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My Literary Lists No. 2

Today I propose to list for you my favorite novels and poems. I do this with fear and trembling because I realize that my choices would not be accorded the great stature by others that I give them. My tastes may well be more pedestrian than your own, but “to each his own the old lady said as she kissed her favorite cow”:

Novels

1. Death Comes For The Archbishop---by Willa Cather. The story of the life of a French priest appointed to serve in the new world in the late eighteenth century and how he becomes Archbishop of Santa Fe. I have read everything that Willa Cather ever wrote and I consider her one of the most perceptive and sensitive writers I have ever encountered. As you may know she was a cigar smoking, pub-brawling, lesbian in nineteenth Century America which frowned on such conduct by a lady but in my book she was a great writer.

2. Captain Horatio Hornblower---by C. S. Forester. There are those that consider Forester a hack writer since he hired out during the second World War as a screen writer propagandist for the Defense department but I find him to be a superb literary craftsman and a great developer of characters that stick with you for life. This set of three novels develops the idea of “the man alone”—a ship commander on detached service where his access to higher authority is limited or non existent and he must make all decisions for himself. I have also read everything Forester ever wrote, and I never found anything I did not like----did you know that he wrote both the novel and the screenplay for “African
Queen”?

3. The Hands Of Cantu—by Tom Lea. The story of a Mexican ranch owner who seeks to recover prize Spanish stallions from Indians that stole them from his ranch in time of the conquistadors. This was important not only to preserve this prize bloodline for the ranch but to deprive the warring Indians the ability to breed larger more effective horses. Lea’s illustrations alone make this book worthwhile.

4. For Whom The Bell Tolls—by Ernest Hemingway. This is my favorite of all the books that Hemingway wrote. It is a super plot and development of the relationship between the principal character and Pilar is done with great efficiency. I like the way Hemingway writes even though I do not think that I would have cared for him as a personal associate. A good solid read.

5. Blessed McGill---by Edwin “Bud” Shrake. A super fast paced story of a man who grew up in a dysfunctional family in the immediate post Civil War Texas and spent about as much time with the Indians as he did with the whites—until the Civil War was over and the Texas government decided to clean up the Indian problem. The plot is very convoluted and my grandson claims that Shrake’s secondary character development is weak but it still rates to be in my top ten novels. There is a surprise ending to this book that I will not ruin by divulging but will have you scratching your head if you read it. A good book.

6. A Coffin For Dimitrios—by Eric Ambler. A spy story to be sure, but one that I think is very skillfully done and which afforded me great pleasure to read. It is set in eastern Europe and Turkey, and the flavor of that area is definitely imparted to the book. It is the only book by Ambler that I have read, but I intend to amend that condition.

7. A Study In Scarlet---by Arthur Conan Doyle. Even the author did not consider the Sherlock Holmes stories to be great literature and hated the fact that his reading public forced him into continuing to write them. But I consider them to be great literature even if Doyle did not. Any effort that gave the world such unforgettable characters as Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson and Professor Moriarty cannot help but be great. This story was Doyle’s first with the great detective and I think perhaps his best.

8. Home From The Hill---by William Humphries. A story of the break up of a prominent family in a small town in the 1930’s brought about by the moral decadence of the father and how this loss of traditional values tended to affect the family for generations. It is a well crafted book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

9. Moby Dick---by Hermann Melville. Many authorities I am told consider this to be the greatest novel ever written in America and I offer no contest to that theory. The story is about a whaling voyage and is rife with symbolism on several levels. Its strength for me is the story and the plot itself and Melville’s super knowledge of the whaling industry of his day. The characters he developed in this book have become a part of American folklore. Everyone should read Moby Dick.

10. Rifleman Dodd---by C., S Forester. This probably is better called a novella since it is very short. It is the story of a British soldier in the 95th Rifles who becomes separated from his unit in its retreat behind the lines of Torres Vedras and must exist alone in enemy occupied territory. Once again it is the “man alone” theme that Forester invokes frequently in his works. Rifleman Dodd is an ingenious and adaptive soldier, and the book makes a great read plus being a good source of historic detail about the Peninsular War.

11. Hold Autumn In Your Hand--- by George Sessions Perry. This novel is about how a sharecropper farmer in North Texas tries to hold his family together and keep them fed until he can make just one crop and pay off at least some of his debts. The characters
Perry develops are crystal clear. Even though the plot situation sounds drab Perry tells the story with a lot of humor that makes you fall in love with his characters.



So there you are with my eleven favorite novels of the moment—If you ask me next week they may be different.


Poetry

Below are listed 14 selections of poetry that constitute my favorites. I will readily admit that the poetry listed will not be published as a compendium of the world’s best---But I like them!
I am merely going to give the titles and the Poets and not try to analyze WHY I like them.


The Ballad Of East and West by Rudyard Kipling
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister by Robert Browning
The Ballad Of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
The Ladies by Rudyard Kipling
The Garden of Proserpine by A. Charles Swinburne
Invictus by W. E. Henley
Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling
The Female of the Species by Rudyard Kipling
The Creation of Sam Magee by Robert Service
Rabbi Ben Ezra by Robert Browning
Father William by Lewi8s Carroll
Sonnet 14 (From Sonnets from the Portuguese) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

So there! You have probably lost all respect for my literary acumen by now.
Still to come at a later date are “Plays” and “Letters, Journals, and Diaries”

Love
Dad, granpa, ami

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Last edited by Mugtoe on 09-01-2003 at 05:25 AM

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