Classics? Mysteries?

amother

Tue, Nov 25 2014, 11:28 pm

I recently ordered a lot of ten books by Mary Stewart. They are nice old, almost clean (occasional reference to someone being begotten etc) but some nice cozy romance. Well, an occasional frightening chase up and down a mountainside...

Anyhow, I'd like to find some other nice old authors. (I used to have a collection. Nero Wolfe. Perry Mason. Agatha Christie.

I used to read things like Dickens but I am not really in the mood for heavy - literally, huge books, and long elaborate language.

At one point DH kind of persuaded me to dispose of most of my collection. Now I feel like I need to replace it, just to relax once in a while...)

So, recommendations? (Mostly all before 1980 or even 1970. I don't want to read anything explicit.)

Discussion of why you do or do not indulge?

sequoia

Tue, Nov 25 2014, 11:43 pm

1. Agatha Christie

2. Somerset Maugham's short stories, in four volumes. Many are very funny.

3. P. G. Wodehouse! So light and fun, and totally clean! Jeeves and Wooster never cease to amuse and delight. If I were to recommend one author who always lifts your spirits, it would be Wodehouse. The stories take place in inter-war upper-class England and there are always some hilarious situations.

I have them all:

Thank You, Jeeves
The Code of the Woosters
Joy in the Morning
The Inimitable Jeeves
Right Ho, Jeeves
Very Good, Jeeves

amother

Tue, Nov 25 2014, 11:48 pm

Yes, I do have one P.G. Wodehouse - I used to have many. Even a huge volume which included, I seem to remember, a novel in which the scenario was that the Bosch had taken over England (WWI, I suppose...).

Unless that was Saki. I had a whole volume of him too.

So you are definitely on the right track, Sequoia. Thanks for the reminder. I may check Ebay for him.

One of my favorite lines was when the hero was held back from marrying his love by her father's disapproval of his lack of funds. Someone (Bertie? Jeeves?) had an idea whereby he'd get lots of green stuff.

"And then he could marry ten Janes. If he were Mormon, of course. Otherwise, not!"

amother

Tue, Nov 25 2014, 11:53 pm

After re-reading Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, I had to know what that story was about Rebecca and Rowena and Ivanhoe. Am I mixing something up? Yes, I mean Knight's Castle by Edward Eager.

So I found Ivanhoe, the original, on guttenberg.com or some such. Printed out the whole blessed thing! And read it.

Someone recently recommended The Count of Monte Cristo. I started it but it was hard to get into. See, too old and they just move too slow for our 21st century brains that are used to sound bytes, right?

anon for this

Wed, Nov 26 2014, 9:36 am

Saki's stories are really good, you can find them online. Some of them are a bit dated but many are still quite funny, especially the Clovis ones. "The Open Window" and "The Storyteller" are both timeless and really funny, quick reads (not Clovis stories).