Whirligigs of time and taste

[oursin]

Fascinating list of 100 Best Novelz EVAH as published in 1898 in The Bookman by litcritic Clement Shorter.

And apart from the usual thing with such lists that it includes significant numbers of works which have not stood up to the test of time, there are several other interesting points about it.

The earlier entries are pretty much Ye Canonical Founders of Ye Novel, although I was a bit surprised to see The Holy War rather than Pilgrim's Progress, but I suppose one should not judge standard critical opinion of Bunyan's works on Louisa May Alcott's invocation of PP in LW.

He's pretty well up in Euro-lit, and also what was happening across the Atlantic - though no Mark Twain, WTF?!

Do we detect something of an inclination towards Scots authors? though also a number of works from Ireland. Both of these doubtless with extensive passages of phonetically rendered quaint local dialect.

Some of his picks for Canonical Writers are kind of weird: Silas Marner rather than Middlemarch? again, WTF, not to mention Ruth rather than e.g. North and South.

A number of writers one has heard of, whom nobody reads anymore, or who exist as an Awful Warning (Bulwer-Lytton, e.g.).

I have heard of Valentine Vox because Robertson Davies wrote about it somewhere as an example of a bad book which was once immensely popular, and why certain works become popular at particular times.

We are rather impressed that Mr Shorter includes a very large number of writers of what he may have referred to as the gentler or the fair sex. While he seems to have enjoyed swashbuckling adventure, he also seems to have had some taste for weepy sentimentality, if not the sensationalist melodrama of e.g. Lady Audley's Secret. Though apparently not one of the manly Victorians sobbing into his beard over The Heir of Redcliffe.

I bet quite a lot of those works are now available via Project Gutenberg.

It's a very eclectic list, go Clement Shorter, even if I don't concur with all of his choices

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

Anyone who includes Caleb Williams in their 100 best novels has got something going for them. It redeemed my otherwise-loathed undergraduate Romantics course. I'm also fond of John Halifax, Gentleman, even if it is listed as "the best-known Victorian fable of Smilesian self-improvement".

After saying that, asking "Has anyone these days read The Vicar of Wakefield?" seems a bit silly, but I ask it nonetheless.

[dorothean]

After saying that, asking "Has anyone these days read The Vicar of Wakefield?" seems a bit silly, but I ask it nonetheless.

I read it last week!!

[nineveh_uk]

Did you enjoy it? It's one of those novels (like "Esmond") that are But a Name to me, though I know theoretically that they were once loved.

[dorothean]

Yes, I did very much! I didn't know a thing about it when I began -- I was reading a library edition that had no editorial matter whatever, not even the publication date -- so I didn't even know what to expect. But I thought it was almost completely charming. The sense of humor grew and grew on me, and I even liked the political digressions. I think it would be a lovely book to read out loud, but I wouldn't read it to children (supposing there are any who would sit still for it anymore) because the one really disagreeable part is the sexism. (But I have to admit I found a few of the sexist bits funny, too.)

The vicar is the narrator. It is the story of how he and his family suffer all kinds of downfalls and humiliations, but finally arrive at a happy ending. The real appeal, I think, is how he describes the family's foibles, especially his own, his wife's, and his elder daughter's. All kinds of absurd situations arise in consequence of said foibles, and the vicar is perfectly aware of the absurdity, but he retains a tone of paternal devotion and authority throughout. (I am not sure if this is what earlier readers generally enjoyed, but it was the strongest impression on me!)

[nineveh_uk]

Sounds like I should perhaps give it a go.

[oursin]

I liked Esmond when I read it many years ago but not sure how far it would hold up - not so much his take on the Jacobite Rebellion, more the gender etc attitudes.

[coughingbear]

I loved Esmond when I read it as a teenager.

Am feeling a strange pull towards trying '44. Fardorougha the Miser - 1839 - William Carleton ("a grim study of avarice and Catholic family life. Critics consider it the author's finest achievement")'.

[sara]

*pastes gold star on your forehead* This is what I love about the internet, if people aren't wearing rubber gloves on their heads they're reading obscure English novels.

[perennialanna]

I read it when I was 16 or so, but that was 18 years ago now.

[oursin]

I read it a very long time ago and it has rather faded - I remember picking up a huge stack of Classics of Lit in cheapo US paperback editions, of which it was one, for some very modest amount, in some booksellers in the Charing Cross Road, c. 1972 or so. Still have at least most of them, some still unread (I will totally get to the Confessions of St Augustine, one day).

[castiron]

I have, due to its being mentioned in Little Women; while it's not one of my utter favorites, I enjoy rereading it every few years.

[nineveh_uk]

After Little Women made me try Pilgrim's Progress, I think I decided not to go anywhere near anything else it recommended! Though I might try PP again, I suppose.

[green_knight]

First thing I noticed is how many female writers are on that list. And how many books I've never heard of...

[spiralsheep]

Although at least one of those listed as by a woman, Adventures of Mr Ledbury, is misattributed. :-)

https://archive.org/details/adventuresofmrle00smit

[oursin]

That explains why, although he says only 1 book by each author, there appear to be 2 by Anna Sewell - presumably an error in transcription as her book is immediately before it in the list.

[shiv]

Ah, now, unlike the list of 50 hard to read I've read rather a lot of those, and some of them are little gems.

[gillo]

Kenilworth, not Ivanhoe? Have you ever tried to read it? Gadzookery taken to a ridiculous degree.

I suppose it's surprising he hit so many writers still respected. And P&P is always going to be popular because it's fun.

I doubt if a modern list would stand much better a chance. It would be interesting to go back to the millennial lists and see how they have worn, even.

[sara]

I think I am posting that to the work Facebook tomorrow.

It would be interesting to cross-reference it with the 100 most popular books at Project Gutenberg.

[heliopausa]

Mark Twain and Charlotte Yonge were both living when the list was made, so the compiler might have admired them both, even if they aren't on the list.
Why simply assume that unknown Irish or Scottish books are likely to have "extensive passages of phonetically rendered quaint local dialect"?
And come to that, why are so many people surprised that a list compiled in the 1890s shows more respect for women writers than a list compiled today? It's not as if day by day in every way things are getting better and better for women, at all.

[oursin]

Shorter appended a list of works by living writers of the time that he considered in the same class: neither Yonge nor Twain were on it (Henry James and Hardy were). I would have mentioned if they'd made that list.

I think there's a distinction to be made between 'that's interesting' (especially after the recent hoohah about the guy who was claiming he only wanted to teach The Best Lit Ever, which was all by middle-aged straight white men, pretty much) and 'surprised'.

Given the influence of Scott (and having read passages from some less well-known writers of regional novels of a slightly later period cited in works of literary history and criticism) I would unfortunately anticipate the phonetic rendering of local dialect thing. But perhaps there were writers who managed to convey the differences without the kind of thing the modern-day reader, at least, struggles with. (I seem to recollect Maria Edgworth managed this in Castle Rackrent, but it's a long time since I read it.)

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I used to rather enjoy George MacDonald's Scottish novels, but it took a while to get into them.