Author: Jay Ruud
Gwendolyn Brooks’ “First Fight, Then Fiddle”
John Fowles’ “The Magus”
John Fowles was an acclaimed author whose novels, particularly the first three—The Collector (1963), The Magus (1965) and The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969)—have been widely admired international best-sellers. In 2008, The Times named Fowles as number 30 in its list of the top 50 greatest British writers since 1945. The French Lieutenant’s Woman was ranked number 31 on Time magazine’s list of the 100 greatest… Continue reading John Fowles’ “The Magus”
E.M. Forster’s “A Passage to India”
E.M. Forster is chiefly remembered today as one of the premier novelists of the Edwardian period in the early twentieth century, though in fact he published only five novels in his lifetime (his long-suppressed homoerotic novel Maurice was not published until after his death). Of these, three are recognized classics: A Room With a View (1908), a romance as… Continue reading E.M. Forster’s “A Passage to India”
Ford Madox Ford’s “Parade’s End”
Ford Madox Ford was a hugely prolific novelist, essayist and literary critic in the first half of the twentieth century whom few contemporary American readers are likely to have heard of and even fewer to have read. Yet two of his myriad publications are so highly admired that they regularly appear on “Greatest Novel” lists.… Continue reading Ford Madox Ford’s “Parade’s End”
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”
Gatsby is indeed another no-brainer for sure. It’s hard to imagine a list of the 100 best novels in English that does not include Fitzgerald’s magnum opus. As many readers will remember, it came in as number one on Time magazine’s famous list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923 (the year Time premiered). And it was #2 on the Modern Library… Continue reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”
Ira Sadoff’s “Thank You”
Hart Crane’s “My Grandmother’s Love Letters”
Lady Mary Wroth’s “Sonnet 64”
Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones”
Seldom does one reach the end of a 900-page novel and wish it had been longer, but that was my experience on first reading Henry Fielding’s classic from the early days of the novel, officially entitled The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, though generally known simply as Tom Jones. The book, originally published in 1749, was what… Continue reading Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones”