4/3/2023 0 Comments Www epic booksPop a bottle of Burgundy, put on the "Les Miz" soundtrack and get to reading. More than a quarter of its pages are essays on French history, morality and other digressions. If you're only familiar with the many streamlined adaptations, you might not realize that Hugo's vast French novel is about much more than Inspector Javert's relentless persecution of reformed thief Jean Valjean. The book that launched a thousand musicals. This 17th-century Spanish novel is one of the cornerstones of Western literature. But maybe it's time to learn the whole story of an aging would-be knight, his horse Rocinante, his faithful squire Sancho Panza and their idealistic quest for adventure. Sure, you know where the phrases "quixotic" and "tilting at windmills" come from. The book and Rand's other weighty bestseller, "The Fountainhead," espouse a philosophical system called objectivism, whose emphasis on individual rights has been embraced by some modern-day conservatives. Nobody really read it for the plot, which had to do with (yawn) business executives straining against burdensome regulations. Michener was a master at researching a part of the world - "Hawaii" (1,136 pp.), "Texas" (1,472 pp.), "Chesapeake" (1,024 pp.), ("Centennial" - about Colorado - 1056 pp.) - and then crafting a sprawling, multi-generational family saga about its history, people and culture.įor decades if you wanted to start a discussion - or a debate - with someone you carried around a dog-eared copy of this influential but polarizing novel. His longest books all clock in at 1,000 pages or so. Then again, its brutal post-apocalyptic vision makes our current pandemic feel. So you can probably skip those.Ī novel about a deadly, fast-moving virus that wipes out much of the world's population? Like that would ever happen! Yes, the plot of this dark thriller, which was made into a 1994 miniseries, may hit a little too close to home right now. It's also in seven volumes, although the last three were unfinished drafts published after Proust's death. Proust, a Frenchman, packed its pages with profound musings on art, the elusive nature of memory and the melancholy passage of time. If you want to wow your friends - or get teased for your pretentiousness - dig into this massive brick of a book, hailed by some as the most influential novel of the 20th century. The book is a gripping and essential document of the African American experience. It all started with Haley's Pulitzer-winning novel, which traces his family lineage back to Kunta Kinte, an African boy who was sold into slavery and brought to America. Or "Roots: The Next Generations," the sequel. You may have seen the 1977 ABC miniseries that turned "Roots" into a cultural sensation. But it's worth going back to the beginning - before the eight bloated movies, before the theme parks, before Emma Watson became a UN ambassador - to relive how Rowling brought a magical world to life on the printed page with little more than her own boundless imagination. Yes, we all read these seven books years ago. It's also about people trying to find their way in a time of crisis and social upheaval, which makes it a fitting read for our current moment. Leo Tolstoy, 1,392 pages* (* per Goodreads)Ī pinnacle of Russian literature and arguably the greatest novel ever written, this epic has everything - historical sweep, romance, military battles, family drama, philosophical essays - all against the backdrop of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. And they're all big, honking doorstops - most of them more than 1,000 pages - that ought to keep you busy for a while. They're all widely acclaimed as classics (or future classics) by readers or critics. To jog your memory and jump-start your new literary life, here's a list of suggested epic reads. It's that supposedly brilliant novel - or series of novels - you've avoided for years because it's dense and daunting and, well. Now might be the moment to dust off that book you've always vowed to read but never had time for. You've exhausted the good stuff on Netflix, your dog hides when you try to walk him for the eighth time and those ambitious plans for new hobbies - scrapbooking! bird watching! - are not happening. (CNN) - So your daily quarantine routine is getting old.
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