Random Number Lit - Small Works List
Voltaire came to me, like Bana, from the small works list - just a name. I knew who Voltaire was. I had read Candide as a teenager and hated it. It is short and sometimes my attention span cannot hold ideas in my mind for very long so as you may notice the books I am familiar with are the shorter ones. Voltaire's name appeared on the World Lit - 1600 to 1800 list. I did not put a title forward then because I had read Candide which is also on the Big Book List because I wanted to do a little research. I thought that I would reread Candide to get a sense of the story because it had been so long since I read it before but then to try something else. The copy that I had also included Zadig which I read this time. I hated them both again. The words just fell out of my brain as soon as I read them. Voltaire is a funny writer but he is cold and ruthless in a way that I just cannot keep appraised of while engaging with.

Voltaire seeks to put forward his nihilistic view of life through humor which is endearing if you care for his viewpoint or laugh at his wit. He is unbelievably sharp and beats the read to the punch at each turn but because I do not resonate with his point of view the work seems hostile and unapologetic. He is contending with another prominent philosopher and thinker at his time, Leibniz who is remembered differently than Voltaire. I also read Micromegas, or I listened to it through the sort of sleep time reading of it which was bizarre and affecting in a beautiful way. This edition I have here has all three works of Voltaire: Candide, Zadig, and Micromegas in just the order you should read them in. 

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Every book sold will come with a short reflection on my experience reading the text. I will also include a bookmark and sticker with each volume. Each book bought is an invitation to a conversation with me about your reading experience in whatever method and medium you would prefer. 
 
#classics #classicbooks #classicliterature #classiclit #frenchlit #frenchliterature #fiction #novel #paperback #satire

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Illinois

Candide and Other Writings

North Carolina

Jo’s Boys and How They Turned Out

#paperback #classics #classiclit #classicbooks #frenchlit 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

The Red and the Black 

#hardcover #homer #classics #classic #classicbooks #classical #classicalstudies #greek #myth #greekmyth 

The Complete Works 

Tales from the Arabian Nights

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Ulysses

War of the World

Fathers and Children

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce

James Joyce’s timeless collection of short stories. The last story The Dead is one of the best short stories maybe ever written. If when you finish this collection of stories and want to talk to someone who has read it, reach out and let’s chat.

Fifteen short stories evoke the character, atmosphere, and people of the Irish city of Dublin at the turn of the century

Dubliners

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The Inferno

#paperback #fiction #classicbooks #classics #literature #novel 

New Jersey

Hailed by Henry James as "the finest piecenbsp;of imaginative writing yet put forth in thenbsp;country," Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarletnbsp;Letter reaches to our nation'snbsp;historical and moral roots for the material of greatnbsp;tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novelnbsp;shows the terrible impact a single, passionate actnbsp;has on the lives of three members of thenbsp;community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, torturednbsp;Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengefulnbsp;Chillingworth.

With The Scarletnbsp;Letter, Hawthorne became the first Americannbsp;novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage anbsp;universal classic, a masterful exploration ofnbsp;humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride.

The Scarlet Letter

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Cakes and Ale

#paperback #classics #classicbooks #classiclit

Invisible Man

The Sun Also Rises

Waiting for Godot

Arizona

The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra 

Marcel Proust

C. K. Scott Moncrieff

D J Enright

Terence Kilmartin

In search of lost time is Proust's masterpiece and was described by Somerset Maugham as the greatest novel of the 20th century. This edition contains notes, addenda and synopses.

In Search of Lost Time, Volume III: the Guermantes Way

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One of the great popular successes of recent Broadway history, this ingeniously constructed play offers a rare and skillful blending of two priceless theatrical ingredients--gasp-inducing thrills and spontaneous laughter. Dealing with the devious machinati

Death of a Salesman

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Yukio Mishima

The second book in Mishima's landmark The Sea of Fertility sequence, this is the chronicle of a conspiracy, a novel about the roots and nature of Japanese fanaticism in the years that led to war.

Runaway Horses

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William Shakespeare

Adrian Poole

'Shakespeare invented the human as we continue to know it' Harold Bloom

Set in a city torn apart by feuds and gang warfare, Shakespeare's immortal drama tells the story of star-crossed lovers, rival dynasties and bloody revenge. Romeo and Juliet is a hymn to youth and the thrill of forbidden love, charged with sexual passion and violence, but also a warning of death: a dazzling combination of bawdy comedy and high tragedy.

Used and Recommended by the National Theatre

General Editor Stanley Wells
Edited by T. J. B. Spencer
Introduction by Adrian Poole

Romeo and Juliet

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#hardcover #classic #classics #classiclit #classicbooks #classicliterature

Save this search

Voltaire

Candide and Other Writings

Louisa May Alcott

Jo’s Boys and How They Turned Out

Stendhal

The Red and the Black

Homer

The Complete Works

Richard Burton

Tales from the Arabian Nights

James Joyce

Ulysses

H.G. Wells

War of the World

Ivan Turgenv

Fathers and Children

James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce

Dubliners

Dante

The Inferno

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

W. Somerset Maugham

Cakes and Ale

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man

Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises

Samuel Beckett

Waiting for Godot

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

Marcel Proust; C. K. Scott Moncrieff; D J Enright; Terence Kilmartin

In Search of Lost Time, Volume III: the Guermantes Way

Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman

Yukio Mishima

Runaway Horses

William Shakespeare; Adrian Poole

Romeo and Juliet

Leo Tolstoy

The Kingdom of God is Within You