Top Ten without Stendahl

[Paul Mackin]

On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 08:03, Heikki Raudaskoski wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Sep 2004, John Carvill wrote:
> > CFA wrote:
> > "Given these rankings, shouldn't Stendahl's The Red and The Black be in
> > your top ten?
> > If not, could you tell us why?"
> >
> > Simple really - I haven't read it even once, let alone twice.
> > Now can you tell me why, 'given these rankings', you expected it to be
> > listed?
> 
> If you haven't read TRatB, my suggestion is a spoiler. If you
> still want to know it, scroll down some 40 lines.

(C e n s o r e d)
> 
> 
> Heikki
> 
> P.S. As to Stendhal, have always gone more for The Charterhouse
> of Parma myself.

I read The R and the B first and have a special though perverse fondness
for Julian Sorel (was that his name?)

The other book has a funny association in English. Chartreuse as a color
is so associated with vulgarity and bad taste in dress.

Don't think it would be a spoiler to note that the Napoleonic (or other)
wars were frequently a convenient plot device in 19th C novels.

Vanity Fair for example. That was a fine book also. We are dealing here
with a class of novel people my age would have read decades before
Pynchon arrived on the scene. Comparing 20th and 19th C novels with
regard to trying to chose favorites is an impossible task for me to
comprehend.

>From a Wittgensteinian point of view what kind of a statement is "my
favorite novel is (fill in your choice)?"