Great books that have been largely forgotten

[finrod]

Have you ever read a book, and thought, how come no-one else knows about this?

 

To get the ball rolling:

 

Grendel, 1971 by John Gardner (not the James Bond thriller-writer), 1933-1882. The American author is listed as an academic (Old and Middle English) who taught at Southern Illinois University. He has since written Jason and Medea which I am trying to track down(I like the Greek myth and already own Robert Graves' The Golden Fleece and used to have Henry Treece's Jason (before a close relative made off with it).

 

Beowulf, but from the "monster's" perpective.

 

No short precis of this remarkable novel could suggest the complexity of thought, richness of imagery and the wonder of language which make it the perfect work of art that it is. Derek Stanford, The Scotsman

 

I first read this when I was fourteen or fifteen and it knocked my socks off. I read it again recently, over thirty years later and my feet are chilly even now. With the release of the 'Beowulf' film, and Seamus Heaney's excellent re-interpretation, I thought it apposite to draw attention to this neglected masterpiece.

 

Incidentally, I particular enjoyed Seamus Heaney's return to the narrative form of the Beowulf epic, as narrated on BBC Radio Four. After all, the tale stems from a largely pre-literate age.

[Oblomov]

There are several books that I thought were great but very few people have heard of.

 

The Consort by Anthony Heckstall-Smith is by far the leader of this group.

 

34 East, a brilliant and strangely topical thriller from 1974 by Alfred Coppel

 

The Bormann Brief by Clive Eagleton one of the best WW2 stories ever written.

 

Expressway, an oddly readable 70s cheapo by Howard North

 

The Buckingham Palace Connection by Ted Willis. I think this book might not be as unknown as I think.

 

Almost all the books (fiction & non-fiction) by a Canadian writer named Thomas Raddall.

 

I am sure that there are many others.

[Kell]

One of my all-time favourite books is oneaimed at children - Ronia, The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren, which doesn't seem to have the fame of her Pippi Longstocking books, and I've sledom heard of anyone else who has read it (I could count the people I know of on one hand with fingers left over, and that's including myself in that number!).

 

Synopsis:

Ronia is a girl growing up in a castle in the wood in a band of robbers; as the chief's only child, she is expected to become the leader of the band someday. Their castle, Matt's Fort, was split in two parts by a lightning bolt on the day of her birth; soon afterwards, a different robber clan, the 'Borkas', settled one section, resulting in perpetual armed strife. Ronia feels rather out of place in this harsh environment; nearly her only friend is the old man Noddle-Pete, and for a while she hates her father Matt. One day, Ronia sees Birk Borkason, the only son of the enemy chieftain, Borka, idling by the chasm that splits the two parts of the castle. She engages him in a game of jumping across the chasm, a game that ends with Birk almost falling to his death. After Ronia has saved him they slowly start to become friends

[Spooncat]

what a good idea for a thread! I'm not sure if this has been forgotten but its a great book all the same - have just nominated it for our January read

 

The Collector by John Fowles

 

"A singularly skilled first novel, original in its conception and unnervingly acute in its observation of an obsession. It is the story of a kidnapping- a nutty clerk captures and holds the art student he has become fixated upon, and there follows a fiendish interplay of sanity and insanity, the contest of minds wihtout a meeting point."

 

[jenmck]

The Haunted Bookshop--Christopher Morley

Parnassis On Wheels--Christopher Morley

 

AWESOME books largely forgotten.

[finrod]

I have noticed that sometimes I frighten people; what they really fear is themselves. They think it is I who scare them, but it is the dwarf within them, the ape-faced manlike being who sticks up his head from the depths of their souls.

 

Set in a renaissance Italy of warring city-states. Piccoline (the protagonist) comments upon the court's prurience and political intrigue as the city is besieged.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dwarf

[Guest ii]

One of my all-time favourite books is oneaimed at children - Ronia, The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren, which doesn't seem to have the fame of her Pippi Longstocking books, and I've sledom heard of anyone else who has read it (I could count the people I know of on one hand with fingers left over, and that's including myself in that number!).

 

Ronia is actually very known in the Nordic countries. I'm willing to bet that practically all kids know her. Lindgren wrote a ton of storybooks, out of which only really Pippi made it worldwide, at least to my knowledge. Do check out her other works, such as these favourites of mine:

 

Emil of Maple Hills

The Brothers Lionheart

Madicken

Mio, my Mio (also known as Mio, my Son)

Karlsson-on-the-Roof series

 

The first two in particular are cultural classics together with Pippi and Ronia.

 

Oh, and I forgot. A childhood favourite of mine, the Lotta series. Funny stuff. I still remember how in one story Lotta (the little girl) was traveling on a train to go I-don't-remember-where and she smacked the pepperoni from her lunch sandwitches to the train car window. *grin*

[kateleopald]

Having sat my way through the horrendous film version of beowulf recently i wish to god this piece of literature had been left alone!

[Anika]

"Kristin Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Undset

[Vladd]

Having sat my way through the horrendous film version of beowulf recently i wish to god this piece of literature had been left alone!

 

I so wanted to enjoy that one but I fell asleep half way through.