Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Some of the books in this personal challenge are more classic than others, perhaps the others will eventually become classics. Many were purchased at Goodwill at nominal prices. Some have substantial length. Some are written by women. Most of them have been on my shelves for years, some for decades. 2025 is the year for challenging myself to finally open them in front of my eyes and actually read them. Intuition and spontaneity will determine their order.

The fact that they range in location across the globe is accidental; when I compiled the list it made sense to group them geographically, adding an element of armchair travel to the year. They also span the centuries, so a little time-travel is likely as well. The USA books are chosen to add to my understanding of America's regional and cultural history.

It is likely that I'll supplement the list with art books, a few short stories plus some additional novels, maybe of May Sarton and/or A.S. Byatt. I'm intrigued by Reading Matters' A Year with Edna O'Brien and may follow their schedule. I enjoy writing reviews and will add them as ideas come to mind and as time allows.

Algeria
• The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles - 1949 (read 6-22-25)
• The Stranger, Albert Camus - 1942 (read 6-23-25)
• A Happy Death, Albert Camus - 1972 (read 6-27-25)
• The First Man, Albert Camus - 1994 (read 7-1-25)

Argentina
Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges - 1962

• Central African Republic
• Batuala, René Maran - 1922, 1937 (read 6-9-25)

England
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Henry Fielding - 1749
Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Laurence Sterne - 1767
• Mansfield Park, Jane Austen - 1814 (read 4-25-25)
• Emma, Jane Austen - 1816 (read 5-5-25)
• Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell - 1848 (read 6-6-25)
The Ordeal of Richard Feveral, George Meredith - 1859
• Middlemarch, George Eliot - 1872 (read 6-19-25)

France
• The Masterpiece, Émile Zola - 1886 (read 4-20-25)
• Jean-Christophe, Romain Rolland - 1904-1912 (read 3-29-25)
• Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust - 1913 (read 2-8-25)

Germany
Faust, Wolfgang Goethe - 1808-1832
The Sleepwalkers, Hermann Broch - 1930-1932
Doctor Faustus, Thomas Mann - 1947

Hungary
A Book of Memories, Péter Nádas - 1986

India
• Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - 1976 (read 3/1/25)
• Three Continents, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - 1987 (+ USA, England) (read 3/5/25)
• A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry - 2012 (read 4/14/25)

Italy
The Paradiso, Dante Alighieri - 1320
The Decameron, Giovanni Boccacchio - 1349
The Charterhouse of Parma, Stendhal- 1839
• Difficult Loves, Italo Calvino - 1949-1958 (read 5/25/25)
• The Watcher and Other Stories, Italo Calvino - 1952-1963 (read 6-26-25)
• The Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino - 1959 (read 7-15-25)

Japan
The Tale of Genji Murasakio Shikoku - before 1021
Spring Snow, Yukio Mishima - 1969

Mexico
Where the Air Is Clear, Carlos Fuentes - 1958
The Death of Artemio Cruz, Carlos Fuentes - 1962
The Years with Laura Diaz, Carlos Fuentes - 1999

Nigeria
• Things Fall Apart, Chinua Acebe - 1959 (read 6-14-25)

Peru
Conversation in the Cathedral, Mario Vargas Llosa - 1969

Russia
Demons, Fyodor Dostoevsky - 1872

South Africa
• Tselane: The Poignant Drama of Tselane Intended Victim of Ritual Murder, J. Louw van Wijk - 1961 (read 6-19-25)

Spain
Don Quixote, Cervantes – 1605
Fortunata and Jacinta, Benito Pérez Galdós - 1887

USA
The Marrow of Tradition, Charles W. Chestnutt - 1901 (North Carolina)
The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel, George Santayana - 1936 (Boston)
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston - 1937 (Florida)
The Fields, Conrad Richter - 1940 (Ohio)
The Outsider, Richard Wright - 1953, 1991 (Chicago, Harlem)
Letting Go, Philip Roth - 1961 (Chicago, New York, Iowa)
The Living, Annie Dillard - 1992 (Pacific Northwest)
The Orchardist, Amanda Collin - 2012 (Pacific Northwest)
The Round House, Louise Erdrich - 2012 (North Dakota)

A wonerful challenge, Tim! Great how your list happened organically, and also that you'll let your intuition guide the order you read them. I'm looking forward to reading The Masterpiece soon--my first Zola.

Thanks so much for sharing about A Year with Edna O'Brien. I may follow along for some of those too, especially the 2nd and 3rd Country Girls books.

Enjoy!

I have been seriously remiss in posting updates to my personal classics challenge. It's hard to believe it's already March and that I drafted the list in late December.

My first achievement came in early February with Proust's Swann’s Way . I have not posted a review yet because I'm still sorting out my reactions. The syntax is so very confusing that I resorted to reading parts of it aloud, and was amazed by how intelligible the sentences suddenly became. By acting it out, as it were, I could more easily figure out which are the main points and which are the infinitely digressive sub-clauses.

To assist my comprehension of the book, I also read Roger Shattuck's Proust's Way: A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time , a very erudite and comprehensive explication of everything Proustian. I was pleased to see that Shattuck advises reading the book aloud!

I've just completed my around the world in classics tour of India, by finishing A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. The 600-page novel is a powerful read that I can highly recommend, with the warning that it is not a happy story despite its Dickensian characters, humor and moments of tenderness.

The India challenge included Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust (4 stars), in the tradition of India books by E.M. Forster and Paul Scott, and Jhabvala's Three Continents (3 stars) which has a potentially gripping plot but strangely enervated central characters.

I also read an India book not in the challenge, Rich Like Us by Nayantara Sahgal (4 stars), that takes place at the same time as A Fine Balance (1975) and offers a different but no less critical perspective on the Emergency rule that was imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The four books view India from different viewpoints (from outside India or inside). Jhabvala's novels portray India from a British perspective (at two different time periods) and from an American angle. Sahgal's book is seen from an upper class insider point of view; Mistry's book shows India from multiple insider angles but mostly from the bottom of the country's social strata.

Wow, Tim, what a marvelous way to get a feel for India! I have only read A Fine Balance from among these books. That is a heart-ripper. I would love to have that other perspective, so I'm adding the Sahgal.

For the days of the Raj, you cannot beat Scott's books that begin with The Jewel in the Crown and I also loved A Passage to India, so Heat and Dust sounds like another that I ought to read.

I think you just expanded my TBR quite a bit!