Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. probably the most searing and insightful depiction of the confusion and emptiness of the human existence and the evil that can result from the noblest motives when unrestrained by any mores or social conventions, and how at all levels humans have to lie to get by, because we just can't cope with truth; the truth of our own natures and desires is just too dark, too overwhelming. nothing I have read before or since ever spoke to me in quite the same way.
then probably
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - I just really enjoyed it, it was a witty and erudite novel that I though was fun and filled with historical and philosophical imagery.
then possibly
The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson, difficult book written in bizarre archaic style, but the concept and imagery was stunning. a dark Earth billions of years in the future, the Sun is a dead cinder and the stars have gone out, where whats left of humanity resides in a vast metal Pyramid, under siege by monsters and mutated beast-men, which are controlled by alien supernatural forces that destroy soul as well as body. pain in the @ss to read a lot of the time but worth it!
such an unfair question though - 3 fave books. thats like in
Fahrenheit-451 when everyone who escapes has to choose one book to memorise out of all the books that have ever existed... my choice would have to be H-o-D though; or The Holy Q'u'ran by the same author as FD's choice, different publisher
other choices
Moby Dick Hermann Melville
Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
War of the Worlds HG Wells
1984 George Orwell (coming truer ever day
sadly)
La Divina Commedia Dante Alighieri
That Hideous Strength CS Lewis
Julian Gore Vidal
Emperor Julian Henrik Ibsen (ok its a stageplay not a novel but it reads like a novel and no-one ever performs it anyway)
The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury
Ringworld Larry Niven
Protector also by Larry Niven
Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd
The House of Doctor Dee also by Peter Ackroyd
Seven Pillars of Wisdom TE Lawrence
Perfume Patrick Susskind (not for the squeamish!)
The Wasp Factory Iain Banks
Quo Vadis? Henryk Sienkiewicz
Winter Quarters Alfred Duggan
Spartacus Howard Fast
The Robe also by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Eagle of the Ninth Rosemary Sutcliffe
The Drowned World John Wyndham (particularly apt these days..)
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon (again not for the faint-hearted)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernieres
Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott
Gulliver's Travels Jonathon Swift
Call of Cthulhu HP Lovecraft
Watership Down Richard Adams
Pinocchio Carlo Collodi
The English Patient Michael Ondaatje (but should be read withthe others in the series or you don't understand why the characters do a lot of the things they do.
ah, there are so very very many....
there ws also a book aI read as a child about some animals that had banded together after all humans died out from plague or war, amaged to find an old boat and sailed down the Thames (or up it) and eventually ended up at Stonehenge where other animals had set up a bizarre pagan religion. I can't remember forthe life of me what it was called or who wrote it but I'd love to read it again. it was *something* like the Voyage of the R100 - vaguely, but it wasn't that. actually it was the Voyage of QV66, by Penelope Lively, and it's much btter than you think.
Edited by - Tawakalna (Reloaded) on 9/4/2005 8:09:27 AM