Around the World in 30 Classics

AROUND THE WORLD IN 30 CLASSICS ...

1) Let’s take a trip to .... SCOTLAND with Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel Sunset Song.

Few people outside of Scotland have read this wonderful novel, but in a 2005 poll conducted in Scotland, the Scots voted it their favourite book of all time! It was published in 1932 and was written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (whose real name was James Leslie Mitchell). It forms part of a trilogy called A Scot’s Quair (with the other two novels being Cloud Howe and Grey Granite).

It would be hard to find a novel more quintessentially Scottish than this one. It is written in Scot’s dialect, which does make it a challenge to read, but the prose is more like poetry and I think it is one of the most beautifully written novels I have ever read. It is generally considered to be the most important Scottish novel of the 20thC.

Sunset Song tells the story of Chris Guthrie who grows up on a farm called Kinraddie in the Mearns district of north-east Scotland. She is intelligent and does well at school, and has ambitions to train as a teacher; but family tragedy intervenes and she has to stay home and look after her father. She falls in love with, and marries, a Highland farmer named Ewan Tavendale, and bears a son, but World War I intrudes on her happiness and the life of the farmers in the Mearns is irrevocably changed by the war.

The novel is about Scottish national identity, but is also a lyrical hymn to the beauty, and hardship, of the landscape. It is a book about the pull of home and all that it means, and yet it depicts the intellectual deprivation of a tiny farming community and the need for a wider world. The natural descriptions are truly wonderful. The novel shocked many readers when it was first published, with its frankness about sex and childbirth and its feminist issues.

Today there is a Lewis Grassic Gibbon Centre in the Mearns district. The novel was made into a TV series by BBC Scotland in 1971. This is a great Scottish novel – read it and you will find yourself transported to Scotland, rejoicing in the beauty of its countryside, experiencing another age, and you will revel in the beauty of the prose.

“So that was Chris and her reading and schooling, two Chrisses there were that fought for her heart and tormented her. You hated the land and the coarse speak of the folk and learning was brave and fine one day; and the next you'd waken with the peewits crying across the hills, deep and deep, crying in the heart of you and the smell of the earth in your face, almost you'd cry for that, the beauty of it and the sweetness of the Scottish land and skies.”

It is Canada’s most famous novel and it draws millions of tourists to Prince Edward Island where it was set. It was published in 1908 and was Lucy Maud Montgomery’s first published novel. It rapidly gained ‘classic’ status and has never been out of print.

Anne is a spirited red-head who arrives on the island to be adopted by an elderly brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. She is imaginative, intensely attuned to the beauty of the natural world around her, and passionate in her loves and hates. In this first novel of the series she dyes her hair green by mistake, has to make an intriguing assortment of apologies, eats ice cream for the first time, and feuds with Gilbert Blythe. Yet her determination to find happiness in spite of a traumatic childhood, her energy and zest for life, make her a wonderful role model for young readers.

However, Anne of Green Gables is not just a novel for children, but an extremely satisfying read for adults too. These days there are some excellent critical books about its themes and issues, and there is a great biography of LMM by Mary Henley Rubio.

It is also a wonderfully Canadian novel – its pages teach the reader a considerable amount about Canadian history, about education in small Canadian towns at the start of the 20thC, and about the position of women. The spirit of Canadian independence pervades the book with characters wanting to differentiate themselves from their American neighbours, and the island’s Scottish heritage (surnames, Presbyterianism, literature etc) also enriches the novel. The descriptions of Prince Edward Island make you vividly see the landscape. I finally visited PEI a few years ago, and it all felt so familiar and beloved because of reading the ‘Anne’ books. The Haunted Wood, the Lake of Shining Waters, Lovers Lane and the other places so beautifully depicted in the pages of the book are still there to be enjoyed today. Even if you cannot go yourself to PEI, you can certainly pay it a visit via this book. This novel has been taking me on journeys since I was 7 years old – I still travel within its pages and adore it every time.

“It was November--the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs out of her soul.”

How appropriate that Jane Austen will soon feature on an English bank-note, for no writer is more English and yet also more universal. I think that Emma is not only England’s greatest novel, but is the finest novel in the world!

Emma was published in December 1815 and is regarded by most critics as Jane Austen’s greatest work. It concerns the fortunes of Emma Woodhouse, “handsome, clever and rich”, who has a propensity for matchmaking and who has a lot to learn about herself and other people.

The novel is set in the town of Highbury in Surrey and Jane Austen peoples the place so believably with a parson, apothecary, schoolteacher, farmers and lawyers. Nearby is the Woodhouse home of Hartfield, Mr Knightley’s historic home of Donwell Abbey, and the Weston’s more modest home of Randalls. The reader is given such a complete picture of this section of English society. We see the class system and its snobbery, the inter- dependence of the various characters (Mr Knightley gives poor Miss Bates all his apples), the rising of the middle classes (with Mr and Mrs Coles, who can now give grand dinner parties), the violence of those who live on the edge of society (the gypsies and the theft of poultry), and the influence of London not too far away. We can so vividly see the streets of Highbury with the shops, the stray dogs, the children and the passers-by.

Jane Austen celebrates Englishness in her novel – Mr Knightley is named George like the King, he is the ideal landlord and an ideal gentleman, especially in contrast to the duplicitous Frank Churchill. This is a novel which discusses what it means to be English.

There are many reasons to read Emma and it is a novel which demands re-reading to be fully appreciated. Let Emma take you back to early 19thC England, and also teach you about human nature, yourself, and the power of literature.

“It was a sweet view—sweet to the eye and the mind. English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive.”

Kate Seredy wrote her novel in English and it was published in 1935, but she based it on her own childhood holidays in Hungary when she travelled with her father who was researching Hungarian peasant life.

The story concerns cousin Kate from Budapest who comes to stay with her uncle Marton, his wife and son Jancsi in the countryside. Uncle Marton is the ‘good master’ of the title and he has much to teach Kate who is wild, undisciplined and unhappy. Motherless Kate has been badly spoiled by her father, and she is sent to the country to learn control and respect for others.

The Good Master contrasts the unsatisfying life of the city with all that the Hungarian countryside has to offer. Kate and Jancsi ride horses across the plains, visit country fairs, hear old legends by the fireside, care for the animals and make their food. They celebrate festivals such as Easter and Christmas with traditional Hungarian customs. In the process of doing this, Kate learns much and when her father comes to collect her at the end of the book he hardly recognises his own daughter. By connecting with family and learning of her own heritage – its myths and stories, its landscapes and people – Kate comes to know her real self and forms a deep love for the Hungarian country life of her uncle and his family.

The Good Master is a children’s classic and has been voted one of the Top 100 books for children of the 20thC. It was illustrated by Kate Seredy who was an illustrator before she turned to writing as well.

I read and loved this book as a child – it taught me about a very different sort of life in Europe and made me far more aware of a land called Hungary than any textbook could ever have done. Find a child to read it to and enjoy a visit to Hungary yourself.

"The sky gives me sunshine and rain. The ground gives me food and water. The sheep give me clothing and my bed... Can money and schools give me more?"

Is there any Russian novel more truly ‘Russian’ than War and Peace? It sweeps through an extraordinary period of Russian history, it dissects the Russian temperament and character, it describes cities and countryside, rich and poor, master and serf, love and war – it is an epic, an incredible panorama of a novel.

The novel was published in 1869 and has been consistently ranked as one of the masterpieces of world literature. The story of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia entailed much re-writing on Tolstoy’s part, while his devoted wife Sofia copied out neatly what her husband wrote (it is estimated that she wrote out, by hand, the whole of War and Peace at least 7 times!). Tolstoy refused to describe his own book as a novel, partly because it incorporated real history and real figures from history. There are also large sections of philosophical discussion, and many incidents from his own life were also used. Tolstoy, in fact, brought a new kind of consciousness to novel writing that was highly influential.

As you read this book, you are in Russia. You dance in the grand ballrooms of Moscow and St Petersburg, you hear the din of battle and see the corpses and the sufferings of the injured soldiers, you tramp through the snow with Pierre, ache with Sonya for her adored Nicolai, and share in the stress of packing up family possessions with the Rostov family. I love the moment when Prince Andrei lies on the ground while with the army, and looks up at the birch trees and ponders the meaning of existence. I feel deeply moved by Natasha’s love for Prince Andrei and the way she sits knitting by his bedside as he is dying, always quietly there for him. Tolstoy depicts romance and passion, but also more humdrum marital contentment, as at the end when Natasha and Pierre talk contentedly together in bed when he returns from a journey.

Most of us have to read War and Peace in translation. I loved the recent Pevear / Volokhonsky translation which keeps in French what is in French in the original. I also love the BBC film series of the novel, starring Anthony Hopkins in one of his first roles.

War and Peace is one of those books that many people intend to read, but never actually read. Why not take a journey into Russia – its history, people and character – with Tolstoy’s great work?

“The birch trees above his head were still covered with jaunty green leaves, with bright- yellow leaves here and there. Not a single leaf was stirring in the quiet of the evening. Prince Andrei felt compassion and love for all living things and he rejoiced as he looked at the birch trees. There were yellow leaves strewn on the spot around him, but they had fallen earlier, and nothing was falling now.”

When Life magazine created a list of the 100 most important events of the millennium, the publication of Don Quixote in 1605 (and in 1615 for Part Two) was ranked 97th. The book changed the face of literature and is often considered the first novel of all time. Its impact on Western literature is enormous.

Don Alonzo Quijano is a Spanish gentleman who has read too many stories of knight errantry and chivalry. This reading has distorted his brain, and he decides to set off, as Don Quixote, in search of maidens in distress and dragons in need of slaying. From La Mancha he travels around Spain, accompanied by his skinny horse Rocinante, and his faithful servant Sancho Panza. He creates an imaginary mistress, Dulcinea, and proceeds to tilt against windmills, fall into ludicrous misadventures and meet a great variety of fellow travellers. It all sounds rather far-fetched and silly, but the stories of the Don’s travails and encounters form one of the funniest books in all literature. It might be farcical on the surface , but there are deep themes in this novel – themes such as deception, the importance of the imagination, freedom, nationalism, idealism, the role of literature etc.

Don Quixote is also the story of Spain at that time. The Don meets innkeepers, church people, landowners, aristocrats, soldiers, thieves and servants. He encounters Muslims who are being expelled from the land for their religious beliefs, he attempts to free a group of galley slaves (Cervantes was himself a prisoner for many years) and he learns about his own country as he travels. The reader learns too.

Every person who loves literature should read Don Quixote! It is hard to exaggerate its importance. Its influence has been wide-ranging – Picasso in his art, Richard Strauss in his music, ballets, statues and sculpture, other writers from Dumas to Mark Twain to Flaubert – and it has enriched our dictionaries with the word ‘quixotic’ and the phrase ‘tilting at windmills’. It has created a tourist industry, with people coming from around the world to see the windmills he attacked, and its hero has taken on a life all his own outside of the novel. Even those who have never read the book have all heard of Don Quixote. You can enjoy this novel as an unabridged audio book (it takes just over 36 hours of listening time) or read it in a variety of different translations. There is an acclaimed new translation by Edith Grossman. In whichever way you choose to experience it, do give this hugely important classic a try and travel through Spain in the company of the hilarious Don.

"Now look, your grace," said Sancho, "what you see over there aren't giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone." "Obviously," replied Don Quixote, "you don't know much about adventures.”

There’s something about Africa that gets into the blood and makes it a hard place to forget. That was certainly the case for Baroness Karen von Blixen- Finecke who wrote under the name Isak Dinesen. She went there in 1913 to marry her second cousin, and together they ran a coffee plantation in the Ngong Hills. Kenya was her home for 17 years (during which time her marriage collapsed and she had an affair with Denys Finch Hatton), and then she returned to her native Denmark. Her book was written first in English and she then translated it into Danish, and it was published in 1937.

Out of Africa is a vivid depiction of life in colonial Africa, a life that would soon disappear forever. Blixen saw Kenya as close to paradise – she loved the hunting safaris, she tried to co-exist happily with the African people and she did her best to understand their tribal customs. The local people grew fond of her and considered her very wise. She examines the role of the white people who were arriving in greater numbers. By the time she wrote her book, Kenya had greatly changed and Blixen writes wistfully of the life she loved there and the people she knew. Her Kenya was teeming with great herds of giraffe, elephants, zebra and lions, but mass hunting by whites depleted those herds. She depicts tribal justice being meted out, the problems of dry seasons and wet seasons, the handling of servants, and the exoticism of African life. The narration is poetic and lyrical, filled with a longing for the past, and it is in many ways a sad book. Many of the major characters die, and there is also the death of a way of life that she loved.

In 1985 an award-winning film version of the book was made, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. It’s very enjoyable to watch, but it’s better to read the book. Let Karen Blixen take you to Kenya, ‘her’ very special part of Africa.

“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills ...”

Mandalay was once the royal capital of Burma and is located on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. Kipling wrote his famous poem when he was in his early 20s. A trip from India to the USA by boat included an unscheduled stop at Moulmein and Kipling was greatly struck by the beauty of the Burmese women. He wrote his poem soon after arriving in England, where he was then struck by the contrast between the heat and freedom of the East and the grey weather and depressed faces he saw on London streets. The poem was published in his volume Barrack- Room Ballads, and Other Verses in 1892. Like everything Kipling wrote at the time, it was immediately popular.

The poem is ‘narrated’ by a British soldier – he drops his haitches and his grammar is far from perfect, but there is no doubting the truth of his longing for the lovely girl with whom he fell in love while at Mandalay. He remembers the sights – the flotilla of boats on the bay, the yellow petticoat she wears, the elephants at work piling logs of teak, and the flying fishes. He remembers the sounds of the “tinkly-temple bells”, the “chunkin” paddles moving in and out of the water and the banjo his lover played. And he is haunted by the smells – garlic and the smell of a cheroot. All his Mandalay memories are so strong and he aches to be back there by the “old Moulmein pagoda” with the girl he loves. But the army has taken him back to England and orders must be obeyed. He takes English girls out walking in the rain, but they do not understand and their faces seem “beefy’ and their clothes “grubby” in comparison with his girl from Mandalay.

Kipling’s poem has been set to music and that has been sung by Frank Sinatra, amongst others. It is beautiful either read or listened to as a song, and it is a memorable evocation of the East and all its beauties, as experienced by an English soldier. Kipling made Mandalay an unforgettable name. Why not take a journey “East of Suez” with his soldier-narrator and discover those Eastern wonders for yourself.

Mandalay By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me; For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say: "Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay! " Come you back to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay: Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay ? On the road to Mandalay,

'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green, An' 'er name was Supi-yaw-lat - jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen, An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot, An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot: Bloomin' idol made o' mud Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud! On the road to Mandalay...

When the mist was on the rice-fields an' the sun was droppin' slow, She'd git 'er little banjo an' she'd sing "Kulla-lo-lo! With 'er arm upon my shoulder an' 'er cheek agin my cheek We useter watch the steamers an' the hathis pilin' teak. Elephints a-pilin' teak In the sludgy, squdgy creek, Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you was 'arf afraid to speak! On the road to Mandalay...

But that's all shove be'ind me - long ago an' fur away An' there ain't no 'busses runnin' from the Bank to Mandalay; An' I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the ten-year soldier tells: "If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else." No! you won't 'eed nothin' else But them spicy garlic smells, An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells; On the road to Mandalay...

I am sick o' wastin' leather on these gritty pavin'-stones, An' the blasted English drizzle wakes the fever in my bones; Tho' I walks with fifty 'ousemaids outer Chelsea to the Strand, An' they talks a lot o' lovin', but wot do they understand? Beefy face an' grubby 'and - Law! wot do they understand? I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land! On the road to Mandalay...

Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst, Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst; For the temple-bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea; On the road to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay, With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay! O the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin'-fishes play, An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay !

Anne Frank was born in Germany in 1929 and spent her first years in Frankfurt, but in 1933 her parents decided to settle in Holland, to escape Hitler’s growing persecution of the Jews. Anne quickly adapted to Dutch life, enjoyed school and made friends. But in 1940 the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and life rapidly grew restricted for Jewish families. On her 13th birthday Anne was given a diary, which she named ‘Kitty’ and she immediately began to write. A few months later the Franks were forced to go into hiding, in the ‘Secret Annexe’ of the building where Otto Frank had run a company. From July 1942 until August 1944 she lived in a few cramped rooms with her family, the Van Pels family and a single man – all frightened of betrayal, bored and frustrated. Anne poured all this into her diary. The diary is the record of the growth of a young girl, her arguments with her mother, growing awareness of her own body (the recent unexpurgated edition of the Diary includes passages left out of earlier published editions), her developing love for Peter, and her fear for her own Jewish people.

The diary also shows her gratitude to the Dutch people – those brave men and women who brought them food and risked their own lives to assist the Jews in hiding. Anne is entirely pro-Dutch in her sympathies and sense of identity, and she loves the city of Amsterdam. Before going into hiding, she records her delight in parks and ice-cream parlours, skating and visiting cinemas to see her favourite film stars. Once trapped in the Secret Annexe, she gains great comfort from the sound of the church bells rung nearby, the sight of a tree she can see from the attic, the Dutch books she is given to read. You share the sense of claustrophobia with Anne and, like her, long to go out and explore the canals and streets of Amsterdam, see the parks and flowers of the city.

Her diary has made Anne Frank one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust. She died from typhus in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945. The Secret Annexe is now a world-famous museum, films and plays have been made from the diary, a school has been named after her, there is a writing foundation in her name and even an asteroid has been named for her. Anne Frank is a 20thC icon, a symbol of courage and hope at a time when things were very dark, a writer who continued to use her voice when others tried to silence her.

I read the Diary as a teenager and wept over it. I have read it often since and have twice visited the Amsterdam house where she hid for two years. It’s all terribly moving and tragic, but Anne gives us a lesson that such a terrible episode in human history should never be repeated. Every time we read her diary, that lesson is reinforced.

“I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

With Katherine Mansfield’s short story The Doll’s House

It was in 1922 that New Zealand short story writer Katherine Mansfield published one of her finest short stories, The Doll’s House. She had thought of calling it ‘At Karori’ and the tale is set in the Wellington suburb of Karori.

The story is about the Burnell children, who are given a big doll’s house by a family friend. In great excitement they rush off to school to tell the other girls all about the house – its stiff dolls, the dining table overhung by a tiny lamp that looks real, and all its other winders. Over the next weeks different girls are invited home to the Burnell’s to see the doll’s house. However, two little girls are not invited – these are Lil and Else Kelvey, who are the daughters of a washerwoman. The Burnell children, and most of the others at the school, have been told by their parents to have nothing to do with these lower class children.

One day, however, Kezia Burnell sees the Kelvey girls wandering along the road and, on a whim, she invites them into the yard to see the famous doll’s house. Just as she is doing so, her aunt emerges from the house and furiously expels the Kelveys from the property. Kewzia cannot understand why one lot of children are expelled, while others have been welcomed to the house. But little Else Kelvey has managed to see the tiny red lamp which looks so real, and she gives a rare smile. The story ends with the Kelveys, silent, but content at the small treat they have been given.

Katherine Mansfield’s story is almost unbearably moving, in its portrayal of snobbery and exclusion. The rivalries and groupings of a school playground are perfectly depicted. One can so clearly see the little girls sitting under the trees eating their jam sandwiches, competing with each other to be first to see the doll’s house. New Zealand attitudes in the early 20thC are brilliantly mocked. Katherine Mansfield left New Zealand in 1908 and never returned, but her homeland inspired most of her greatest stories. In this one, she drew on memories of her Wellington childhood, and vividly recreates the life she knew there. Her story is a truly New Zealand one yet, like any great work of literature, it is also universal in its themes.

“Playtime came and Isabel was surrounded. The girls of her class nearly fought to put their arms round her, to walk away with her, to beam flatteringly, to be her special friend. She held quite a court under the huge pine trees at the side of the playground. Nudging, giggling together, the little girls pressed up close. And the only two who stayed outside the ring were the two who were always outside, the little Kelveys. They knew better than to come anywhere near the Burnells.”

This was the first major novel in America to be written in vernacular English, with dialect speech and slang, and bad grammar. It was published in 1884 and is a sequel to Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It was controversial when first published because of its frank language (some critics felt women ought not to read it because it was “vulgar”) and it remains controversial because of its use of the word ‘nigger’ and because Huck expresses racist sentiments. It is amongst one of the most ‘banned’ books from American libraries and a 1955 TV version even left out the character of Jim and all references to slavery, which must surely have made total nonsense of the story. What those foolish people who ban the novel fail to see is that the book is a scathing indictment on racism and slavery.

The novel is set before the Civil War, mainly on the Mississippi River with which Twain was so familiar (he worked for many years as a river-boat pilot and even drew his pen name from the measuring of the river’s depths). Huck and Jim have various adventures and meet a great variety of characters as they travel along the river on their raft. The novel so brilliantly captures American society and attitudes in the South, and gives such a memorable depiction of the great river flowing through several states, that I doubt anyone can even look at the Mississippi without thinking of Huck Finn (I was moved almost to tears by my first sight of the Mississippi and could almost see Huck and Jim floating past!). This novel has an excellent claim to be ‘The Great American Novel’ and it could not be set anywhere else. Its setting, characters, tone and humour are all quintessentially American, and the issue of slavery is a vital part of American history.

I really love this novel, but do feel that it is badly let down by the last chapters. Once Huck and Jim leave the river, the story loses its force and gravitational centre, and the story deteriorates into farce. I’m not alone in this view. Ernest Hemingway felt the same! However, most of it is incredibly powerful; it is funny, wise and superbly written. Let those unconventional and memorable opening lines seduce you into the story, and re-read this marvellous book:

“You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. “

with Dylan Thomas’s short story A Child’s Christmas in Wales

This short story originated from a piece written for radio called Memories of Christmas, and was first read as a story on radio by Dylan Thomas in 1952. It has remained one of his most popular works.

The story recounts the events and food and presents of Christmas Day in Thomas’s own youth – it is a simpler time and the story is full of nostalgia for the Christmas Days of childhood. It is all recounted through the eyes of a child, with an adult’s perceptions and humour blending throughout. “It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas”, Thomas writes in own his search for Christmas Past. Nostalgia wins out over accuracy.

There are some wonderfully exaggerated characters in this tale, like the uncles and aunts who visit for the day of festivities: “Uncles almost certainly, trying their new cigars, holding them out judiciously at arms' length, returning them to their mouths, coughing, then holding them out again as though waiting for the explosion; and some few small aunts, not wanted in the kitchen, nor anywhere else for that matter, sat on the very edge of their chairs, poised and brittle, afraid to break, like faded cups and saucers." There is the hilarious list of presents – Useful Presents such as “mittens made for giant sloths”, the Useless Presents including a false nose and a tram conductor’s cap, there’s the food of turkey and blazing pudding and elderberry wine, and there’s the postmen and other people of the small Welsh town. But most memorably, there’s Dylan Thomas’s utterly fabulous prose – lyrical, evocative, with its extraordinary conjunction of images, verbs and senses (such as the “uncles breathing like dolphins”). You are there at that Welsh Christmas in that little un-named Welsh town, partaking of it all.

“Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the colour of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlours, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed. But here a small boy says: "It snowed last year, too. I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea."

with Johanna Spyri’s novel Heidi

This is probably the best-known work of Swiss literature and has been an incredibly popular book. It was originally published in two parts, Heidi’s Years of Learning and Travel and Heidi Makes Use of What she has Learned. It was first published in 1880.

The story begins when Dete, Heidi’s aunt, brings the orphaned child to her grandfather who lives high in the Swiss Alps. He seems harsh and reserved, but Heidi soon thaws his chilliness and also makes friends with a young goat-herd named Peter. The idyll ends after three years when Dete comes to take Heidi to the city, where she is to be companion to an invalid girl called Clara. Heidi pines for her beloved mountains, clashes with the ferocious housekeeper, Fraulein Rottenmeier, and finds her only consolation in learning to read. When finally Heidi is able to return to her Alps, her grandfather is delighted to see her, but soon Clara joins her there and learns to walk again, revived by the fresh mountain air and good goats’ cheese she eats.

There have been several film versions of the novel, including an early one starring Shirley Temple; it has been translated into over 50 languages and has sold more than 50 million copies. In Switzerland there is a tourist area named ‘Heidiland’ and a Swiss village has been named after Heidi. The book certainly celebrated the Swiss landscape and stressed the importance of the natural life, healthy food and fresh mountain air in contrast to the fettered and unhealthy life in the cities. Reading it as a child, I too wanted to go up into those mountains and lead a carefree life with the goats and Peter. Switzerland will forever be associated with Heidi in my imagination.

“On a clear sunny morning in June two figures might be seen climbing the narrow mountain path; one, a tall strong-looking girl, the other a child whom she was leading by the hand, and whose little checks were so aglow with heat that the crimson color could be seen even through the dark, sunburnt skin. And this was hardly to be wondered at, for in spite of the hot June sun the child was clothed as if to keep off the bitterest frost. She did not look more than five years old, if as much, but what her natural figure was like, it would have been hard to say, for she had apparently two, if not three dresses, one above the other, and over these a thick red woollen shawl wound round about her, so that the little body presented a shapeless appearance, as, with its small feet shod in thick, nailed mountain-shoes, it slowly and laboriously plodded its way up in the heat.”

with Olive Schreiner’s novel The Story of an African Farm

Published in 1883, The Story of an African Farm was a bold novel which discussed female independence, agnosticism, pacifism and the hardships of colonial life in rural South Africa. Olive Schreiner was an anti-war campaigner, who also fought against racism and for the improvement of the position of women. The novel was a great success when published and was immediately recognised as one of the first feminist novels. Today it is regarded as a South African classic.

The novel is about Lyndall, Waldo and Em who live on a farm in the Karoo, an extremely arid area of the country. We see them first as children, and then as adults. Olive Schreiner originally planned to call her novel ‘Mirage’, with the motto “Life is a series of abortions”, but changed her mind as she felt that motto was incorporated within the book anyway. Not a great deal happens in the book – it lacks a traditional narrative structure and is more a series of loosely narrated episodes. This is a novel of ideas – about gender, female sexuality, intellectual power, loneliness, and loss of faith.

However, it is also a regional novel and the barren South African landscape serves as both a setting and an allegory to the fates of the characters. The dry, harsh landscapes are memorably described. Afrikaans words and names add local colour. Issues of race, which have so shaped the history of South Africa, are a strong part of the novel. This is not a novel I love, or which moves me deeply, but it is a book which gives a vivid, realistic and evocative portrayal of colonial life in South Africa.

“The full African moon poured down its light from the blue sky into the wide, lonely plain. The dry, sandy earth, with its coating of stunted 'karroo' bushes a few inches high, the low hills that skirted the plain, the milk-bushes with their long finger-like leaves, all were touched by a weird and an almost oppressive beauty as they lay in the white light.”

with Vikram Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy

It was only published in 1993, but surely this novel is a modern ‘classic’ and a book that provides a panoramic view of Indian culture, of post-Independence and post- partition history in India (it is set in the 1950s), of politics and of the Indian people. It is a vast, sprawling novel, following the lives of four families. It covers religious disputes, the caste system, marriage customs, the position of women, festivals, elections, land reforms and so much more. As you read, you smell the smells, hear the bells, taste the food and see the vivid saris - you feel you are in India as you read it!

All its separate parts are interesting, but I especially enjoyed Lata’s story, with her mother’s efforts to find ‘a suitable boy’ for her, and her struggle to choose for herself. Vikram Seth depicts an ordinary young Indian woman who is caught up in a time of change, as she seeks to find love and yet also satisfy the demands of her family and her society.

This novel has love and hatred, violence, ambition, racial problems and humour. It is also an incredible tribute to the landscape of India – you see the river during the festival when the crowds become dangerous, you smell the poverty and the spicy foods cooked by Mrs Rupa Mehra, you hear the cattle lowing in the streets. It is a rich and complex novel that could not be set anywhere else – India is its setting, its subject and its theme, India has formed its characters.

Vikram Seth has been paid by his publisher to write a sequel, A Suitable Girl, but according to recent reports, he has failed to meet his deadline for this new novel. I do hope he writes it, as I’d love another journey into India with another of his memorable books.

“Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river that had come down to earth so that its waters might flow over the ashes of those long dead, and that would continue to flow long after the human race had, through hatred and knowledge, burned itself out.”

with the epic poem , compiled by Elias Lȍnnrot, The Kalevala

This 19thC epic is regarded as the national epic of Finland, but its sources are both Finnish and Karelian (a Finnic language spoken in Russia). It played an important role in the establishing of Finnish national identity which resulted in Finland’s independence from Russia in 1917. Poetry stirs people up, and that was certainly the case with The Kalevala. The first version was published in 1835. The poem is made up of 22,795 verses, so it is a work of considerable length. Lȍnnrot was a doctor and linguist who travelled around collecting old folk songs and poems. The Kalevala poetry was still fairly common orally, but was in danger of disappearing if not written down. The roots of some of the verses may go back as far as 3000 years. Often they were sung to music.

The poem tells of ancient times in Finland. It begins with a myth about the creation of Finland, tells of amazing exploits of heroes, and also describes traditional crafts such as boat-building. It contains love and drama, battles and domesticity, worship and magic. The main character is Wäinämöinen who is rather like Orpheus in his musical talents.

The poem has had a decisive impact on Finnish life. There are streets and places named for its characters, Kalevala Day is celebrated in Finland as its annual national holiday on 28 February, brands and products have been named after it, and artists, musicians and writers have been inspired by it (Tolkein claimed it as one of his sources in his The Silmarillion and Longfellow used its rhythms in his Hiawatha). The Kalevala has been translated into over 60 different languages. Of course, you lose so much when you read poetry in translation and unfortunately I cannot speak Finnish. However, The Kalevala has much to offer and is a fascinating work, even if you only dip into its thousands of verses.

“Soon he starts upon his journey To the eastern fields and forests, Hunts throughout the Northland mountain To a second mountain wanders, To a third he hastens, searching, Golden axe upon his shoulder, In his hand a copper hatchet. Comes an aspen-tree to meet him Of the height of seven fathoms.

with James Joyce’s novel Ulysses

There really can be no other choice for a novel that represents Ireland – it just has to be Joyce’s Ulysses. The day on which the action of the novel takes place, 16th of June, is even celebrated annually in Ireland and around the world by James Joyce fans, as Bloomsday. It is the most famous Irish novel, as well as being one of the most important books of the 20thC, and it has been adapted for film, theatre, TV, audio and music.

The novel depicts a day in the life of Leopold Bloom, resident of Dublin, with constant parallels between his day and the journeying of Ulysses, hero of Homer’s great work. Bloom eats, meets people, ogles women, reads letters, remembers the early years of his marriage to Molly and visits pubs. There is a huge range of characters, and the reader gets a strong sense of Dublin life in 1904.

I know that Ulysses is an extremely important point. I know that its stream-of- consciousness style was groundbreaking. I know that there are a huge number of fans who love this novel and enjoy endless discussions about its characters, or relive its action on Bloomsday. However, there are also those, including Anthony Burgess who did not like it and who though its author was “possibly mad”, and there are many many readers who have started this book and given up before finishing it. It is a controversial novel.

I admit to being amongst those who do not love this book. I have read it from beginning to end, I’ve enjoyed visiting places in Dublin connected with its characters, and I’ve been to Howth Head and read Molly’s amazing soliloquy from the last chapter which is set in that spot, but I never feel drawn back to re-reading it, or feel any desire to celebrate Bloomsday. And as for Finnegan’s Wake, I have to agree that life is simply too short to spend time even trying to read it. People tell me that Ulysses is best experienced in audio version, read by an Irishman. Maybe some time I’ll give that a go.

“Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.”

with D.H. Lawrence’s poem Elephant

D.H. Lawrence spent time in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1922 and was lucky enough to watch the famous Pera-hera Festival in the historic city of Kandy. The sight of the beautifully decorated elephants in that procession inspired him to write this poem. He begins by describing a meeting with an elephant by the river:

“Through the palm-trees and past hollow paddy-fields where naked men are threshing rice And the monolithic water-buffaloes, like old, muddy stones with hair on them, are being idle;”

and then goes on to describe the great beast at the Pera-hera, with its “gorgeous apparel”, its bells, and the homage it pays to princes. Suddenly there are several elephants, along with the local people dancing as the mood of the festivities grows more manic. At the end of the poem the elephants all return to their jungle villages:

“And the crowd like a field of rice in the dark gave way like liquid to the dark Looming gallop of the beasts, It was as if the great bare bulks of elephants in the obscure light went over the hill-brow swiftly, with their tails between their legs, in haste to get away, Their bells sounding frustrate and sinister”

and there is a final salute to the elephants as “first great beasts of the earth”. It is a strange poem, but powerful in the way it evokes the atmosphere of festival, worship, strength and majesty of both man and elephant. It is also a poem about colonial imperialism, because the ‘prince’ in the poem is actually the future King Edward VII, in Sri Lanka on a royal visit and attending the Pera-hera. The poem captures the exoticism of Sri Lanka, its colours, smells, poverty, animals, and hot tropical nights. It also captures some of the incomprehension that must probably always be faced by an Englishman who finds himself in a very different culture from his own. Elephant is Lawrence’s tribute to Sri Lanka, but also his confession that the true meanings of the place elude him. And this makes it, in many ways, one of the finest works about Sri Lanka by someone who is not native to that beautiful country.

with Arthur Schnitzler’s short story The Dead are Silent (Die Toten Schweigen)

Arthur Schnitzler, who was a doctor, once commented: “I write of love and death. What other subjects are there?” This short story contains both love and death. It concerns a married woman named Emma who takes a carriage ride with her lover Franz in the streets of Vienna. He wants to persuade her to leave her husband and live with him, but she is frightened of taking such a step. The carriage driver is drunk, and drives recklessly, and when he hits a mile stone, the carriage is overturned and Franz is killed. Emma flees the scene and returns to her husband, but at the end of the story knows that she must confess the whole to him.

The story was published in 1907 and it captures beautifully the atmosphere of turn-of the-century Vienna. There is a sense of decadence and immorality, a feeling that Vienna was once glorious but is now past its days of power and opulence, an awareness of a rising middle and professional class (men such as Emma’s husband). The reader only sees Vienna at night – the taverns, the policeman walking the streets, hansom cabs on every street corner to take the Viennese around their city. The Ringstrasse, city monuments and bridges are all passed as the lovers take their carriage ride, and there is also a sense that everyone knows everyone in this city, and that it loves gossip. Emma is terrified that every passing carriage might hold someone who recognises her.

The style of the story also reflects the elegance of Vienna – Schnitzler writes economically and beautifully, giving just enough information to set the scene and depict his characters and their dilemma, without adding an extra word. You feel you are travelling with the Viennese lovers in their carriage as you read this powerful short story.

"A carriage passed us."

"Dear girl, the people who are driving in the Prater at such an hour, and in such weather, aren't noticing much what other people are doing."

"Yes--that's so. But someone might look in here, by chance."

"We couldn't be recognized. It's too dark."

"Yes--but can't we drive somewhere else?"

"Just as you like." He called to the driver, who did not seem to hear.

with Anthony Trollope’s travel book The West Indies and the Spanish Main

Anthony Trollope had a distinguished career in the British postal service (it is thanks to him that the pillar post box was introduced into the UK) and he often had to travel for his job. In November 1858 he was sent on a postal mission to the West Indies. Trollope liked to use all his journeys for a double purpose, and so got a commission to write a book about his travels, and in 1859 his The West Indies and the Spanish Main was published. He regarded the book as his finest travel book and was justly proud of it.

Trollope travelled extensively for several months in the Caribbean. His book is a mixture of anecdote, moral concerns, descriptions of places and people and social commentary. His attitudes to race relations are outmoded and might appal the modern reader, but Trollope tries as fairly as possible to evaluate the effect of emancipation on the slaves and on plantation owners. Trollope is one of the most honest of writers, and he gives his true impressions of Kingston, Havana, Georgetown, and the little ports he visits. He checks out hospitals, post offices, restaurants, shipping routes and so much else with all his usual curiosity. He falls in love with all the oleanders, socialises with local dignitaries and tries new foods.

Trollope was a very experienced traveller, and in his book is able to compare and contrast the various islands he visits. Of course much has changed in the West Indies since his visit, but he gives an interesting historical record of the islands there, vivid impressions and his own sharp insights. It’s a travel book well worth reading if you want to take an historical voyage through the West Indies.

“The Serapiqui is a fine river; very rapid, but not so much so as to make it dangerous, if care be taken to avoid the snags. There is not a house or hut on either side of it; but the forest comes down to the very brink. Up in the huge trees the monkeys hung jabbering, shaking their ugly heads at the boat as it went down, or screaming in anger at this invasion of their territories. The macaws flew high over head, making their own music, and then there was the constant little splash of the paddle in the water. The boatmen spoke no word, but worked on always, pausing now and again for a moment to drink out of the hollow of their hands. And the sun became hotter and hotter as we neared the sea; and the musquitoes began to bite; and cigars were lit with greater frequency. ‘Tis thus that one goes down the waters of the Serapiqui.”

This powerful novel is Sicilian, rather than Italian. It had a slow start to life as it was published after its author’s death in 1958 and was initially rejected by various publishers. When finally published, it sold more copies than any other novel in Italian history, and today is regarded as one of the great novels of the 20th Century.

The Leopard chronicles the decline of an aristocratic Sicilian family. Don Fabrizio is Prince of Salina and comes from a long line of autocratic princes, but the family must bow to more middle class values if it is to survive. It is set in the time of Garibaldi’s unification of Italy and Garibaldi’s troops are advancing on Sicily to overthrow its kingdom. Lampedusa was himself an aristocrat from a decaying family – he wrote of what he knew. The Prince wants to cling to his power, but money is getting short, values are changing and he knows that a new world is imminent.

Lampedusa brilliantly evokes the heat of Sicily, its mountains and plants, the glory of its palaces and history. But at the same time, he gives a strong sense of its crumbling decay, ancient buildings, war and death, and the inevitable winds of change. Even those who live in palaces are not cocooned form political change, war and revolution.

One of the most memorable scenes in the novel is the ball scene. If you have ever seen the fabulous film version, starring Burt Lancaster as the Prince, then you will remember the ball – it lasted for ages and was sumptuous and quite magnificent.

I think this book could only be Italian. Its passion, deep awareness of such a rich history, love of beautiful women, scenery and sensuous descriptions will transport you immediately to the south of that land.

"We were the Leopards, the Lions, those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth."

This title actually includes a trilogy of novels – The Wreath, The Wife and The Cross, all published in the 1920s. The author, Sigrid Undset, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 for the trilogy which gave such a powerful depiction of medieval Norwegian life. The novels were first translated into English in the 1920s, but rather clumsily. In 2005 there was animproved translation.

The novels are all set in Norway during the Middle Ages – the 14th C. Kristin, the heroine, lives in the country and has a strict father, but she is wilful and defies her family. She falls in love with Erlend Nikulaussan and eventually marries him, though is pregnant at her wedding, something which brings her great feelings of guilt. Later she goes on a pilgrimage to atone for her sins. Kristin’s life is not an easy one – she must farm her lands, bring up her sons, cope with charges of adultery and suffer the death of a child. She herself dies in the Black Death which sweeps through Norway in 1349.

The novel was controversial when published because of its explicit descriptions of sex. It was first translated into English in the 1920s, but the translation was a poor one and the novel only gained popularity in the English speaking world when a better translation came out in 2005.

The novel is intensely Norwegian, describing the hard landscape and climate, the agriculture and people. There is nothing romanticised about the portrayal – life in the Middle Ages in Norway is depicted as harsh, brutish and generally short. The author was very familiar with Norse medieval literature and gave extremely accurate portrayals of the life and customs of that time.

The book is loved and highly regarded in Norway. Places connected with it have been turned into museums or tourist destinations.

“Feelings of longing seemed to burst from her heart; they ran in all directions, like streams of blood, seeking out paths to all the places in the wide landscape where she had lived, to all her sons roaming through the world, to all her dead lying under the earth.”

Thomas Mann, one of Germany’s greatest writers, once said that if one was forced to reduce one’s library to only 6 books, then Fontane’s realist novel Effi Briest would have to be one of them. I don’t agree with that, but I do think it is a very fine novel and can even claim to have read it in German (very slowly and with lots of help from the dictionary) while at university. The novel was published in 1896 and had a great influence on many German writers, including Thomas Mann.

The novel is about adultery. Poor Effi is married young to a man much older than herself. He leaves her alone a great deal, she has no friends and is coldly treated by his family. When a skilled womaniser, Major Crampas, comes along, she is soon his next victim. When love letters she has written to Crampas are found by her husband many years later, he divorces her and gets custody of their daughter, who is turned against her mother. The novel ends with Effi’s death after Crampas is killed by her husband in a duel. Effi’s parents begin to feel some compunction for their part in her tragic story.

The novel has a superb portrayal of the German temperament. Effi’s husband, the Baron von Innstetten, is a true Prussian in his inflexibility and coldness, his sense of family honour, and his inability to understand a young woman. The book is a wonderful study of Prussian manners. It’s easy to see that this is the country where the Kaiser reigned. Fontane himself served in the Prussian army – he knew about its discipline, its duelling code and about German nationalism. He had written articles about the Prussian wars, and he had worked for Prussian intelligence. All this went into his novel, which was actually based on a true story, although he changed names to protect the real woman’s identity.

Tolstoy gave us a Russian take on adultery in his Anna Karenina, Flaubert gave us the French version in Madame Bovary and Fontane has given us German 19th century adultery in Effi Briest.

“One is not just a solitary person, but part of a whole.”

Published in 1892, Lawson’s story of the drover’s wife and the snake is considered one of his finest. It is a deeply moving portrayal of loneliness, monotony and fear. Lawson depicts so well the harshness of the Australian outback, its dangerous creatures and its terrible isolation. Lawson draws his readers attention to not what is in the Australian bush, but what is lacking – it has “no ranges in the distance”, “no horizon”, “no undergrowth”. Life in Australia was dreadfully hard for early settlers, and Lawson depicts so clearly the stringybark hut full of cracks that let in wind and rain, the poverty and the awful boredom suffered by the woman as, alone, she carries out her daily tasks. The Australian bush does have a beauty of its own, but when you have to live in it without a break and you have to deal with its harsh climate and dangers, it soon loses its beauty – this has happened to the drover’s wife. She has developed survival stratagems and just keeps going, but there is little joy in life for this sensitive and loving woman.

I love this story because it is about Australian women. So much Australian literature focuses on the men – the ones who round up horses (The Man from Snowy River by Banjo Patterson), the explorers (Voss by Patrick White), the surfers (Breath by Tim Winton) and the bushrangers (The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey), but The Drover’s Wife gives a voice to the women who so often suffered silently in the background. Just coping with long skirts and household tasks such as cooking in the Australian heat, must have been hard enough without facing snakes as well.

But the wife is used to facing and handling challenges. She once lived alone “for eighteen months’, she has dealt with aggressive swagmen, and she has protected her children through it all. She will protect them from the snake too. There is tension in the story, wonderful descriptions, emotion when she finally breaks down after the snake is killed, and a moving moment with her son at the end of the tale.

“Bush all round — bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. No ranges in the distance. The bush consists of stunted, rotten native apple-trees. No undergrowth. Nothing to relieve the eye save the darker green of a few she-oaks which are sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek. Nineteen miles to the nearest sign of civilization — a shanty on the main road.”

with Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji

The Japanese novelist, poet and lady in waiting Murasaki Shikibu lived at the Imperial Japanese court during the Heian Dynasty of the 11thC. Her The Tale of Genji was written about 1000 to 1002. She began to write before entering the court as a lady in waiting, but then continued to write while she was there – she also kept her famous The Diary of Lady Murasaki.

The Tale of Genji is a three part novel which very quickly became a Japanese classic. Handsome Prince Hikaru Genji experiences the sorrows of romantic love as he gets involved with various women (and there’s a new one almost every chapter!) whose beauty and lives are fragile things. The book is hugely important as it is sometimes called the world’s first modern novel – modern in that it delves into the psychology of the characters.

The book was written in a very old-fashioned court language which was hard for even the Japanese to read only a century after it was written. Parts of it were first published in English in 1882, and today there are modern Japanese verse translations. It ends literally in mid sentence – perhaps that was intentional on the part of the author, perhaps not. It has been a hugely influential work, having an impact on Japanese style and the arts (it has been turned into an opera, films, manga, and has even been placed on a Yen banknote).

The tale was written to entertain other courtiers and is difficult for modern readers in many ways. For example, naming people was then considered rude, so characters are not named but are denoted by their various functions or ranks. Poetry is included in conversations, but usually only the first lines are given as the first readers would have known the rest.

This work is very representative of Japan in its depiction of formality in manners, the stifling nature of court life (still a problem for the Empress of Japan today!), the fragile beauty of the palace, cherry blossoms and the scrolls of paper. The tale is a wonderful literary snapshot of Japanese life in the court of one thousand years ago.

“Must that dear bamboo, so young when I planted her deep in my garden, grow up with the passing years to a life apart from mine?”

Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. He is the only Arab writer to have won the award. He wrote 34 novels and many short stories, but his The Cairo Trilogy, published 1956 -57), is his most famous work. It is made up of the three novels Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street. The titles come from Cairo streets and the books describe life in Cairo from 1919, with Egypt’s revolution against British colonisers, to 1944, at the end of World War II.

The novels cover the story of three generations in the family of patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his family with a strict hand while leading his own secret life of self-indulgence. The passing of time is a major theme in the books (Mahfouz was much influenced by Marcel Proust). There are wonderful descriptions of Cairene social life, political life, of the conflict that arises from contact with the West, and the development of Egyptian society.

Mahfouz was also inspired by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and he originally intended to cover the entire history of Egypt in a series of books, but gave up that plan after writing the third book of the trilogy. His trilogy depicts how change comes to a society that has resisted it for centuries and forms a rich tapestry of life in Cairo. Mahfouz handles a huge number of characters and events with great skill.

The trilogy has become an Egyptian classic and Mahfouz’s work is seen as an important part of the development of Existentialism in Arabic literature. A devout Muslin, Mahfouz espouses Egyptian nationalism in his books. For forty years Mahfouz breakfasted daily at a café on Tahrir Square – surely a wonderful spot from which to watch Egypt’s history unfold.

"Science is the language of the intellect of society. Art is language of the entire human personality.”

First published in 1884, this short story by Guy de Maupassant is sometimes seen as the greatest short story ever written. It is a perfect example of the art, with its rapid delineation of the characters, a dramatic event, a twist at the end of the tale, and a vivid setting. It is the story of Mathilde Loisel and her husband. She longs for a better life, for pretty clothes and finery and when her husband secures an invitation to a special ball, she spends more than she should on a dress and borrows a diamond necklace from a wealthy friend. Returning from the event, she discovers that the necklace is lost! The next decades of her life are spent working at several jobs to raise money to pay off the necklace. She grows old and worn.

The story is wonderfully French! It is set in Paris and the parks, houses and streets of the capital are clearly evoked. The Loisels have an apartment in the Rue des Martyrs – the street names will take on new meanings as the story progresses.

Guy de Maupassant was from a prosperous bourgeois family, but in his fiction he often attacked the hypocrisies and pretensions of the bourgeoisie. Madame Loisel has social aspirations and tries desperately to fit into a higher class. She thinks expensive jewels will do the trick for her. Instead those jewels drag her down to the working class, age her so much an old friend fails to recognise her, and destroy her life.

The story is very French in its theme and emphasis on style and money, but it also seems to be wonderfully French in the polish and sparkle of its writing style. The telling of the story is as glittering, multi-faceted and brilliant as the diamonds it describes. The Necklace is a story about pride, about grabbing pleasure while you can, about unhappy marriage, and about pretence.

“She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them. She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.”

My Michael is a novel which tells the story of the marriage of Hannah and Michael Gonen (all told from Hannah’s point of view), but which also tells the story of the conflicts in Israel and especially in Jerusalem in the 1950s. It is a poignant and intense story – Hannah withdraws from her scientific and very rational husband into a private world of fantasy and delusion. The novel was written in Hebrew and was first published in 1969.

The ancient city of Jerusalem is vividly evoked in the pages of the book – its alleyways, shopkeepers, the neighbours in the apartment building where the Gonens live, the school attended by their son and the world of the university where Michael works as a geologist. For a short time he is called up to serve in the Israeli army, leaving Hannah in a frail state of health having to care for their young son Yair. Its political troubles are never forgotten – the army in the streets, ration cards and Arabs being forcibly moved from neighbourhoods, are all aspects of Israeli life discussed in the book.

Hannah is a native of Jerusalem and knows and loves her city, but at times it oppresses her. She has been described as an Israeli Madame Bovary. As the years pass, her vivid fantasy life starts to encroach on reality, and she grows increasingly estranged from her husband and son. She was too young when she married and was not emotionally prepared. She goes on mad shopping binges, has feverish fantasies about a pair of twins she knew in her youth, and grows too preoccupied with remembering. Eventually she descends to schizophrenic depths from which she cannot emerge.

The novel has been translated into more than 30 languages and has also been made into a movie. The Hebrew publishing house Bertelsmann named it as one of the best 100 novels of the 20thC.

“Can one ever feel at home here in Jerusalem, I wonder, even if one lives her for a century? City of enclosed courtyards, her soul sealed up behind bleak walls crowned with jagged glass. There is no Jerusalem. Crumbs have been dropped deliberately to mislead innocent people. There are shells within shells and the kernel is forbidden. I have written ‘I was born in Jerusalem’; ‘Jerusalem is my city’, this I cannot write.”

The Iliad and The Odyssey are works which are attributed to Homer and which are incredibly important works in the history of Western Literature. Both are ancient Greek poems, the first describing the later part of the Trojan War, and the second depicting the wanderings of Odysseus. We can’t even be sure when the poems were written – either 7th or 8th century BC. The poems were passed down orally and the oldest manuscript version of The Iliad dates from the 10thC AD. Homer has been described as ‘the teacher of Greece’. Tradition has it that he was blind.

Even those who have never read either work, in the original ancient Greek or in translation, know many of the stories these two great works contain. We have all heard of Achilles and his heel, of beautiful Helen of Troy and the various Gods and Goddesses who take one side or the other. And we all know of Odysseus and his ten- year journey home, beset by sirens, by the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, and then his final return to his wife Penelope who has been besieged by suitors in his absence.

The cultural impact of these epic poems has been immeasurable. They were the produce of the learning and scholarship of Ancient Greece. They provide us with vivid depictions of the Greek islands, its soldiers, its religious beliefs. They deal with eternal themes – revenge and war, love for one’s wife, the desire to get home, facing dangers etc. In the Iliad Homer wrote: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.” He managed to do just that!

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.

This story of unrequited love suddenly fulfilled in later life is set in an unnamed city somewhere near the sea in Colombia. Probably it is Cartagena, and its colonial architecture, old slave quarters and “multifarious inhabitants” are beautifully described by the book’s Nobel Prize winning author.

In the story Fermina Diaz, who has been married for over fifty years, loses her husband (he is climbing a tree to catch his pet parrot). At his funeral she is approached by an old love, Florentino Ariza. They were in love when young, but she rejected him. Now they are both elderly, but he tells her of his “eternal fidelity and everlasting love” and together they embark on a riverboat journey to rekindle the old passion they once shared.

The novel’s title comes from the fact that Marquez contrasts the dreadful symptoms of the disease of cholera and its chilling of the body, with the heat of love and passion and the way in which it defies death. Yet love is shown to be an illness just as cholera is. There is a pun in the title – ‘cólera’ in Spanish also means rage or fury (as in the English word ‘choler’), so the title makes the reader think about cholera as a disease and also as a passion. Fermina’s first husband has rid his town of cholera, but has he also removed all the passion from her life?

Love, death and ageing are the important themes in this novel. In true South American style, the author mixes colour, decay, passion and sensuousness, vivid characters and bustling life. Marquez based much of the book on the story of his parents’ love affair – he’d heard it told so often that when he came to write his book, he “couldn’t distinguish between life and poetry”.

“The captain looked at Fermina Daza and saw on her eyelashes the first glimmer of wintry frost. Then he looked at Florentino Ariza, his invincible power, his intrepid love, and he was overwhelmed by the belated suspicion that it is life, more than death, that has no limits.”