Authors and titles of this list: 1. Proust, Marcel - In Search of Lost Time 2. Joyce, James - Ulysses 3. Cervantes, Miguel de - Don Quixote 4. García Márquez, Gabriel - One Hundred Years of Solitude 5. Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby 6. Melville, Herman - Moby Dick 7. Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace 8. Shakespeare, William - Hamlet 9. Homer - The Odyssey 10. Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary 11. Alighieri, Dante - The Divine Comedy 12. Nabokov, Vladimir - Lolita 13. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - The Brothers Karamazov 14. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment 15. Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights 16. Salinger, J. D. - The Catcher in the Rye 17. Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice 18. Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 19. Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina 20. Carroll, Lewis - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 21. Homer - The Iliad 22. Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse 23. Heller, Joseph - Catch-22 24. Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness 25. Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury 26. Orwell, George - 1984 27. Dickens, Charles - Great Expectations 28. India/Iran/Iraq/Egypt - One Thousand and One Nights 29. Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath 30. Faulkner, William - Absalom, Absalom! 31. Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man 32. Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird 33. Kafka, Franz - The Trial 34. Stendhal - The Red and the Black 35. Eliot, George - Middlemarch 36. Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver’s Travels 37. Morrison, Toni - Beloved 38. Woolf, Virginia - Mrs. Dalloway 39. Chekhov, Anton - The Stories of Anton Chekhov 40. Camus, Albert - The Stranger 41. Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre 42. Virgil - The Aeneid 43. Borges, Jorge Luis - Collected Fiction 44. Hemmingway, Ernest - The Sun Also Rises 45. Dickens, Charles - David Copperfield 46. Sterne, Laurence - Tristram Shandy 47. Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass 48. Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain 49. Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 50. Rushdie, Salmon - Midnight’s Children

@VasilikiFitzmaurice91

Жыл бұрын

THANK YOU!

@bluesque9687

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! But boring books... one looks for tasty cult like cool, a little offbeat, rare, forbidden or crazy or even decadent... something a little off-center always! And also volumes of fiction prose can be beaten by a sonnet or a poem... poetry, poetry, poetry!!

@mikesmyth8515

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

@MegaFount

Жыл бұрын

I don’t think Leaves of Grass should be on this list because it is poetry. And Hamlet is a play as great as it is. The rest of the list is narrative fiction. Also, for Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls, is his superlative novel. And definitely, To the Lighthouse for Woolf. There’s not one novel by Balzac or Zola.

@dr.tinalight5115

Жыл бұрын

You are awesome 😊

I have always been a big reader. Since I retired ten years ago I have read many, many books that I had been putting off. Don't do that! My favorite book is "Anna Karinina" by Tolstoy. Anything by Hemingway, Steinbeck and the Russian authors. What a wonderful retirement I have reading 3 to 5 books each week. Read, my friends!

@joanlenahan8653

Жыл бұрын

Yes so many add madam bovary, crime and punishment, in cold blood, east of eden, the red pony, novels of Thomas Hardy and for a laugh The Diary of Adrian Mole☘greetings from the emerald isle☘

@xpsxps1339

Жыл бұрын

@@joanlenahan8653 Adrian Moles' diary is fantastic! Thanks for the reminder.

@cmshaw52

Жыл бұрын

The Mill on the Floss. I stayed up till the middle of the night to finish it. And got up the next day and started in the middle and read it again.

@patriciamartine5410

Жыл бұрын

Anna Karenina is also one of my favorites. As well as The Brothers Karamozov and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

@franciscocabrera9787

Жыл бұрын

That's my favorite book as well.

When I was a kid, my dad took me to the library every Wednesday night. I could only take out kids books but my dad would take out anything I wanted. My dad and I would discuss whatever I had read.

I came across your channel by chance. I must tell you, l am an avid reader as well as a composer and author of mostly children's stories. Not only did l enjoy listening to your video, having read a great many of the books you mentioned but your articulation, enthusiasm and passion enthralled me and as the sunlight crept through the slits on my shaded windows early in my morning, l felt a great need to reread many of the books in your top 50 list. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and unbounded joy discussing such wonderful.literature. Books and music fill my life and will continue to do so. l shall subscribe to your channel now as l down my well earned toast and marmalade, much later this morning, all due to the thirst acquired to listening twice to your lecture. Thank you once again

I'm always bothered by not seeing Alexandre Dumas getting the recognition he deserves. I really cannot understand how "The Count of Monte Cristo" doesn't make it to this list... I strongly feel I have never read a better novel than that.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

I'm with you there, Filipe. One of my personal favourites, and I'm currently putting some content together on it because I love it so much.

@j.chriswatson6847

Жыл бұрын

Hear Hear!

@aclark903

Жыл бұрын

Dumas is great on action, not so great on background.

@patriciamartine5410

Жыл бұрын

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas is my favorite. Surely the most exciting and entertaining. I also love Balzac , Zola and Flaubert.

@aclark903

Жыл бұрын

@@patriciamartine5410 But not #Maupassant or #Hugo?

This channel has changed my life. I enrolled in my first literature at college ( Survey of Russian Literature), and I love it! I’m sincerely considering pursuing a Ph.D. in Literature. Thank you!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

That's so kind of you to say! Your Survey of Russian Literature class sounds wonderful - who do you have on the syllabus? :) Happy reading, my friend.

@mahammatbaba8666

Жыл бұрын

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Alexander Pushkin’s “ The Bronze Horseman,” Mikhail Lermontov’s “ A Hero of Our Time,” Nikolai Gogol’s Table of Ranks, and “ The Nose,” Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov, Mikhail Shishkin’s “ afterword,” Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, “ A Man in the Case,” “Gooseberries,” “About Love,” Valentina Dmitrieva’s memoir, Mikhail Zoshchenko’s “ Skaza,” Mikhail Bulgakov’s “ Fatal Eggs,” Lyudmila Petushevskaya’s “ Words” and “Medea,” Dunya Smirnova’s “Anyway”

@DressyCrooner

Жыл бұрын

It has changed my life too. :)

@nataliemoon1512

Жыл бұрын

Lead me where the light is our by n galilea

@WorldCitizen333

Жыл бұрын

@@mahammatbaba8666 What a wonderful syllabus. Have fun!

Ive just found this channel and am so impressed. I completely agree with you about Great Expectations. I studied it at A level as a mature student and loved it! I have reread it over the years and I always find some new insight. I look foward to watching your other videos on the classics. Thank you

“War and peace” and “Anna Karenina” are the most tremendous masterpieces for me. I wish I could forget it and start again with the new passionate

@daydays12

3 ай бұрын

I think someone who could write, among many other things, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, Henry 1V parts 1 and 2, Henry Vth, Richard 3rd, Twelfth Night, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like it, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Julius Cesar, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet, The Sonnets.... is rather greater than Tolstoy, especially since Tolstoy considered Shakespeare to be rubbish.

@daydays12

3 ай бұрын

I agree.. Tolstoy can be rather long winded in English translation ( I don't know how it is in Russian)... in addition to being having imperialist attitudes. @DiogenesNephew

@iodex694

2 ай бұрын

My introduction literally says:”blessed he who hasn’t read war and peace for he can read it for the first time”

@livinginsidegemses

Ай бұрын

@@daydays12 It seems to me you are hating on Tolstoy just because he is Russian. Who are you to judge his personal opinions? I bet you are the same type of guy who supports wokeism and preach about how everyone is entitled to have their own opinions while being a prejudiced hyprocrite yourself.... No one said Tolstoy is better than Shakespeare but he is much better than many upstart American authors and is undeneiably one of the best authors of all time. Everyone in those days was imperialist........ What about Daniel Defoe, who was clearly racist. Is being imperialist worse than being racist?

As an 80 year-old I was delightfully surprised at how many of these books I have actually read, many a long time ago. Your video prompted me to discover if there is a top 50 list of great classical music. Thanks again for the excellent review. Yes, reading great literature does make you a better person.

@stevelivingstone4616

Жыл бұрын

You say reading great literature makes you a better person. Please you elaborate a little on your position?

@musicborders

Жыл бұрын

Is there one?

@stephenjablonsky1941

Жыл бұрын

@@stevelivingstone4616 I believe that exposure to greatness gives you a better frame of reference in evaluating what you experience in life. If truth and beauty are your goals in life then you need to know when you have found them. Can you truly appreciate cuisine if you have only eaten at Burger King your whole life?

@marygarrapa3537

Жыл бұрын

Great idea! Would love to see (and listen to) such a list.

@stephenjablonsky1941

Жыл бұрын

@@marygarrapa3537 Albeniz Suite Espanola Bach Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring Barber Adagio for Strings Bartok The Miraculous Mandarin Beethoven Symphony 5 Berg Violin Concerto Berio Rendering Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Bernstein On the Waterfront Bizet L'Arlesienne Suites Borodin Polovetsian Dances Brahms Intermezzo Op. 118, No. 2 Chopin Mazurka Op. 17, No.4 Copland Billy the Kid Debussy La Mer Delius Prelude to Irmelin Dukas La Peri Dvorak New World Symphony Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain Franck Symphony in D minor Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue Gorecki Totus Tuus Grieg Piano Concerto Handel Water Music Haydn Trumpet Concerto Hindemith Mathis Der Maler Ives Three Places in New England Kodaly Hary Janos Mahler Symphony 1 Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Mozart Piano Concerto 23 Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Prokiev Alexander Nevsky Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 2 Ravel Daphnis and Chloe Reich Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards Respighi Pines of Rome Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade Satie Gnossienne No 1 Schoenberg Verklaerte Nacht Schubert Symphony 8 Scrabin Piano Concerto Shostakovitch Symphony 5 Sibelius Symphony 5 Strauss Ein Heldenleben Stravinsky Petrushka Takemitsu A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings Vivaldi The Four Seasons Wagner Tristan Prelude & Liebestod Webern Six Pieces for Orchestra

I read through Dostoyevsky when I was a teenager. Tough going. Reread in my sixties and seventies. Got it!

@charlesmarshall8046

Жыл бұрын

That happens to a lot of us. When you’re a teenager you think you’re clever - maybe you are - but you lack the experience to deal with such stuff. Dostoevsky, Joyce, Thomas Mann, even Flaubert, need an adult perspective.

@Scottlp2

Жыл бұрын

I loved Dostoyevsky is college but my Cooperative lit prof said that he was more suited to young people and that one gets to appreciate Tolstoy as one gets older. He was right and if you haven't checked out War and Peace and Anna K, I'd recommend it.

@buddharuci2701

Жыл бұрын

@@Scottlp2 I read war and peace. Maybe your professor was referring to the pace of the action and depth of description? I wonder. Anyway, bouncing along with Tristram Shandy and ducking devils in Paradise lost right now.

@Scottlp2

Жыл бұрын

@@buddharuci2701 Dostoyevsky is a very psychological book. Tolstoy eg War and Peace is concerned with things that you can appreciate more as you get older eg SPOILERS Andrei’s spiritual flowering and Tolstoy’s theory of history (where he breaks 4th wall and speaks directly to reader late in book).

@debcollins8231

Жыл бұрын

@@buddharuci2701 I wonder the same. I remember being exhausted by a page of, The Brothers Karamazov.

I love how passionate you are and so uncondescending about supposedly high-brow works. I wanna read all the books in the list now.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much. That's incredibly kind of you to say. And I'm thrilled you're enthused to read these great books! :)

Recently I was reflecting on how books literally saved my life. They provided an escape during my challenging childhood. They also provided the voices of sane adults. David Copperfield was very comforting. Our fourth grade teacher read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn aloud to the class. I picked up Tom Sawyer again, now in my sixties. So good to hear voices of sanity again. The world has changed too quickly for me. I agree completely with your thoughts about satire.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

That's so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that, Mary Lou. I used to escape into great literature because these books felt like the voices of sanity too. And the world has definitely changed far too quickly. Even 5-10 years ago, it was a very different world! Thank you for being here :)

@ramonafrances4364

6 ай бұрын

Yes!

@4thlinemaniac356

6 ай бұрын

@Thinking And Destiny by Harold Percival @ The Naked Bible by Mauro Biglino @ Just How To Wake The Solar Plexus by Elizabeth Towne @ Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte after The Queen's of Literature Debate Austen vs Bronte @ Intelligence Squared channel.Enjoy.

@vulcan65

6 ай бұрын

what are ur favorite books?

@marksanchez4230

6 ай бұрын

I and others would tend to agree with you MARYLOU

We had this high school teacher in the '60s who had us read nine or more, In Selected Readings. He was the only teacher in my life, before college, who challenged students' ideas and made us think. He was an oddball because he wore a colored shirt with his tie and sport coat. He spent lots of time deriding the establishment and telling we young rebels that we were all part of it. We read fabulous things, like the Brothers K and The Red and the Black. What worlds. What a gift he gave us, a taste for timeless delicacies when our palates were still forming.

I read _Jane Eyre_ in a storm tossed bunk aboard a small trawler many years ago. The memory of bracing myself with one hand and holding the book with the other will always be with me, along with her parting words, "We are born to strive and endure."

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Wow. That is an incredible story! You lived the book, Pola!

@davecorley5514

Жыл бұрын

Reminds me … Two Years before the Mast, by Dana, and The Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin. Both non-fiction, both great books.

@cherylmoss3632

Жыл бұрын

I can clearly see a picture of you in the trawler in the two worlds. your own world and the world of Jane Eyre.

@cherylmoss3632

Жыл бұрын

@@davecorley5514 My father took my sister and I to see the movie " Two years before the mast" when we were little girls. My sister jumped up onto her seat and shouted at the screen "You can't do that" when the man was keel hauled. My father often recounted that about my sister My mother berated my father for taking two little girls to see such a movie My father took us to see war and cowboy movies Maybe he wanted boys He used to read poetry to us at bedtime and his favourite was The rhyme of the ancient Mariner My father died long ago and my sister five years ago. How stories bind us in magical ways ...

@kevinrussell1144

Жыл бұрын

@@cherylmoss3632 Great story. My dad (reportedly) wanted a girl, as boys seem to be a drug on the market on his side of the aisle. Four children later, all intended to be named "Virginia", all male. The middle name of the girl I married is Virginia. We have one child....a boy. Fortunately, none of us were put into dresses, named Sue, or coerced into playing with dolls. I always considered myself the least favorite of my mother, but the most like her, and the only one that could sing (as she could). The stories and memories that bind us all, indeed, although the parents are long gone and we are now old ourselves.

I've started rereading the books that first turned me onto literature when I was in high school: Crime and Punishment, Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights, Metamorphosis, The Hound of the Baskerville, and Watership Down. These books have a special place in my heart.

Bravo! It has been a while since I listened to someone speak with such enthusiasm and personal refection about literature. You hooked me as a great admirer when you spoke what was on my heart about Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass." I found myself joining in, out loud, with my comments and some different perspectives regarding these works and their authors, as if you were across the room from me, drinking Scotch neat. It brought me back to conversations my ex-wife and I had. You're the best KZread creator. Thank you.

Some books mentioned in the video: 26. 1984 25. The Sound and the Fury 24. Heart of Darkness (short) 23. Catch-22 22. To the Lighthouse 21. The Iliad 20. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 19. Anna Karenina 18. The Adventures of Huckeberry Finn 17. Pride and Prejudice 16. The Catcher in the Rye 15. Wuthering Heights 14. Crime and punishment 13. The brothers karamazov 12. Lolita 11. The Divine comedi 10. Madame Bovary 9. The Odyssey 8. Hamlet 7. War and Peace 6. Moby Dick 5. The Great Gatsby 4. One Hundred Years of Solitude 3. Don Quixote 2. Ulysses 1. In Search of Lost Time

@jwylde2

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for listing the top 26.

@smkh2890

Жыл бұрын

i have read 15 of those! plus 'some' of Dante.

@debcollins8231

Жыл бұрын

@@smkh2890 Ditto. But never read anything by Proust 😳 Better get on it.

@smkh2890

Жыл бұрын

@@debcollins8231 I love to read a paragraph or page of Proust, the same thing usually, and savour how he expands on minute sensations. I wish I could read the French!

@debcollins8231

Жыл бұрын

@@smkh2890 Good morning. I just ordered, "In Search of Lost Time," and am eager to begin. I often savor small sections of writing too, and there can never be enough detail for me. This channel showing up in my feed yesterday, is so timely because due to cataracts, reading is torturous. My second removal surgery is Monday, and as a gift to myself, I am going to read every title listed and reread several others. Have a lovely weekend.

Hi Benjamin - just wanted to say a huge thank you for reigniting my love of literature (not just the classics, but in general). I came across your channel a week ago, by chance, and it was this presentation of 50 greatest books which drew me in. Now I listen to your channel in the car going to and from work (I am a college lecturer) and it inspires me to pick up my books again. I still have plenty of your channel to work through so I am excited as to what else I shall discover! Once again, thank you and keep up this brilliant work 👏

It's too sad that there is not some Victor Hugo in here especially for his book : Les Misérables. One of the greatest book in French Litterature.

@RaineriHakkarainen

10 ай бұрын

Victor Hugo!!!

@unlimitedpower978

10 ай бұрын

I’ve only gotten about 1/4 of the way through Les Mis and I’ve been blown away The priest might be my favorite character in all literature and I’m not religious or morally cheesy at all but I’m constantly in awe of his human grace. It’s just so good, very hard to put down

@damonpugh4402

10 ай бұрын

Most definitely agree. Two books each by Joyce and Wolfe might be a bit excessive. Hugo is a heavyweight.

@nbenefiel

10 ай бұрын

Joyce is probably the best writer in the English language since Shakespeare.

@giovannanapolitano817

7 ай бұрын

I totally agree....It should be in the 50 most read book. When you think of all the adaptations made of it in musicals and movies and the incredible life lessons contained in it.

Ann Karenina is just about my absolute favorite piece of literature. I read it about 30ish years ago and it changed my life. Besides the fact that it was beautifully written…I would stop whilst reading it and just stop and ponder the beauty of the configuration of the words before me…

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Anna Karenina changed my life too! It sounds like we had a very similar experience :) I would get to the end of some passages and just stare off in silence for long gaps of time. Profound work!

@JumpingCow

Жыл бұрын

I loved Anna K. as well. It totally convinced me that Tolstoy was one of the greats. I just finished War and Peace, and didn't like it nearly so much. Yes, certainly a great novel, but didn't have the emotional appeal of Anna, and had a lot of distractions like battlefield scenes, and philosophy (at the end).

@randomdude8327

10 ай бұрын

Which translation did you read?

@hopefortheworld5296

7 ай бұрын

Try to read it again now, you’ll probably find so much new in it as I did while reading it a few times..

@nicholasschroeder3678

5 ай бұрын

Agree about it's beauty. I wondered at times if it was even more beautiful in Russian. The story itself is pretty much a soap opera; it was the beauty that kept me hooked.

As an Irishman I think this guy is really brilliant given the very short time he has to review these books, makes me want to go back and re read, and read for the first time a lot of these great books, thank you sir!

@agaobi573

Жыл бұрын

And if you were not Irishman you wouldn't think this man is brilliant? 🤔

@cormacoreilly7632

Жыл бұрын

@@agaobi573 As an Irish man I laughed out loud at your comment 😂

@jamesbarlow6423

Жыл бұрын

Hah! Because he put Joyce over Hemingway lol!

@tonirose6776

Жыл бұрын

The Irish are masters of language and literature. He only mentioned four. There are countless others...including Canadian and American authors with Irish ancestry (Cormac McCarthy). What's with that?

@myrahunter131

Жыл бұрын

@@tonirose6776 he did flip through snapshots of Cormac McCarthy at the end when speaking of books that he thinks are better than some on the list.

Hi, Ben! I love what you do here. 😊 I'm a reader who just got out of a slump, and one of the encouraging videos I watched was one of yours -- on Crime and Punishment. I read that classic and It's one of my favorites now. I loved it. Thanks and I hope you continue what you do! God bless you!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Hi Trish! Thank you so much :) That really means a lot to me, and I’m so happy you’re here! God bless to you too 😊

In Search of Lost Time is a dazzling combination of experiences, impressions, ideas and gorgeous writing that you could probably literally spend a lifetime reading and studying. I agree that it's generally not a book for younger folks. I've read through it, all 6 volumes, 2 times since I turned 45. Both times took about 6 months and it was like taking a trip around the world. It's really in a class by itself.

@almada1113

7 ай бұрын

It’s too bad. You’re getting no replies because no one’s read it.

@TeresaLeandro

7 ай бұрын

@@almada1113I’ve read it countless times. First in my native Portuguese, later I dared to approach it in the original. Magical, obsessive, at times painful, so many deep hidden personal feelings it awakes in us.

@Daniel-wi6sk

7 ай бұрын

As a Frenchman and a Proust lover, may I suggest that the next step would be to try to read La Recherche (as we often say) in the original French. Even in part if reading the entire book in the original is too daunting. I’m fairly fluent in English and Spanish and I can (somewhat) read Italian. I also know some German and Russian, but not enough, unfortunately, to read directly in these two languages… However, when I read German or Russian books in translation, I try to also have the original with me, so that when I particularly like a page, or a dialogue, or a descrIption, etc., I can read the original next to the French translation and open a window on what words, nuance, construction, the author actually used. I love to do it this way…

@randybailin4902

7 ай бұрын

@@Daniel-wi6sk Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it, although my French is rather basic.

Catch 22 is one of my all-time favorites. Have read it twice. Several of these books are ones I read clear back, many, many years ago, in high school. You have inspired me to go back and re-read a few and delve into some I have only heard about. I read Crime and Punishment aloud to two of my friends in college. I must read it again!

Your channel recently appeared in my KZread feed and I was immediately intrigued. I am currently moving through a difficult period in my life, your enthusiasm and rich content has renewed my love and appreciation for great works of literature. Yes, I will revisit those beloved friends. It feels so wonderful to be stirred back toward life. Thank you from a new subscriber.

@tonirose6776

Жыл бұрын

I echo her (his?) sentiments.

@dweamy1

Жыл бұрын

Snap!!! Same here!

@keithdmaust1854

Жыл бұрын

. After the Longest Night Caught in each golden sunrise there is more than just the daily quickening of light. More like a universal knowing beckons sight, a burst of comprehension on a shore Where not one staying shadow cuts the line of blooming truth. Brighter than trumpets, white as new drifts under dazzling sun. In spite of night, even the longest one, design returns, erasing doubt and fear; The rich aroma life wraps round the eager heart Breaks like a burst of promise; pulses start that logic labeled dead. The dawning pitch of hope that grief or anger had concealed In every sunrise, is again revealed.

@janmariolle

Жыл бұрын

@@keithdmaust1854 ❤️Beautiful!

The library was my babysitter in the summer. My mom would leave us at the library all day to read and browse. I wouldn’t go near the Russian author’s section. I always assumed I would not understand the plot. I thought Russians were smarter than Americans-especially smarter than a black kid in Texas. I never outgrew my fear of Russian literature. Watching your videos has given me courage to read a book by a Russian author.

@kristinross4733

Жыл бұрын

Try 'Anna Karenina", and don't be put off by 'War and Peace' - apart from the history, the exploration of human nature is fascinating!

@christopherwren7893

Жыл бұрын

@@kristinross4733 Thank you.

@lkeeble

Жыл бұрын

I was the same as you as far as being intimidated. I read "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" recently by Tolstoy and recommend it if you're looking to try something by a Russian author without committing too much time (it's a fairly short book). Good luck!

@Anastashya

Жыл бұрын

You will 100% not be intimidated once you start reading! I really hope you enjoy the Russian authors - I too suggest starting with Ana Karenina 😊

@TheKim369

Жыл бұрын

I recommend Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - A Day in the Life of Ivan Denesovich. Anna Karenina is 800 pages. Ivan is about 250 and he had quite a day. If you like that maybe consider taking a bigger bite.

I came across your youtube by chance whilst having a break from sorting out a very old bookcase with very old books in it! It is an interesting list and I was fascinated to see that many that I studied for English O and A Levels, many moons ago, are in your top 50, including Middlemarch, Portrait and Hamlet. Some of the books on the list have never appealed to me but there are a few that I might visit or revisit. Thank you!

Reading Ulysses while reading The Odyssey at the same time as an undergraduate was incredibly difficult, but wow! So many parallels and reimagining. Loved it!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

That sounds like a challenging but incredibly rewarding experience :) I'm so glad you loved it, April!

Have you read “A Farewell to Arms”? I guess I am a hopeless romantic as I never tire of this masterpiece. I feel like I am right there with Frederick and Catherine. The drinking, the guilt, the love, and the heartbreak.

@Anastashya

Жыл бұрын

Loved that book!

@debrahunt603

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I enjoyed it

I’ve been waiting eagerly for more content and to give me my daily fix I rewatch a lot of your content. I’ve also stumbled across a plethora of lovely comments that other lovers of literature have left and replies from yourself and I thought I’d show my appreciation once more- this time for both you and the commenters. Only 2 months ago you were 20k and even prior to that when I fell in love with your content and subscribed you were around 14k I believe and now you have surpassed 40k! I’m so happy this video blew up and your content is getting the recognition it deserves. I hope the mass of newcomers doesn’t overwhelm you as I know it does many KZreadrs. Simply, I hope you keep well! Can’t wait for more content :)

@kieranhooton9665

Жыл бұрын

As always I write long-winded ramblings. I do apologise haha, it is done with the best intentions I assure you.

This was so much fun! Being a Francophile , I was so pleased to see Proust at the number one spot, especially since there are actually seven books to the Temps Perdu Collection. I was quite surprised not to see my very own favorite, Victor Hugo either Les Miserables or the hunchback of Notre Dame. I very much enjoyed not only your list by algorithm but how you gave personal brief summaries for every book. I hope I can find your book club somewhere. I have subscribed and look forward to more book recommendations. As I wrote down this list I was pleased to check off 35 of these books that I have read either in high school or my college literary course. Though I did not major in literature, instead went to art school and am an artist, reading goes very much hand-in-hand with the kind of work I do in the studio. Thank you again

I love your passion of books!! You’re so enjoyable to watch and listen to … you have an incredibly rich knowledge on a diversity of literature. I’m impressed. 😊

I love that Moby Dick starts with, "Call Me Ishmael." It puts into question everything that follows. He does not say my name is Ishmael. He says the reader should call him that. He is the sole survivor, and a first person narrator. Both are questionable storytellers. Fantastic book.

@Inevitable.Change

Жыл бұрын

The novel is also extremely hilarious in how downright absurd it can be.

@BillSikes.

Жыл бұрын

@@Inevitable.Change No it's not !

@Inevitable.Change

Жыл бұрын

@@BillSikes. Apart from the witty use of humour of which there are several examples, Captain Ahab's quest in and of itself is rather absurd. Revenge on a whale is certainly absurd. It was only Starbuck who showed signs of doubt. Ahab gained favour in his endeavour through his passionate oratory skills, the promise of money and his power as Captain.

@andrewanderson6121

Жыл бұрын

The Confidence Man is stupendous and maddening! Melville should be read in his many manifestations.

@FolkMetalProject

Жыл бұрын

@@Inevitable.Change I caught a fish, it was white, and it was THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS BIG!

Great list! I was so hoping to see some Thomas Hardy on it along with D. H. Lawrence. I fell in love with Hardy's work as an undergraduate, so much so that I ended up writing my MA thesis on the theme of the grotesque in three specific novels of his. Glad to have discovered your channel!

@aapesos

Жыл бұрын

both are so much greater than Fitzgerald

@nicholasschroeder3678

5 ай бұрын

Agree that both are superb writers, and yes, better than Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is kind of a one horse pony: obsession with money and status and the corruption it fosters. At his best, though, he does write beautifully as well.

Where have you been all my life? I have been in a reading slump for years. This is a great, unpretentious breakdown by someone who loves literature, and who has the maturity to know that one's affinity to a book is also influenced by life's experiences. I like how you break down each book with just enough for me to know if this is something I want to delve into, and there are many in the list that I've added to my list. Thank you!

I am so glad to have found this channel. I have recently started reading books again after years of stopping completely. I went through a traumatic period in life and could not bring myself to open the cover of a book at all. I lost reading but still loved books. So, I always kept some close, just like always, Just their presence was comforting. I didn't know if I'd ever read again. And this year, I've found that I can read again. I wasn't sure until I had actually been able to finish at least a few books that I read together with my sister. Now, I want to read selectively, choosing great books, or at least significant ones, ones that expand my human experience that cause me to explore with thought and feeling, books that stick with me and provoke me to grow and connect to what is meaningful. So, I've been watching book review channels, and this channel came up in my feed. It really fits me now. I'm following the podcast on Spotify now too. I've got Blood Meridian on my near to-be-read list.

So glad I found this channel. The thing about not really having people in your life that are interested in literature rings very true for me. Being a novice reader who is in love with the classics such as Don Quixote, Les Miserables, and many works of Dickens, I go about searching for more on my own. Trying to find the translations of ones that were not originally written in English that will be best for my brain has been overwhelming as well and those videos are helping immensely. Also, a very nice voice to listen to and that means a lot for me so it’s just all great.

Really interesting point you made about satire and our current reality. I had not thought about it that way but now that you've mentioned it, I completely agree. Also, I am very grateful for this channel. I have also gone through periods where I felt that I did not really have anyone to share my love of literature with. Your channel is such a breath of fresh air and in my opinion, a much-needed balance to current popular media options.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Aw, thank you so much, Kelly. I really appreciate that. I've gone through the same thing myself. These videos are definitely born out of wanting to discuss these great books with like-minded lovers of literature like yourself :) I'm grateful for you being here!

@karenryder6317

Жыл бұрын

My god yes! How could one possibly carry something such as our current wildly satiric-like experiences to any greater extreme! Where did all this ridiculousness explode from? Is it all due to social media?

A good English teacher can turn you onto good books and turn you into an avid reader. The really good English teachers are the ones who not only point you to some great books but inspire you to write your own. 11th grade English teacher turned me onto Dante and all of 2005 I read through "Inferno", "Purgatorio,", and "Paradiso" and the following year I started writing my own stories and poetry. Now, I've got a channel on KZread full of crazy stories. Thanks, Mr. D'Agostino! You put the writer's spark in me and I haven't stopped since! You're the Fourth Bushwacker.

This is the first video I've seen from your channel, and I will be back for more. This was a delight and highly engaging. I am impressed by your ease of expression. While this looks to be an impromptu discussion, your sophisticated thoughts, cadence and crafting of language came across as a polished text. I feel smarter just for listening.

Two comments--I've started "The Brothers Karamazav" (only at the beginning of Book 4-TheStrains. I have NEVER been so in love with a book and it's author in my life!! When you mentioned that you would soon be doing a video around the book, I smiled for about a minute! I have been wanting to talk about this book to someone, anyone! And I'm not even 1/4 way through. Second comment--"The Count of Monte Cristo" most definitely should be on this list. I know that this is subjective, but holy moly!! Everyone adores this book--and rightfully so. I really enjoyed your video (just found you here on youtube). You have a new fan. Thanks very much.

@dggjr1759

Жыл бұрын

Which translation are you reading ?

@badboybootz8

9 ай бұрын

Which translation are you reading?

@hopefortheworld5296

7 ай бұрын

I absolutely fell in love with Brothers Karamazov also. Made a huge impact on me and it was very enjoyable to read although I only managed to read one chapter per day in the evenings. Great for people interested in people’s physics

@lunaridge4510

5 ай бұрын

Dostoevsky is the greatest writer of all times. Read the Idiot next, you won't be able to put the book down.

"The Master and Margarita" not being in the top 50 is criminal, also "The Idiot" by Dostoyevski...

i searched for your youtube channel looking for a new video because i thought i missed some of the uploads and when i came here i saw almost 50k subs and 350k+ views on this video!! it makes me feel so happy and proud of you. I have been watching your videos for a while now and i remember you only had 1000 subs or less when i found you out. so so happy to see my favorite channels getting the recognition they deserve. heartfelt congratulations benjamin!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Aarushi :) You've been here since the beginning, my friend! I really appreciate the fact that you've shared this little journey with me. Hitting 50k recently has blown my mind 😲 How wonderful that so many want to talk about books and love literature this deeply :)

I shouted with joy to find In Search of Lost time in number 1 - more than anything because I am currently reading it, in the original French, and enjoying it so thoroughly...it's absolutely delightful, relishable...it puts me in a great mood every time..and like you, I tend to reread the pages, just because i want to truly savour the author's subtle and delicate energy, the subtexts...ahhhh, I'm truly in love with it! Thank you so much for this wonderful video, Benjamin! What a pleasure to watch!....and you have inspired me to read many of these wonderful works!

It’s so refreshing to see someone who is SO well-read and knowledgeable about these great works. I’ve been looking to join a book club and I think I will join yours. Reading The Brothers Karamazov now, and wish I could discuss it with others. Great video! Thanks for this.

A simply phenomenal presentation. Thank you so very much for this. I was struck when you said Proust got you through a hard time in your life. I began reading Proust two years ago during one of the hardest periods of my life. I had put him off for a long time (seemed too daunting), but he was a "constant companion" as you say and his reading was the only thing, some days, that kept me going to the next day. Many, many thanks for your wisdom and commentary.

Really enjoyed watching this video. I was pleased to see so many respectful literary pieces on the list. "Anna Karenina" is also one of my top favourite, although reading it was a bit psychologically tense. BTW, your manner of speech is really compelling)

Brothers Karamazov is my favorite book and I'm glad to see it so high.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

I was happy to see it so high up too :)

@orlandofurioso2034

Жыл бұрын

@@BenjaminMcEvoy but not below Gatsby. Btw, it was the favourite book of some greatest minds, incl. Einstein.

Oh my! You touched my heart and my eyes welled up when you said, “It is almost like spending time with that teacher.” I, too, had such a teacher and he inspired me to become a teacher myself. My heart swelled with my own memories of Mr. Dlouhy and with pride of profession. Thank you for sharing this heartfelt sentiment.

@myrahunter131

Жыл бұрын

Me, as well. Mine was my sixth grade literature teacher. She gave me the gift bound edition of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Sigh. My father took me to the library about the same time and introduced me to his favorite fiction authors, but alas, he had a fifth grade (country) education. I read historical fiction by Edison Marshall and other books by John Mason, and the few in school such as Scarlet Letter and Tale of two cities, but missed out on most of the classics. Just retired and am going to get through as many of these as I can. I did read Siddhartha, Catch 22 and loved Shakespeare (hamlet, midsummer night's dream) and some Dante and Faulkner in college. I have a long way to go, but I'm looking forward to it, now that I know the list! Thanks you Benjamin McEvoy. I, too, am enlivened by your passion and eloquence.

Waiting for your next video 😄50k subscribers Q&A perhaps? I've been binge watching your videos and I can't wait what future contents you'll upload. I'm really happy to stumble upon this channel, the way you talk about books inspires me to read more 😊

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Dennice :) Oh, definitely, we'll have a 50k Q&A. In fact... there may even be a little announcement going up about that soon ;) Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you!

Just discovered your channel and really enjoyed this video! It's really cool to hear someone talk about all of these classic works that are on my reading list because it makes me look forward to what's to come.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Welcome to the channel, Stasia :) I'm so happy you're here! Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate you :)

I read Quixote in high school and 7 years later after i had learned Spanish I read Cervantes in Spanish-Castilian dialect in fact and it was so much deeper, so I admire you for pursuing Dante in Italian. I appreciated your comment on Irish authors and satire that is interesting. Next please do short stories.

@tonirose6776

Жыл бұрын

Speaking of wonderful Irish writers, J.G. Farrell's trilogy (loosely thematically connected about the British Empire): Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur, and The Singapore Grip. Hilarious black comedy, great characterization, and gorgeous writing. The Siege of Krishnapur won the Booker, and many years later, Troubles won the Lost Booker.

Thanks for this video! i was losing my faith in life, and literature. This video made me strengthen my resolve, read these books and get back into it. They are doorstops that seem like they take forever, but every page is illuminating.

I think Conan Doyle and Sherlock should be there. I would also include Ishiguro's "The remains of the day". Actually there needs to be more Japanese writers included.

@robinholbrook6576

Жыл бұрын

You do know that Ishiguro has lived in England since he 5 and is an English citizen. Just checking.

@goldface6658

Жыл бұрын

Haha! You'd think if he has read the book or even just seen the film he would be able to figure that out. But I guess not. Although I do think the books subject matter could almost have had a Japanese setting due to the peculiar similarity between certain traditional British and Japanese behaviours.

As I biologist I've always enjoyed Melville's inclusion of so much natural lore in Moby Dick. I recently picked up Ahab's Rolling Sea by Richard J. King which delves into and elaborates on this aspect of the novel. Worth a read as a companion piece or to spur you to reread Moby Dick.

@jesseleighbrackstone8365

Жыл бұрын

Please make the time to watch the movie Heart of the Sea (starring Chris Helmsworth and Cillian Murphy). For those who found/find reading Moby Dick as something of a Tylenol situation, The Heart of the Sea provides a profound and heart-wrenching foundation for the future enjoyment of Melville’s tale. Blessings! 🙏🏻 Jess.🌹

Love, your channel. A few years ago I came across a list of terms that Shakespeare wrote into his works such as "screamed bloody murder", "blood bath" and even "skim milk". Who would have thought? I find it very exciting that we have incorporated many into our everyday language.

Thank you! When you spoke of A Christmas Carol, the lovely memories, a month before Christmas, every year, my father would begin reading this aloud, every night. My sisters and I knew every word, but he did all the voices and would stop to let us fill in the gaps, or finish a sentence The rest of the year, it would be Dickens, Bronte, all the classics. We all grew up to be voracious readers, for which I am forever grateful. What a gift!

@spinozareader

Жыл бұрын

How very lovely. To have a parent such as this...*that* is treasure.

@daveboise9868

Жыл бұрын

Wow, what a great dad.

@mmcs4973

Жыл бұрын

@@daveboise9868 thank you...he was💚

I TOTALLY agree with Proust being number 1. I have spent almost a year reading everything he wrote and what is in my local library system about him. I miss Siddhartha being on your list. For me THAT was the most memorable book I have read and I am 78.

@tatebh

6 ай бұрын

Proud to have read them all but reread at my age is down to British narrated audiobooks due to aged eyes. Thank you for enjoyable narrative of memory lane reminding me of these journeys I’ve taken. Sometimes to rekindle does brighten a memory loss to reemerge. Thanks. Yours K Tate

My father a professor told me with "Ulysses," to read this with eight explanatory books- this is what I did, I read ten pages out loud at night during the Pandemic, in an Irish accent.

Thank you! This Yank raised amidst vast Indiana cornfields in the late 1950's, a child of pastor - historian and historian - author who laid books all about upside down and open, in homes of books for walls, finds your treasure! 57 years on, a small summer grant reading history at Hertford/Oxford was pure bliss. Encouraging deep draught of books again, you offer a life of the mind akin to arduous athletic training with a fine payoff. Thank you, Mr. McEvoy.

100 years of solitude are the cause of my most interesting subconscious experience. Just after finishing the book I finished in the hospital with horrible fever for one week. During that time I was hallucinating that I am all of the Buendias at once. I was not a person, but a family ,observing parts of me as a sum of my other parts, worried about the families reproduction.

I feel like Epic wise, Camões is often overlooked. Perhaps due to lack of a great translation. One of the greatest poets of all time.

Awesome romp through the top 50, Benjamin. I remember trying to discuss literature with my school friends. When I mentioned Don Quixote, one of them said, "Why would you want to read a novel about a donkey?" They were more enthusiastic about Homer, they all loved watching The Simpsons.

My mother and grandfather taught me to read when I was 4 years old. I started with the comic strips in the daily newspaper, Now as I approach my 80th birthday, I watched this list with some curiosity. How many have I read? A conservative estimate: perhaps 40 of the 50. Your commentary has made me add some to my reading queue, so thanks for that. To be honest, today I read for escapism and entertainment. I'm not looking for a life changing experience any more, so I am not sure how many of these books I will actually finish. Time will tell (or run out unexpectedly.) As for the order of the books, it is a list. Probably nothing like a list I would make. Of course my list today would be very different than my list from just 3 months ago. I recently read Pride and Prejudice for the first time. It shot into my top 10 immediately. Everything evolves. Thanks again.

You are absolutely amazing. I'm currently doing a Masters in English and enjoying every minute of it. It's wonderful to see someone who shares the passion that I have for literature.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much. That's very kind of you to say. And how wonderful to hear you're doing your MA in English! I wish you all the best with your studies :)

Ben, I love your channel and have become a member. I have so much to say, but to keep things short here's a suggestion: what if you did a special course focused on world literature from places like China, Japan, Brazil, India and Persia? People below are making so many exciting suggestions of writing traditions to explore. As an American I have never been exposed to such works at university, or even on local library shelves. I love your thoughtful and well-informed analysis. It would be so much fun to accompany you through what is, for many of us, an as-yet untramelled reading arena. Just a thought.

@giacomocervelli1945

11 ай бұрын

sorry to break it down for you but persia doesnt exist anymore

@AlexandreBrautigam

11 ай бұрын

I agree with you... brazilian liteature is extremelly rich and I do not doubt that the same occurs with China, Japan and India literature. These are not "the 50 greatest books of all time", but instead they are for sure 50 great, superb books of all time. We have astonishing literature from Brazil that could be into this list as well...

@giacomocervelli1945

6 ай бұрын

@@silver_soul fact1: it doesnt exist fact2: it existed like 500 years ago or something

@giacomocervelli1945

6 ай бұрын

@@silver_soul dont really know, i just know its called iran now

@li0904426

5 ай бұрын

@@AlexandreBrautigam Just an example of an excellent Brazilian author is the 19th-century Machado de Assis, a genius!!!

There are so many amazing brazilian authors and t's so sad that they are not as popular as they deserve to be. But I love your videos, thank you so much for doing them!

Thank you so much for not only your list but for your enthusiasm for literature. You might want to look at these titles: Not-Two Is Peace, Prior Unity, and The Aletheon. These are among the more important books I've ever read. Many Blessings.

I read through a bunch of Hemingway's short stories earlier this year. You're right in saying it's his form of poetry. Absolutely masterful depth and emotion in just a few pages. My favorite was The Indian Camp.

I read Moby Dick while on holidays last week. It does read like a book written almost two hundred years ago, but what a book. The pacing, the description, the buildup to that final battle are fantastic. In my mind's eye, I was gripped by a scene near the end, when Ahab refuses to help find a boy lost at sea. he looks at the other person who is pleading for help, and says " I will not do it, Captain Gardner." There are so many scenes that are just as powerful, and a lot of stretches where you know something will happen.

I would like to have seen several great masterpieces included, but each are, for various reasons, obscure and challenging. "Finnegan Wake" of course, and also "Gargantua & Pantagruel", "Canterbury Tales", "The Decameron", "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", "Darconville's Cat", "Earthly Powers" as well as one of the great works by Italo Calvino, Marlowe, Shaw, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Lin Yutang, Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz, Martin Buber, Hesse, and Flann O'Brien. Great show. Subscribed and sharing.

i cannot recall the title now but one of the most memorable novels i read in my lifetime was a book i found (found me) on our local library shelf about a man who finished a lit degree at Oxford and dreamed of opening a small book shop in Oxford. He bumped into an old friend from Oxford on the steps and commented on how life had changed him and how he looked sadder somehow. Broke my heart that book. Thank you to that author.

I was a bit surprised and disappointed that my all-time favorite novel, Les Miserables, did not crack the top 50. It has been a positively life changing book for me.

@Jimdunne_

Жыл бұрын

Its up there with my most favourite, too. Don't worry I'm here for you like Jean Veljean would be.

@marjoriedybec3450

Жыл бұрын

I completely agree.

@mayankdwivedi9719

Жыл бұрын

Likewise!

@khadimndiaye7730

Жыл бұрын

I think the focus is mainly on English works and kind of best of the rest. French, Russian, Italian or German books are heavily underrepresented in this list

@michaelwu7678

Жыл бұрын

The list is shit

You open the door to each book, creating a bit of suspense and anticipation and allowing us to experience the life within each of these as if we were entering different houses, new landscapes. I was excited to find out that I have read most of these books, not all, but to realize that each book I have experienced has enhanced my life in particular ways, and some need to be revisited as (at the time I read them, like Ulysses) I was not ready to delve into or behind the style or the narrative or perhaps the character.... so I have new books to read and a few to revisit. I am a "contemporary classical composer" since early childhood, also a painter and since 2016 an avid writer with four books (a novel, 2 poetry, 1 non-fiction) self-published. I am deeply concerned with threats to mankind in our technological close-to-sci-fi world: to revisit these masterpieces of literature and to hear your cogent, heartfelt thoughts about each book has given me the strong hope I needed that "cancel culture" will never really cancel true art, which exists to illuminate life, ask questions, transform us! Thank you and perhaps I shall consider joining your bookclub. If you are curious to hear my "Romanza" for violin & piano or other works of music, my website is www.carolworthey.com --- It's 2:30 in the morning and now I want to READ!!

So excited to have found this video today by chance. And surprized to have read about 70% of these books. Lived in a small town, left school at 15 [1971], and read the popular stuff. It was in my 20's I needed more. So it began. Many of your books on the list went over my head, but not all. But with neither like-minded peoole nor a computer!, normal life took its course. So only TODAY I realize I can persue this love. Thank you. [Dust covered Ulysses stares down from the book shelf, and will probably gather more]. But I did see the humour in Kafka's 'The Trial'. SUBSCRIBED from Oz

Part one of Don Quixote is absolutely both hilarious ( the "adventures" ) and fascinating ( the conversations and wisdom of Don Quixote and Sancho ). Makes you wish you could have met Cervantes, the great mind that created such an immortal litterary couple. Céline, the french writer, should be there somewhere, with one of his first two books, Journey to the end of the night or Death on credit. Both game changers in the XXth century litterature.

My mind was blown when you talked about the nighteen eighty four opening line (which I always liked but apperently never understood). Although the translation I read (brazilian portuguese) didn't change the meaning of the 13 hours I always thought it meant 1pm, as we usually mean when talking like that, at least in Brazil... you really got me opening this book and thinking about it!

I love your sentiments about your English teacher sitting on the desk reading the books doing the voices. All my high school English teachers had the same romantic effect on inspiring me about literature and books even though I haven't pursued than enough in my life. Thank you teachers

Thank you, Ben. I don't know how I ended up with your vid but I'm glad that I did. I'm in my seventies and many of the books on the list were required reading when I was in high school (private school). We had to read the books and write about what we thought the author was saying along with discussions. I love reading and I probably will read some the works mentioned to see if I have a different perspective. Your enthusiasm for books is contagious! Reply

1. Bulgakov - Master and Margarita 2. Dostojevski - Crime and Punishment 3. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings Smth like that if I write them down quite quickly. If I'd think longer, I'd certainly think of many others as well. Actually I can't really put my favourites in any particular order and I also love the works of many Estonian authors, who unfortunately aren't internationally that known, but are amazing writers. Btw, I'm Estonian. :) Thank you for this video, it was very interesting! I just found your channel.

@JLar-bb5hl

4 ай бұрын

I tried reading 1, but stopped. Boring. I feel sorry for the poor Russians being made to read evil books like C+P, even as children. What en evil book that is!

@daydays12

3 ай бұрын

No Shakespeare? Not even Hamlet??? Tolkien above Shakespeare?

I’m so happy that you posted another video! I quite literally watch you religiously and check every day (more like every couple of hours) to see if there is anymore content to devour both podcast and youtube- great stuff as always! I was initially hesitant to ask once again for advice as I’ve commented prior and I feel as if I’m abusing your wisdom (I just feel bad for no reason basically) but I couldn’t resist asking this. I’m in the beginning of my gap year after A level and looking at obviously applying in the next coming months for 2023. For some context: I managed to beat the odds I went from getting Ds in year 12 and pretty much all the way up to the end of year 13 to coming out of the exam with my first ever B! I got a B overall! 15 marks from an A! (I’ve never done this well) and just because I’m so proud my breakdown was actually an A* in paper 1 (Othello, unseen prose and Gatsby and poetry) literature and a solid B in the second paper. That’s such a jump and I’m so so proud even if I’m gutted that I couldn’t get 15 more marks or better grades in my other courses. My coursework let me down unfortunately but it’s okay. Now to my question: I came out with B (English lit) and two Cs unfortunately- I know it isn’t the best but I was wondering if I could gain some insight into how I can decide on where to go? My dream places are all BBB courses (Northumbria for example) and then a step down from that it’s all BBC places. I am yet to find anywhere that appeals to me that’s BCC or below to be completely honest. Maybe it’s because I’m wishing to go to somewhere out of my league so much that I am not giving anywhere else a chance. Even though this perhaps is the case, my main question is: is there any possibility of me getting into a BBB place with BCC or is it just impossible? Sorry for the ramble and thanks in advance if you do manage to read my lengthy mess of a comment. I’m leaning towards doing English literature and creative writing joint honours just so you know. Thanks again! Love all of what you do!

Glad that Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is in top 50. I’ve committed several lines from “Song of the Open Road” to memory that are always uplifting, “Henceforth I ask not good fortune, I myself am good fortune.” (There was a beautiful Volvo commercial (long version) a few years back, with lovely mystical visuals from the road, while “Song” was narrated in background by Josh Brolin. So touched. I saved the commercial from YT, and while watching and hearing the poem read in it, I’m brought to tears every time)

Just found you about an hour ago; brilliant! And as the list was dwindling towards number one, I knew it had to be Proust otherwise I would have had a terrible night. Thank you!

Almost 58 minutes and yet I did not look away from the video once, it sure felt like a five minute review-utterly stunning and engaging review! Bravo! English is my second language, and I was over 22 when I started learning it, but I absolutely concur with this list, and especially, with your adept comments. One of my favorite novellas of all time is Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky, I simply adore it. My favorite book by Márquez is Love in the Time of Cholera; I’ve read it twice in English and twice in Spanish. Now I have to move to Russia so I can learn the native language of my favorite authors and read Anna Karenina and Wat and Peace in the original language. I love this video so very much! Thank you!

My mother was a university librarian during the 70s and 80s. The collection was reviewed and renewed about 1980. She saved an almost complete set of “Great Books of the Western World” for me. I’ve kept them but haven’t read many of them … until I retired six years ago. I’m an engineer by training and career. I was especially surprised by the depth of meaning of the ancient Greek epics, tragedies and comedies. And it opened my eyes and mind to a realization that humans have dealt with the great ideas for millennia. Joyce, Sterne, Steinbeck, Hemingway stand on the shoulders of the ancients. Missing from the list of fifty are the histories of (edit) Thucydides (/edit), Herodotus and Gibbon; the philosophical treatises of Plato, Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius; the political treatises of Plato, Locke, Hobbes, Spinoza, Nietzsche and the US Federalist papers; the economic treatises of Adam Smith; and the great biographies - Plutarch’s Lives and Boswell’s Samuel Johnson; and the scientific works of Euclid, Newton, and Faraday. But, IMHO the greatest absence in the list is Milton’s Paradise Lost.

@christhauma2981

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree with your list. Where's Shakespeare? Doesn't he qualify? Or don't plays belong to books?

@xpsxps1339

Жыл бұрын

I also definitely agree - the ancients are a missing staple for me, especially Plato and Marcus Aurelius.

@mikesmyth8515

Жыл бұрын

Dave, Because my major was the General Program of Liberal Studies, I was lucky enough to read in college all the other titles you mentioned. We had a six-credit great books seminar every semester where we did about a book a week. We also had a four-credit history of science course every semester, reading Newton, the astronomers like Brahe, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, etc. I mention all this because there are a lot of sympathetic souls in this forum that might like such an opportunity for themselves or their kids. My school, Notre Dame, still has a robust GP major. A couple St. John's Universities also teach the classic curriculum. They all derive from the U. of Chicago and Adler, Hutchinson and ??. And ultimately from the trivium and quadrivium in the first European universities. But the point is there's a heaven on earth for lovers of knowledge and the history of knowledge: the General Program. (aka a Humanities major). Maybe some such courses are available to audit. Thanks to all the fans of Benjamin and copious thanks to Benjamin himself for creating the most interesting comments page I've ever seen.

@davecorley5514

Жыл бұрын

Mike Smyth, I got my BS in engineering at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. I avoided every “bull” (English, philosophy, history, poli sci, etc) class I could while there. I was and am a “nuke” through and through. I must’ve walked past the St John’s campus a thousand times then. A year after I retired I started reading the Great Books. I researched and applied to St John’s just before COVID hit. Even reserved a tiny Apt just off-campus. COVID hit, St John’s shut down. “…best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…”

@angusspencer627

Жыл бұрын

@@christhauma2981 Hamlet is number 8.

The book I remember that I couldn’t put down (I don’t know if I finished it in one sitting or not) is ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Canadian author, Margaret Atwood. It was very suspenseful, a real page turner. I was surprised Agatha Christie wasn’t on the list. Is she not high-tone enough? I recently read ‘Endless Night’. Haunting, beautifully written.

Nice video and nice list! Surely, we would all alter something, but I think it’s pretty decent. If I had to change something though, I would go for Don Quixote at number 1. It’s a profound and multi-layered book, with deep ideas and philosophical reflections that are as relevant today as they were in Cervantes’ time. With each read, new gems come to light. It’s astounding when you realize the depth with which Cervantes could understand human nature and mask it in playful and comedic interactions. Other authors have also had this deep understanding of the human psyche (Dostoyevsky, a favorite of mine, is probably the most obvious example), but Don Quixote’s originality puts it in a category of its own.

I am 57 and yesterday I started reading my first book by Proust. I read a suggestion that it’s nice to have somebody who’s read him before to talk to as I start and I realized I do not have anybody in my life who has. hmmmm. Has got me thinking, but I did reach out to an old friend who was an English teacher who I’ve lost contact with and hopefully I hear from her. She is probably well familiar.

I just loved listening to this. It makes me want to re- read so many books and try the few on the list that I haven't got to yet. Being Irish I may be biased and would have swapped the order of the first two.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Tony. My Irish bias would also move Ulysses up - plus I can appreciate the lyricism and inventiveness in the original, without mediation, which is always a nice bonus :)

One of the most enjoyable videos I've ever watched. Benjamin's insight to every book is super impressive; however, he can be currently re-reading 25 novels lol. Also loved Ben's diplomatic explanations when he didn't agree, while remaining respectful to the novels. Well done my good sir!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

8 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!! I really appreciate your kind words :)

As a Spanish speaker, I feel so much pride by seeing 3 and 4 being books in my native language. 😊

Thanks for the review! I grew up reading Chinese literature and world literature -- Chekhov's stories & plays and Madame Bovary were the books that made me aspire to be a writer when I read them at 15.

Would be cool to see you do a personal top 50 of all time, or even a top 25. I think these lists are so often more interesting when seen purely as art as it relates to the subject, and how it has affected you! Too many lists HAVE to contain the Iliad, or Dante's inferno, yes, but what are YOUR favorites?

Your brief mention of Mann's "The Magic Mountain" here intrigues me, because -- now that you've presumably finished it -- we'd like to hear more from you concerning your thoughts on it. What makes it a particularly difficult read for me is that the overarching theme of the whole book is illness. And, by the end of it, it's hard to feel anything else but illness. At least, that was my experience.

It's a delight to see a young man with such enthusiasm about the written word. I have enjoyed my everchanging library for almost seventy years now, and now with my new lens implants, hope to enjoy for many more!

I love your comment on Kafka. Perhaps you could say 'Read Kafka, think Yes, MInister'. That's what happened to me the second time I read it and I finally could finish the book without a sense of overwhelming desperation.

I really enjoyed these responses with lists. Yes they are arbitrary but it is a good avenue for you to talk about literature. I also appreciate the honest list personal anecdotes here and how you can link certain parts of your life to these stories. Great stuff. Surprised there is no Ishiguro or McCarthy here

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely, they have to be arbitrary at a certain point. But it's a lovely excuse to just chat about books :) I was also surprised at the lack of Ishiguro and McCarthy!

I haven't read most of these books, because I'm still in high school and never really found the clothbound classics intriguing. But over the last few years, I have craved more poignant and detailed literature, rather than the young adult fantasy novels I read in my spare time when I was younger. Since the books I'm now interested in are much more challenging to read, I've been looking for something very engaging, yet also finely detailed and beautifully written. I read The Great Gatsby this year, and I think I've found it. What an incredible book. It has already influenced my own writing style, and by emulating the book when I write, I find that my words come out more sharply and defined, and depict personal and intricate images and emotions satisfactorily. Great video, I have a lot of catching up to do! :)

Love it; great list, wonderful commentary! For those passing who are really into Mann, Flaubert & Eliot, I would also recommend two Italian classics that should be in any Top 50 but for some reason have never attained the visibility they deserve in the US & UK: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's 'Il Gattopardo' (aka "The Leopard") and Alessandro Manzoni's 'I Promessi Sposi' ("The Betrothed"). Both are quite simple, unpretentious reads yet utterly mesmerizing.

@gunnyswordrose246

Жыл бұрын

Italian literature is indeed very neglected nowadays in the english speaking world and i would say also in Europe itself (outside of Italy of course) and i think that is very blameworthy since it is so rich and full of masterpieces. The same can be said for many other literary traditions which are shamefully unrepresented outside their own countries despite being as great as the more wellknown, such as russian or english ones. That being said, i actually think you are in the wrong when you say that "The betrothed" is "simple" and "unpretentious": Manzoni is one of the most skillful writer i have ever read, his style, narrative construction, cinematic vision, montage... are nothing less that majestic. Consider that he was so obsessed with the language the novel was written in that after the first edition was published he worked on a new version for almost 20 years, completely stopping from writing anything else, except for nonfiction essays either historical, linguistic, philosophical...he completely ceased his creative activity as he was so committed to perfecting his masterpiece, rewriting the whole novel to refine it (he is considered the father of modern italian language for his efforts).

@loismccluresmith7944

3 ай бұрын

Leopard is magnificent and so is the film version

I enjoy your enthusiasm, Benjamin! Makes me want to ... read great literature! Since this list is so American and Brit and Irish heavy, perhaps you could do videos on "greatest French novels" or "greatest Italian novels," etc. Just a though!