The 1900 to 1950 Readathon discussion
Bonus challenge - Read a book from every decade
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Katie
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Mar 31, 2021 11:52PM

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1900´s:
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad or
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
1910´s:
Princesses - Eduard von Keyserlingen
1920´s:
Orlando - Virginia Wolf or
All Quiet on the Western Front
1930´s:
As I lay dying - William Faulkner
1940´s:
Foundation - Asimov (if you go with the date of serialization) or
Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse

1900s
Five Children and It
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens / Peter and Wendy
The Phantom of the Opera
1910s
The Metamorphosis
1920s
We
The Enchanted April
The Twelve Chairs
The School at the Chalet
1930s
Black No More
The Grass Roof (hard to find but I borrowed a copy from the Open Library online)
A Woman in the Polar Night
Beware of Pity
1940s
Chess Story
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Man Who Walked Through Walls
The Outsider
Berlin Finale
Alone in Berlin
People of the Deer (published 1950)

1900s: The Phantom of the Opera 1909
1910s: O Pioneers! 1913, “Metamorphosis” 1915 & Some Imagist Poets 1915
1920s: Age of Innocence 1920, Vera 1921, Siddhartha 1922 & A Room of One’s Own 1929
1930s: And then There Were None 1939 & To The Last Salute: Memories Of An Austrian U-Boat Commander 1935
1940s: The Pearl 1947

If you are looking for quick reads, why not read children's classics from these decades.

The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers (1903) - Genre
The Song of the Lark, by Willa Cather (1915) - Foreign
Undertones of War, by Edmund Blunden (1928) - War
South Riding, by Winifred Holtby (1936) - Home
Black Boy, by Richard Wright (1945) - Memoir

1900s: The Man of Property
1910s: The Return of the Soldier - WWI
1920s: Passing
1930s: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again - Genre
1940s: A Streetcar Named Desire - Non novel
Bonus: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn reread for Kate and Marissa's readalong :D I'll also be reading some Agatha Christie on weekends
**All the above mentioned books fit the book from a foreign country challenge for me. I couldn't find one from my own country

I'm not sure what you're interested in. I enjoyed all the books below and they are 250 pages or less.
1900s: The Wind in the Willows, The Hound of the Baskervilles, A Little Princess, A Room With A View, The Machine Stops (excellent and less than 50 pages)
1940s: Chess Story, Five Little Pigs

1900's - My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
1910's - Love at Second Sight by Ada Leverson
1920's - The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
1930's Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols
1940's Darkness Falls from the Air by Nigel Balchin
I'm going to try and fit in a few others as well
Tom Tiddler's Ground by Ursula Orange
The Provincial Lady in Russia by E.M. Delafield
Tension by E.M. Delafield
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
Down The Bright Stream by B.B.
Prophesying Peace: Diaries, 1944-1945 by James Lees-Milne


I recently enjoyed Love's Shadow
by Ada Leverson short and in the public domain, also there are some novellas by Edith Wharton such as Madame De Treymes and I second Sonja's suggestion of The Machine Stops. For the 40's I always find P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie quick reads and there are plenty to choose from.

1900 -- The Touchstone, Edith Wharton
1907 -- Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, Elizabeth von Arnim
1908 -- A Room with a View, E. M. Forster
All good--I liked von Arnim the best.
Interesting factoid: E. M. Forster tutored Elizabeth von Arnim's children. I haven't been able to determine during what years, to see if it was during the years they wrote these 2 books (1907&1908).

1911 Jenny by Sigrid Undset
1919 Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Both were difficult books about lonely, disconnected people. Glad to be moving into another decade....
Books mentioned in this topic
Jenny (other topics)Winesburg, Ohio (other topics)
Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (other topics)
The Touchstone (other topics)
A Room with a View (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ada Leverson (other topics)Agatha Christie (other topics)
Edith Wharton (other topics)
P.G. Wodehouse (other topics)
B.B. (other topics)
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