Quixotic Book Club of New York City

Becky Sharp struggles for success and social status through the glamour of Regency society in Thackeray's classic, Vanity Fair. The novel, written in 1847-1848, takes place during the Napoleonic Wars at the turn of the century. Originally published as a 19-volume serial collection with illustrations, Vanity Fair receives credit for pioneering many aspects of form and structure for Victorian-era novels.

William Makepeace Thackeray was born in 1811, in Calcutta, India. At three years old, he was sent to England and ultimately studied at Trinity. Thackeray, quite a character himself, squandered much of his inheritance on gambling and unsuccessful business ventures before turning to journalism and writing. Thackeray married but his wife suffered from mental illness and his health steadily declined because of excessive eating and drinking. He wrote prolifically, some 28 novels, and we'll start with his big one, Vanity Fair.

Vanity Fair is a long novel with page counts of 600-800 based on edition. I'm posting this for after the holidays so we can dig in by the fireplace.

Posting a link to the Penguin edition but there are plenty to choose from over the years:
https://a.co/d/4hvNFNr

Vanity Fair is also available on Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/599/pg599-images.html

In a secluded woodland castle, an old General receives a rare visitor, a man once his closest friend but whom he has not seen in forty-one years. Mystery, dramatic tension, romance, honor, duty, and psychology all merge in Sándor Márai's novel Embers. Read carefully from the first page as you dive into a rich setting with castle grounds, and enchanted forests in the late stages of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Incredibly, Sándor Márai was little known outside of Hungary during his lifetime. After he died in 1989 (88 years old) he became a hero of newly liberated Hungary emerging from Communism. Over the past 25 years, he has been steadily discovered in international literary circles. Discovering Sándor Márai is finding a treasure; a confident storyteller, who writes rich characters in a direct style, loaded with psychological and philosophical depth.

The modern translation by Carol Brown Janeway is highly recommended as the translation to read:
https://a.co/d/iADuiui

This one isn't for the faint of heart. Elizabeth Street Garden is still standing so Quixotic will meet there in the dead of winter. We'll see what Mother Nature dishes out, and procure our usual spot under the overhang. I will bring a thermos of coffee to share and anyone attending is encouraged to bring whatever shareable beverage can warm our souls; ciders, cocoas, and bourbons are all welcome.

We'll read Jack London's winter classic, "To Build a Fire" (1902) a short story (~22 pages) about a man who travels alone through the hostile environment of the Yukon in sub-freezing temperatures.

Here is a PDF version of the story:
https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to-build-a-fire.pdf

It is also available on Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59461/59461-h/59461-h.htm

Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist from Georgia. She is best known for her 31 short stories but also wrote two full-length novels. We covered "Good Country People" at Elizabeth Street Garden, and we'll dive into her first novel, Wise Blood (1952). Flannery, born in Savannah, Georgia, of Irish descent, was a gifted student and accepted into the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop (1945). She wrote short stories, until her first novel, Wise Blood.

Wise Blood is assembled from many of O'Connor's short stories. The novel received almost no critical attention upon publication but has since become appreciated as an American classic. The protagonist is Hazel Motes, who returns to his family in Tennessee after WWII but finds his home abandoned. We'll let the story run its course from here. O'Connor's style is hard to pin down, often described as Southern Gothic, with elements of realism and modernism. We'll talk about her style in our discussion.

Here is a link to a paperback copy of the novel:
https://a.co/d/3jPRgp0