Happy Birthday!
1
Selected November Birthdays:
As this is my birthday month, and it is a big year for me (no, I’m revealing how big), I thought I would highlight some famous writers also born in November. As it turns out, there are some pretty big hitters in the literary world this month…
I’ve included a famous work or two for each in case you fancy trying them out.
Kazuo Ishiguro (Nov 8th 1954)
Nobel prize winning novelist, most famous for The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.
Remains of the Day - ‘Will I like it?’ If you are interested in British history (especially early 20th century); if you enjoy first person, diary style novels; if you enjoy romance, then the answer is ‘yes’.
Margaret Mitchell (Nov 8th 1900)
American novelist most famous for Gone with the Wind. Polls have found it to be America’s favourite book after the Bible.
Gone with the Wind - If you enjoy an epic bildungsroman (coming of age story) or a historical romance (this is set during the American Civil War), then this could be the novel for you.
Interesting fact - the title is taken from a poem by Ernest Dowson, a fin de siecle decadent poet.
Bram Stoker (Nov 8th 1847)
Everyone will have heard of Irish author Bram Stoker’s most famous literary creation - Dracula. But Stoker’s novel has arguably never been successfully transferred to screen.
Stoker’s Dracula is more foul-smelling demon than the sanitised vampires of Twilight, a macho creature more spooky than sparkly.
Neil Gaiman (Nov 10th 1960)
Seen Stardust or Coraline? Been watching American Gods on Amazon Prime? Then you have already come into contact with English author Neil Gaiman.
American Gods - like much of Gaiman’s work, fantasy and mythology crash into a very recognisable world, this time with the added mix of Americana. If Stardust is Gaiman at his most typically English, this is his most American of novels.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Nov 11th 1821)
Dostoyevsky is perhaps the Russian Dickens (though with less humour and more exploration of the human psyche). His novels tend to focus on social, religious and political/philosophical themes.
The Idiot - if you’ve never read Dostoyevsky before, and know little about 19th century Russian society, then try The Idiot as an introduction. It’s a little more accessible than some of Dostoyevsky’s other works and you won’t need to know about Russian history to follow it. If that’s not enough to convince you, A.C. Grayling reckoned this to be one of ‘the most compelling and remarkable books ever written.’
Kurt Vonnegut (Nov 11th 1922)
Vonnegut is most famous for his satirical novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, a satirical novel that follows American soldier, Billy Pilgrim, through World War II and beyond.
Its most famous section is the depiction of the bombing of Dresden, which was semi-autobiographical, and was largely seen as an attack on America’s bombing of Vietnam (the novel was published in 1969 - at the height of the Vietnam War).
Robert Louis Stevenson (Nov 13th 1950)
A hugely popular novelist, both in his own time and today, Robert Louis Stevenson is best known for Treasure Island, Kidknapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Virginia Would didn’t like him, but you might.
If novels about the duality of the human condition are your thing, try The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. To find out more, click:
and:
Chinua Achebe (Nov 16th 1930)
A Nigerian novelist and poet, Achebe’s most famous novel was also his first. Things Fall Apart has been read more than any other African novel. If colonialism and post-colonial literature appeals to you, this will be well worth your time (compare to the depiction of Africa in Heart of Darkness).
As the novel’s title suggests the plot focuses on the tragic fall of the protagonist, with Christian missionaries thrown in for good measure.
The novel’s title comes from ‘The Second Coming’ by W.B. Yeats, in which the world ‘falls apart’ into chaos due to a flaw in human nature. This idea is central to the events of Achebe’s novel.
Margaret Atwood (Nov 18th 1939)
2017 has been a good year for Margaret Atwood adaptations, with The Handmaid’s Tale series cleaning up at the Emmy’s earlier in the year and Netflix’s highly acclaimed new series, Alias Grace.
Both of these novels are well worth a visit (or revisit) but Atwood has an impressive back catalogue of novels, including Oryx and Crake (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize); The Blind Assassin (winner of the Man Booker in 2000); and Cat’s Eye (shortlisted for the Man Booker in 1988).
Her novels include dystopia, science (or speculative) fiction, historical fiction and often include social, political and religious themes, especially feminism.
George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans] (Nov 22nd 1819)
Posing as a male author in order to be taken more seriously as a novelist in Victorian England, Eliot’s novels focus on social, religious and political concerns within Victorian England, as well as philosophical ideas and insights regarding the human psyche.
In other words, she did not content herself with writing romantic literature - something that Victorian England expected of its female writers.
Middlemarch is Eliot’s ‘tour de force’, a doorstop of a novel that focuses on a provincial community but also takes in big historical events such as the 1832 Reform Act, the advent of the steam engine and the death of King George IV.
Arundhati Roy (Nov 24th 1961)
Arundhati Roy is best known for huge 1997 hit The God of Small Things, which won the Man Booker Prize for that year. The story focuses on a wealthy Indian family whose lives are forever changed by the Marxist uprising in Kerala in 1969.
A wide ranging novel that deals with the caste system, family, politics, growing up, childhood and patriarchy, the novel is also a gripping tale full of quirky characters and colourful writing.
Laurence Sterne (Nov 24th 1713)
Lawrence Sterne was writing at a time when the novel (as we know it today) was still a fairly modern concept.
In The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Lawrence Sterne is comically playful with the novel’s form, using methods of digression and double entendre, amongst others.
Despite its age, this is by no means a dry affair; the narrator discusses hugely quotable passages on such topics as sex and insults as well as a hilarious digression about noses.
If you like your literature on the experimental side, this one is for you.
William Blake (Nov 28th 1757)
One for the poetry lovers. William Blake is regarded as one of England’s greatest poets and is extremely accessible compared to many of his contemporaries. This is due to Blake’s intention to write poetry for the working classes and deal with controversial topics such as the class system, government, revolution and the Church of England.
These themes are explored throughout Blake’s most famous collection of poetry - Songs of Innocence and Experience.
C.S. Lewis (Nov 29th 1898)
Many of us will remember C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series from our childhood, but have you revisited it since? Whilst we might remember The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, how many of us can remember The Silver Chair or The Magician’s Nephew?
For science fiction lovers, C. S. Lewis produced another fascinating series of novels - the Space Trilogy, comprising Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.
Jonathan Swift (Nov 30th 1667)
A political satirist, Jonathan Swift is best known for his novel, Gulliver’s Travels.
A novel about the adventures and explorations of the eponymous protagonist, Gulliver, the novel seeks to expose the weaknesses and follies of human nature as well as the genre of travel writing as it was at the time. The result is one of the most highly regarded and satirical novels in the canon of English Literature.
Mark Twain (Nov 30th 1835)
American novelist and humorist, best known for his witticisms and classic American novels such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Written in voice of the protagonist, Huck Finn, the story is written in the Mississippi vernacular and the novel is a scathing satire of racist attitudes in the Deep South. It is not without controversy, however, as, because of the adoption of an ‘authentic’ voice for Huck, the novel uses language which may cause discomfort for a modern reader.
Comments
Post a Comment