Prometheus Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 After completing "The Heart of Darkness" I was spellbound by its magical prose. This has led me on a mission to reading short novels. It may be fashionable to write verbose books but sometimes the point can be more forceful in fewer words. So I am reading books that have an economy of style but are richer for it The Old Man and the Sea - a good introduction to Hemingway. Not the best novel I have read but very successful in its descriptions. Of Mice and Men - Good overall but I felt that it was disjointed at the crucial scene. Other classics that I have read include 1984 (fascinating in its complexity), Animal Farm (A brilliant allegory), To Kill a Mockingbird (loved the court case), Darkness at Noon (brilliant), Brave New World (underrated and hardly talked about these days whereas 1984 is cliched), The Great Gatsby (depressing), A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (which I can't seem to start for some reason), I would be very grateful if you could recommend any short novels that are worthy of reading and has an emotional impact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 I loved and would highly recommend The Third Man by Grahame Greene (the movie is also excellent) and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (also an excellent movie, but quite different to the book). I've also read The Outsider by Albert Camus, which wasn't too bad. We have very similar reading tastes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 I thought Rabbit-proof Fence by Doris Pilkington was excellent and very affecting in its brief 140-odd pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 The first few that spring to mind are as follows... Fred Uhlman's "Reunion" touched me quite deeply - it's about the friendship between two boys, a German aristocrat and a middle-class Jew, tested by Nazism. Dostoevskij's "White Nights" is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking things I've ever read. I'm not otherwise a big fan of Goethe's but his Sorrows of Young Werther is one of my favourite books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euphorix Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Camus's The Stranger is one of my absolute favourite books -- mainly because my biggest interest in life is philosophy, and the protagonist sums up the concept of angst so beautifully and understandably, his eccentric mindset seems not only logical, but unavoidable. That book definitely gets my vote for the best short novel. Otherwise, I loved A Clockwork Orange, which left a deep impact on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirinrob Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Agree about 'The Stranger' by Camus. I also like 'The Fall' by him as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euphorix Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 (edited) Once I finish reading The Stranger in French (L' Edited August 19, 2009 by Euphorix Grammar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mines Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov Queer by W. S. Burroughs Junky by the same Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley The Europeans by Henry James All brilliant short novels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mysterioso Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 The Ghost-seer- Friedrich Von Schiller The Red Badge of Courage- Stephen Crane Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief- James Fennimore Cooper Loveless Love- Luigi Pirandello The Kreutzer Sonata- Leo Tolstoy Pocket-sized works of genius... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirinrob Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Once I finish reading The Stranger in French (L' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 The Ghost-seer- Friedrich Von SchillerThe Red Badge of Courage- Stephen Crane Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief- James Fennimore Cooper Loveless Love- Luigi Pirandello The Kreutzer Sonata- Leo Tolstoy Pocket-sized works of genius... They sound like it, I'll have to investigate. I love Schiller as a philosopher and Fennimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" is one of my favourite books from childhood (plus let's face it, his title is pure genius). I must say, as an Italian who rather enjoys the occasional Pirandello fix ("Six Characters in Search of an Author" being my undisputed favourite) I think I may have missed "Loveless Love"...! You wouldn't happen to know the original title, would you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mysterioso Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 (edited) They sound like it, I'll have to investigate. I love Schiller as a philosopher and Fennimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" is one of my favourite books from childhood (plus let's face it, his title is pure genius). I must say, as an Italian who rather enjoys the occasional Pirandello fix ("Six Characters in Search of an Author" being my undisputed favourite) I think I may have missed "Loveless Love"...! You wouldn't happen to know the original title, would you? 'Loveless Love' is a perfectly formed collection of 3 short stories by Pirandello- 'The Wave', 'The Signorina' and 'A Friend To The Wives' all dealing with unfulfilled and disturbing love...Enjoy! Edited August 23, 2009 by Mysterioso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prometheus Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 So many books so little time!! Thanks for the excellent suggestions Definitely a lot of food for thought. Keep them coming in as there are some I have never come across before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I think for me, my two favourite short novels were; Of Mice and Men Animal Farm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blithe Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 My favorite short novels: Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury Animal Farm - George Orwell The Stranger - Albert Camus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busy91 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 To Kill a Mockingbird Well I think it is pretty short and an easy read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueK Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Well, for me I think it would have to be "Address Unknown" by Kathrine Kressman Taylor. The book is only 65 pages long and consists of letters between a Jewish man and a German who were business partners and good friends in US. The German decided to go back to live in Germany just as Hitler was coming to power and the transformation in his thinking is just unbelievable. I think it is one of the most powerful books to come out of Nazi Germany. Definitely worth reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruth Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote? Great book. I also very much enjoyed The Time Machine, by H G Wells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigWords Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I also very much enjoyed The Time Machine, by H G Wells. Seconded. Along with The Invisible Man it is his best SF. The films never do his work justice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephanie2008 Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirinrob Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Just to add to the list 'The Vendetta' by Balzac - taut, but slightly melodramatic towards the end, but still very readable - spurred me on to more of his work - just got a copy of 'Cousin Bette' which is much later and from what I've read so far more polished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccles Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Goodbye Mr Chips. I would have thought it to be a longer book but enjoyed it none the less Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaustoMerckx Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 How about The plague - Albert Camus Dr jeckyl + Mr Hyde The island of Dr moreau - H G Wells Lonesome traveller - Kerouac I suppose you could say that Brave new world is pretty short And how about a much more contemporary one, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausonius Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 I am surprised that Thomas Mann's Death In Venice has not yet been mentioned, so...I am mentioning it! For a writer who tended to go overboard with the verbiage (although the verbiage is always of interest), Mann produced this succinct 75-page novella to symbolize "fin-de-siecle" Europe before WWI. The book is a microcosm of melancholy, one of the best evocations of life before 1914. Concerning the movie by Visconti from the 1970's: it changes the main character to a composer (mainly so that music by Gustav Mahler can therefore be used in the soundtrack) and adds a character modeled on composer Arnold Schoenberg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilde Lily Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 My favorite: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Also: 84 Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff Daisy Miller by Henry James The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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