Dante Alighieri, or Dante to his friends, is probably best known for The Divine Comedy, an epic poem touring Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. I feel like everyone has read Inferno, although I never had until now. But I never hear of anyone reading the other two. Whether it’s the epic-ness of it or the translation, I suggest pressing on. Robin Kirkpatrick’s translation is readable and mostly understandable, while maintaining the lyricality of Dante’s original poem.
A Christmas Carol has long been my all-time favorite book, but with Great Expectations, I finally and properly met Charles Dickens. And what an introduction it was.
This book broke my heart — and not in a sweet, wistful way. This is a gut-punch of a novel that takes on Victorian morality, gender roles, and the unforgiving weight of societal judgment. While the story takes place in rural 19th-century England, its themes still echo uncomfortably in the present day. Hardy doesn’t hold back in showing how the world punishes women for the sins of men and the hypocrisies of a supposedly moral society.
This is a couple essays from the 1800s. Although he can be quite rambling at times, both essays still stand up in some ways today.
Short but far from simple, Aphorisms on Love and Hate offers classic Nietzsche in concentrated form — witty, biting, and uncomfortably insightful.
This is a curious little piece — more satire than true crime, more performance than essay.
This is an Icelandic saga from the 13th century about Gunnlaug, a sharp-tongued poet and aspiring courtier, and his betrothal genuine affection with Helga.
I think I’ve always avoided books like this because reading classics, especially those translated from other languages into English, can be daunting. But I was pleasantly surprised at how easy to read this book was. Although it’s a bit longer (but by no means Dostoyevsky’s longest, by far), the pacing is pretty good and kept my interest the whole way through.
The short introduction in this book states that Hopkins was considered unpublishable in his time. Time… hasn’t helped much.