Kipling’s historical poems like “Norman and Saxon” or the “Dane-geld” are a good low-effort way to get an understanding of the classic view of English history.
For rhetoric and romantic conservatism, read the part about a nation of cavaliers being succeeded by a nation of economists, sophisters and calculators from Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolutions in France”.
Kipling seems to have written a lot of his poems with the view that they would be taught to the clever, non-upper-class students of Cecil Rhodes’s future mercantilist world empire. And indeed, provincial grocer’s daughter Margaret Thatcher was a huge fan, learning long stretches by heart and quoting them into old age.
Ha, ha, it took me a while to catch your point. No I wasn’t referring to Anglo Trashing that seems to be prevalent amongst Indian nationalists on the interwebs. I find their arguments to be wishful thinking. But who knows?
I was referring to the stringent anti Americanism on Quora amongst certain old Britishers (not the usual left wing hate America types), rather the ones who think Monty won the war by himself.
It must be my age, but I have no desire left for new-to-me fiction and keep re-reading Austen and Trollope favorites. Wolf Hall was the most recent, soon after and only because of the TV series.
I have to recommend Saki (H. H. Munro) short stories for Edwardian wit, and Chesterton's early Father Brown stories for Edwardian splendor.
Guess I bailed on Boswell too soon. I read half of an abridged Gibbon--not funny that I noticed. Would they cut the good bits out?
I'll assume that everybody here already knows about the literary significance of J R R Tolkien, who created (or sub-created, as he would insist) not only the 20th century's signature novel, but an entire genre. His style is the definition of inimitable. Roughly eleventy billion fan-kids, pretenders, and wannabes have tried to replicate his style, but all have fallen short. If you like this style, you love Tolkien; if you don't, well, then, may God be merciful. Tolkien was also a witty, erudite literary critic; his 'The Monsters and the Critics', for example, is a splendid piece of prose.
But it's Tolkien's contemporary and friend, C S Lewis, I want to promote. Lewis's Narnia stories are great, and everyone would benefit from reading them, but they're not what I'm on about here.
First, Lewis was also an accomplished novelist for grown-ups. I recommend his Ransom Trilogy -- Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength (really should be read in order) -- or his strange and unsettlingly-powerful retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, i.e. Till We Have Faces.
Lewis made his living as a literary scholar and teacher. His Preface to Paradise Lost, for example, is a cornerstone of Milton scholarship, and remains thoroughly accessible -- and even fun to read -- especially in comparison to most of the turgid, hideous literary criticism of the past 75 years.
But essays and other non-fiction prose were Lewis's metier. Lewis wrote a string of popular Christian works -- Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Problem of Pain -- that work out difficult theological concepts in vivid, often crystalline prose. Lewis's explanations can at times be challenged, but his ability to work through extremely difficult ideas in accessible language is remarkable.
Lewis's best non-fiction work, I believe, is the uncanny and prescient little book *The Abolition of Man*. You've got a problem with post-WWII western culture's turn away from the good, the true and the beautiful and descending into ugliness, relativism, and decadence? Lewis pretty much saw it coming back in 1943.
If you'd like a sample of Lewis's prose -- which is simultaneously muscular and delicate, ranging from soaring abstraction to the most mundane and concrete, but always marvelously, delightfully crisp and readable -- I will post a link to a sermon Lewis delivered at Oxford University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in 1941 called 'The Weight of Glory':
Lewis is notable for bringing together the two mainstreams of British thought—utopian, progressive, low church (eg, Milton, Blake, Pilgrim’s Progress) and high church, romantic, reactionary (like his Catholic friend Tolkien). I read an article by him in the Spectator written during the war that endorsed the future Labour government’s egalitarian policies, but he later seems to have turned against them. As a Northern Irishman by birth he was somewhat outside domestic affairs, like the India-born Orwell.
By the time of his sadly premature death in 1963 -- November 22, 1963, incidentally -- I sincerely doubt Lewis remained a Labour voter. But the deep well of Lewis's 'conservatism' was fed by springs both ancient and modern that are unknown or ignored by many of today's conservatives.
My favorite CSL story is his refusing to let John Betjeman graduate Oxford when a kinder professor would have let him retake some unimportant tests because he intensely disliked his silly high Toryism (such as carrying around a teddy bear, the inspiration for Aloysius in “Brideshead”). But Lewis’s low church instincts but high church aesthetic tastes make him a pretty good objective cultural guide.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Travels with a Donkey” about a journey through the mountains of southern France is a small masterpiece of readability, notable for its HBD observations and for probably founding the genre of hiking literature, not a small part of British letters.
I heartily agree about Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels. I read all of them once and have listened to them four times each in audiobook. They're very rewarding and the main characters are almost like friends.
Besides all Wodehouse, for light reading, John Mortimer's early Rumpole books are a must.
And the grandest English novel is Patrick O'Brian's (an Englishman) Aubrey-Maturin twenty volume masterpiece, starting with Master & Commander (from which the movie borrowed very little).
Steve - great list and I especially appreciate your poetry recommendations! Comments are also on point and I would add the following:
1) H Rider Haggard - most famous for his Allan Quartermain series (including King Solomon’s Mines) his novels are lots of fun and deal with some Steve Sailer themes (like the interesting diversity of tribes in Africa and the tantalizing possibility of a ‘lost’ white tribe)
2) The trilogy of travel books by Patrick Leigh Fermor who wrote about the monumental journey on foot he made from the Dutch port city of Hoek van Holland to Istanbul, in the 1930s. He was a larger than life character who had all sorts of adventures during WWII (apparently a movie was made about his exploits -- this is a good piece about him when he was still alive in his 90s back in 2008:
I’ve told many people to read (or give) Watership Down to their kids. It’s a wonderful book.
Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf is worth reading. He was Irish of course, but they’ve long wielded the conquering tongue with brilliance. Heaney’s translation is loaded with great passages. The one that has stuck with me the best is one Conan would understand. It starts on line 2241 (I checked my dog-eared copy).
Kipling’s historical poems like “Norman and Saxon” or the “Dane-geld” are a good low-effort way to get an understanding of the classic view of English history.
For rhetoric and romantic conservatism, read the part about a nation of cavaliers being succeeded by a nation of economists, sophisters and calculators from Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolutions in France”.
Chesterton’s “Lepanto”.
Kipling seems to have written a lot of his poems with the view that they would be taught to the clever, non-upper-class students of Cecil Rhodes’s future mercantilist world empire. And indeed, provincial grocer’s daughter Margaret Thatcher was a huge fan, learning long stretches by heart and quoting them into old age.
I used to be an Anglophile until I joined Quora. But thanks for the recommendations.
Is this a joke about Indians being all over Quora or something else?
Ha, ha, it took me a while to catch your point. No I wasn’t referring to Anglo Trashing that seems to be prevalent amongst Indian nationalists on the interwebs. I find their arguments to be wishful thinking. But who knows?
I was referring to the stringent anti Americanism on Quora amongst certain old Britishers (not the usual left wing hate America types), rather the ones who think Monty won the war by himself.
Just about everything by Waugh is worth reading! Also pretty sure the volleyball scene in Top Gun was loosely based on “Earnest.”
Waugh is strong medicine but he helps one to stay sane
21-year-old Waugh’s reading list would have included “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wind in the Willows”. (Probably John Lennon’s, too.)
It must be my age, but I have no desire left for new-to-me fiction and keep re-reading Austen and Trollope favorites. Wolf Hall was the most recent, soon after and only because of the TV series.
I have to recommend Saki (H. H. Munro) short stories for Edwardian wit, and Chesterton's early Father Brown stories for Edwardian splendor.
Guess I bailed on Boswell too soon. I read half of an abridged Gibbon--not funny that I noticed. Would they cut the good bits out?
I barely know where to start with this one.
I'll assume that everybody here already knows about the literary significance of J R R Tolkien, who created (or sub-created, as he would insist) not only the 20th century's signature novel, but an entire genre. His style is the definition of inimitable. Roughly eleventy billion fan-kids, pretenders, and wannabes have tried to replicate his style, but all have fallen short. If you like this style, you love Tolkien; if you don't, well, then, may God be merciful. Tolkien was also a witty, erudite literary critic; his 'The Monsters and the Critics', for example, is a splendid piece of prose.
But it's Tolkien's contemporary and friend, C S Lewis, I want to promote. Lewis's Narnia stories are great, and everyone would benefit from reading them, but they're not what I'm on about here.
First, Lewis was also an accomplished novelist for grown-ups. I recommend his Ransom Trilogy -- Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength (really should be read in order) -- or his strange and unsettlingly-powerful retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, i.e. Till We Have Faces.
Lewis made his living as a literary scholar and teacher. His Preface to Paradise Lost, for example, is a cornerstone of Milton scholarship, and remains thoroughly accessible -- and even fun to read -- especially in comparison to most of the turgid, hideous literary criticism of the past 75 years.
But essays and other non-fiction prose were Lewis's metier. Lewis wrote a string of popular Christian works -- Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Problem of Pain -- that work out difficult theological concepts in vivid, often crystalline prose. Lewis's explanations can at times be challenged, but his ability to work through extremely difficult ideas in accessible language is remarkable.
Lewis's best non-fiction work, I believe, is the uncanny and prescient little book *The Abolition of Man*. You've got a problem with post-WWII western culture's turn away from the good, the true and the beautiful and descending into ugliness, relativism, and decadence? Lewis pretty much saw it coming back in 1943.
If you'd like a sample of Lewis's prose -- which is simultaneously muscular and delicate, ranging from soaring abstraction to the most mundane and concrete, but always marvelously, delightfully crisp and readable -- I will post a link to a sermon Lewis delivered at Oxford University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in 1941 called 'The Weight of Glory':
https://www.faithandlaw.org/uploads/docs/The-Weight-of-Glory.pdf
Reading it would hardly be amiss on this Easter Sunday. Christ is risen!
Lewis is notable for bringing together the two mainstreams of British thought—utopian, progressive, low church (eg, Milton, Blake, Pilgrim’s Progress) and high church, romantic, reactionary (like his Catholic friend Tolkien). I read an article by him in the Spectator written during the war that endorsed the future Labour government’s egalitarian policies, but he later seems to have turned against them. As a Northern Irishman by birth he was somewhat outside domestic affairs, like the India-born Orwell.
By the time of his sadly premature death in 1963 -- November 22, 1963, incidentally -- I sincerely doubt Lewis remained a Labour voter. But the deep well of Lewis's 'conservatism' was fed by springs both ancient and modern that are unknown or ignored by many of today's conservatives.
My favorite CSL story is his refusing to let John Betjeman graduate Oxford when a kinder professor would have let him retake some unimportant tests because he intensely disliked his silly high Toryism (such as carrying around a teddy bear, the inspiration for Aloysius in “Brideshead”). But Lewis’s low church instincts but high church aesthetic tastes make him a pretty good objective cultural guide.
Yes, Tolkein and Lewis were giants, sadly somewhat estranged in later life.
The Abolition of Man is peerless.
Indeed he is risen!
Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Travels with a Donkey” about a journey through the mountains of southern France is a small masterpiece of readability, notable for its HBD observations and for probably founding the genre of hiking literature, not a small part of British letters.
I’ll cast a vote for O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels. I don’t think I’ve ever been so rewarded by reading as by those.
I’m a little surprised that Steve hasn’t recommended Vanity Fair. I read it on his recommendation a few years ago and thought it excellent.
I heartily agree about Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels. I read all of them once and have listened to them four times each in audiobook. They're very rewarding and the main characters are almost like friends.
That’s exactly right; they do feel like friends. I’ve read them all four or five times now.
Besides all Wodehouse, for light reading, John Mortimer's early Rumpole books are a must.
And the grandest English novel is Patrick O'Brian's (an Englishman) Aubrey-Maturin twenty volume masterpiece, starting with Master & Commander (from which the movie borrowed very little).
Centuries by Thomas Traherne is a favorite.
Steve - great list and I especially appreciate your poetry recommendations! Comments are also on point and I would add the following:
1) H Rider Haggard - most famous for his Allan Quartermain series (including King Solomon’s Mines) his novels are lots of fun and deal with some Steve Sailer themes (like the interesting diversity of tribes in Africa and the tantalizing possibility of a ‘lost’ white tribe)
2) The trilogy of travel books by Patrick Leigh Fermor who wrote about the monumental journey on foot he made from the Dutch port city of Hoek van Holland to Istanbul, in the 1930s. He was a larger than life character who had all sorts of adventures during WWII (apparently a movie was made about his exploits -- this is a good piece about him when he was still alive in his 90s back in 2008:
https://www.andrewcusack.com/2008/the-man-who-walked/#more-1395)
3) Dickens! Dip into any of his novels short or long, although I’m partial to the longer Bleak House with its cast of memorable characters!
Fermor is a treat, _Time of Gifts_ is completely immersive. This is short and charming on the man:
https://patrickleighfermor.org/2012/09/28/everyone-fell-in-love-with-paddy-leigh-fermor/
Anthony Powell
Generous given his opinion of you Widmerpool 😉
“Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole."--William Boot in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop
Thomas Browne, 'Hydriotaphia, or Urn Burial', 1658
https://www.amazon.com/Urn-Burial-New-Directions-Pearls-ebook/dp/B00BBR3IFA?crid=27S7OMO5KPJH6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.zqBRsQHTJ1yUMQZfaY1PLINkRREXV3OGJXMn9ffNMw750JHUVGPKW8XwKCIqDu03HCzlvoIWDqA9Mb8nn3-VqA8BSVuaiAj7g-NNdVQ8ZoQ.2yBwjCsey9cXIO4XxcYneD98Y_rvtRZLsSuOGJZtvL0&dib_tag=se&keywords=browne+urn+burial&qid=1745163456&s=digital-text&sprefix=browne+urn+burial%2Cdigital-text%2C155&sr=1-1
“Up to a point, Lord Copper” was part of family idiom for many years
😄
Saving this list.
I’ve told many people to read (or give) Watership Down to their kids. It’s a wonderful book.
Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf is worth reading. He was Irish of course, but they’ve long wielded the conquering tongue with brilliance. Heaney’s translation is loaded with great passages. The one that has stuck with me the best is one Conan would understand. It starts on line 2241 (I checked my dog-eared copy).
Richard Adams, who wrote Watership Down, also wrote a good sort of mystery: The Girl in a Swing.