Took me a minute to figure out what you meant. That's good--nice and pronounceable, which is not true of HBCU.

I have also read seven for sure, but maybe two or three others. What, I wonder, are his criteria for major and minor. In some instances it seems like the books are only minor in relation to the definitely major works by the same author. I guess in another hundred years we will know if he was right.

By then, maybe I will have read more of them.

AMDG

"or a novel one was unlikely to have read in school" I think almost everything on the list is minor by that standard. Especially for people who weren't English majors in college.

A fair number don't meet the first standard, so I guess they're admitted under the second. If Walter Miller is a major writer, which I don't really think he is by usual standards, it's only because of Canticle. I certainly don't claim extensive knowledge, but there are a lot of people on that list whom I really doubt are *major*.

I'm just trying to figure out what qualifies as a major work. Longevity? Popularity? Quality?

AMDG

Separating the concept of major/minor work from major/minor author, I think of a major work as one that combines quality and "quantity," meaning by the latter some sort of scope--importance of the subject, scope of the narrative (in the case of a novel), maybe stylistic or some other technical level of achievement. Longevity will follow. Popularity may or may not. More or less the same sort of criteria would justify calling an author major.

I think I'd nominate Waugh's Helena as minor by a major. A minor author could write a major work, maybe. A major author can certainly write a minor work.

Silas Marner was certainly read in school 50-60 years ago, at least in my school. Actually it's one of those I'm not sure whether I read or not. I sort of think not. It may have been optional in one of my high school classes--one on a list of books you could do a book report on or something. I have a fairly good idea of what it's about, also a few images which, I'm embarrassed to say, may have come from a Classics Comic. If that was my only exposure it might account for my being unsure of whether or not I've read it.

I definitely did read a Classics Comic of Jane Eyre, probably around the age of 12, and didn't like it at all. It was creepy, almost scary.

I read JE once many years ago and wasn't enthusiastic. Read it again more recently and liked it a lot better.

Of course now, sadly, students of the same age are probably reading The Hunger Games. You almost have to be an English major in college to come across real classics.

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that you can make your kids read at least some of this stuff.

The Color Purple is sometimes on reading lists at Catholic High Schools.

Rob, I really like Silas Marner, or Silas Marmer as it says on the list.

Maclin, I can see that you would like Wuthering Heights better than Jane Eyre, but the latter is the sort of book that teenage girls fall in love with and read all their lives, like Pride and Prejudice. When you are 13, you like the romance, but as you reread it, you see the depth in them. I never like Wuthering Heights.

My favorite Bronte novel is Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne.

When I took a B. Lit course about eleven years ago we read had no Austen, no Bronte, no Dickens, but some F. Engles. I'm not sure you get the real classics in a lot of colleges, and I suspect there will be fewer as time goes on. I can't remember if the above mentioned were even in the edition of Norton's that we had.

The reason I asked about criteria for Major works is this. I was thinking about books like The Moviegoer, which won the National Book Award, and which in my opinion is a major work, but how many people today would read it, or know what it was or even know who Percy is? I surely never checked out anything by Percy, or O'Connor, or anyone like that to anyone at the library. And, I am not even sure anyone ever checked out Austen or Bronte while I was there. Maybe Pride and Prejudice and Zombie. Zombie are big.

So, the books that I consider major really are having a very minimal impact now, but there are some weird people like us, and I hope that someday that get rediscovered.

It's been a long time since I read The Color Purple, but doesn't the main character, after finally getting rid of her abusive husband, end up with another woman?

AMDG

No, I haven't, but it sounds intriguing. I saw Michelle Dockery in a trailer or something in which she plays an extremely un-Lady-Mary-like role and it was slightly shocking.

I will reply more later or tomorrow. I'm about to sit in on an online class about Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor. At least I hope I am--I haven't used Zoom before. I'm wondering why it took over all the other companies in that "space" so quickly (GoToMeeting, for instance). Or maybe it wasn't that quick, as I haven't needed to use any of that kind of stuff for 5 years now.

I would say, within the context of the subject of this post, that The Moviegoer would be major for Percy while Love in the Ruins might be minor. ;-)

"I saw Michelle Dockery in a trailer or something in which she plays an extremely un-Lady-Mary-like role and it was slightly shocking."

She plays M. McConnaghey's (sp?) tough no-nonsense wife in The Gentlemen. I don't think I've ever seen her in anything else, but I thought she was very good in that. The role was originally supposed to have been for Kate Beckinsale, who I'm sure could have pulled it off with equal aplomb, but I thought Dockery was just fine.

I read Middlemarch a few years back and was a little disappointed. To me it kind of read like Jane Austen without the comedy. Could be that I've read so much Dickens and Hardy that I need to "adjust" to Eliot. I should probably give one of her other big books a go -- Adam Bede or The Mill on the Floss.

Re-reading Hardy's The Return of the Native right now. Hardy would have to be my second favorite Victorian after Dickens, despite Jude the Obscure, which I hated and would never read again. I tried reading some Gissing a while back and found him a little dry (although his fictional autobiography 'Henry Ryecroft' was pretty good -- it was a favorite of Russell Kirk's iirc, which is probably where I heard of it). I've had almost no experience with Trollope, but I do like some of George MacDonald's non-fantasy novels. I read 'Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood' about 20 years ago while going through a rough patch and I found it very inspiring. There's a fair bit of sermonizing in it but it didn't seem bothersome to me; as the main character is a vicar/pastor of some sort you kind of expect it.

Rob - I bet you would like Adam Bede. That's the one I'd recommend for you.
Dickens is certainly a favorite, but I've also read a lot of Trollope, perhaps too much several years ago. It will be a while before I'm ready for more. Always eager to return to Dickens though.

Rob:

I really like MacDonald's non-fantasy novels. I have been listening to a recording of David Elginbrod on Librivox, but the reader is annoying, so I was planning to read or listen to Annals on the recommendation of someone in another group.

I got something by Madison Jones when you wrote that post, but never got around to reading it. I will have to look that up.

AMDG

Stu, I once had a nice hardcover copy of Adam Bede -- Modern Library, I think -- but I must've sold it during one my my financial low periods. I sold a lot of books during those times!

Janet, I read quite a few of MacDonald's realistic novels back in the 90's. I always felt that in general the Scottish ones were better than the English ones, although 'Annals...' would be an exception to that rule.

As racial matters figure into its plot A Cry of Absence would be an interesting read right now in light of all the stuff that has gone down in the last six months.

Me too. That's one of the reasons I slowed down on book buying -- there are too many I have that remain unread. Quite a few that I don't even remember buying, which is pretty sad.