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Article Excerpt
What books should every young woman read? We put this question to a distinguished group of writers and intellectuals. We asked them to name four books they consider essential for the educated woman. If you're curious, Jane Austen won the pageant with the most mentions. Tied for second place: two dead white males, Aristotle and Thucydides. Most surprising book to make the list ... Mommie Dearest.
ROGER ROSENBLATT
DEAR JANE (I'll call you Jane):
You ask me to recommend four books for your college reading list. That's a good number, four. It forces your correspondent to choose works for more than pleasure, or even literary value. I guess it's the old, "What books would you want with you on a desert island?" question, particularly appropriate for college, where life is best when insular. The four I offer you are high on pleasure and literary value. But I believe that they also present several minds worthy of your admiration. If you emerge from college knowing whom to admire, you'll be way ahead of the game. You'll note that of the four I suggest, only one author is a woman; I am only a feminist when it comes to rights.
First, I suggest that you read Boswell's Life of Johnson. Boswell himself was an interesting combination of fellows: one corrupt and weak, the other wishing to improve himself by an attachment to a superior person. The man he wrote of, Dr. Johnson, was superior in ways that are deeply moving as well as intellectually impressive. Johnson was poor, and was always on the side of the poor. But he could not tolerate cant about human nature, and he balanced his mind between conservative moderation and liberal impulses (much like our own Constitution). He also feared death so gravely that he could hardly speak of it, which suggests that he appreciated what he could not know. He was physically unattractive, too, which put him at a useful distance from the world, and undoubtedly honed his capacity for sympathy. Best of all, he was equally generous and stern, and (thank God) judgmental. You'll like him.
I urge you to read George Eliot's Daniel Deronda as well. Others will lead you to Middlemarch, and properly; the reason I'd like you to read Daniel Deronda is to see how a first-rate writer of fiction, a complete artist, is also capable of living in, and understanding, the world of events. For some reason, for example, Eliot in nineteenth-century England glommed onto the idea of Zionism and the future state of Israel. More generally, you'll appreciate how it is possible to live with one's private emotions and imagery, yet also be aware of greater influences. This, from DD: "There comes a terrible moment to many souls when the great movements of the world, the larger destinies of mankind, which have lain aloof in newspapers and other neglected reading, enter like an earthquake into their lives." Any recent terrible moment come to mind?
The greatest war novel ever written is All Quiet on the Western Front. I want you to read it even if you already have. People call it an antiwar novel, and, on one level, I suppose it is. But its finer quality lies in the depiction of human helplessness in the face of human pulses--war being the deadliest. There's no better account of the danger of pride or of the pettiness of men at arms. And, of course, it will break your heart.
Finally, The Great Gatsby. And before you roll your eyes to heaven, let me assure you that I did the same thing at your age. And yet it is an endlessly rich novel, not just because of the old theme of yearning, but because every character counts. And every character represents a major American type, thus idea. There are no minor characters in Gatsby. Huckleberry Finn may be the novel of the discovery of our national soul. But Gatsby is about the way we turned out. It really is as good as the people you mistrust say it is.
Well, Jane, that's my list. Enjoy the books, enjoy college, and don't forget to write to your folks. Best, Roger.
Roger Rosenblatt's award-winning essays appear in Time and the NewsHour. He is author of Coming Apart: A Memoir of the Harvard Wars of 1969 (Little Brown).
CAMILLE PAGLIA
1. THUCYDIDES, The Peloponnesian War (c. 410 B.C.)
The first work of analytic history in world culture, written by a seasoned soldier and general. In its minute account of the disastrous war with Sparta that would destroy classical Athens, it demonstrates the fundamental principles of diplomacy and military strategy that all ambitious young men and women should study, particularly those who aspire to public office. The most startling revelation of this book is how little the cruel game of politics has changed in 2,500 years.
2. George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871-72)
An epic novel by one of England's great women writers. With exhaustive detail, it patiently recreates an entire society, showing the webwork of behavior and convention that obstructs and defeats our best intentions. Its perspective is mature and philosophical as it penetrates to the innermost thoughts and emotions of its vividly drawn characters. Eliot observes and dissects social class with scientific neutrality and without the tiresome bombast and outdated formulas of academic Marxism.
3. Denis de Rougemont, Love in the Western World (1940; rev. 1956)
A sweeping overview of the idiosyncratic sexual themes and drives in Western culture, tracing the influence of Christian mysticism on the courtly love tradition and showing the ominous intertwining of love and death in our most romantic stories, from Tristan and Isolde to Romeo and Juliet....
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