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 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
This was the first Russian novel I ever read. I was perhaps a freshman in college. I was swept away by the power and bleakness of the book. I have read it a couple of times since. Each time I am struck by something different—the strength and pace of the narrative, the complexity of the relationships. This book prompted me to go on a spree of reading Russian novels, but I’ve never read one better than this.
 THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH
by Leo Tolstoy
I am not much of a Tolstoy fan. For some reason, I like the looseness and bagginess of Dickens and Trollope, but I don't care for those same features in Tolstoy. I read War and Peace once and found it too sprawling to be worth the effort. I also read Anna Karinina. It’s better but still too cumbersome for me. This little novella, however, is tightly and elegantly written, and chilling in its effect. It powerfully illustrates how fully our view of the world is affected by our health.
 THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM
by William Dean Howells
I am passing over the great classics of American fiction (The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Great Gatsby) to mention a few of “minor” classics. Howells is underrated, I think. The Rise of Silas Lapham is a witty comedy of manners that blends a sharp eye for social criticism with a spirit of tolerance for human foibles. The first chapter is a little slow--too much exposition--but after that the books sparkles.
 MY ANTONIA
by Willa Cather
This is a wonderful short novel, filled with love, warmth and poignancy. It’s a coming of age story, told from the point of view of a middle aged male who revisits the Western prairie of his youth. Cather loved the land and wrote beautifully about it. The first half of this book is as good as anything ever written in American literature. The last third or so loses a little charm, but it’s still a wonderful book.
 BARREN GROUND
by Ellen Glasgow
Ellen Glasgow is almost totally unknown these days, but she was a popular Virginia writer in the early 20th century. Barren Ground is a “minor” classic that deserves to be better known. It was written in the mid 20’s and is the story of a strong-willed woman who triumphs over the sterile economic and intellectual environment of the rural South. There is no syrupy love story here. It’s a moving plot laced with biting realism.
 LIGHT IN AUGUST
by William Faulkner
While we are on the subject of Southern novels, this is one of my favorites. Faulkner is for advanced readers. I was assigned this book in a literature class as a college sophomore. I read thirty pages, went directly to the Registrar’s office and dropped the class. The book bewildered me, and I was sure I would fail the course. Years later, I encountered the book in graduate school and loved it. The words hadn’t changed, but I had. Faulkner’s use of language is advanced, his narratives are not linear, and it helps to have a knowledge of Southern culture, especially in the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras. Having said all that, Faulkner’s strength is that he writes with great emotional power, as well as with great insight of broad social landscapes and finely targeted individual landscapes.
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