Gonna check all these stories on this list but YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS! Ivanhoe my childhood favourite made the list! Got such a strong sense of victory now!
I really want to down the road write a Ivanhoe styled novel in French! Might have to do that after next year.
But damn, gotta try reading Chaucer again, as I rented it from the library once and I think I've a copy somewhere, but haven't touched the poems in awhile. Loved what I read.
I read the D’Aulaires’ Greek and Norse myths to my children and now to my granddaughter (same hardback copy); the books are much loved. When we gave a copy of the Greek Myths to a pregnant faculty member at a book-centered baby shower a few years ago, the book was met with stares of incredulity. Was it too Euro-centric, too white? We “got away” with it, being old and probably not knowing better.
Years ago we lived in Berkeley and had a village poet. The Bubble Lady dressed in long vestments of jewel toned velvet, carried a soap bubble wand and sold her (atrocious) poetry in cafes…. Berkeley was then an odd but more gentle place than it is today.
I should have emphasized that the d’Aulaires books are wholly free of any appeal to the ‘modern audience’ (Critical Drinker voice). They are thus excellent tools for inspiring in Western children a reverent attitude towards their own history and culture. But honestly, I think kids from anywhere would like their stuff; it’s just great.
16 hrs ago·edited 16 hrs agoLiked by Librarian of Celaeno
I noticed everything European has to be mocked or cut down, and this has been going on for a long time.
I wanted to throw away every Magic Tree House book after I read the authors obnoxious commentary at the end of the knights book how the Middle Ages was acktually bad because it "wasnt fair". Can't let little boys get the wrong idea.
The university my grandson just began to atttend has applied a "trigger-warning" to the Canterbury Tales. And not a moment too soon, I might add. Not for reimagining the role of red-hot pokers, mind, but for the expression of Christian views. Nothing worse than stumbling upon Christian views unawares. Someone has to think of the children. They're our future.
It’s like a Bizzaro-World stamp of approval really. The best literature is hated by the worst people. You could do well for your family if you got the chance to ask a panel of English professors what books they would ban if given the choice; get them to cap your reading list at 200 though.
I remember that pain-in-the-ass Tipper Gore and James Baker's less-publically-annoying wife telling me just which LPs I was going to buy because they wanted to put a warning label on them. I am a more cultured person for it, as is my spawn. They have my gratitude.
Chaucer is the new Clash. Prologue to The Junkie's Tale. I can see it and the T-shirts.
When I was young, my parents gave me the D’Aulaires’ Greek myths book for Christmas. It still sits in my mother’s house, although the cover has long fallen off and the binding barely holds. I found a more recent edition by chance while browsing through a used book store last year; I snatched it up instantly and brought it home. I’ll give it to my son when he’s old enough to read. I hope he’ll have the same love for the stories as I did.
In similar vein to *Ivanhoe* is *Men of Iron* by Howard Pyle. The scope and stakes are personal, not kingdom altering or world saving, and the tale is the better for it.
Many years ago, I read parts of Collected Works of Omar Khayyam in English. I believe it was published in Turkey. There is no way I can say anything related to the textual criticism regarding Khayyam, but he seemed more pious in them than in Fitzgerald's version.
Might I add Patrick O'Brian's Maturin-Martin 20-volume work, beginning with Master and Commander? (Skip the move and read the books.)The greatest novel in the English language.
They’re wonderful books; I wouldn’t hesitate to call them the Lord of the Rings of historical fiction for their immersive universe-construction and attention to detail. I did enjoy the movie very much as well though. I wrote about it and another Peter Weir film here. https://librarianofcelaeno.substack.com/p/a-tribute-to-australia-two-films?r=b1hwi
Funnily Omar Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat, directly followed by the Jefferson Bible, is what got me religious. It’s a wonderful slightly-drunken meandering of thoughts, like watching a rich wine slowly mix into a glass of water.
Imagine Persian culture now if they were still allowed to drink, my goodness!
Few cultures on Earth are so reverent of their poets as the Persians. They have a magnificent tomb for Khayyam in his native Nishapur. They also love wrestling; it’s a shame they couldn’t get along with the Greeks.
5 hrs ago·edited 5 hrs agoLiked by Librarian of Celaeno
So glad to see my favorite authors in your list: Decameron, Boccaccio is on my shelves, but in Russian and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam always was favorite in Russia. And Chaucer remind me my University readings. Great choice! May I add- Chesterfield, Letters to his son, Maxims. I am holding this book in my hands right now. So pleasant! Thank you for your list.
Pushkin is our pride. Gogol' is extremely interesting but I do not care about Ukrainian folklore, which he used in the beginning of his writing. But his Peterburgskiye Stories are excellent and the rest of his work. Have you read Henry Troyat's Divided Soul about him? I don't know how much you should trust him, but it's interesting.
Oh, I don't know if you have read this one but one novel from the early 20th that I find a perfect introduction for younger men is Sabattinis Scaramuche. It's a bit like A Tale of Two Cities with swordfights and women.
Another great list, a few I have yet to dip into. Honestly, I'm deficient in my Greek classics, and need to take some time to catch up on them. But, I agree with you on the Canterbury tales. I was fortunate that my school district had an accelerated program, which was really the ye-old segregation setup where all the white kids and asians could learn while the others were wrangled and kept from killing each other for a few hours, and I happened to have the Rennaissance teacher several times. Matter of fact, growing up in SoCal we have the annual Faire which is one of the biggest around and in Middle School the 8th grade project is to set up our own which ended up being an annual popular school event. I also took a few classes focused on Shakespeare and the early modern era of British Lit so Cantebury was a critical pre-requesite.
Have you read Dan Simmon's Hyperion? It's sci-fi inspired and modeled around Chauser, filled with literary allusions and gems. Well worth the read.
Once again, fistbump on being in The Secret History fanclub. Maybe Donna will drop one more novel on us. The Goldfinch, while entertaining, didn't capture the spirit of Secret History.
Thank you for reminding me of Dan Simmons. I've been looking for some fiction to get lost in, and since I've only read 'The Terror' by Simmons, your comment has provided me with quite a long list of books that should suffice!
"No, this didn’t happen to me; my school was full of illiterates immune to such earnestness and no one tried it. I’ve met her since…"
Gold. Thank you for the recommendations!
On another note, I do remember there being an impression that "fiction = girly" and "non-fiction = manly", when I was in middle school (so the mid to late '10s); while I blame BookTok and a general inclination to turn everything into a curated aesthetic (e.g. "The Secret History is so dark academia!!1!!") for this disparity, I wonder about the extent to which this is correlated to the majority of English teachers being inclined to proselytize about social justice. One "debate club diva" / English teacher wrote a blog about how a boy in her class rolled his eyes at Emma Watson's UN speech, upsetting her greatly, and would tell us about how people arguing against modern feminism were actually saying morally repugnant things ... fun times!
Fortunately, the internet introduced me to a lot of authors (e.g. Lovecraft, Hans Christian Andersen) that I would not have discovered otherwise, but it took English teachers who genuinely weren't inclined to push some viewpoint or the other to render me less cynical about what we learned in class.
But I digress! Have you read Bleeding of the Stone? It was one of those books that was difficult for me to comprehend at first, but I found it had a lot of compelling insights about the human spirit / relationships with nature and religion.
Ibrahim Al-Koni's more famous work is Gold Dust, which I believe centers around similar themes, although I haven't read that one. That might be a more accessible point to start from...
Gonna check all these stories on this list but YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS! Ivanhoe my childhood favourite made the list! Got such a strong sense of victory now!
I really want to down the road write a Ivanhoe styled novel in French! Might have to do that after next year.
But damn, gotta try reading Chaucer again, as I rented it from the library once and I think I've a copy somewhere, but haven't touched the poems in awhile. Loved what I read.
There should be a novel about Bertrand du Guesclin
Agreed
I read the D’Aulaires’ Greek and Norse myths to my children and now to my granddaughter (same hardback copy); the books are much loved. When we gave a copy of the Greek Myths to a pregnant faculty member at a book-centered baby shower a few years ago, the book was met with stares of incredulity. Was it too Euro-centric, too white? We “got away” with it, being old and probably not knowing better.
Years ago we lived in Berkeley and had a village poet. The Bubble Lady dressed in long vestments of jewel toned velvet, carried a soap bubble wand and sold her (atrocious) poetry in cafes…. Berkeley was then an odd but more gentle place than it is today.
I should have emphasized that the d’Aulaires books are wholly free of any appeal to the ‘modern audience’ (Critical Drinker voice). They are thus excellent tools for inspiring in Western children a reverent attitude towards their own history and culture. But honestly, I think kids from anywhere would like their stuff; it’s just great.
I noticed everything European has to be mocked or cut down, and this has been going on for a long time.
I wanted to throw away every Magic Tree House book after I read the authors obnoxious commentary at the end of the knights book how the Middle Ages was acktually bad because it "wasnt fair". Can't let little boys get the wrong idea.
The university my grandson just began to atttend has applied a "trigger-warning" to the Canterbury Tales. And not a moment too soon, I might add. Not for reimagining the role of red-hot pokers, mind, but for the expression of Christian views. Nothing worse than stumbling upon Christian views unawares. Someone has to think of the children. They're our future.
It’s like a Bizzaro-World stamp of approval really. The best literature is hated by the worst people. You could do well for your family if you got the chance to ask a panel of English professors what books they would ban if given the choice; get them to cap your reading list at 200 though.
I remember that pain-in-the-ass Tipper Gore and James Baker's less-publically-annoying wife telling me just which LPs I was going to buy because they wanted to put a warning label on them. I am a more cultured person for it, as is my spawn. They have my gratitude.
Chaucer is the new Clash. Prologue to The Junkie's Tale. I can see it and the T-shirts.
When I was young, my parents gave me the D’Aulaires’ Greek myths book for Christmas. It still sits in my mother’s house, although the cover has long fallen off and the binding barely holds. I found a more recent edition by chance while browsing through a used book store last year; I snatched it up instantly and brought it home. I’ll give it to my son when he’s old enough to read. I hope he’ll have the same love for the stories as I did.
I have a similarly dog-eared copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. The d’Aulaires of my youth was in the school library.
In similar vein to *Ivanhoe* is *Men of Iron* by Howard Pyle. The scope and stakes are personal, not kingdom altering or world saving, and the tale is the better for it.
“a bodice fighting for its life.”
This had me in considerable suspense. No seriously, that’s deathless prose.
PS. They were swinging at the Ren Faire too.
Many years ago, I read parts of Collected Works of Omar Khayyam in English. I believe it was published in Turkey. There is no way I can say anything related to the textual criticism regarding Khayyam, but he seemed more pious in them than in Fitzgerald's version.
He’s either a Sufi writing allegorically or an Epicurean writing earnestly, or he didn’t write what’s attributed to him to begin with. Simple, really!
I'm going for an earnest Sufi!
This is a great list to take with me as I trall through thrift and used book stores. Like a previous commenter, I look forward to The Decameron.
Any future recommendations on the American civil war would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you; I will consider that.
To combine the Oresteia with the Civil War, you might like Eugene O'Neill's updated version, "Mourning Becomes Electra."
Thank you. I’ll look into that.
Might I add Patrick O'Brian's Maturin-Martin 20-volume work, beginning with Master and Commander? (Skip the move and read the books.)The greatest novel in the English language.
They’re wonderful books; I wouldn’t hesitate to call them the Lord of the Rings of historical fiction for their immersive universe-construction and attention to detail. I did enjoy the movie very much as well though. I wrote about it and another Peter Weir film here. https://librarianofcelaeno.substack.com/p/a-tribute-to-australia-two-films?r=b1hwi
I have a copy of Rubaiyat!
Funnily Omar Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat, directly followed by the Jefferson Bible, is what got me religious. It’s a wonderful slightly-drunken meandering of thoughts, like watching a rich wine slowly mix into a glass of water.
Imagine Persian culture now if they were still allowed to drink, my goodness!
Few cultures on Earth are so reverent of their poets as the Persians. They have a magnificent tomb for Khayyam in his native Nishapur. They also love wrestling; it’s a shame they couldn’t get along with the Greeks.
So glad to see my favorite authors in your list: Decameron, Boccaccio is on my shelves, but in Russian and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam always was favorite in Russia. And Chaucer remind me my University readings. Great choice! May I add- Chesterfield, Letters to his son, Maxims. I am holding this book in my hands right now. So pleasant! Thank you for your list.
Thank you, I love libraries and had been senior librarian myself, in Russia.
Thank you very much for reading. I also enjoy Gogol and Pushkin.
Pushkin is our pride. Gogol' is extremely interesting but I do not care about Ukrainian folklore, which he used in the beginning of his writing. But his Peterburgskiye Stories are excellent and the rest of his work. Have you read Henry Troyat's Divided Soul about him? I don't know how much you should trust him, but it's interesting.
Funny you should mention Ivanhoe - I addressed that and a few others ones in this post: https://raconteurpress.substack.com/p/homework-boys-stories-part-1
Oh, I don't know if you have read this one but one novel from the early 20th that I find a perfect introduction for younger men is Sabattinis Scaramuche. It's a bit like A Tale of Two Cities with swordfights and women.
Another great list, a few I have yet to dip into. Honestly, I'm deficient in my Greek classics, and need to take some time to catch up on them. But, I agree with you on the Canterbury tales. I was fortunate that my school district had an accelerated program, which was really the ye-old segregation setup where all the white kids and asians could learn while the others were wrangled and kept from killing each other for a few hours, and I happened to have the Rennaissance teacher several times. Matter of fact, growing up in SoCal we have the annual Faire which is one of the biggest around and in Middle School the 8th grade project is to set up our own which ended up being an annual popular school event. I also took a few classes focused on Shakespeare and the early modern era of British Lit so Cantebury was a critical pre-requesite.
Have you read Dan Simmon's Hyperion? It's sci-fi inspired and modeled around Chauser, filled with literary allusions and gems. Well worth the read.
Once again, fistbump on being in The Secret History fanclub. Maybe Donna will drop one more novel on us. The Goldfinch, while entertaining, didn't capture the spirit of Secret History.
I read Ilium and Olympos by Simmons, but not yet Hyperion. I will look into that.
Thank you for reminding me of Dan Simmons. I've been looking for some fiction to get lost in, and since I've only read 'The Terror' by Simmons, your comment has provided me with quite a long list of books that should suffice!
"No, this didn’t happen to me; my school was full of illiterates immune to such earnestness and no one tried it. I’ve met her since…"
Gold. Thank you for the recommendations!
On another note, I do remember there being an impression that "fiction = girly" and "non-fiction = manly", when I was in middle school (so the mid to late '10s); while I blame BookTok and a general inclination to turn everything into a curated aesthetic (e.g. "The Secret History is so dark academia!!1!!") for this disparity, I wonder about the extent to which this is correlated to the majority of English teachers being inclined to proselytize about social justice. One "debate club diva" / English teacher wrote a blog about how a boy in her class rolled his eyes at Emma Watson's UN speech, upsetting her greatly, and would tell us about how people arguing against modern feminism were actually saying morally repugnant things ... fun times!
Fortunately, the internet introduced me to a lot of authors (e.g. Lovecraft, Hans Christian Andersen) that I would not have discovered otherwise, but it took English teachers who genuinely weren't inclined to push some viewpoint or the other to render me less cynical about what we learned in class.
But I digress! Have you read Bleeding of the Stone? It was one of those books that was difficult for me to comprehend at first, but I found it had a lot of compelling insights about the human spirit / relationships with nature and religion.
I have not read Bleeding of the Stone. I looked it up and it sounds interesting.
Ibrahim Al-Koni's more famous work is Gold Dust, which I believe centers around similar themes, although I haven't read that one. That might be a more accessible point to start from...