapped. In Book One, Claude's mother reads Bleak House aloud to him.

7. At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell. There's a group discussion of Wolff's Orlando. A character is also compared with Prince Myshkin, specifically mentioning the book The Idiot

6. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell. Various characters read: Bel Ami, Les Miserables, and Jude the Obscure.

5. The Virginian by Owen Wister, about 2/3 through the hero is read to by his lady love, books include Emma.

4. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford - chapter 3:
"Nothing about human beings ever had the power to move me as a child. Black Beauty - now!"

3. The Crow Road by Iain Banks. Prentice talks about a difference between Catch 22 the movie and Catch 22 the book whilst talking to Ash (272)

2. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
Mentioned a few: The Red and the Black by Stendahl (p167), War and Peace by Tolstoy, Les Enfants Terribles by Cocteau and The Three Musketeers by Dumas (all p176) and Moby Dick by Melville (p177). All being read by Micol while she's convalescing.

1. Look at Me by Anita Brookner
Mentioned The Ordeal of Richard Feverek by George Meredith, a first edition is given as a gift.

3. The Crown Road by Iain Banks. Prentice talks about a difference between Catch 22 the movie and Catch 22 the book whilst talking to Ash (272)

Nice one, Fay. Added to the list.

Or it will be when I get on the site through a laptop. My phone won't let me edit a post.

Love in a Cold Climate, chapter 3:
"Nothing about human beings ever had the power to move me as a child. Black Beauty - now!"

In The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains about 2/3rds way through, our hero is recuperating from injury and his lady-love reads to him, including Emma (G1000) and David Copperfield (scandalous omission from main G1000, but one of the "Ones That Got Away" follow-up additional list)

Hmmmm not sure if this one counts. On page 22 of A Glastonbury Romance, John Crow is is described using the phrase “Something between the down-drifting weakness of a congenital tramp and the unbalanced idealism of a Don Quixote hovered about his high cheek-bones”.

3/4 of the way through A Question of Upbringing (the first book in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time) Nick reads Bel Ami whilst in France.

Also in A Question of Upbringing Wiidmerpool is reading Les Miserables in France

A Question of Upbringing again - Nick is asked by a professor if he has read Jude the Obscure.

I am beginning to think that maybe this list is a question of upbringing as the characters are all middle class OxBridge and they seem to be rocking the list. I think Leslie mentioned she had read some of these, any thoughts Leslie?

In "At Lady Molly's" (book for of the Dance to the Music of Time sequence), General Aylmer Conyers brings up the book Orlando by Virginia Wolff for discussion about a third of the way through.

As a side-note, apologies for not adding page numbers to these but I've been reading them digitally.

75% way through Willa Cather's One of Ours:

"Claude sat down on a boulder. "Is this heather?" he asked. "I thought I recognized it, from 'Kidnapped.'"

Darren wrote: "75% way through Willa Cather's One of Ours:

"Claude sat down on a boulder. "Is this heather?" he asked. "I thought I recognized it, from 'Kidnapped.'""

Nice. I've also just found LIttle Dorrit in Sarah Walters' Affinity.

At the end of chapter 22 in Children of Men, Theo removes Emma by Jane Austen from his car and later reads it out loud to Miriam and Julian.

They also cover four list books on the course in which he first meets Julian

Fay wrote: "At the end of chapter 22 in Children of Men, Theo removes Emma by Jane Austen from his car and later reads it out loud to Miriam and Julian."

Ha--I totally missed that that would fit here. Good catch Fay

In Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, Captain Brown discusses how much he likes Charles Dickens' book The Pickwick Papers and even presents a copy to Miss Debra.

At the start of chapter 16 in A Long Long Way the soldiers of the 16th Battalion read The Idiot in the tranches. This book passes on Weekes' death to the main character Willie. His sister Dolly ends up taking it with her to America.

In book one of One of Ours Claude’s mother reads Bleak House our loud to him

Paul Auster's New York Trilogy mentions three books from The List.
In City of Glass the character Paul Auster is writing a book about the authorship of Don Quixote.
And in the final novella Fanshawe as a child carries around a copy of Robinson Crusoe, and later Sophie buys the narrator and illustrated copy of Moby Dick.

Well, I finally found one:

Near the end of Swann's Way, the narrator mentions Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma

@Bryan - how was Swan’s Way?

Well, I liked it a great deal, but it's a hard book to recommend. It's essentially plotless--a lot of description by the narrator of what it was like as a child in a rather idyllic setting (or so that's kind of how it came across to me), even though he was kind of a melancholy kid; and then a long section about Swann's love affair with Odette, where we're treated to a very in-depth look at obsessive-type thinking. The last section is very short--kind of a jumping off point for the next book in the series.

I took a month to read it--I divided up the pages into daily chunks, and that way I didn't get too overloaded on it. It should come out to about 15-20 pages a day--I was also reading it in French, which is very tiring for me, so the page limit helped me stick with it.

In the end, I'd say that it's definitely on the list for a reason, but if the first 20 pages don't appeal to you, then I'd probably recommend setting it aside for another time. Having said that, I'd also say I found it remarkably evocative of the time and place.

Bryan wrote: "Well, I liked it a great deal, but it's a hard book to recommend. It's essentially plotless--a lot of description by the narrator of what it was like as a child in a rather idyllic setting (or so t..."

Congratulations for reading it in French! This one hadn't crossed my radar but maybe I will leave it for a while it reuqires effort ;-)

Bryan wrote: "Well, I liked it (Swann's Way) a great deal, but it's a hard book to recommend. It's essentially plotless--a lot of description by the narrator of what it was like as a child in a rather idyllic setting (or so t..."

I never found myself loving this series (Remembrance of Things Past) but I did find that I got more interested as I progressed.

I wonder sometimes if reading a book in French skews my rating of it. I think I might be rating them higher than if I'd read them in English because I have to pay closer attention. It's more immersive, in a way. And too--if I read something in English and it sounds silly, I'm going to notice it, but when I'm reading in French and translating in my head, I translate it in a way that sounds reasonable to me.

Bryan wrote: "I wonder sometimes if reading a book in French skews my rating of it. I think I might be rating them higher than if I'd read them in English because I have to pay closer attention. It's more immers..."

That makes sense to me but Proust's style isn't something that would be much affected by that (e.g. those sentences that go on for a page and a half!). However, I can see being more immersed by reading in a language not one's own!

Hate to be a spoilsport, but can the discussion of Proust be taken elsewhere (interesting though it is). Or I'll lose people posting new mentions of List books in other List books. Ta :)

In A Prayer for Owen Meany John teaches his class Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the chapter The Voice. Also in this chapter the books Anna Karenina, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Brothers Karamazov and
The Power and the Glory are used in John and Owen's "religion and literature" class at the academy.

I loved that book. Other than a few of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales it's the only book that's had me properly sobbing as I read.

Phil wrote: "I loved that book. Other than a few of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales it's the only book that's had me properly sobbing as I read."

I'm loving APFOM. It's my "work book" and I took a week off work for half-term so I'm still savouring it :-)

I just found another in it. John is reading Parade's End in his summer break before starting his Post Grad (and his quick synopsis of it to Owen has intrigued me and made me excited to read it)

Fay wrote: "Phil wrote: "I loved that book. Other than a few of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales it's the only book that's had me properly sobbing as I read."

I'm loving APFOM. It's my "work book" and I took a week ..."

Oh and later on during summer vacation John deplores to Dan that his grade 10 girls can never see the with in Wurthering Heights and quotes a passage........
He also despairs of his grade 13 girls' understanding of Crime and Punishment.

I DNF'd APFOM so missed all this! ;o)

I'm currently reading Paul Auster's 4 3 2 1 which mentions loads of G1000 titles, but isn't one itself cos far too recent (2017)

Darren wrote: "I DNF'd APFOM so missed all this! ;o)

I'm currently reading Paul Auster's 4 3 2 1 which mentions loads of G1000 titles, but isn't one itself cos far too recent (2017)"

Do you think it is one you will go back to? I really enjoyed The New York Trilogy and am looking forward to trying more of his work. Is this a good one to look at?

Anyway, here's the final one for this book as I've just finished:

In the final chapter John argues with Ms Pribst, a fellow English teacher, about what books should be on which course. The list ones mentioned are Pride and Prejudice, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, and Burmese Days. Later John muses on the opening chapter of the Mayor of Casterbridge and the wisdom of teaching his students Trollope's Barchester Towers.

And Phil, I definitely cried at the end (which was embarrassing as it was during school pick up!)

I won't be going back to PFOM - I had misgivings about World According to Garp too (although I did at least finish it!), but I will be giving Irving a third (and final!) chance with Hotel New Hampshire as I like the film

4321 is much "flatter" style than I think is usual for Auster and is VERY LONG - I loved In The Country Of Last Things - very Kafka-esque (and short!)

meanwhile, I've just finished (and enjoyed) Alison Macleod's Wave Theory of Angels which is an "OTGA" and mentions a shed-load of G1000 books when listing somebody's bookshelf, but in particular Jane Eyre and Doctor Zhivago are important to the plot.

In Under the Volcano many list authors are mentioned but although Conrad and Lord Jim in particular are referenced a lot there are no actual titles. Until.....In chapter 6 (pg 153 in my copy) Hugh is looking at the Consuls book shelf’s and in amongst a list of authors is the title “All Quiet on the Western Front”.

In Under the Volcano - page 200 in my copy. A picture on the wall of the Cantina by the bus station reminds the Consul of “Rostov’s wolf hunt in War and Peace”

In A Month in the Country, Tess of the D'Urbevilles is discussed

So far in Pale Fire we've had mentions of Kinbote thinking it unseemly to be seen teaching "Finnigan's Wake" (sic) and what I *think* is a reference to Proust's "A la recherche ...", when he says that he can't emulate the "omnipresent narrator of Time Lost".

Also in Pale Fire Dr Zhivago is listed as a Soviet achievement (of 209)

In Hyperion, The Poet's Tale mentions Huck and Jim, though it doesn't actually come out and say Huckleberry Finn anywhere.

So far in The Idiot, The Three Musketeers and Don Quixote have been mentioned

So far in My Family and Other Animals Uncle Tom's Cabin has been mentioned.

I was just about to say I'd found one in Under the Volcano, but Lord Jim is only mentioned as a character, not as a book, and apparently Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage ISN'T on the list :O

Page 266 (my edition) of Pale Fire, Dr. Zhivago is mentioned.

Fay wrote: "So far in The Idiot, The Three Musketeers and Don Quixote have been mentioned"

Arghhh - in the last 50 pages or so I spotted another one and thought "I'll add that when I've finished" but I've left it too late and now I can't face the tightly packed text. If anyone else picks this up see if they can spot it for me. It's a book lying open on a table when someone enters a room!

In The English Patient, I spotted Kim, Rebecca, The Charterhouse of Parma and there are two more I was going to make a note of but now I can't be bothered skimming back through! Must do these as I go along!

Fay wrote: "In The English Patient, I spotted Kim, Rebecca, The Charterhouse of Parma and there are two more I was going to make a note of but now I can'..."

Lorna Doone! One of them was most definitely Lorna Doone!

In Fahrenheit 451, towards the end Gulliver’s Travels is mentioned. Despite the fact that this is a book about books and many many authors are referenced this is the only actual book title I picked up on.
Has anyone else found any in this book?

In Foucault’s Pendulum, chapter 10, when the narrator and Belbo have their first conversation Belbo asks him about his name, “Casaubon. Wasn’t he a character in Middlemarch?”