Back to the Classics Challenge--2012

I was inspired by fellow book-blogging friend, Jillian, over at A Room of One's Own to participate in a year-long reading challenge during 2012.  The challenge is the brainchild of Sarah at Sarah Reads Too Much, and is entitled "Back to the Classics Challenge--2012" and involves nine categories of reading to be accomplished between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012.  I actually think the discipline required of me to participate in this challenge will cause me to finish reading a couple of novels that I have been putting off for aeons.  Also, I have some other great works of literature that I want to read, and planned to read in 2012, so they just really mesh well with this challenge.  If you're interested in participating in Sarah's challenge, I urge you to have a look at this posting.

Here are the nine categories--

1. Read any 19th Century classic work;
2. Read any 20th century classic work;
3. Reread a classic work of your choice;
4. Read a classic play;
5. Read a classic work of fiction that is a mystery/horror/crime;
6. Read a classic romance
7. Read a classic that has been translated from its original language into your language;
8. Read a classic work that is an award winner; and
9. Read a classic that is set in a country that, in all likelihood,  you will not visit during your lifetime.

And here are my choices--

1. Moby Dick, or, The Whale, by Herman Melville (1851);
2. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer (1948);
3. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo (1862), Translated by Julie Rose (2008);
4. A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare (late-1590s);
5. Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier (1936);
6. The Reef, by Edith Wharton (1912);
7. The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri (circa 14th century), Translated by Stanley Lombardo (2009);
8. The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, Translated by William Weaver (1980), PEN Translation Award Winner; and
9. Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880), Translated by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky (2002), PEN Translation Award Winner.

I'm actually quite excited to get started on this list!  I'm also glad that I am using this challenge to finally compel myself to read (actually,  finish would be the operative term here) Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov.  I am really looking forward to taking on Dante's Inferno, as I already had planned to tackle it in 2012.  The coming year is also going to be the year in which I discover, or rediscover, many of Shakespeare's plays.  Anyway, lots of good stuff to look forward to here!  Have a great weekend, and Happy Reading!

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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!