Affiliated with a Non-Profit Educational Organization
Houston Montrose Great Books - Ballot for April 7, 2005
It was decided by acclamation to accept the entire list as submitted so we did no voting this time.
Suggestions by Alice
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE by Tennessee Williams (142 pages)
First produced and published in 1947
and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama for that year. One of the most admired plays of its time, it concerns the mental and moral disintegration and ultimate ruin of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle. Her neurotic, genteel pretensions are no match for the harsh realities symbolized by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
THE COSSACKS by Leo Tolstoy (224 pages) written 1862
Publisher's Summary: THE COSSACKS is one of the finest depictions of Cossack society in Russian literature. Against that primitive background, Tolstoy examines two psychological problems. The first is that of a young man who wants to love and wants to fit into society. The other is that of the difficulty of a primitive society in accepting the domination of a higher culture. This is a brilliant exploration of the themes of individuality and social identity.
Suggestions by Steve
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster (224 pages) originally published 1908
Forster explores love among a cast of eccentric characters gathered in an Italian pension and in a corner of Surrey, England. Caught up in a world of social snobbery, Lucy Honeychurch must make a decision that will decide the course of her future: She is forced to choose between convention and passion.
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh (351 pages) published 1945
From Barnes and Noble website: Narrator Charles Ryder becomes entranced with the noble Marchmain family. The rise and fall of Charles's infatuations reflects Waugh's genius in capturing the decline of a decadent era in England between the wars.....epic story of a great Catholic family in a doomed aristocratic age.
Suggestion by Karen
FAREWELL WALTZ by Milan Kundera (209 pages) published 1998
Author: Kundera was born in Bohemia, now Czechoslovakia. Has received numerous literary awards from Czechoslovakia as well as France, Italy, Jerusalem, Austria and several Universities in the U.S. Has been nominated for the International Booker prize.
from Amazon: Kundera's novel takes a comic but chilling look at the peaceful, self-contained world of a fertility spa, which becomes the setting for a compelling psychlogical drama. Note: This selection has an earlier translation titled THE
FAREWELL PARTY published in 1976 which is out of
print. Neither translation appears to be available thru the
Houston Public Library but the newer translation seems
easy to find online at Amazon and Barnes-Noble which
means you can order thru local retail book stores as well.
Karen leading discussion
