# Forgotten/Obscure Masterpieces of Literature Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-obscure-masterpieces-of-literature-thread/148014 "2003-01-11T21:11:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-obscure-masterpieces-of-literature-thread/148014/41 "2003-09-20T21:56:58Z")
I recently read Gavin Douglas’s [_The Palis of Honoure_](http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/palisfrm.htm) for a class. It’s completely weird – I’m not sure how it was received in its own time, but it’s definitely weird. It reads, in the professor’s phrasing, like “Chaucer on acid” (although you have to have a decent working knowledge of Chaucer’s dream poems for that to make sense). It also has screaming fish in it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AdamP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@AdamP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AdamP)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-obscure-masterpieces-of-literature-thread/148014/42 "2003-09-20T22:01:23Z")
One more thing…Per the reccomendation of that earlier poster, I picked up a copy of Patrik Suskind’s PERFUME. A completely incredible book. I read it in one sitting, totally spellbound. This is one of thos books that seems almost ordained: there’s not a single mis-step throughout. It’s relentlessly weird, and Suskind progressively raises the horror quotient until the whole thing reaches an apocalyptic ending. Highly reccomended ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-obscure-masterpieces-of-literature-thread/148014/43 "2003-09-20T22:07:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Adam P. \* > \*\* > ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE–by Pedro Carolino–In 1883 the Potrugese traveller Pedro Carolino decied to write an english phrasebook. One problem: he didn’t speak english. The result is an unintentionally hilarious compendium of phrases and “idiotisms” that Carolino invites his readers to use when travelling in America. When hunting, for example: “Let aim it! Let make fire him!” The most hysterical book I think I’ve ever read. Mark Twain was a huge fan of the book, writing in his introduction to one edition: “Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book; nobody can imitate it successfully…it is perfect.” > \*\* If I recall correctly, there’s evidence (especially in the early editions, which contain phrases in both Portugese and English) that Carolino wrote this by using a French-Portugese dictionary written by Jose da Fonseca, and then translating the entire French contents of that book into English. My advice: Get a copy of the collected works of William MacGonagall, if only to learn how not to write poetry. ---
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-obscure-masterpieces-of-literature-thread/148014/44 "2003-09-20T22:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dangerosa \* > \*\*The Tale of Genji > > It isn’t that obscure or weird, but it isn’t Western and therefore doesn’t tend to make it into the “cannon.” It is considered to be the world’s first novel. \*\* I would like to debunk this. In classicists circles, Apuleius’ “The Golden Ass” and Juvenal’s “Satyricon” are considered novels. They were written 1000 years before “The Tale of Genji”. The Greek-speaking world also saw a few novels appear in the first several hundred years after Christ. “The Tale of Genji” might have been the first Tolstoy-big novel with an epic scope, but it is not the “world’s first novel”. I’ve always wondering why it had that epitet. Perhaps because the first Westerners to come across it, such as Arthur Waley, did not have a decent knowledge of ancient history. UnuMondo ---
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-obscure-masterpieces-of-literature-thread/148014/45 "2003-09-20T22:36:13Z")
Oops, sorry. “Satyricon” was written by Petronius, not Juvenal. UnuMondo [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-obscure-masterpieces-of-literature-thread/148014.md?page=2)