miércoles, 25 de febrero de 2009

The Classics Challenge

Dear Lurkers:

While you enjoy--or don't enjoy--this post in your usual silence, please be aware that I've signed up for the 2009 edition of the Classics Challenge hosted by Trish of Trish's Reading Nook. Full details on the challenge, which will run from April 1st through October 31st this year, can be found here; however, the more curious among you should know that I'll be planning on reading a book a month or so for the challenge under the "feast + 1 bonus" option. The following is a list of some of the entrées under consideration (all subject to change, of course):
  • Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars (Rome) (review)
  • François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (France)
  • Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed (Italy)
  • (alternate choice) Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (UK) (review)
  • (alternate choice) Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (USA) (review)
  • Teresa de la Parra, Mama Blanca's Memoirs (Venezuela)
  • (alternate choice) Carlo Emilio Gadda, That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (Italy) (review)
  • (alternate choice) Rodolfo Walsh, Operación Masacre (Argentina) (review)
  • Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)
  • (alternate choice) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (Sudan) (review)
  • Elena Poniatowska, La noche de Tlatelolco (Mexico)

P.S. I had a harder time than expected selecting some of these initial choices because I could have easily gone all-Argentina, all-France, all-Italy, all-Mexico, all-Greece and Rome, etc., under the classics rubric. Do you have a favorite country or era for "classics" yourself?

5 comentarios:

  1. I've read La Noche de Tlatelolco and Things Fall Apart. I loved the second and I think the first too, but I read that one in college and that is all a bit of a blur.

    Oh, I have gotten ideas now that you have done international Classics!! I am signed up for the challenge and hadn't even thought of that.

    ResponderBorrar
  2. Glad you got the book, and I hope you enjoy it, lots of other people have and it's good to see it go to a home where is can be appreciated.

    ResponderBorrar
  3. *Bethany: I'm glad you got some new ideas off of that short list, but do you really expect me to believe that the queen of the international reading challenges hadn't thought of international classics before? Too funny!

    *Raidergirl3: Thanks for dropping by and thanks again for the Matar book! Bethany's OT Challenge would've been a lot of fun even without prizes, but free books are always a nice bonus. Cheers!

    ResponderBorrar
  4. What a fascinating list! I really loved Things Fall Apart and hope you do as well. Thanks for signing up for the challenge.

    ResponderBorrar
  5. Trish, thanks for the warm welcome! I've been looking forward to this challenge for quite a while, so thanks for hosting it again. Cheers!

    ResponderBorrar