I’ll be reading a novel from each decade this year and I need something from these decades. To understand my taste, what I’ve read from the 1880s, 1920s, 30s, 40s (but I’m open to anything):
– A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court – Mark Twain (1889)
– The Great Gatsby
– Minty Alley – C.L.R. James (1936)
– The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis (1946)
by gogreengolions
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When I was looking at my books, I surprised to realize that I had read so many books from those decades. Some of my favorites are:
**1890s:**
* *Heart of Darkness* by Joseph Conrad — I really like Conrad’s writing style. Also Francis Ford’s classic Vietnam war movie *Apocalypse Now* is one of my favorite films, and it’s somewhat inspired from Conrad’s story.
I also liked these, but they contain sci-fi or supernatural elements (which is why I liked them at the time) so I’m not sure if it fits your taste:
* *The Picture of Dorian Gray* by Oscar Wilde / *Dracula* by Bram Stoker / *The Time Machine* by HG. Wells
**1900s:**
* *The White Fang* / *The Call of the Wild* by Jack London — I was just a kid when I first read these books, and I felt transported to the artic wilderness. These were also the first books that made me cry. I’ve reread them multiple times as an adult and I still love them.
**1910s:**
I’ll list two books by two authors that seem to be somewhat forgotten about, which is really unfortunate.
* *Of Human Bondage* by Somerset Maugham — one of my favorite all-time books. I loved the orphan’s desire to fully experience life by studying, traveling and working in various different countries. There are also several film adaptations of this book, but my favorite still is the first one, the 1938 film starring a very young Bette Davis who won an Oscar for her role in the film.
* *Winesberg, Ohio* by Sherwood Anderson — I love this collection of stories of an America that seems long gone. I discovered Anderson in a writing class, and it made me wonder why he isn’t still widely read. He’s a fantastic short story writer.
These two books are classics for good reason.
* *Metamorphosis* by Franz Kafka — a surrealist classic which influenced so many authors. I love surrealism so this was a must-read for me.
* *Dubliners* by James Joyce — Joyce can be challenging to read, but I found this collection of short stories is a good intro to Joyce. It’s more accessible than his other works but you can still get a sense his unique modernistic writing style.