12 HARDER CLASSICS TO TEST YOU.
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2024
- Welcome to our deep dive into some of the most challenging yet rewarding classic books! In this video, we explore 12 literary masterpieces that delve into the complexities of the human condition. From existential struggles and moral dilemmas to the harsh realities of life, these books are a must-read for any avid reader.
Books Featured:
Fathers and Children by Ivan Turgenev
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Gods Want Blood by Anatole France
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The 4 Great Tragedies of Shakespeare
Whether you're a literature student, a book enthusiast, or simply looking to challenge yourself with some deep reading, this video is perfect for you. These books not only offer rich storytelling but also provide insights into the human psyche and societal issues.
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Tristan. You are the teacher I never had but always wanted. (Or never appreciated when I was young?) 🤔
Thank you for your erudition. Your channel is always time well spent.
I recently read "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky and after finishing it I immidiatly started reading it all over again (different translation). That never happened before. I admire Dostoevsky so much, he was the best auhtor of all time. When I die I want to have read all his books at least once.
I did not understand The Idiot.
In Moby Dick, the dry’ chapters detailing “whale biology” are crucial chapters that reinforce the truth that no matter how much humans think they know (through science, for example) they will never fully comprehend the mystery of God/nature. When the sailors are finally confronted by Moby Dick at the end, they’re only able to see glimpses of the majestic beast, their knowledge of him is restricted.
I am too afraid to read Moby's Dick.
"And here are trees and I know their gnarled surface, water and I feel its taste. These scents of grass and stars at night, certain evenings when the heart relaxes-how shall I negate this world whose power and strength I feel? Yet all the knowledge on earth will give me nothing to assure me that this world is mine. You describe it to me and you teach me to classify it. You enumerate its laws and in my thirst for knowledge I admit that they are true. You take apart its mechanism and my hope increases. At the final stage you teach me that this wondrous and multicolored universe can be reduced to the atom and that the atom itself can be reduced to the electron. All this is good and I wait for you to continue. But you tell me of an invisible planetary system in which electrons gravitate around a nucleus. You explain this world to me with an image. I realize then that you have been reduced to poetry I shall never know."
- Camus
Seems Camus was frustrated by this same dilemma.
I love it that your videos are so long! In the age of short, five minute forgettable teasers, yours have a luxurious, immersive feel. Keep going!
Love this chap. So full of energy and genuine enthusiasm for the subject.
He explains “so well, even my wife who is Italian and doesn’t read books, was drawn in to his descriptions and exclamations.
Keep up the good work
Came for the books, stayed for the five o’clock shadow.
Ha! He does look adorable.
💯 😂
Hahaha!
Yeah, but have you heard what he's been saying? I could listen to him all day long! ❤
Same! 🥰
You always get me excited to delve into my classics collection Tristan.
One time I was soaking in the bath tub, reading a paperback copy of "The Way of All Flesh". After a while, I decided to set the book down, so, without looking, I reached over to set the book on the toilet seat. Next thing, I hear a splash. I had not set the lid of the toilet seat down! Then it struck me: the way of all flesh, indeed!
The last chapter of Moby Dick is heart- stopping
Love your approach and your ability to convey the beauty and depth of these books without ever being patronising or looking smug, which other book tubers would do well to emulate. You always seem to come across as an intelligent and erudite friend. As my granddaughter would say, “Go Tristan”. Claire B 😊
I’ve read 6 of these (4 tragedies, Grapes of Wrath and Fathers and Children), currently reading 1 (Moby Dick), will soon read another (Crime and Punishment) and discovered 2 new novels (Gods Want Blood and Way of the Flesh). Great list!!
Fabulous
I read Crime and Punishment last week. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now that I'm a middle-aged man I think I understood it more than when I read it in high school. I'm going to take on The Devils next
I've read both. I'm not sure if all versions of "The Devils' has the censored chapter. Nicholas is far worse, in my opinion, person than Raskolnikov.
Don't stop with "Devils." Read "The Brothers Karamazov," "The Idiot," "Notes from the Underground," and "House of the Dead." All are great books.
@@einy2crikey interesting. I've got the Wordsworth Classics set, translated by Constance Garnett
@@mikedl1105 That's awesome!
I donated all of my Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy books to my local library. They only had War & Peace and Crime & Punishment.
I'd like to know your thoughts about the epilogue in Crime & Punishment.
@@rjrastapopoulos1595 While it was a good read. I was surprised by several things, for one, his sister not telling their mother about what his fate was. He only got 8 years for such horrendous acts. His girlfriend was not only able to travel to Siberia, but she was able to help him through his guards.
After reading other books that discuss Russian prisons (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Gulag Archipelago, House of the Dead), this didn't seem quite plausible. I will say, however, Tolstoy's 'Resurrection,' was about a man travelling in a train to Siberia to help a woman he had wronged when he was a young man. so, I guess it was possible. (?)
As far as the psychological/philosophical part, the lingering questions for me...Was he "playing" his girlfriend, his sister, her husband, and the guards? Was he going to one day leave prison a changed man? Can a man like him truly be changed? Someone like him, who Nietzche would decades later describe as an Übermensch? Personally, my answer would be 'NO.'
What was your take?
Thanks.
Love your videos, Tristan. I was lucky enough to run into an exhibit on the illustrators of Moby Dick a couple of weekends ago in Salem, Mass. What a treat. 🐋
Another great video, Tristan! I read 10 of the 12 half a century ago, and I'm currently reading Crime and Punishment. As a youngster I read these works for the stories, so it's time now to re-read them for the underlying "message" that you've pointed out so cogently.
What a list! I love your tip about putting yourself inside each character and not just the hero. Apparently, Margaret Atwood has done this in Testament, letting us see the story through the eyes of one of the villains of The Handmaid's Tale.
I've read a few of these books, and I have a couple more on my shelves. I absolutely love The Way of All Flesh, and I love all of Conrad.
I'm also working my way through your Shakespeare videos, which are awesome!😊
Glad to see Grapes of Wrath on this list. It was banned in my high school, but my English teacher suggested we read it on the sly, which I did. I got to revisit it when my daughter was assigned to read it in her high school.
Why was it banned?
@@baggiethomas Not sure. The school board had lists of books that couldn't be used in the schools. I believe it was considered "unamerican" because it portrayed America in an unflattering light. They also banned Slaughterhouse-Five.
I read it in highschool in 1974.
Amazing list, and you're so passionate and articulate it makes me want to read them all. Right now!
(I have read 4 of them)
I finished East of Eden yesterday and loved it, I’m planning on Grapes of Wrath soon.
Excellent selections.
I’ve already read 10/ 12 of these and was so happy to see Fathers and Sons by Turgenev on this list.
Fantastic overview of some very worthwhile books. Really appreciate your insights and guidance especially when tackling these challenging works.
I am just about to finish East of Eden. I need time to live in Steinbeck's aura before getting into a new book. Like when you savour someting special and do not want to let it go.
Thanks for your great inspirational video.😊
I'm going to disagree about Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" being challenging, as I think it's one of the easiest of all the great Russian novels to read and appreciate. All of Turgenev's books are written with a brevity and lightness of touch that make them eminently readable.
I agree.
Great list. I loved the way you described Jane Austen. 😄 As an American, I've read "Of Mice and Men" several times and even at a young age felt moved by it. You've inspired me to read Alone in Berlin. 😊😊
"You see the greasy cogs churning behind the eyes" - Love it - Love it.
I agree,with your comment that no one captures the essence of a human
like Shakespeare. I refer you to Harold Bloom’s book titled “Shakespeare, the invention of the Human”
The problem with Bloom though is that he so far over extends his thesis to the extent that he sounds ridiculous. Why be such a windbag HB?
I had never heard of Anatole France until I started to read Proust's 'Recherche' and discovered that the character of Bergotte was based on the real life French writer. I have added 'The Gods Want Blood' to my ever-growing list.
The Grapes of Wratch is one of my favourite novels of all time - it's absolutely magnificent!
I will definitely read the four tragedies once again, and for the first time, the Samuel Butler. Thank you.
i for one love the chapters about whales in Moby Dick...novel and non fiction in one
How fortunate for me to find this CHAT!!
Thanks, Tristan! Of your list, I’ve read the four Shakespeare tragedies, “The Way of All Flesh”, “Moby Dick”, and “The Grapes of Wrath”. I’m currently reading “The Idiot” by Dostoevsky, based on your recommendation from an earlier video, and am enjoying it very much. That makes me want to tackle “Crime and Punishment” next.
The grapes of wrath is a jewel.
I don't already own "Crime and Punishment" so I'll look for it. I have "The Brothers Karamazov" on my TBR for Autumn though.
Have you read "Cancer Ward" by Solzhenitsyn ? It's really worth one's time.
Thank you for your great videos.
When I was at school I had to read all four of those Shakespeare plays, plus Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer's Night Dream. We also did Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden and Moby Dick. I'm 73 so perhaps that explains it. My own children read some of them, but had books like Brighton Rock and Brideshead Revisited in place of others. When my grandchildren get old enough, it will be interesting to see what they get.
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samual Butler but did not know much about it. I am going to give it a try. I loved your lecture.
Great book
Great commentary 😊
I have just ordered The God's Want Blood based on this video. I also plan to read Way of All Flesh. Thanks again for your suggestions. Love your channel.
(I look forward to watching this after I finish some work stuff.)
But as I scanned the list, believe it or not, just a few hours ago, I bought MOBY DICK. This book hates me. It has defeated me over and over. But I took a trip to B&N today and found the cutest small copy. It's the perfect size to take with me anywhere, so I will have no excuse. I don't usually have spare $, but I did this time. There was only one copy of that version. I figured it was meant to be. It's now or never. Right now I am on Book 6 of my umpteenth Harry Potter reread. After that, I will dig in. Pray for me!
Listen, don't worry about it. I've read my fair share of thick classics, some which required my patience, but ultimately left me with something positive. I can't say the same about Moby Dick. It's basically a pretty thin tale padded out with far too much info about whales and whaling, which would have been tedious even if I didn't already know a lot about that through my interest in the natural world, but just as bad, in the non-textbook sections he uses many pretentious biblical or mythological references, so I felt I was being addressed by somebody overly impressed with his own erudition. There are those who give reasons why the whaler's manual sections were necessary, but they just don't wash with me, I'm afraid. So if you don't get on with it, don't worry, you're not alone. BTW I found the much more concise "Billy Budd" a more rewarding read if you feel you should read Melville.
@@tonybennett4159 Thanks. We'll see how it goes! I want to at least give it a good try. If it's not for me, I'm okay with that.
Thank you for this review. I listened to the whole thing while I picked berries. I have read Crime and Punishment, and I remember it vividly re: the inner struggle of Raskolnikov. Based on this review I will choose The Way of All Flesh for my next book.
A very interesting video, I still have MacBeth to read which I'm looking forward to!!
I would add Les Miserables to the list.
Les miserables is not a difficult book to read...it is very long, but I read some of it as a French pupil in secondary school, whereas I was asked to read moby dick in my first year at college, since I was reading english literature, and it WAS indeed a challenging read! I had not the slightest inkling of what I was getting into! I reread it many years later and then it made sense to me! The long ”dry chapters” about the scientific description of the whale just put me off as an 18 year old student. I could have done with your videos😅! But unfortunately there was no internet at the time!
I have had the joy to read many of the books you discuss here.
Moby Dick is one of my personal favorites. The "whale biology" bits were fascinating to me (my undergrad degrees were Biochemistry and Comparative Zoology). What happened to Tashtego made me gasp out loud when I read it!
I liked The Way of All Flesh and have never met another person who has read it. I followed it with Jude the Obscure.
I struggled with Crime and Punishment. I had to put it down and come back to finish it after a while (I was 18 at the time). I have tried and tried to read Russian writers and have had very little luck. I've started, The Idiot, Fathers and Sons (Children), The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenena, War and Peace, The Cancer Ward and more...all unfinished. Maybe, one day.
The Grapes of Wrath is also a favorite of mine (I'm a fan of Steinbeck), I attended university in Oklahoma, so, it was a must read!
Started Lord Jim, need to finish that one!
Read all the Shakespeare's mentioned. I homeschool my son and we read a Shakespeare play every year. So far, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Maybe, a comedy this year.
Some of my other favorites: Dickens (more humorous than people give him credit) and Thomas Hardy.
I love Moby Dick and Lord Jim. Great reads.
The Grapes of Wrath i still want to read (and East of Eden of Steinbeck) I just finished reading Stoner. 🙂📚
ThankU Tristan! (Love the comments likewise) You astonish me! I read tons of Russian lit in college: Fathers & Sons; House Of The Dead (So glad you mentioned the Christmas play, the "theatricals", OMG, drama queens are the same everywhere!) Crime& Punishment (suffocating!)
We read Moby Dick in high school, honestly too difficult, though the first page is rhapsodically beautiful. (You might appreciate the Mad Magazine parody, "Call me Fishmeal")
I probably won't read Anatole France. I've had enough of guillotine for a lifetime
I've never wanted to read Grapes of Wrath but I will.now.
"She is super nice and she is very religious, even though she is a prostitute."
To those who didn't read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky: of course this quote may sound funny, but please DO believe me, it will make REAL sense once you've read the book. It won't be so funny then.
I have The Dick (sorry, but that's what I've come to call the Melville classic) on my bedstead next to the Bible and Ulysses by Joyce. They are books you not only read but live with. Dostoyevsky is a challenge for me, but I have Karamazov, Underground Notes, C and P on my shelf and do read him. I'm ordering House of the Dead too. I would add to this list Absolom! Absolom! by Wm Faulkner. Not on the bedstead yet, but withing easy reach. Another excellent vid Tristan!
That's an epic list!
I've recently launched my Classic Books In 60 Seconds channel.
I summarise classic books as an introduction for teachers and students.
I've managed to simplify some of the more complex stories.
Your video has given me some great ideas about what I could upload next 👍🏻🙂
I’ve read Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness. Is there a third you would recommend? His top three, so to speak?
My 12th grade English teacher was a Conrad fanatic so besides the Heart of Darkness we read Lord Jim and The Secret Agent. The class enjoyed The Secret Agent even more than the other two. So did I. So I’d recommend it!
@@deirdre108 I agree. I enjoyed The Secret Agent over Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim.
Almayer's Folly and An Outcast of The Islands.
I had second The Secret Agent, its utterly brilliant.
Question have you ever done The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I am reading it now but I love your discussions
It's one of my favorite books.
I would add William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom. I did read The Sound and The Fury but I feel that Absalom, Absalom has more substance. I like novels when they don't follow the usual chronological sequence so Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude and, surprise, Heller's Catch-22 are, I think, good examplles of great literature that isn't sequenced in the old familiar ways. Another novelist whose writing is exquisite is Eudora Welty and her writing is not difficult to read. Anna Karenina is another novel that I think is up with the best. I like your inclusion of Moby Dick; I read this years back for a lit course and really liked it and I have met people who write fiction and tell me that Melville is a writer who inspires their efforts which I think is high praise indeed.
The Magic Mountain is life changing.
I love Turgenev - love Fathers & Children. It's interesting you have both schools of 19th century Russian literature (and intellectualism) on the list: the zapadnik, represented by Turgenev, and the Slavophiles, represented by Dostoevsky.
May I suggest another Russian Ivan - Ivan Goncharov? Alma Classics has been publishing a lot of his works, bless them! (Until then all other works except for Oblamov had been out of print.)
I think you might also like to explore Varlam Shalamov and his biographical works of his decades in Gulag (I don't know how extensive the English translations are - I've been fortunate to live in Germany where an indie publisher has translated all of his works!)
The grapes of wrath is required reading in America and I think that’s probably why the book doesn’t get much hype in America that’s probably to young to read it. I find Steinbeck incredibly dull but I was wondering if you have heard of or read eve Babbitts book whose names are unknown. I haven’t read it but I’ve heard about it. Apparently she was a migrant that moved west and she was writing this book but Steinbeck beat her to the punch. But his book is based off of her notes. Just curious if you’ve read it and what you think?
Hullo Tristan I just finished Bell Ami by by guy de Maupassant. Also his book une vie is brilliant. He is another author worth reading peace Lara
Ive read 3 (inclu.tragedies of the bard) triatam what about clarissa. u know they say art is subjective i dont have an opinion on that but some are just greatest and thats what i felt as in my reading of Clarissa
Clarissa is the absolute pits.
Can I ask which translation of Crime & Punishment you'd recommend for the best experience?
About 30 years ago I decided I'd read one classic book a year. The only ones that disappointed me were Russian novels. Highly recommend "old" books.
Read The Idiot several times. Even though I know the ending, still I'm hoping it will end happily, until it doesn't.
Would like to read The Gods Want Blood and The Way of All Flesh, and I must read something by Dostoevsky like the Idiot maybe as everyone raves about him. I was right about only one of the tragedies you choose-Macbeth. I choose Anthony and Cleopatra, Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet. But one can never go wrong with Shakespeare's plays.
How is it, with my very average American public education, I read 6 of these before graduating high school?
Hmmm.... I guess you'd be able to solve that if you went to better schools.
I read grapes of wrath when I was 15 because I liked Camel album inspired by it and there was absolutely nothing difficult in it. It was a little bit sad though
Hi could you include a video that teaches Russian pronunciation of names.
Thanks 🤩
Have not read the Anatole France, The Gods Want Blood, I'll place it on the list. I'm enjoying The Great American Novel by William Carlos Williams, I have not laughed out loud so much in ages, his spoof on the novels of the nineteen-twenties. When he has his character contemplating Joyce and all of of sudden goes on about wooden toothpicks but how they can't be just any wooden toothpick but how they must be Maple, but only Irish Maple, with an aside that he wished Joyce would use a toothpick and how he had saved LITERATURE, all caps, especially, it's a perfect run on spoof of stream of consciousness. Hand me a tissue, I'm coughing here.😂
Fathers and Sons.
Please check how Turgenev is pronounced.
💙💙💙💙💙this.
Did you get a look at The Grass Arena ? I think you will be surprised. It is a Penguin Classic
Father & children is a new title. i have it but with Father & sons' title.
Do you find that since alot of literature takes from or retells/references the Bible and its stories that it makes reading certain books harder to understand if you dont know the Bible? I was not raised religious and dont know really anything from the Bible and im afraid to read books, like Moby Dick, that draw heavily from it.
Since the history of western culture is so inexorably linked with Christianity you would benefit massively from not only being familiar with the biblical stories but of having an actual understanding of the meaning they are trying to convey. But don't let that discourage you anyways because biblical stories merely add a tint to the works which stand on their own as social commentaries. Form instance yes Moby Dick has many biblical allusions because it is trying to speak to the fundamentals of human experience but it also has just as many allusions to capitalism and social conventions and race and class which are universal to all of us.
However I do commonly say the Bible unlocks half of western art and Homer unlocks the other half so it's quite nice to start from the beginning to get the full picture.
Oh no another 12 i need to get through lol.
Have u watched upstart crow. Its very funny take on shakespeare
I'm disappointed you would claim not to understand the "He was one of us" quote from Lord Jim, you being a Brit and very well aware of your imperial past. You know exactly what that means. Hell I knew what it meant on my first reading of it and I don't think it's really that opaque. I'm just a stupid American but the meaning came through loud and clear to me. I'd also say Lord Jim is a lazy pick: Almayer's Folly and Outcast of the Islands are arguably, much better than Lord Jim though they all dance around the same quandry of the white man 's morality in the South Pacifiic islands.
I didn't know that Turgenev's name was pronounced with a soft G, and like Spanish.
The Ambassadors
Bazarov is the goat
Are you a professor?😮
❤❤❤
"Without further ado, let's get dig in shall we ... just before we start...".
You lost me immediately
15:28 i made a direct connection with russian govn propaganda during this war in ukraine, thank you for the book suggestion
I started Moby Dick, but got so bored by the exhaustive description of every day sailorship that I lost interest after a few dozen pages.
It has defeated me over and over. But I'm finally tackling it! Over 200 pages in and I am loving it!
@@Yesica1993 To say it with Fleetwood Mac: Never going back again.
It is pronounced Bazàarov.
Thank you 😊
I thought it was pronounced Bazàarov?
I've read all of these except the Russian ones. Trying to put aside the Russia of the vile Putin is, I confess, hard.
Really?!?!? You are joking, right? These books were written before Putin's grandfather was born. Before the historic revolutions, and both world Wars. hating one person and throwing away millions and millions of commonfolk, authors among them, who probably not share their leader's beliefs seem quite petty.
Do you agree with Everything your president or Prime Minister does? And agree with one that hasn't been born yet? Do you want someone to ignore your life's work because of what they did?
@@kurtfox4944 Thank you! How ridiculous!
Good grief. Did he write all those classics? Or have anything to do with them?
I know what you mean. I'm old, read tons of Russian lit in college. What Putin is doing is such a betrayal of a magnificent cultural heritage.
Love Faulkner
You are espousing what has been known as the Divine Command Theory. It's a ridiculous argument that redefine what "objectivity" actually means. For example, if I said 1+1=2, we say its "subjective" because i was the one who said it. But if an ultimate "authority" says the exact same thing 1+1=2, its now "objective". ..then that is the very definition of subjectivity. Objectivity is something that is true no matter who says it. 1+1=2 no matter if i say it, god says it, or if nobody is around to recognize it. Thats the very definition of objectivity
So many flaws in this logic. For one, it completely glosses over inter-subjectivity and perception which itself answers a large part of your argument.
@@A4000 define objectivity
@@AdamTorkelson the opposite of subjectivity. Define inter-subjectivity.
@A4000 saying what it is not is not a definition. Try again. Tristan said nothing at all about inter subjectivity. Thats a red herring. He explicitly said objective. So try again.
@@AdamTorkelson so you can’t piece together how inter-subjectivity affects objectivity and how it exposes a major flaw in your argument? Also, It’s not a red herring, it would be a straw man argument, IF it were a logical fallacy. I can see you have zero academic education in logic.
Could someone please direct me to the "easier" classics.
Madame Bovary and all of Anthony Trollope...just good yarns.
The Woman in White and The Moonstone by darling Wilkie Collins fabulous.
Not Miss McKenzie by AT...that is awful.
The Diary of a Nobody is hilarious.
@@spittinchips5175 Thanks so much for your consideration. They are on the list. I'm currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo. Definitely my type of classic.
Atheism does not mean someone believes there is no god. It means they do not believe there is. Those are 2 different things. One is asserting a claim, the other isn't (it's not being convinced of the theistic claim that there is a god).
Tourgueniev
No women??
Who cares? What on earth does someone's sex have to do with whether a book is well written / worth reading? Good grief, that's the furthest thing from my mind!
@@Yesica1993well stated !
Good point, this is an andro-centric inventory. What women would you/we include? Austen? Bronte(s)? Harper Lee? ...
Not a fan of swearing in books? Really?
It's nice to hear. Not everyone wants to read filth.
👎🏻
What's your problem?