Seriously good books not known?

[Abdul Alhazred]

Books nobody else I know has read that have seriously shaped my thinking. Anyone out there read any of these?

The Martyrdom of Man, by Winwood Reade (19th century atheist)

The Green Child, by Herbert Read (friend of Orwell)

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, by Franz Werfel

Journey Among Warriors, by Eve Curie (Marie Curies's daughter BTW)

An American Doctor's Odyssey, by Victor Heiser

Penguin Island, by Anatole France

To the Finland Station, by Edmund Wilson

 

[TragicMonkey]

Penguin Island, among other of Anatole France's works. I like him. But he's one of those authors nobody's discussed in over fifty years. I haven't even heard of the others you listed. (Except "To the Finland Station", but only because it's mentioned in a Pet Shop Boys song.)

 

[epepke]

La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas. A 16th century novel in dialogue hardly known outside Spain. The only translation I know of in English was done around that time, so it seems archaic, but the original work is excellent.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I'll add Pearl Buck's autobiography, My Several Worlds. She was a very insightful woman, with a philosophical bent and a great compassion for humanity. She travelled widely, and her observations of various cultures are interesting.

Unfortunately, all she's known for these days is The Good Earth, which is not that good compared to her other works like Pavilion of Women and Mandala.

 

[bruto]

If you liked Penguin Island, (one of my all time favorites) you'll probably also like The Revolt of the Angels. Shorter, and less historical satire, but great fun.

A favorite I also recommend whenever possible is Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban, and among more recent novels I heartily recommend Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.

edit: hmm, you can tell I grew up in the age of typewriters - I carefully put in the formatting for underlines without it even occurring to me that I could have used Italics!