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SUMMER READING Information

The European Novel texts for the next academic year (2008/09) appear below. Please note that as the reading for the course is fairly heavy, students are advised to read as many as possible during the summer vacation. Many students who have taken the course express regret that they did not do enough summer reading and often cite this as a factor that prevented them from fuller participation in the course. It is thus imperative you read as much as you can prior to the beginning of the lecture and seminar programme. Don't worry about secondary material; just get the primary texts read. The course is chronological - the list below is in that order.


Without wanting to sound too prescriptive, one more point concerning editions: we don't usually prescribe specific editions for each novel, but it is advantageous to get a good scholarly copy.* Oxford World’s Classics or Penguin Classics will provide you with excellent introductions and informative notes that will aid your understanding and enrich your reading. They are only a little pricier than some of the cheaper versions around, which you should avoid.


Happy reading!


*Ulysses is the exception here. The prescribed edition is the Oxford World’s Classics edition 1922 text, edited by Jeri Johnson. This has an excellent introduction and guideline notes to each section, detailing its Homeric parallel as well as the key events, themes, characters, etc. Ulysses is an exciting and challenging reading experience. This edition will help you to fully engage with one of the most celebrated works in the novel genre.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ulysses-Oxford-Worlds-Classics-James/dp/0199535671/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214825004&sr=8-2


 

Texts 2008-09

Goethe, The Sufferings of Young Werther


Shelley, Frankenstein


James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner


Stendhal, Scarlet and Black


Charles Dickens, Great Expectations


Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary


Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina


Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment


Emile Zola, Germinal


Knut Hamsun, Hunger


Virginia Woolf, Orlando


James Joyce, Ulysses (1922 text)


Knut Hamsun, Hunger


Halldor Laxness, The Atom Station