My Top-Ten Favorite Authors

Well, I am a little late for "Top-Ten Tuesday," but that's okay!  Like my friend, Lisa, over at Bibliophiliac, I am intrigued with the notion of thinking about and listing my top-ten favorite authors, rather than trying to identify my top-ten favorite books (which seems an incredibly daunting task) .  I like doing this periodically too, as my list of favorite authors (and books) seems rather dynamic and changes over time with all of the reading I do.  So, I may revisit this topic a couple of times each year.  I am hopeful that it will record my maturation as a reader.  Finally, I should point out that "Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created by the folks over at The Broke and the Bookish.

So, here is my Top-Ten Favorite Authors list.  I am also endeavoring to include an example, or two, of their works of literature that I particularly admire.  This list is in no particular order, and includes--

1. Homer--  What can I say?  The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the greatest epic poems known to humanity, and ripping good yarns at that!  I highly recommend the translations by Robert Fagles too.  They are masterfully done, and incredibly lyrical.
2. Aeschylus--  Aeschylus' trilogy of tragedies, The Oresteia, is stunningly powerful.  This is the story of the House of Atreus of Argos, and its journey from a dark and bleak legacy of treachery and vengeance to the establishment of a process for formal determination and atonement of guilt through the use of a trial and jury--the process that we now know as Justice.  Again, I highly recommend reading the Fagles translation.
3. Emily Dickinson--  The 'Belle of Amherst' is, in my humble opinion, perhaps the most important American writer to date.  You simply must read her The Complete Poems.  Her poetry is brilliant, powerful and evocative.
4. John Keats--  Much like Dickinson, Keats is a singular and unique poetic voice; a 'Bright Star' that was dimmed all too soon, with his death at such a young age.  Keats' Complete Poems is a volume that I continually visit.
5. Jane Austen--  Austen's novels are some of the finest fiction in the English language; and her Persuasion and Emma are my two favorites.
6. Charles Dickens--  In my opinion, Dickens may have been the Shakespeare of his day.  His stories are steeped in the human experience and have great meaning even now.  I highly recommend his novels, Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend.
7. Thomas Hardy--  One of my favorite authors!  Hardy's appraisal and characterization of the pastoral human experience in his fiction and poetry is almost unparalleled in my view.  Whether intentional or not, I find in Hardy's poetry and novels the thread that reaches back to the ancient Greek tragedies that binds the story of Human Life inextricably with Fate and Destiny.  Reading Hardy's Complete Poems, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Return of the Native, and Jude the Obscure was a transformative experience for me--I just look at Life differently now.
8. Leo Tolstoy--  For me, Tolstoy's fiction is the voice of what it means to be Russian (similarly, I think that Anna Akhmatova is the 'poetic voice' of the Russians).  In reading Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina, the reader cannot help but inexorably become swept up in the passion, pathos, and drama of the heart and soul of the Russian peoples against the backdrop of that great land.  I highly recommend the new translations of these two novels by the husband-wife team of Richard Pevear and Lara Volokhonsky.
9. George Eliot--  In my view, Eliot is the giant of the Victorian pantheon of writers!  Eliot's fiction is some of the most profoundly important literature that I have ever read.  Like Tolstoy and Hugo, Eliot is didactic, but her teaching, moralizing, and philosophizing flows ever so smoothly from the printed page to the reader's consciousness.  It makes sense and just rings True!  While I love all of her books, my two favorites are The Mill on the Floss and the monumental Middlemarch.
10. William Shakespeare--  Again, what can I say?  Harold Bloom seems to see a Canon of Literature that is 'Shakespeare-centric' in that all literature revolves around the works of 'The Bard.'  I don't disagree.  Also, I love his sonnets and narrative poems!

Well, there it is; my list of my 'Top-Ten Favorite Authors.'  I'd love to know what you think too.  Take a minute and tell me about your favorite authors and their great works?  Happy Reading!

Re-Reading, Do You Do It? Your 'To Re-Read Top-Ten List'?

The subject for this posting was actually inspired by Lisa on her literary blog at Bibliophiliac, and I mentioned that maybe I'd do a posting about what books we tend to re-read, and why.  So without further ado, I've a couple of questions for you:

1.  Do you typically re-read books?  If not, why not?  If so, may I be nosy enough as to inquire about what criteria you generally use in reaching a decision to to re-read a book?

2.  What books would you include in your 'Top-Ten Novels to Re-Read' List?

Regarding the first question, I do re-read books, and not all that infrequently either.  Most of the time it is after a few years have passed and I just get a hankerin' to revisit a specific author, or a particularly favorite novel.  I have a few books that are just timeless classics for me, and I just get more and more out of them with each visit (e.g., Tolstoy's Anna Karenina).  Generally, my only criteria is that I had to have loved it the first time around (e.g., Dickens's Bleak House), or I grew to love it over time (e.g., Austen's Mansfield Park, or Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway).

People tend to look somewhat askance when I casually mention that I am re-reading 'such-and-such.'  Typically, I get in return, "Why would you read it again, when you've already read it?"  Without 'smacking them up-side-the-head,' I kindly reply, "Because it was so good the first time I read it, I want to see if it still is."  That usually shuts 'em up.  Seriously though, folks, re-reading a favorite book is like visiting an old friend--it is comfortable, companionable, and there's always something new to learn and appreciate.  In short, it strengthens the relationship!  Take a moment and share your opinions of what re-reading books means to you.

My 'Top-Ten Novels to Re-Read' List (in no particular order):

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo -- A serious 'fat book' that is simply sensational.  I just purchased the new Julie Rose translation (2008) in hardcover, and am really looking forward to revisiting it soon!

The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton -- 'Oh, Lily Bart, Lily Bart, Lily Bart, whatever am I to do with you?'  I will always love this novel.  Edith Wharton is probably my favorite American author, and this novel is one reason why!

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy -- Another 'fat book' that has stayed with me since the first time I read it.  This is the novel that I have probably re-read the most over the past 30+ years, and occupies a spot in my 'Top-Five Favorite Books' list.

The Stand, Stephen King -- What can I say?  Stephen King's "The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition" is just the ultimate post-apocalyptic tale.  My gut says that this novel will still be read 150 years from now. Oh, and it is another 'fat book' too!

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy -- Tess, one of fiction's most famous women.  On that basis alone, Thomas Hardy's Tess of that "delicate feminine tissue" is well worth revisiting!  I just re-read it again for the first time in a long, long time, and was perhaps even more profoundly devastated this time around.

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy -- I just finished reading this novel for the very first time, and realize that this is clearly Hardy's magnum opus, and there is a lifetime of study ahead of me to fully grasp this novel.  Maybe a modern re-telling of the biblical story of Job?  This is a hugely significant novel, in my opinion.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke -- Clarke's debut novel, and just brilliant.  I have described this 'fat book' as magical, mysterious, dreamy, witty and funny, and incredibly engaging.  Without sounding too trite, the characters are Dickensian, the dialog Austenesque, some of the vision and fantasy of Lewis Carroll, and much of the prose like that of Patrick O'Brian.

Possession, A. S. Byatt -- This novel is like peeling an onion.  Each time you read it, you peel back a layer and expose a whole new world to appreciate and ponder.  It was this novel that allowed me to develop a life-long love for the poetry of Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and the Brownings.  I love this novel with all of my heart and soul!

Outer Dark, Cormac McCarthy -- Personally, I view McCarthy's writing as the contemporary American descendant of the Victorian Thomas Hardy.  This novel, not particularly well-known, is perhaps the most powerful of all of his novels.  It is a massive 'punch to the gut' to read, but the prose is powerful and moving.  McCarthy paints one helluva portrait of Appalachia in the early-20th century.  Read it!  Re-read it!

O Pioneers!, Willa Cather -- My oldest daughter turned me on to this beautiful novel.  "O Pioneers!" describes life on the Nebraska prairie at the beginning of the 20th century.  This is one of the most lyrical and emotionally powerful books by an American author, and is brilliantly plotted too.  It is interesting to me, but not surprising, that both Edith Wharton and Willa Cather were the first and second women, respectively, to win the Pulitzer prize for fiction (Wharton in 1921, and Cather in 1923).

Well, there we are.  My thoughts, and my list.  What say all of you?