# Literary repertoire in other languages **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2003, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377 "2003-02-25T10:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/1 "2003-02-25T10:34:18Z")
I’ve been wondering about good works of fiction (ancient and contemporary) in other languages. Having lived in Anglophonic communities all my life, the only works I’m aware of in other languages tend to be the classics (_Les Miserables, Voyna i Mir…_) along with some contemporary novels (_Il nome della rosa_). Could you suggest some good works of fiction in other languages ? The conditions are 1. No Science Fiction 2. Period pieces preferred, but not necessary 3. Has to somewhat be a concrete story involving a specific culture(s). This does not mean the story deals with conflicts/issues in culture. Indo-European languages preferred. English translation not required. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/2 "2003-02-25T10:57:47Z")
Here are some Japanese selections: _The Temple of the Golden Pavillion_, by Yukio Mishima. A fictionalized account of an actual event from 1955. For something older, there’s _The Tale of Genji_, by Murasaki Shikibu in the tenth century. A new translation just came out last year. I had to struggle through this one. Apparently, the exact shade of every layer of clothing one was wearing and every piece of paper one was writing on was of utmost importance to people of the time. For newer stuff, I really enjoyed _Coin Locker Babies_ by Ryu Murakami. He has an extremely violent writing style, though. Haruki Murakami’s books (mostly 1980’s-90’s) are also pretty good. Whenever Junichiro Tanizaki gets mentioned, my friends all get this look of absolute revulsion on their faces, but I enjoy him. He was a complete deviate and not ashamed to admit it. Some of his works include _The Key_, _The Makioka Sisters_, _The Secret History of Lord Musashi_ (about a feudal lord who’s one driving desire is to watch a woman prepare a decapitated head with its nose severed) and _Some Prefer Nettles_. Most of his stuff is either set during the feudal era or in the prewar 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/3 "2003-02-25T11:08:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > \*\*Here are some Japanese selections: > \*\* Thanks. I’ll check these out. What about the classics in Japanese ? By which I mean, works considered the acme of Japanese literature. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/4 "2003-02-25T12:01:43Z")
Well, _Tale of Genji_ is probably the #1 pick, considered by many to be the first novel ever written. There’s also _The Pillow Book_ by Sei Shonagon and _Tale of the Heike_ (an account of the long Minamoto-Taira wars) by somebody else. I don’t know a lot of other pre-19th century stuff, but Natsume Soseki is considered one of the greats of the post-Shogun (1860-) era. ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/5 "2003-02-25T12:17:11Z")
The usually cited Japanese Classic is _The Tale of Genji_, by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. I would also recommend _The Princess de Clèves_ by Madame de Lafayette ( considered by many to be the first novel). _Dangerous Liaisons_ by Choderlos de Laclos _Scarlet and Black; The Charterhouse of Parma_ by Stendhal _War and Peace; Anna Karenina_ by Tolstoy _Don Quixote_ by Miguel de Cervantes _The Golden Ass_ ( aka _Metamorphoses_) by Apuleius _The Decameron_ by Boccaccio _Sketches from a Hunter’s Album_ ( short stories); _Fathers and Sons_ by Ivan Turgenev _Gargantua; Pantagruel_ by Rabelais _The Leopard_ by Lampedusa _Complete Short Stories_ of Chekhov _Complete Short Stories_ of de Maupassant _Crime and Punishment; The Brothers Karamazov; The Idiot_ by Dostoevsky If you are also interested in drama and narrative poetry ( not just prose fiction) _Faust_ by Goethe _The Misanthrope; The Miser; Tartuffe_ by Molière _Andromache;Phaedra_ by Racine _The Cherry Orchard; The Three Sisters_ by Chekhov _The Oresteia_ by Aeschylus _The Theban Trilogy_ by Sophocles _Medea_ by Euripides _The Odyssey; The Iliad_ by Homer _The Aeneid_ by Virgil _The Divine Comedy_ by Dante _Peer Gynt; Hedda Gabler; The Master Builder_ by Ibsen _The Government Inspector_ by Gogol That lot should keep you busy for a while. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/6 "2003-02-25T12:17:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > \*\*Well, _Tale of Genji_ is probably the #1 pick, considered by many to be the first novel ever written. > \*\* Is there any written Japanese mythology ? ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/7 "2003-02-25T12:35:59Z")
All that and I forgot _Madame Bovary_ ( Flaubert). I have restricted myself to pre-20th Century, but there’s a lot of good more recent stuff, too. How recent do you want to go? ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/8 "2003-02-25T12:45:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jabba \* > \*\*All that and I forgot _Madame Bovary_ ( Flaubert). I have restricted myself to pre-20th Century, but there’s a lot of good more recent stuff, too. How recent do you want to go? \*\* Doesn’t matter. What I’m looking for are established works. Meaning, if I were a Spaniard in Spain, what Spanish national authors and works would be considered revered or in case of contemporary literature, best among the recent ? This isn’t just about works by nationality, could be via culture too. ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/9 "2003-02-25T13:02:28Z")
OK. For the Russians, then, you’ll need Pushkin as well as the ones I mentioned earlier. I haven’t read any Pushkin, so can’t make a personal recommendation, but _Eugene Onegin_ is frequently cited as his best. Pushkin is the Russian writer most revered in Russia. For the French, you’ll also need _The Song of Roland_ and some poets: Rimbaud and Mallarmé, for a start. Generally it’s the dramatists who are most highly regarded in French literature. As well as Molière and Racine ( mentioned in my first post) try Corneille ( I haven’t read any so again I can’t give a personal recommendation, but _The Cid_ is a famous work). Read also the essays of Montaigne. For more recent stuff, try _Le Grand Meaulnes_ by Alain-Fournier, and Camus and Sartre, two French Nobel Prize winners. Germany: Goethe is the German Dante, so he’s the one essential writer. I’ve only read his _Faust_ but there’s a lot of other books to explore. The great 20th Century German man of letters is Thomas Mann: read _Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain, Joseph and His Brothers_ and _Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man_. I am not so familiar with the literary traditions of Spain and Italy, so can’t really suggest anything other than the books I mentioned in my first post. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/10 "2003-02-25T14:37:18Z")
Wow **Jabba** , you’ve covered most of the classics. May I respectfully venture to correct a few possible omissions? Going by the ‘revered’ criterion I would suggest the following (my translations of titles may be somewhat off): - Kafka, in particular The transformation and The trial, - Proust, In search of lost time. Of course Proust is more often mentioned than actually read, but he indisputably belongs to the core works. If you would want to check Dutch literature, I guess some of the classics are: - Multatuli, Max Havelaar, - Mulish, The assault. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/11 "2003-02-25T15:52:41Z")
In Italiano: The old classics: [ul] [li]Boccaccio’s **Tales from the Decameron** [/li][li]Petrarch’s **Poetry** [/li][li]Dante’s **Divine Comedy** and **La Vita Nuova** [/li][/ul] A few plays: [ul] [li]Carlo Goldoni’s **La Botega del Cafe** (Goldoni was a very influential 18th century playwrite)[/li][li]Gabriele D’Annunzio’s **La Figlia d’Iorio** (a controversial writer due to his Fascist tendencies…this play reminds me of Yeats’ work, though)[/li][li]Luigi Pirandello’s **Six Characters in Search of an Author** (his masterpiece)[/li][/ul] Prose/novels: [ul] [li]Carlo Collodi’s **Pinocchio** (just a classic)[/li][li]Alessandro Manzoni’s **I Promessi Sposi** (a love story involving the Plague)[/li][li]Primo Levi’s **Se questo è un uomo** , translated in English as _Survival in Auschwitz_, and **The Periodic Table** (amazing, amazing autobiographical works involving Levi’s Holocaust experiences)[/li][li]Italo Calvino’s **If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller** (it’s postmodern, baby!)[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/12 "2003-02-25T18:22:10Z")
Oops, I forgot Dario Fo, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature for, “emulat[ing] the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden,” in the words of the Nobel committee. He wrote **The Accidental Death of an Anarchist** , among others. ---
**Author:** ![lothos2002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/df788c/32.png) [@lothos2002](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lothos2002)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-repertoire-in-other-languages/157377/13 "2003-02-25T19:07:12Z")
In Spanish: Don Quijote, or more properly, El Ingenioso Hidalgo, Don Quijote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is considered the epitome of Spanish language literature. That should keep you busy for quite a while. Fernando de Rojas “Tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea”, or “La Celestina”, as it’s more commonly known. Some of the following are plays and some others are short stories, but it’s basically a good collection of “classics” I remember from grade school. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón - “La verdad sospechosa” Leopoldo Alas “Clarín” -La Regenta Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer -Leyendas Mateo Alemán -Guzmán de Alfarache Calderón de la Barca -El alcalde de Zalamea -Los cabellos de Absalón -El cordero de Isaías -La dama duende -El gran teatro del mundo -Guárdate del agua mansa -La hija del aire -A María el corazón -Triunfar muriendo -La viña del Señor -La vida es sueño Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra -La Galatea Marqués de Santillana -Marqués de Santillana Francisco de Quevedo -El Buscón Tirso de Molina -Don Gil de las calzas verdes -El burlador de Sevilla Lope de Vega -La dama boba -El caballero de Olmedo -Fuenteovejuna -Peribañez You can find the full text of each of the above [in this webpage,](http://www.duke.edu/web/cibertextos/) which includes hypertext annotations and notes. I haven’t read them all, but the webpage looks great. Also, anything by García Lorca, IMHO. As for Latin American authors, you could start with Gabriel García Marquez’s “Cien Años de Soledad”, a great novel in the Magical Realism style, also “El Laberinto de la Soledad” by Octavio Paz, which is a great essay on the condition of being Mexican. There are, of course, many more, but it’s a start. Have fun. Lothos