A couple days ago, I reviewed John Carey’s memoir, The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books. Carey talked about a book he was particularly proud of, Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the 20th Century’s Most Enjoyable Books. Carey, unlike many commentators, didn’t try to identify the 20th Century’s “Best” books. Carey simply recommended what he considered “the most enjoyable books.” There are some interesting choices here. I’ve read about half the books on Carey’s list. Carey’s essays about each book are edifying and sometimes amusing. I’m a sucker for this type of book. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why Read? A Polemical Introduction
A. Conan Doyle, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, 1902
Andre Gide, THE IMMORALIST, 1902
Rudyard Kipling, TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES, 1904
Joseph Conrad, THE SECRET AGENT, 1907
E. M. Forster, A ROOM WITH A VIEW, 1908
G. K. Chesterton, THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY, 1908
Arnold Bennett, THE OLD WIVES’ TALE, 1908
H. G. Wells, THE HISTORY OF MR. POLLY, 1910
Maxim Gorky, MY CHILDHOOD, 1913
Thomas Hardy, SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE, 1914
James Joyce, A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, 1916
D. H. Lawrence, TWILIGHT IN ITALY, 1916
T. S. Eliot, PRUFROCK AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS, 1917
Edward Thomas (d. 1917), COLLECTED POEMS, 1936
Katherine Mansfield, THE GARDEN PARTY, 1922
Jaroslav Hasek (d. 1923) THE GOLD SOLDIER SVEJK, 1930
Aldous Huxley, THOSE BARREN LEAVES, 1925
F. Scott Fitzgerald, THE GREAT GATSBY, 1925
Mikhail Bulgakov, THE COUNTRY DOCTOR’S NOTEBOOK, 1925-7
Sylvia Townsend Warner, MR. FORTUNE’S MAGGOT, 1927
Evelyn Waugh, DECLINE AND FALL, 1928
Robert Graves, GOODBYE TO ALL THAT, 1929
William Empson, SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY, 1930
W. B. Yeats, COLLECTED POEMS, 1933
Christopher Isherwood, MR. NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS, 1935
Elizabeth Bowen, THE HOUSE IN PARIS, 1935
John Steinbeck, OF MICE AND MEN, 1937
Graham Greene, BRIGHTON ROCK, 1938
A. E. Housman, COLLECTED POEMS, 1939
George Orwell, COMING UP FOR AIR, 1939
Keith Douglas, ALAMEIN TO ZEM ZEM, 1946
Thomas Mann, CONFESSIONS OF FELIX KRULL, CONFIDENCE MAN, 1954
Kingsley Amis, LUCKY JIM, 1954
William Golding, THE INHERITORS, 1955
V. S. Naipaul, THE MYSTIC MASSEUR, 1957
S. J. Perelman, THE ROAD TO MILTOWN, OR UNDER THE SPREADING ATROPHY, 1957
W. H. Auden, COLLECTED SHORTER POEMS 1927-57, 1966
Gunter Grass, THE TIN DRUM, 1959
Muriel Spark, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, 1961
Jean-Paul Sartre, WORDS, 1964
Seamus Heaney, DEATH OF A NATURALIST, 1966
Stevie Smith, THE FROG PRINCE AND OTHER POEMS, 1966
Ted Hughes, CROW: FROM THE LIFE AND SONGS OF CROW, 1970
Ian McEwan, THE CEMENT GARDEN, 1978
Clive James, UNRELIABLE MEMOIRS, 1980
John Updike, A RABBIT OMNIBUS (1960-82) 1991
Philip Larkin, COLLECTED POEMS, 1988
Vikram Seth, A SUITABLE BOY, 1993
Kazuo Ishiguro, THE UNCONSOLED, 1995
Graham Swift, LAST ORDERS, 1996
AFTERWARDS: A Books-Choice Postbag
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No Harry Stephen Keeler?
Dan, John Carey seems to have a definite British bias.
Isn’t all art appreciation ‘biased’ by very definition…?
Ryan, you’re right. But Society and Culture set standards of taste that factor into what Art gets appreciated.
“But Society [sic] and Culture [sic] set standards of taste that factor into what Art gets appreciated.”
George.
The book is one person spelling out what art HE appreciates. No one else. He’s setting his own standards, as we all do.
You have missed the point completely.
Ryan, when John Carey lists his enjoyable books of the 20th Century, he is urging the reader to accept his standard of taste. Different strokes for different folks…
I’m glad he mentions Thomas Mann’s Confessions of Felix Krull which is my favorite Mann work–uncharacteristically lighthearted, ribald almost–and which was, alas, unfinished at the time of his death.
Deb, John Carey mentions both in PURE PLEASURE and THE UNEXPECTED PROFESSOR how great a writer he considers Thomas Mann to be. FELIX KRULL is my favorite Mann work, too.
Good one. This is the kind of book I like too.
One correction: only one ‘t’ in Gide’s THE IMMORALIST.
Jeff, thanks for the correction on Gide!
That’s quite an assortment. I’d have to check out his definition of “enjoyable.”
Bill, John Carey likes a lot of different books. But, clearly, he’s not a science fiction fan.
I like this kind of book too but this is not a list I would categorize as enjoyable. Challenging or skewed toward lesser known books of many authors. Still I will want to read it.
Patti, John Carey’s essays about each of these books are enjoyable. He makes you want to read them!
I’ve read a lot of these but wouldn’t want to revisit them.
Evelyn Waugh is grossly under-rated and deserves more attention.
Back in the day I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (also watched the movie) but wasn’t impressed. Strangely enough, the book actually survived several purges over the years. Maybe I’ll have to take a look at them again. I might be missing something.
Beth, I’m with you on Evelyn Waugh. He’s underrated and can be very funny.
Since “enjoyable” is so much in the mind of the reader and that reader’s experience and influences, this is really a list of Carey’s personal favorites; whether enjoyable to others is largely debatable. There are a few books on the list – of those few I’ve even read – that I agree are, upon completion, to be labelled as such. I could, however, make a list ten times as long of other books I consider more enjoyable both to read and to contemplate after the fact of reading. Perhaps my favorite of those listed is Brighton Rock by Graham Greene.
Beth, if you didn’t like JEAN BRODIE you might want to try Spark’s GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS or A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON. The former is set in 1945 and the latter is set in a boarding house in 1954 and a struggling publishing house.
Rick, I like Graham Greene’s BRIGHTON ROCK a lot, too. Any list like John Carey’s PURE PLEASURE is going to be subjective. I think Carey did a good job of recommending books that deserve a wider reading public.