Classics and the Western Canon discussion

The lighthouse is beginning to illuminate our future and shine on our need to determine our next read. Here are the five nominees. Will popular nominees from previous polls eventually win, or will one of three new challengers prevail?

POPULAR NOMINEES FROM THE LAST POLL
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt

RBG NOMINEES
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

UPCOMING SCHEDULE (UPDATED)

May 18 - May 24	lighthouse Week 5	Member discussion
May 25 - May 31	lighthouse Week 6	Next read Poll
Jun 1 - Jun 7	Interim Read Week 1	Aquire book week 1
Jun 8 - Jun 14	Interim Read Week 2	Acquire book week 2
Jun 15 - Jun 21	3rd. Read of 2022	

This will be hard for me, Wuthering Heights and Notre Dame are two of my favourite books and I am deeply interested in any of the other three, they are part of my never-ending to-read list. But I tend to go with Hannah Arendt, I think it is very appropriate to reflect about the moment we are living.

MUST-READ DEAD SOULS by NIKOLAI GOGOL (Writer of Odessa).

Last time I had difficulty deciding and went with Woolfe. I am not sorry, but now I have no hesitation. This would be our only read from The East (except for Aeneas in Troy, and probably Dracula in Transylvania).

Great choices! I’ve been wanting to read “Dead Souls” for years, so will probably vote for Gogol although I’m tempted by a vision of climbing the towers of Notre-Dame with Quasimodo this summer.

Gogol is tempting, but I've always wanted to read Hunchback. After Woolf, I'm in the mood for something with a plot and straightforward dialog.

I knew Roger would eventually drop this comment!

I will also vote for the Hunchback, it's the only nominee outside my to-read list and I would probably never read it otherwise.
After the Aeneid & To the Lighthouse we might need something straightforward - I suppose the Hunchback is somehow straightforward, at least compared to our last two reads.

I love Gogol, but I wouldn't like to read it now, we might get trapped into a swamp of political discussions. I don't know about you guys, but I am saturated with political discussions at the moment

I’m reading Notre Dame with another group at this moment so I will vote for either Arendt or Gogol but oh Hugo has some wicked humor and even if I read it again I won’t regret it.

Voting starts on: May 25, 2022 12:00AM PDT
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Dead Souls has a plot and is straight forward though ironic. And humorous. A vote for Gogol is a vote for audacity.

Are there any preferred translations for Dead Souls?

Hi! I've been silently lurking around this group for... around a year, but I think it might be time to join in.
I would be thrilled if Arendt gets picked. I actually already read three chapters of Vita Activa a few years ago for an exam and I absolutely loved it, but I never had time to finish it.
Both Hunchback and Gogol are bit out of my usual picks, but... that might be good for me I guess.

Rajib wrote: "Are there any preferred translations for Dead Souls?"

I don't know the answer to this, but the question reminds me of Nabokov's comment: "The old translations of "Dead Souls" are absolutely worthless and should be expelled from all public and university libraries." I love Nabokov's subtlety.

Jassmine wrote: "Hi! I've been silently lurking around this group for... around a year, but I think it might be time to join in.
I would be thrilled if Arendt gets picked. I actually already read three chapters of ..."

I would love to read Arendt as well. It's been a while since we read any philosophy in the group, and I believe this would be the most recent work of philosophy we've ever read in the group. It would be a challenge, of course, but I think it would be worth the struggle.

Thomas wrote: "I don't know the answer to this, but the question reminds me of Nabokov's comment: "The old translations of "Dead Souls" are abs..."

I'm already on a Nabakov kick so this is very good to know - thank you!

Thomas wrote: I would love to read Arendt as well. It's been a while since we read any philosophy in the group, and I believe this would be the most recent work of philosophy we've ever read in the group. It would be a challenge, of course, but I think it would be worth the struggle.

Arendt is not an easy read, but for a philosophical book she isn't that hard to follow - especially compared to her philosophical contemporaries like Heidegger. When I read her, I thought she was very organized and systematic in the way she presents her thoughts though it sometimes takes her "a few" pages to get to the point. But a lot of my fellow students absolutely disagreed with this assessment and thought her unreadable, so...

Dead Souls has long been on my to-read list, but I haven't been able to get into fiction lately. I read Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil years ago and recently read The Origins of Totalitarianism.

I'm in for The Human Condition. Arendt was an excellent and insightful writer.

Dead Souls as well as The Human Condition
have lived on my TBR for years so I am up for either.

Haven't we done enough of the 20th century lately?

Time is running out! Be sure and vote for the book you want to read next before the poll ends on Jun 01, 2022 11:59PM PDT.

The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt is a clear winner and will be our next read of 2022.

R	W	W%	Book
13	25	58%	THE HUMAN CONDITION
5	8	19%	Dead Souls
3	8	19%	The Hunchback
1	1	2%	Wuthering Heights
1	1	2%	To Kill a Mockingbird

The discussion will open on June 15th. after a two week interim read.