Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Use this Topic to discuss books you are reading or that fit the 11th Scavenger Hunt task.

Task 11: In (ironic honor of Eugene Onegin), read a book with a character who has a disability or becomes disabled in the course of the novel.

I have been wanting to read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

I plan to read Infinite Jest, which includes several disabled characters, including a Canadian militant group known as the Wheelchair Assassins.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Rose wrote: "I have been wanting to read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo"

Of course! I wanted to read that this year anyway.

Ethan Frome would be a good fit.

There is a person with dwarfism and someone with an intellectual disability in David Copperfield so going to try to read that one.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has an autistic main character.

As an aside can someone explain the ironic honor to Eugene Onegin?

Eugene and Eugenics share a common entomology: Ancient Greek for "Good Growth" or "Well-Bred."

Eugenics being the belief that we can create a superior race of humans by selective breeding and eliminating so-called "undesirable" traits.

Eugene Onegin, in addition to the meaning of his first name, is portrayed as selfish and vain. Surely, Pushkin picked this name to express that Onegin was "well-bred."

In Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, there is a female character with a lame leg.

Remarkably, her name is Eugenia.

Mercedes wrote: "If I remember correctly, the main character in Of Human Bondage had some physical imperfection…it’s been decades since I read it and I can’t recall precisely."

That's right, he had a "club foot" deformity and had surgery on it while a med student.

Amanda wrote: "There is a person with dwarfism and someone with an intellectual disability in David Copperfield so going to try to read that one."

There are many characters in Dickens' novels with disabilities, best-known being Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol (a short one!). There is a girl with spinal deformity who uses crutches and a man who has had a leg amputation in his Our Mutual Friend.

In Manon of the Springs (Manon des Sources) the father character has a mild-mod hunchback, though he is still able to do hard farm work.

SaraSian wrote: "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers"
Yes a main character is blind.

George P. wrote: "There are many characters in Dickens' novels with disabilities, best-known being Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol (a short one!). There is a girl with spinal deformity who uses crutches and a man who has had a leg amputation in his Our Mutual Friend.
"

Yeah Dickens is good for disabled characters. Hopefully those shorter ones might be options for other people, I've read those ones.

George P. wrote: "SaraSian wrote: "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers"
Yes a main character is blind."


However, that book is not actually on the list (which surprised me too).

Sean wrote: "In Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, there is a female character with a lame leg.
Remarkably, her name is Eugenia."

Amazingly, Camilla by Fanny Burney also has a Eugenia who is lame and also disfigured due to smallpox. It's a long read though! Took me 5mths.

Stendhal can't seem to have an irredeemable villain in The Charterhouse of Parma without giving them a facial disfigurement from smallpox, but I'm not sure I'd count that as a disability all on its own unless there's demonstrated evidence that it interferes with a character's ability.

Baltasar and Blimunda would have been my pick had I not already read it.

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis has a character Marcenda who has a disabled arm.

Doesn't the young girl injured in the museum in The Goldfinch become disabled?

Rosemary wrote: "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis has a character Marcenda who has a disabled arm."

oh snap: you're right it does. And I just read it. nice.

In The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham most people go blind. I just thought of that one.

I will probably go with Lady Chatterly's Lover for this one but I'd appreciate if anyone could recommend a book for this category written by a female author.

Nocturnalux wrote: "I will probably go with Lady Chatterly's Lover for this one but I'd appreciate if anyone could recommend a book for this category written by a female author."

I don't remember whether this applies to a specifically named character, but Faces in the Water by Janet Frame involves lobotomies, which left at least one figure in a state that implies severe mental disabilities. There's also Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and its concluding scenes.

Aubrey wrote: "Nocturnalux wrote: "I will probably go with Lady Chatterly's Lover for this one but I'd appreciate if anyone could recommend a book for this category written by a female author."

I don't remember ..."

I've read them both but thanks!

Edit: For those also looking for books written by women, here are some suggestions:

Sawako Ariyoshi, The Twilight Years
Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day
Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
A.S. Byatt, The Children's Book
Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
Janet Frame, Faces in the Water
Julia Franck, The Blind Side of the Heart
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton (the disability is not permanent in this one but it is pretty important)
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing
Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Herbjørg Wassmo, The House with the Blind Glass Windows
Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

I was looking for books by women so thank you so much for this list @nocturnalux!

I'm currently reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré, which has a character whose spine is damaged during the course of the plot, so I might as well go with that.

SaraSian wrote: "I was looking for books by women so thank you so much for this list @nocturnalux!"

No problem, hope it helps.

Aubrey wrote: "I'm currently reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré, which has a character whose spine is damaged during the course of the plot, so I might as well ..."

I finished this one recently and considered going with it as well but I read most of it in 2021; I'm trying to go for books that I read in 2022 alone for this one.

I had planned to use The World According to Garp for this one. But I think I will use our current group read, King Solomon's Mines. It's got a lame guy in who had his legs crushed by a boulder. It's also got an old witch who is so old she gets around on all fours.... disability indeed.

Lieutenant Price, Fanny's father, is disabled in Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

Kimberly wrote: "Doesn't the young girl injured in the museum in The Goldfinch become disabled?"

Yes, she does. She was a talented musician but cannot play again.

I read The Optimist's Daughter in which a few people go blind.

In case you are wondering, the blind guy in the movie Contact is not in the novel Contact

There's also Blindness by Henry Green. The main character is blinded in an accident.

Nike wrote: "Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George. This Lynley and Havers crime novel are told from different POV:s. One of the main characters who tells us her story is a yo..."

These are not list titles, it seems.

I just happened to be reading Family Matters and the main character has Parkinson's Disease with all the tell-tale signs: his writing is getting smaller and worse, he has tremors, he walks like someone with PD (as per a physician's notice); he has difficulty feeding himself.
I love when I'm reading a book that also happens to fit one of the scavenger hunt requirements.

I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo and hoping someone disabled shows up but no luck yet, but it's still early in the novel! If not will go ahead with Hunchback of N Dame.

Sean wrote: "I had planned to use The World According to Garp for this one. But I think I will use our current group read, King Solomon's Mines. It's got a lame guy in who had his legs ..."

Changing this one to Kafka on the Shore so that I can use King Solomon's Mines for another category. One of the main characters suffers from a mental disability.

Sean wrote: "Changing this one to Kafka on the Shore so that I can use King Solomon's Mines for another category. One of the main characters suffers from a mental disability."

Very mild spoiler: (view spoiler)[And another has hemophilia, severe enough to have seriously conditioned his life. (hide spoiler)]

Nocturnalux wrote: "Sean wrote: "Changing this one to Kafka on the Shore so that I can use King Solomon's Mines for another category. One of the main characters suffers from a mental disability."

Very mild spoiler: [..."

True... very true...

I read Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence for this challenge. Clifford Chatterley is paralysed in the novel.

For this task I read Animal's People by Indra Sinha. It's about a boy whose spine has become so twisted that he must walk on all fours.

The Bone Collector and sequels

I just finished Notre-Dame de Paris aka The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo, "the bell-ringer", has a twisted spine, blind in one eye and unspecified intellectual impairment, then becomes deaf from the bell-ringing on top of all that.
This leaves me just one more to complete the hunt.

Anne wrote: "The Bone Collector and sequels"

Not a list title.

Nocturnalux wrote: "Nike wrote: "Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George. This Lynley and Havers crime novel are told from different POV:s. One of the main characters who tells us her ..."

No, I know - I wrote this comment in the wrong group. I'm sorry. The same topic was in another group and I mixed the two. I've withdrawn my comment. Thankyou for pointing it out 🙂

Is "Mice and men" on the list? That book suits for this prompt (and ought to be on the list). My computer is not working and I can't seem to find the list (without hard work) on my cellphone.

Nike wrote: "Is "Mice and men" on the list? That book suits for this prompt (and ought to be on the list). My computer is not working and I can't seem to find the list (without hard work) on my cellphone."

It is on the list, yes.

Nike wrote: "Is "Mice and men" on the list? That book suits for this prompt (and ought to be on the list). My computer is not working and I can't seem to find the list (without hard work) on my cellphone."

Yes, Of Mice and Men is in every edition of the list, a "core" book. I'm surprised you haven't already read it?

Nike wrote: "Is "Mice and men" on the list? That book suits for this prompt (and ought to be on the list). My computer is not working and I can't seem to find the list (without hard work) on my cellphone."

Yep, Of Mice and Men is on the list.