International Literature
I love books, but I’m a prisoner of the English language. With the exception of reading Stephen King’s short story “Quitters, Incorporated†in my third-year German class in high school (what were you thinking, Frau Nicholsen?), I’ve never read anything other than books written in English (the five pages I suffered through of “The Tin Drum†do not count).
Being uni-lingual is (um, obviously) a huge disadvantage when it comes to discovering and reading great works of literature in other languages, because only the blockbuster writers are ever translated for English readers (Garcia Marquez, Dostoevsky, etc.). I know there are many, many brilliant writers I’m missing, and I’d love to hear recommendations (classic and comtemporary, fiction and non-fiction, etc.) of books to read from foreign writers around the world.
Thanks!
Posted on December 15, 2005, in Books. Bookmark the permalink. 33 Comments.
In French: Andre Gide, Emile Zola and Gabrielle Roy. Roy is like the Willa Cather of French Canada.
Minoring in Portuguese got me a big collection of Machado de Assis. My memory is shot so I don’t remember the details, but I remember liking it. I also got exposed to a lot of Camoes, who is considered the Shakespear of Portugal. Lots of poems about men going off on a crusade and lonely women waiting for their return.
Victor Hugo, too — his poetry is better than his fiction, though.
I’m not much of a book reader, but a few years back I got a hankering for some Portuguese and Brazilian literature. I really enjoyed The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Portugal’s Jose Saramago (he won the Nobel Prize a few years back and most of his work has been translated into English). The prose is very distinctive and the narrative–revolving around interactions of the fictional title character with the ghost of the writer Fernando Pessoa–is interesting. The novel is set in a year that is significant in Portuguese history, so you get some perspective on the civil unrest of the time.
John, I tried reading A Mao e a Luva by Machado de Assis in Portuguese earlier this year. I only made it 50 pages or so (out of about 100). I found that mission (colloquial) Portuguese isn’t sufficient to understand most of the literature. You don’t get the necessary vocabulary base. I managed to make it through Talmage’s Jesus, O Cristo a few times on my mission. Obviously, the religious vocabulary comes easier to missionaries.
Representing Japan, I’d suggest Yukio Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea.” English translation, of course.
Tom,
I read about 100 pages an hour in English when reading for enjoyment. I was reduced to 5 to 15 pages an hour reading Machdo de Assis, though I improved with practice. Not only is missionary work not the ideal preparation vocabulary wise, but his works are in an older style of Portuguese and not something that comes easily to those who have learned the language primarily through conversation with most Brazilians.
For German, I would suggest Bernhard Schlink, Gunter Grass (he has some stuff more accessible than Tin Drum), Bertolt Brecht, Peter Handke, and, of course, Kafka. Patrick Susskind’s “Parfum” is a huge international bestseller.
Also worthwhile is Swiss author Friedrich Durrenmatt. Herman Hesse is also Swiss, but I haven’t read him yet.
I wouldn’t say only blockbusters are translated.
Here are some of my favorites from recent reading (all in translation):
Embers – Sandor Marai
The Radetsky March, Collected Stories – Joseph Roth
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll – Alvaro Mutis
The Good Soldier Svejk – Jaroslav Hasek
Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald
The Buru Quartet (four novels) – Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Everything by Andrei Makine, but especially Dreams of my Russian Summers.
Just finished a hilarious comedy, The Twelve Chairs, by Ilf and Petrov
There are some great Spanish writers you should check out, Elisabeth. One of my personal favorites is Miguel de Unamuno. He was an existentialist, writing at a time of great soul-searching in Spain (immediately following the war loss to America and the collapse of Spain’s empire).
My personal favorite of his is a short story called “San Manuel Bueno, Martir” — it deals with a priest in a small town, struggling with deep issues of faith and belief. It has some of the best discussion that I’ve seen of how faith can be constructed through action as well as thought — it’s a good one.
Also from Unamuno is an amazing, sympathetic portrait of Cain, in his novella Abel Sanchez. I came away from that one with a new appreciation for Cain. And Unamuno has another impressive novella called “Nothing Less than a Man” which dovetails with your masculinity post (I almost mentioned it over there). It deals with an extremely strong-willed, powerful man who is determined to do everything his way, including love — despite the fact that the intensity of his love will destroy the woman he loves. In a sense, he stakes his entire idea of being a man on the fact that he does everything his way and no one tells him what to do, although this trait destroys him and everyone he loves. It’s quite a story. (I’m obviously a fan of Unamuno’s work).
And of course, I second Supergenius Evans’ recommendation of Zola. Zola rocks!
If you want the opposite, the story of how a man destroys his relationship with a woman because he is spineless and weak-willed, one of the best versions of that trope is Contempt, by Alberto Moravia
Thanks for the suggestions!
Tom – I tried getting through one of Saramago’s books a few years ago – something about the siege of Lisbon? Maybe I’ll check out his other stuff.
Random John? Not A Random John? RJ not aRJ?
Bill – the only foreign books I ever hear of are the blockbuster books, so I’m glad to hear there are translations of the lesser-known works out there.
Kaimi – someone once recommended Unamuno to me. I’ll have to check him out – he sounds fascinating. Thanks.
Jorge Luis Borges. I prefer the his fiction (look for “Borges: Collected Fiction”), but his non-fiction is still quite good.
Also, Silence by Shusaku Endo, a fiction story about Christianity in 16th century Japan. Great. (And you can get a used copy on Amazon for $2.)
I second Pris: Borges’ short stories are great; I also recommend Roberto Arlt.
My wife read Jose Saramago’s “Blindness” a couple years ago. She wouldn’t stop talking about how great it was. She’s read a bunch of his other stuff now, but “Blindness” is the best of the bunch.
This is going to be long. I love literature too much to ignore this chance!
In German, there is just too much to do justice to any list. Greg made some great recommendations. I particularly recommend Brecht’s poetry, although it is a useless suggestion for someone who has to read it in translation. Check out Heinrich Heine and Paul Celan for some more great poetry. And of course you must read Thomas Mann, a real master. His fiction on religious motifs is very fascinating and provides a very intriguing “alternative view”/psychoanalysis of Joseph in Egypt (Joseph and His Brothers, including “The Tales of Jacob” (1933), “The Young Joseph” (1934), “Joseph in Egypt” (1936), “Joseph the Provider” (1943)) and of Moses and Aaron (The Tables of the Law (1944)).
Of course, you absolutely need to read Goethe and Schiller, and there are many excellent translations of both out there. Goethe’s works are a delight to read, even in translation. Schiller’s plays can really get the blood boiling.
Also, give Gerhard Hauptmann a try–he really is very good. One of my personal favorites is Heinrich von Kleist. His short stories are vivid and shocking, and full of deep-seated irony and social commentary. Bordering on the historical (they focus on a moment of historic tragedy or ambiguity) they are amazing but in some cases brutal. Foremost among these is Michael Kohlhaas, a story about a man “whose sense of justice turned him into a brigand and murderer” (from the first paragraph). It has been called one of the greatest short stories of its day (1810) and is a case-study in the clash between the ideal and reality. It is set in the 1500s during a time of cumbersome and corrupt legal bureaucracy coupled with dangerous lawlessness. Martin Luther makes a cameo to try to talk Kohlhaas out of his murderous search for justice. It can be difficult to find it in English translation, but there are a couple good ones. You should also look for Betrothel in St. Domingo, Earthquake in Chile, The Marquise of O., and one of his most disturbing, The Deserted Child. I have no idea if these are in English, though, and I would guess that, unfortunately, some of them are not.
As far as Spanish literature, you should try Carlos Fuentes and of course Gabriel GarcÃÂÂa Márquez. I second Andre Gide for French literature, but Zola can be tedious. Hugo provides a great story too.
Carl Ruggles wrote an opera based on Hauptmann’s The Sunken Bell (actually based the Meltzer translation). Part of it was submitted to the Metropolitan Opera in 1917 and accepted, but later, he destroyed the score and only sketches remain. He explained that he had come across Hauptmann’s original and found the translation so ugly that he destroyed his work. On another occasion, he blamed the Metropolitan Opera for not cooperating in finding a foundry capable of casting a bell of a size that he, Ruggles, judged sufficiently large. Since Ruggles was notoriously untrustworthy about his own history, the whole affair remains shrouded in mystery.
john f., I was thinking of reading Mann’s The Confessions of Felix Krull. What do you think? And have you read any Robert Musil?
My favorite German (Austrian) writer is currently Joseph Roth, all of whose works are finally available. Go for the translations by Michael Hofmann.
French is the only language I usually don’t read in tranlation. I can’t get too excited about Gide and Zola, but much prefer Balzac and Flaubert.
Actually what I really like is a little Chretien de Troyes or some Trouvere lyrics, but if I’m in the right mood, Baudelaire or Rimbaud will do.
One more I forgot. Sometime before they die, everyone has to read Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch.
I haven’t read Krull, unfortunately. How do find translations of Mann? I’ve never read him in translation.
I also forgot to recommend Arturo Pérez-Reverte as a great contemporary Spanish novelist. My wife and I have been enjoying his stuff.
Start with The Fencing Master, it is actually better than The Club Dumas, although it seems like many acclaim the latter over the former.
What about Proust? Is “Remembrance of Things Past” any good?
John, as you know, many people consider Mann the greatest writer of the twentieth-century. I know far too little of his work to offer any opinion, being familiar only with Doctor Faustus. A few years ago, I started on Magic Mountain, but then I got really busy, and never got far enough to sustain the momentum before some other interests took over. The same thing happened with Proust. I’ll get back to both eventually, but for the moment, there are many higher priorities on my reading list.
I don’t know enough to comment on the situation with respect to Mann in translation. It might depend on the extent of his wordplay. I imagine, for instance, that Joyce or Nabokov, would be very difficult to translate effectively.
Incidentally, I forgot the funniest part of the Ruggles story. At one point, he became particularly frustrated in a conversation he was having with an official from the Metropolitan Opera on the feasibility of obtaining a giant bell for the staging. Apparently, he bellowed “No bell? Go to hell!” and stormed off.
John F.:
I haven’t read Michael Kohlhaas, but you may be interested to know that Richard Posner has a nice chapter about it in his book Law and Literature. I read Doctorow’s Ragtime (its main character, Coalhouse, is obviously based on Kohlhass) as a result of that chapter and loved it.
I’ve often thought that if I were to try to pick up another language, it would be Russian, so I could read the literature. I’m not broadly read, but everyone should read Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Another good Japanese read: The Sound of the Mountain, by Yasunari Kawabata. And Snow Country by the same author. Plus you can see the movie, which is also good.
The Sound of the Mountain is the only Japanese novel I’ve attempted to read in the original language. I got about ten pages through, then got busy and gave up.
One of my favorite Monty Python sketches of all time is the All-England Summarize Proust competition.
Bryce – I thought Snow Country was rather heavy handed for all its prize winning glory. Japanese reads I really like include:
-Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters
-Enchi Fumiko’s The Waiting Years
Both novels feature very strong women characters. The Waiting Years is probably my favorite Japanese novel. An expertly served story of come-uppance.
Other Japanese novels:
-Soseki’s Kokoro. An excellent exploration of filial piety/conduct.
-Endo’s Silence. About the conflict of Christianity in Japan circa its introduction in
… circa its introduction in 17th century (?) Japan.
… or according to Pris, 16th century. That sounds right. Anyways, agreed that it’s a great read.
Elisabeth, you will love Imre Kertesz. After he won the Nobel Price, Kertesz’s book were finally translated into English.
I loved Fateless. The novel begins from the perspective of a fifteen year old Jewish boy who is deported from Budapest and who cannot make sense of his experience because he assumes that the Nazis are reasonable.
Towards the end of the book the perspective shifts. As the boy returns to Budapest, he refuses to consider himself a victim. He is an actor rather than the object of injustice. In other words, he is fateless.
After reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being earlier this year, Milan Kundera became my favorite author, French and Czech (? – I think) … Anyway you’ve probably already read it, but if you have not I highly recommend it and if you have and you enjoyed it then pick up Kundera’s Ignorance, another fantastic book.
Nabakov, Invitation to a Beheading, The Defense, The Gift. I know he’s not exactly an unknown but his Russian novels don’t get as much attention as the others. Good stuff, wonderful.
NabOkov. Been reading quite a bit of Borges lately, fantastic. Essays and fiction. Tolstoy’s short novels, especially _Hadji Murad_, which seems to knock everybody from Wittgenstein to Joyce on their can.
E,
SG created an account for me when they moved over to WP. That messed up my sign-on. Hopefully this hasn’t casued too much confusion.
ugh!
Try Fernando Pessoa. He is, in my view, Portugal’s greatest poet (many would say Camoes, but quite honestly, epic poetry is not as interesting to me, as intricate and incisive psychological puzzles through excellent manipulations of language); and the bonus is that he wrote in both he mother tongue and in English.