I thought Moby Dick was heavy sledding when I first read it.
I had heard from others that Pilgrim's Progress was the worst book you could be assigned, but I never got it in a class.
The only book I didn't enjoy as a student was the hobbit and I didn't bother trying to reread it.
Shakespeare was annoying not because it was Shakespeare, but because in grade 11, 12 and 13* we had to do in class plays which I always hated.
*Ontario doesn't have grade 13 anymore.
Shakespeare. I absolutely hated having to trudge through that in High School.
But after undergrad I had the chance to travel and I took in some performances at Stratford up Avon - and it all suddenly made sense to me. Now I love reading his work.
Icelandic sagas. Keeping track of all the family genealogies with every other character named Þorbjörn...
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw; I didn't get it at all in high school but now appreciate it.
I didn't hate "The Great Gatsby," but I do appreciate it much more as an adult than I did in high school.
None IIRC. I didn't like Siddharta, but I haven't read it as an adult.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I did not like it at all at high school (I think AS or A Level - so 17 or 18). It was paired with Jane Eyre in that unit and I remember far preferring Jane Eyre. I think I didn't like the ambiguity. I remember moaning about it to my teacher and her describing Jane Eyre as a more straight forward, say what you see story while Tess was foggy and something you relax into with a glass of red wine - my taste wasn't that sophisticated :lol:
I've since read a lot of Hardy (not least because my mum and dad now live in Hardy country) and loved it.
Oh, and we had two short stories by James Joyce (Araby and Counterparts, both from Dubliners) in our readers (in junior high and high school respectively). I didn't get Araby and didn't care for Counterparts; but I really like Dubliners now.
I absolutely loved Shakespeare when we got to perform the plays in class. A lot less so when we just had to read them. That goes for any play, honestly. I remember when we did Romeo and Juliet, I died three times due to playing different characters (Tybalt was my primary but I later filled in as Romeo and Paris). I managed to almost survive Julius Caesar (Brutus). I died once again and also threw on a Groundskeeper Willie-esque accent when we read MacBeth and I took on the titular role. One teacher (11th grade, home of the American Lit year) actually forbade us from reading with emphasis, emotion, or trying to get into character at all when we would read pieces aloud of things like The Crucible and The Color Purple. It ruined them for me.
For anyone trying to jog their memories, I found this list:
of books. (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/478.Required_Reading_in_High_School?page=1)
Not exactly a book, but...
It's the mid-90s. The Manitoba Theatre Company signs up-and-coming actor Keanu Reeves to play Hamlet. At the time he was known for, I think, Bill and Ted. Then Speed hits - big time. But Keanu lives up to his commitment to do Hamlet. Fan interest was intense. I got to go see it.
So look - mid-90s Keanu sucked at "To be or not to be". It was fast and wooden.
But as a comedy? As an action movie, err, play? He killed it.
It did put a whole different spin on Shakespeare for me. It really was popular entertainment of its day.
Quote from: Sheilbh on October 23, 2023, 01:27:32 PMTess of the d'Urbervilles.
I fucking HATED Tess of the D'Ubervilles in high school. Never had the slightest interest in re-engaging with it.
Who knows - maybe I'd have a different mindset now. But it'd be hard to get past that memory.
I'll second/third Shakespeare's plays, because I didn't "get" theatre in high school and so couldn't readily visualize the action. It was all just dialogue to me, with no description.
I enjoy plays now because I "get" theatre much more.
We didn't read books in my school.
I don't think I was made to read any books in high school that I hated.
Maybe it's because I was sophisticated and could appreciate the canon, maybe I got a lucky draw, or maybe I'm just not that critical... I don't know. But I enjoyed it all :wub:
Quote from: Jacob on October 23, 2023, 02:17:24 PMI don't think I was made to read any books in high school that I hated.
Maybe it's because I was sophisticated and could appreciate the canon, maybe I got a lucky draw, or maybe I'm just not that critical... I don't know. But I enjoyed it all :wub:
You clearly didn't have to read Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
A Separate Peace. No, wait, I still hate that one. Also Frankenstein. That book was terrible.
Quote from: Barrister on October 23, 2023, 02:28:25 PMYou clearly didn't have to read Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
That is correct. I did not.
The ones that I still remember are
To Kill a Mockingbird,
1984,
Brave New World and a handful of Shakespeare.
Some of Balzac's works such as Le Père Goriot are famous for that.
Also Shakespeare for me.
Conversely, I really like Great Expectations in high school, but the books seems to be widely hated in popular opinion. I'll have to reread it and see if I still like it.
Quote from: Barrister on October 23, 2023, 02:28:25 PMQuote from: Jacob on October 23, 2023, 02:17:24 PMI don't think I was made to read any books in high school that I hated.
Maybe it's because I was sophisticated and could appreciate the canon, maybe I got a lucky draw, or maybe I'm just not that critical... I don't know. But I enjoyed it all :wub:
You clearly didn't have to read Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
You might get more out of Tess today, especially given your profession. Woman who murders her boyfriend/rapist/baby-daddy in order to be with the husband who abandoned her by running off to South America sounds like something you'd encounter. ;) (Plus he briefly wanted to run off with her best friend and marries her sister after her execution, it's a real healthy relationship.)
I think high school is a little young to read Hardy's prose; it's pretty bleak and deals with aspects of human relationships that are usually outside a high school student's experience. (Actually, if he wasn't a naturalist, some of them sounds like they could have been plots to an episode of Jerry Springer - man sells his wife for a bowl of oatmeal spiked with booze, for example.) I've heard worse, though, I had a friend who had to read Faulkner's "The Sound and The Fury" for a competition when he was in high school.
I do not remember any of the books I read in highschool. None left an impression on me 23 years later.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 23, 2023, 02:54:55 PMA Separate Peace. No, wait, I still hate that one. Also Frankenstein. That book was terrible.
I hated A Separate Peace.
It symbolized everything that was wrong about these English classes. "You have to read this because its a classic!" but no context given about what the fuck was going on in them, or the language changes, or what have you.
We got to pick most of the books ourselves, which helps a lot. The ones forced on me that I didn't like I never read again.
For me it's "Mirall Trencat" by Mercè Rodoreda. Found it dull as a brick as a kid, coumponed by the fact we had monthly assignments about the chapter, now I think it's possibly the best Catalan book I've ever read.
I also used to have a hard time with Spanish XXth century freeform poets (isn't poetry supposed to rhyme?), and I appreciate it more now - but I'd lie if I said I'm much of a poetry reader.
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on October 23, 2023, 07:25:57 PMI hated A Separate Peace.
It symbolized everything that was wrong about these English classes. "You have to read this because its a classic!" but no context given about what the fuck was going on in them, or the language changes, or what have you.
I looked this up because I'd never heard of it. Found a review in a British paper in 2014 because apparently it had never previously been published here which seems mad for a multi-million selling American classic. The reviewer liked it and thought, for British audiences, it would be a "forgotten gem" :lol:
QuoteThe ones that I still remember are To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Brave New World and a handful of Shakespeare.
Yeah I remember the sort of young teen novels - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Noughts and Crosses, Roll of Thunder etc. But I'm not sure if they were actually in class or just books that were in school that I read.
But ones I definitely remember reading for class were Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Tess, The Pearl by John Steinbeck (which I didn't enjoy and I've not revisited so maybe I should :hmm:), The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally and Wise Children by Angela Carter (which I absolutely loved and kicked off me reading all of her novels and short stories).
Plus Macbeth, Othello and Lear. Apart from the standard WW1 poets and Carol Ann Duffy I don't remember any poetry we read - but I generally didn't like poetry. I'm not a massive poetry reader now (though I still read some) - but, with the exception of Shakespeare (and possibly post-colonial literature) I think basically every essay I wrote at university was about poetry. So I clearly changed my mind on that.
Edit: Oh and An Inspector Calls :lol: There were also texts for drama and in terms of high school appropriate or not, one of our set texts there was the Marat/Sade, plus the Peter Brook film version and lots about Antonin Artaud and the theatre of cruelty - I kind of loved that unit.
Besides the ones I mentioned, I remember Grapes of Wrath, Huckleberry Finn, The Jungle, and The Good Earth.
Quote from: Sheilbh on October 24, 2023, 03:03:13 AMEdit: Oh and An Inspector Calls :lol: There were also texts for drama and in terms of high school appropriate or not, one of our set texts there was the Marat/Sade, plus the Peter Brook film version and lots about Antonin Artaud and the theatre of cruelty - I kind of loved that unit.
We once staged Marat/Sade for our directing the actor class :D - but that was in college.
I Am David, some Sherlock Homes short stories, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Inspector Calls, Look Back in Anger, Great Expectations. Must have been others, but it's a very unimaginative, very English list.
Quote from: celedhring on October 24, 2023, 03:27:05 AMWe once staged Marat/Sade for our directing the actor class :D - but that was in college.
Not sure that's the right unit for it :lol:
I think we did it for theory - I remember reading Artaud and Brecht as well. But it was supposed to inform our final presentations. Which just meant a lot of insufferable final shows for the examiner :blush:
Quote from: Sheilbh on October 24, 2023, 03:39:57 AMQuote from: celedhring on October 24, 2023, 03:27:05 AMWe once staged Marat/Sade for our directing the actor class :D - but that was in college.
Not sure that's the right unit for it :lol:
I think we did it for theory - I remember reading Artaud and Brecht as well. But it was supposed to inform our final presentations. Which just meant a lot of insufferable final shows for the examiner :blush:
That was sorta the point for the teacher. He was (rightly) big on embracing the acting as a moment of creation, not just reproducing the written text - so we ad-libbed a lot to "adapt" the text to current times (the 1990s to be precise). It was pure chaos so I guess it was a success :P We had a blast tbf, one of my fondest memories of college.
Quote from: Gups on October 24, 2023, 03:30:28 AMI Am David, some Sherlock Homes short stories, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Inspector Calls, Look Back in Anger, Great Expectations. Must have been others, but it's a very unimaginative, very English list.
Thing that struck me looking back was that all the writers I remember reading are white, the only post-colonial novel is by Keneally. I'd be surprised if there's not a broader range now particularly of post-colonial writing. Also surprised that it was as 19th century as it was, but admittedly one unit was "The Victorian Novel".
I think now I'd expect curriculums to be more thematic (but still poetry, drama, prose) and spread across time rather than doing a specific form in a specific period.
I didn't notice it at the time, but there was gender balance (also I think we did Mrs Dalloway - definitely remember reading it at high school).
Quote from: Sheilbh on October 24, 2023, 03:52:26 AMQuote from: Gups on October 24, 2023, 03:30:28 AMI Am David, some Sherlock Homes short stories, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Inspector Calls, Look Back in Anger, Great Expectations. Must have been others, but it's a very unimaginative, very English list.
Thing that struck me looking back was that all the writers I remember reading are white, the only post-colonial novel is by Keneally. I'd be surprised if there's not a broader range now particularly of post-colonial writing. Also surprised that it was as 19th century as it was, but admittedly one unit was "The Victorian Novel".
I think now I'd expect curriculums to be more thematic (but still poetry, drama, prose) and spread across time rather than doing a specific form in a specific period.
I didn't notice it at the time, but there was gender balance (also I think we did Mrs Dalloway - definitely remember reading it at high school).
The national curriculum for Eng. Lit GCSE is still pretty old fashioned and very English focussed.
https://thenationalcurriculum.com/gcse-english-literature-texts/
40 odd years on from my schooldays, An Inspector Calls remains ubiquitous closely followed by Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. Plus ca change as you wouldn't be allowed to say.
They made us read Moby Dick in high school. I hated it. I reread it in my aforementioned American Lit class, just a few years later, and eureka--I got a different take on it all together.
I think the problem with reading Hardy (ugh), Shakespeare or any of the old classics in high school, is that they're clearly not meant to be read by hormonal teenagers. Shakespeare really was never meant to be read at all.
Quote from: Gups on October 24, 2023, 05:22:08 AMThe national curriculum for Eng. Lit GCSE is still pretty old fashioned and very English focussed.
https://thenationalcurriculum.com/gcse-english-literature-texts/
40 odd years on from my schooldays, An Inspector Calls remains ubiquitous closely followed by Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. Plus ca change as you wouldn't be allowed to say.
Yeah that is mad. That basically looks exactly the same as what I studied. Although it doesn't include the coursework unit which is where I think the teacher has a bit more freedom and that's where I had Carter - because I remember the teacher giving us a sample of three books and asking the class to decide which writer they wanted to read.
Particularly insane that while I get An Inspector Calls is probably quite easy to teach - it is a didactic piece of socialist (sort of) realism that premiered in the USSR after all :lol: - it seems mad that a play set in 1912 is probably a very popular pick in the post-1919 fiction or drama section.
A Level seems a bit freer as you'd expect - eight texts, 3 pre-1900 (including at least one Shakespeare) and 1 post-2000, can include texts in translation etc.
Gups' post made me think we should have a thread about high school books you were forced to read, loved and continue to read.
Animal Farm and 1984 are definitely on that list for me.
I enjoyed Shakespeare :lol: :ph34r: I like Macbeth and Othello a lot, but I really loved King Lear. It may just be that I was 18 by that point so a bit more mature and able to enjoy it more but I think it's an incredible play. Been to see a couple of versions - the one that sticks out was Simon Russell Beale as Lear (though I think he's a little young).
Wise Children by Angela Carter. Started me off reading all of her novels and her re-imaginings of story tales and I still think she's an incredible writer.
Also Wuthering Heights - when I was at uni I had a tutor who said the world can be divided into Emily or Charlotte Bronte people and I think there's something to that :lol: I am fully a Wuthering Heights boy. With King Lear, I might just have a thing for people emoting at weather :hmm:
Your point about age and stage is a good one. Thinking back on it we started reading Shakespeare in elementary school and I just couldn't get my head around the context or the language.
Quote from: crazy canuck on October 24, 2023, 09:15:00 AMYour point about age and stage is a good one. Thinking back on it we started reading Shakespeare in elementary school and I just couldn't get my head around the context or the language.
I don't think we did any Shakespeare before high school and I don't think it'd be a good idea. I think we did A Midsummer Night's Dream at one point but I can't remember when :hmm:
I think we did Macbeth aged 15-16 and I believe that is the most popular Shakespeare to teach at that level because it's the shortest, relatively straightforward with some good language and an easy way into teaching how to read a text, such as analysing themes (as another lecturer put it "Lady Macbeth and her tits") or language ("the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red"). I think Romeo and Juliet is also popular as accessible to mid-teens.
AS was Othello (I think the other option was Julius Caesar) and then A2 was King Lear (I think the other option was Hamlet). And I think that approach makes sense. There is no point setting a text at a level when it's just going to be very difficult for the students, on the other hand you want to stretch them. So I think there's a logic in those journeys from the simplest, most direct (and short) tragedies to the longest and most challenging (and arguably most profound).
I think it's the same with poetry. It's alien to most kids so you want to start with something attainable and then build up to more challenging work.
I first "read" Shakespeare at age 18, too, when in a strike of hubris I purchased his complete works in English. I didn't understand half of it (and that's being generous).
I managed to read it all over the years though, as my English language skills developed and - above all - the Internet grew and I could use it to check the meaning of all those obscure 1600s English words.
EDIT: Actually I remember reading a Catalan translation of Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It when I was a teen.
Though we never read books at my school we certainly did Shakespeare.
MacBeth in Year 9 and Romeo and Juliet for year 11.
Though IIRC we didn't read the whole thing and just the scenes from the test.
I was meh on it. Fine enough as a stand alone but going over the same bits again and again and practicing how to answer exam questions....
I would watch movies of the Shakespeare plays I was supposed to read. At the time it felt like cheating but in retrospect that was the way they were originally consumed, so really reading them was cheating.
My grade 11 and 12 English teacher, for all her faults*, was great at teaching Shakespeare. She'd explain all the dirty jokes and innuendos. Funny how a bawdy humour written for the masses became the go to for high class writing.
*she was a cantankerous old lady that everyone dreaded getting.
Quote from: HVC on October 24, 2023, 09:52:28 AMMy grade 11 and 12 English teacher, for all her faults*, was great at teaching Shakespeare. She'd explain all the dirty jokes and innuendos. Funny how a bawdy humour written for the masses became the go to for high class writing.
:lol: I feel lie that is key.
Quote from: Valmy on October 24, 2023, 09:42:17 AMI would watch movies of the Shakespeare plays I was supposed to read. At the time it felt like cheating but in retrospect that was the way they were originally consumed, so really reading them was cheating.
Definitely encouraged here - when I was doing AS and A2 (so 17-18) one of the requirements was around engaging with other interpretations. Which meant we all loved plays because you could refer to film adaptations or productions. For poetry and novels it normally meant reading some literary criticism which was less fun :lol:
It was normally something written for that age group on, say, feminist or post-colonial interpretations of Wuthering Heights with quotes from actual critics that you'd memorise and use in the exam :ph34r: Unfortunately it also meant that the texts you might find easiest to read because they were recent could be in other ways the most challenging to do an essay on.
We did Romeo and Juliet, in either grade 6 or seven, and the exact opposite happened where the teacher had to rush past the bawdy humour.
To the extent we would've understood it at all
Hm, this thread makes me wonder about the greater Anglosphere--in the U.S. education system a number of English authors are featured heavily in literature instruction--obviously Shakespeare (I would say most American students do a couple of his major works as part of core curriculum, typically Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet, less commonly some of his other well knowns like Othello and Midsommer Night's), Charles Dickens is almost universally taught--usually "Great Expectations", but sometimes also "A Tale of Two Cities" and "A Christmas Carol."
George Orwell is commonly assigned reading as well.
The Canterbury Tales is usually studied, albeit often in translation (showing the raw Middle English might be done to show the evolution of the language, but High Schoolers are never expected to learn how to understand Middle English.)
I don't know if Beowulf is considered "English" per se, but it is also almost universally taught.
Aldous Huxley is commonly taught.
A lot of this makes sense because obviously, England is the origin point of the shared language and many of these works fall in the category of being seminal "developmental" works in the history of the language.
But it makes me curious--do Canadians or British (or I guess even Aussies and New Zealander) children learn any American authors at all? In American schools several American authors are almost ubiquitously taught: Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald probably being the "big four", or are they largely just considered "American" authors and not of interest to children's literature education outside of America?
I had to read to kill a mocking bird twice (two different high schools and school boards) so at least in Ontario it appears Harper Lee is a thing.
Although not a book, we also did a section on the scopes monkey trial in English class. Both watched the film and read articles and the like. Which is kind of funny I guess, because it was a catholic school, but as a general rule Catholics aren't strict creationists. Although that might vary in the states, your Catholics are weird and contaminated with their close proximity to Protestants :P
Yeah we read two of those authors in my high school - To Kill a Mockingbird and Grapes of Wrath. I don't recall if we read Huckleberry Finn or not. I think I read it at some point, and I don't think I would've read it if it wasn't assigned... but I'm not sure.
I think some folks read some F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I don't recall doing so myself.
Yeah I read Steinbeck for school - I think some people had The Great Gatsby. I think To Kill a Mockingbird is an option on the curriculum, so some schools will do it - but I read it at school. It was a book that we were aware of and were told this is good for your age group.
I don't think you'd get Twain on the curriculum here - but I could be wrong.
At school we did not touch Beowulf or Chaucer :lol: You might get sections of Heaney's Beowulf, and also Simon Armitage's Gawain and the Green Knight. But Middle English, Medieval Literature etc was very much something I only had at university (when you werre expected to read it in the original). I don't think Huxley is that widely taught or read either.
That's interesting on not being taught Beowulf or Chaucer, AFAIK they are still standard units in most American K-12 curriculum. Now, mind you again--they are absolutely not teaching teenagers Beowulf in the original Old English or Chaucer in the original Middle English. They generally teach translations, and then try to contextualize the links between Old and Middle English and modern day English.
I fact checked myself a bit and from scattered sources it looks like Beowulf is still taught heavily in America to this day, so my experience was not an outlier--by some accounts it is one of the most commonly taught stories in English literature classes.
I think part of its popularity is probably also that it is a story that is easy to get kids engaged in. It's about a dude who kills monsters and fights a dragon.
Just looked and you might do it in primary school:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/english-ks2-ks3-beowulf-index/zfbhpg8
But this is obviously not the actual text or for the language. Other examples for that age group are Greek myths, Wind in the Willows etc.
In fairness you might do a bit of Chaucer. For poetry you'll get given the exam board's anthology so it may include a sample - but it won't be a standalone, Canterbury Tales style thing.
Yeah, we definitely learn a number of major Greek myths, and the Iliad / Odyssey.
I enjoyed reading Shakespeare in school.
That surprises me that non-English countries would study Shakespeare in primary schooling.
Or at all to be honest.
I hope French kids don't have to read Shakespeare.
Quote from: OttoVonBismarck on October 24, 2023, 10:27:18 AMBut it makes me curious--do Canadians or British (or I guess even Aussies and New Zealander) children learn any American authors at all? In American schools several American authors are almost ubiquitously taught: Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald probably being the "big four", or are they largely just considered "American" authors and not of interest to children's literature education outside of America?
I think largely the latter in terms of formal education. Steinbeck and Lee may get a look in but not for all exam boards.
On the other hand, they are widely read here by bookish types. Certainly I read TKAM, Huck and Tom Sawyer as a child and most of Steinbeck plus Gatsby in my 20s. Hemingway is also popular
There were all those "Classics simplified for English learners" versions they made us read in English class, but that's about it :P
I mean, big foreign authors were adressed in our literature courses, so we had an idea of who they were and their role in the history of literature. We just didn't read anything from them. Incidentally, North-American writers were largely neglected compared to European ones.
To be frank, it would be a bit pointless to make Spanish high-schoolers read somebody like Shakespeare - it would have to be a Spanish translation and then what's the point? (I'm not a crazy purist against people reading translations, I'm just against building lit courses around that).
College was different though, particularly given my degree. One of my favorite courses was about misé en scéne that was essentially reading Hamlet, analyzing it, and then comparing it to how it was rendered by Brannagh.
Yeah I had no exposure to Chaucer or Beowulf, but we read Brave New World. It was an interesting contrast to 1984.
Yeah, famous non-English authors are certainly "mentioned" in American education, but I don't think translations are part of most curriculums. A lot of "bookish" American kids probably read some translated Dumas for example. Goethe is probably someone that is "mentioned" as a famous foreign language author but translations aren't taught.
We didn't read full Shakespeare plays in high school English class. Just some monologues and sonnets IIRC. But then we were in the science program, I don't know what the humanities program people did.
Quote from: celedhring on October 24, 2023, 11:56:41 AMTo be frank, it would be a bit pointless to make Spanish high-schoolers read somebody like Shakespeare - it would have to be a Spanish translation and then what's the point? (I'm not a crazy purist against people reading translations, I'm just against building lit courses around that).
I will say though that big foreign authors were adressed in our literature courses, so we had an idea of who they were. We just didn't read anything from them. Incidentally, North-American writers were largely neglected compared to European ones.
They weren't really covered - I think the only non-English language book I remember reading at school was Diary of Anne Frank. But if you were a bookish kid (:blush:) and read books in translation outside of the curriculum that would definitely be getting you extra marks. They're definitely mentioned though.
At university it English Literature so they were even stricter. You couldn't include texts in translation unless you were writing about the translation (Pound's Chinese poems, Pope's translation of Homer). I think it couldn't be more than 1/4 of a course reading list so I did one unit on the Poet as Witness which included some Spanish poetry from the Civil War and some Celan, but it was limited.
As you say I can see the point especially in a literature class.
So I can remember one other novel from high school (other than my great hatred for Tess of the d'Ubervilles) - In Search of April Raintree.
Because even in high school in the early 90s you had to get in your Canadian Content. A story of a young Metis girl growing up.
What I actually remember - in school they gave us the sanitized version just called "April Raintree". But my mother had gone back to university to get an advanced education degree, and she had the original version "In Search of April Raintree". So I checked with my teacher and I wound up reading that.
The rape scene was very eye opening.
I didn't really hate any books or plays we read in school ... I just never finished any of them. Whenever I *had* to read something I basically resented having to do so, even though the book might interest me.
Some of the material I recall:
A semester of "classicist literature" (i.e. Weimar Klassik): Sophokles' Antigone, Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris (which contains a programmatic quote of German classicism: "seeking, in my soul, the land of Greece"/"das Land der Griechen mit der Seele suchend"), Goethe's Faust I&II.
Alfred Doeblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (in German class as part of a rhetorics focus, in English class because Shakespeare).
Gudrun Pausewang's The Last Children of Schewenborn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Children_of_Schewenborn) (Threads or Day After as German youth novel.)
Two stage plays by Max Frisch: Andorra (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra_(play)) (a play about ostracization of minorities) and The Fire Raisers (Biedermann und die Brandstifter) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fire_Raisers_(play)), a farcical play about an average guy in a town plagued by arsonists who lets arsonists settle in his attic, and though those guys are pretty openly preparing to burn down the house, the everyman keeps making excuses/accepting their flimsy lies. Obviously a thinly veiled parody of the rise of fascism in Germany and the complacency of the general populace.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit (Der Besuch der Alten Dame) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Visit_(play)). Dark, somewhat surreal comedy about an old rich lady coming to her decrepit old home town, offering to renovate the city and wads of cash, if the man who impregnated and left her is killed.
Carl Zuckmayer's Des Teufels General (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Teufels_General_(play)), somewhat based on Ernst Udet, about a general who loves flying and opposes the nazis but is caught between his duty and his conscience. In parts quite lighthearted IIRC. There's a good movie version of it with Curd Jürgens.
Alfred Andersch's Sansibar oder der Letzte Grund, about a group of people in a small Baltic town 1937 who consider fleeing across the Baltic from the nazis and struggling to do so/fighting with their moral conundrums.
Bertold Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Person_of_Szechwan). Set in a fictionalized China, a prostitute tries to be a good person, and, well, it doesn't go great for her.
Gottfried Keller's Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe. A mid-19th century novella of two star crossed lovers in rural Switzerland who end up committing suicide because their families are dicks to each other. Besides the obvious Shakespeare inspiration I seem to remember that Keller based it on a short newspaper article that he read at the time, so I guess it's "loosely inspired by actual events." :P
Plus short stories/poems, obvs., most of them from between 1945 and 1970s. Cheerful stuff. :D
In English class we had to present an author and one of his works in English class. For the UK, I picked Graham Greene's The End of the Affair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Affair) and for the US Ray Bradbury's anthology The Illustrated Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_Man). I picked books for which our local library had good English language summaries/interpretations. :P We also read Lord of the Flies. And short stories by James Thurber, Hemingway, Roald Dahl, and more.
I'm probably forgetting a lot of stuff.
I was going through a poetry anthology when I came across Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." I remember reading that in high school because we had the cool teacher who let us listen to the Iron Maiden version. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frP3Zu-8QDI) :punk:
(Still a great poem, even without the guitar solos.)
Quote from: Savonarola on October 31, 2023, 04:42:57 PMI was going through a poetry anthology when I came across Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." I remember reading that in high school because we had the cool teacher who let us listen to the Iron Maiden version. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frP3Zu-8QDI) :punk:
(Still a great poem, even without the guitar solos.)
I do remember reading that poem in Grade 12 I think, and the teacher did bring out the Iron Maiden song for us to listen to
This might have been said earlier, but the reverse is mostly true for me.
I remember being quick caught up by "See Spot Run" when I was in Kindergarten, but now it just seems flat with a poor plot.
Sort of the flip side of the question - I remember finding in my english book, even though they were NOT assigned, the poems of Ozymandius by Shelley and Kubla Khan by Coleridge, and thinking they were pretty badass.
They no doubt tapped into my latent history nerd side.
Quote from: PDH on November 02, 2023, 10:29:46 PMThis might have been said earlier, but the reverse is mostly true for me.
I remember being quick caught up by "See Spot Run" when I was in Kindergarten, but now it just seems flat with a poor plot.
Some classics just don't grip you like the first time you encountered the prose.
The Dick and Jane books that I read were the British Janet and John. Funny, I still remember we had to read the book in class out loud. And I still remember the first sentence. So, I'm pretty sure, this was the first sentence of the first book I ever read: "It is summer time. School is over and the long summer holidays are here."
Ok, that's two sentences.
Quote from: Josephus on November 06, 2023, 02:31:05 PMThe Dick and Jane books that I read were the British Janet and John. Funny, I still remember we had to read the book in class out loud. And I still remember the first sentence. So, I'm pretty sure, this was the first sentence of the first book I ever read: "It is summer time. School is over and the long summer holidays are here."
Ok, that's two sentences.
:huh: That's pretty sophisticated shit for first book ever. Mine was "See Dick run. See Jane play."
For some reason the very first line of my first French textbook has stayed in my head. "Ou est Sylvie? A la piscine."