I realize that starting with these older texts can be challenging and will probably scare off a number of people who were scarred by high school and college instructors, but there is a huge benefit to doing it this way.
Namely, we get a picture of a larger culture. When Peter Walsh reflects on his time in Britain, that means something to us because of our experience with A Passage to India. And in these novels concerned with class and class structure (An American Tragedy, Mrs. Dalloway, The Great Gatsby) we have a context that is created from these companion texts. Novels and stories all exist within a particular time and place regardless of their being called "timeless." Reading the books together and in order, we can see them existing together.
We are not far enough along the timeline to see books referring to each other, commenting upon each other, building off each other, but I will not be surprised to see that in the future too.
So far I find this to be a very rewarding project. Thank you, Ann, for making this happen!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm so far behind..having jumped off to read 3 other books. But now I need to reconsider this orderly plan vs my urge to jump to the 40's.
ReplyDeleteThere really is no "behind" here, since we are all just reading along. As much I have loved reading the books in chronological order, I don't think you will miss all that much by jumping around. Much better, I believe, to read a book you are excited about. We're just happy to have you playing along with us at all!
ReplyDelete