...is talking of the great books. John Miller writes about Middlemarch: "I found Rev. Casaubon to be a riveting and haunting character. Maybe it's inevitable for a writer to think that."
Meghan Cox Gurdon says "Moby Dick is one of the funniest, cleverest, most breathtaking books, ever. I read it three years ago and walked around for months grabbing people by the lapels and telling them, "Listen, you have GOT to read Moby Dick! It is one of the funniest..."
Jonah Goldberg: "since nobody has mentioned it I would throw in that War and Peace is a great read. It's one of the few giants -- in all senses -- I've read all the way through and attentively and I'm extremely grateful that I did."
Brookhiser defends Ulysses:
Oi, the modernism wars again.
Ulysses is a funny, poignant and very readable book. It evokes a lot about early twentieth century Dublin, which is one of the functions of novels, which is why they're called novels (new things--new to us, the readers). The "hard" writing is easily figured out. As with most "hard" modernist works, the best thing is not to sweat the details, as if you were in freshman English, but just sit down and read rapidly through (just like all the swarming Italians in Dante). Kingsley Amis's reaction is a favorite English stunt, pretending to be dumb John Bull. Ulysses is not the best novel of its century, but it is better than Lucky Jim (which is good).
Moby Dick--now there is a masterpiece, but Meghan Cox Gordon has already defended it.
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