At least academically, one area of literature I'm interested in is 19th century America. Two of America's greatest (and the world's greatest) novels were produced then: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Few read the former and the latter is maybe most known these days for generating controversy about the use of the "n-word."
To my knowledge, there has never been a successful film adaptation of the novel, although I believe they did try to make a musical out of it. The tagline could come right from Archie Bunker: "The lazy care-free days of slavery." And another thing, forget The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, who also shows up in Huck Finn. Tom Sawyer, the lovable little rascal who gets the neighborhood kids to pay him for the "opportunity" to whitewash his fence: America's first predatory capitalist.
The language in Moby-Dick is a challenge. It takes more than one reading. If one is not teaching it or the works of Melville, that's not going to happen. However, for those who want to take the plunge but are intimidated, let me suggest a site with the complete text, heavily annotated, called "PowerMoby-Dick." (Click here). One student told me he reads the book once a year.
Good film adaptations: a 1956 version with Gregory Peck as Ahab and a screenplay by Ray Bradbury and directed by John Huston. Patrick Stewart plays Ahab in a 1998 TV miniseries. Interestingly, Peck plays Father Mapple in this version.
Shakespeare: Well, blame my temperament, but I favor the tragedies. King Lear, played by James Earl Jones in Central Park in the early 70s, the best ever! And it's on DVD!
Some favorite quotes:
"Several hours or several years make no difference once you have lost eternity." --
French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.
"I feel safer down here among the Christian savages along Narragansett Bay than I do among the savage Christians of Massachusetts Bay Colony." -- Roger Williams, English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
"Have a kid, you're gonna be dead a long time." -- Professor John Carey of Bloomfield College to a student.
(Dr. Carey was my best undergraduate professor; he passed January 7. 2015 ).
To my knowledge, there has never been a successful film adaptation of the novel, although I believe they did try to make a musical out of it. The tagline could come right from Archie Bunker: "The lazy care-free days of slavery." And another thing, forget The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, who also shows up in Huck Finn. Tom Sawyer, the lovable little rascal who gets the neighborhood kids to pay him for the "opportunity" to whitewash his fence: America's first predatory capitalist.
The language in Moby-Dick is a challenge. It takes more than one reading. If one is not teaching it or the works of Melville, that's not going to happen. However, for those who want to take the plunge but are intimidated, let me suggest a site with the complete text, heavily annotated, called "PowerMoby-Dick." (Click here). One student told me he reads the book once a year.
Good film adaptations: a 1956 version with Gregory Peck as Ahab and a screenplay by Ray Bradbury and directed by John Huston. Patrick Stewart plays Ahab in a 1998 TV miniseries. Interestingly, Peck plays Father Mapple in this version.
Shakespeare: Well, blame my temperament, but I favor the tragedies. King Lear, played by James Earl Jones in Central Park in the early 70s, the best ever! And it's on DVD!
Some favorite quotes:
"Several hours or several years make no difference once you have lost eternity." --
French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.
"I feel safer down here among the Christian savages along Narragansett Bay than I do among the savage Christians of Massachusetts Bay Colony." -- Roger Williams, English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
"Have a kid, you're gonna be dead a long time." -- Professor John Carey of Bloomfield College to a student.
(Dr. Carey was my best undergraduate professor; he passed January 7. 2015 ).