Have you read any of these? Thoughts?

Question

I'm looking in to reading literature from before modern times and was wondering if anyone has read any of these.

Candida and Zadig- Voltaire
Gil Blas- Alain-Rene Lesage
A Modest Proposal- Jonathon Swift
Gargantua and Pentagruel- Francois Rabelais
Don Quixote- Cervantes

Any comments would also be helpful.

Answer 1

I have read all texts on your list with the exception of Rabelais's novel. I've heard of "Gargantua et Pantagruel", but haven't been tempted to read it yet.

Of the two short novels by Voltaire's, I prefer Candide (not Candida, which is the name of a fungus that causes annoying infections...). Zadig is a moral tale that might be interesting in the contemporary context of the French Enlightenment, but I found it a bit dry for a modern reader. Candide, on the other hand, works just as well as a funny read as it does when read with the background it does satirize in mind. The incredible resilience of Candide's naive optimism has a Forrest Gump quality that makes it a giggling read. By the way. though I am generally not a fan of musicals, I love Leonard Bernstein's musical made from the novel "Candide". Both the lyrics and The music are extremely quirky and witty, i find.

I was inspired to read Gil Blas after I had been to the town the novel is set in, the beautiful northern Spanish medieval town of Santillana del Mar. While the sequence of adventures that the hapless Gil is subjected to might be a bit repetitive for the modern reader, it is still a wonderful read and a prime early example of the type of novel that is called "picaresque" and of which Candide (and other wonderfully comical novels such as Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones" from the 18th century and Günter Grass's "The Tin Drum" from the 20th century are examples).

Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is an acid-sharp satire on the treatment of the Irish by their English overlords. It has been a classic example for the discussion on how far satire may go until today. While some other texts by Swift. such as "The Battle of the books" are not quite as funny to read unless one has the background to all the allusions to Swift's contemporary literature, others, such as "Tale of a Tub" or "Gulliver's Travels" can - like Candide - work on several levels and can be enjoyed even without a lot of background knowledge.

Don Quijote is the arch-novel. Not only is it the first modern novel and has become the model all other novels have to put up with, whether following it or rebelling against it; it is also "modern" in a narrower sense in the way that the "story" is constantly at war with an exuberant joy of narrating that is in danger of losing the thread of the story by getting caught up in another and another side story. So the same characteristic that makes it difficult to read through the massive tome of "Don Quijote" is one of its major charms.

Answer 2

I've only read Don Quixote, and I loved it! Yes, it is a tedious read, but quite good. Don't limit yourself to just those books, though, there are so many marvelous classical books out there! Here's a few more books you need to read:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson
Frankenstein by Shelley
Dracula by Stoker
The House of Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
Les Miserables and Hunchback of Notre Dame by Hugo
The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas
Animal Farm and 1984 by Orwell
The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds by Wells
Don't just limit yourself to all these books, though, there are many great classics out there!
Enjoy!

Answer 3

I feel flattered being the first one to answer your question. :) How classy you must be. You are interested in reading material with titles and authors I can not even barely pronounce. And to make things worse out of the 5 titles you listed I have only heard of Don Quixote-Cervantes. But I wonder how much of me hearing of that one has to do with the fact that I am Hispanic. LOL I know that this probably wasn't a helpful answer but hopefully you at least got a laugh out of it and I know this more than likely won't be picked as the best answer but not all of them can be. Keep smiling and take care of your classy self :)

Answer 4

I've read Don Quixote. It's long, and you have to have a lot of patience to finish it, but it is really quite good.

Answer 5

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