Re: What Novels to Choose?
Posted by L. Swilley on 6/02/08
On 5/28/08, spchtchr wrote:
> My principal tells me that I will be teaching a class
called
> "The Novel" to about 20 juniors and seniors next year. It
> is a trimester class (12 weeks) and counts as an English
> elective. I would like to hear your recommendations for
> novels I might include.
[I favor a group of novels by the same author, so
that the student has not only a close sense of the novel as
an art form, but a growing awareness of the
thought/philosophy of the novelist. Hemingway and Fitzgerald
are ideal for this purpose.
[But if such concentration is not to be entertained,
I recommend novels by Goethe, Balzac, Flaubert,
Wharton,Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Updike as suitable to a
high-school course. (I would certainly add Faulkner and
James, but the language is too dense.)
[Most important of any consideration is that you
select novels that YOU particularly appreciate, for without
such an approach - and without your conviction that these
novels are ones that everyone should read, and why - the
address and delivery will be dead, dead, dead. ]
[L. Swilley]
Posts on this thread, including this one
- What Novels to Choose?, 5/28/08, by spchtchr.
- Re: What Novels to Choose?, 6/02/08, by L. Swilley .
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