Most untranslatable words

[Yuliya]

Funny; yesterday I quote the line to my husband and he immediately recognized it, too.

I think Twain and London had a lot in common - both were great writers, both knew how to write a novel and a short story, both are undeservedly forgotten, and both are remembered, if any, for the wrong work. Twan's ouvre is, provavly, less consistent than London's, but he wrote some great stories that nobody reads these days. As for London, I usually hear, "Oh White Fang? His work is out of fashion." Duh!

[Ace]

Twain is remembered for the wrong work? I like his short stories, they're good but none I've read compare to Tom Sawyer or his masterwork Huckleberry Finn which are what I believe him mostly to be remembered for. And while they are books mostly recommended to children, Finn in particular is a very regarded sophisticated adult satire that works on several levels beyond adventure coming of age story.

I do think both aren't as regarded as highly now as they should be because their work is rather "folksy", down to earth vs edgey or sophisticated and stylistically rather no frills compared to many of their contemporaries.

They do though tend to pale, in many cases rightfully so in the shadow of their more vaunted contemporaries. Twain was writing in the time of Melville, Hawthorne, Tolstoy, Dostoyevesky, Dickens, Thackery, Trollope, Elliot et al. Lord in the time of Joyce, James, Conrad, Chekov, Wharton, Woolf et al.

Ace

[Yuliya]

The problem with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn is that most people read those book when they're still kids; they're too young to appreciate anything that's beyond adventure. I wouldn't compare Mark Twain with, say, Dostoyevsky because they're too different writers, but his very interesting novella Mysterious Stranger is little known. I also wouldn't judge how well an author is known these days by whether Ace has read his works or not. You're right about Twain's and London's work in general being less sophisticated, though.

[curious george]

Actually, the London I remember liking was The Call of the Wild, although it's been quite a long time since I read it.

Always loved Tom Sawyer; Huckleberry Finn didn't impress me as much, but very possibly for reason given above: too many layers for a young student. (Ogres have layers!) I should dig it back out and try it again.

cg

[curious george]

From something my dad sent me a while back:

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.
But I repeat myself.

--Mark Twain





cg

[Yuliya]

My favorite one is "To a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail." I didn't forget about this thread, I just literally didn't have time to reply, and when I found a minute over a cup of coffee, the board kicked me out saying there were too many connections even without me.

I read Huckleberry Finn when I was a kid, didn't think too much of it, and never had a desire to reread it. Alas, whatever finess there was was wasted on me in my young age.

IMO, the most remembered books by London are White Fang as kids' stuff, Call of the Wild for adults, Sea Wolf for sea-oriented adults, and Martin Eden for those who need a proof his work is out of date.

I probably wouldn't read London if I wanted something deep, but I admire an art of writing a short story, and he's one of the best, though probably not the best. And for longer stuff - I still get a kick every time I reread Hearts of the Three, and while it's a parody on Holywood of those days, it's not outdated at all. There are other books I like, I can list more if anyone is interested, but IMO, this one is a must for anyone who likes this kind of adventure stuff.

All I'm trying to say is while some of his (and Twain's) books may be outdated, which would be true for other writers as well, others still make great read. But other authors are still popular while neither Twain nor London are - not as much as they should be. I guess they're just not considered calssics - quoting Twain, "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."