Vanished from view: books and authors nobody reads any more
March Hare
Shipmate
in Heaven
Seeing Innocent Blood in the Book Club started me thinking about books and authors hugely popular in their own day which have largely sunk beneath the waves. Who now reads Arnold Bennett, Joseph Conrad or John Galsworthy? - but there are examples from much more recent times: Ellis Peters, James Herriot, even PDJ herself.
What are the books or authors which gave you pleasure but which nobody seems to read any more? If you could nominate one 'forgotten' author for revival, who would it be?
I'll start by nominating JB Priestley and 'Good Companions'.
What are the books or authors which gave you pleasure but which nobody seems to read any more? If you could nominate one 'forgotten' author for revival, who would it be?
I'll start by nominating JB Priestley and 'Good Companions'.
Comments
They were some of the very few books of David's that I kept after he died; the rest went to a charity shop.
I was wondering whether anyone, even people who reads poetry, reads poems like Byron's Don Juan or Spenser's The Faerie Queene, who isn't doing so for academic purposes
Sadly, I think a lot of classic literature in general has fallen into the "just for college classes" category.
I always assume that everyone has read, or at least heard of, Terry Pratchett, but when I mention him I am sometimes met with blank looks. Not so much forgotten, just less mainstream than I think he is.
Much less the animated Devil and Daniel Mouse, possibly.
Downsizing had caused me to give them away, apart from Tree and Leaf, and Smith of Wooton Major.
As I grew up in Middlesex near Harrow on the Hill I like his poetry that mentions those places, and the Underground trains that passed through their stations.
Absolutely!! I should reread mine… It’s been too long!
And my Lewis.
And my Williams…
It's a shame, really. I confess i haven't made it through the Paradiso. But the Purgatorio is lovely, and a breath of fresh air compared to the fetid Inferno (which is that way on purpose, I know).
I read one last week. And saw one of the TV adaptations, which might leave some things to be desired, but do have the merit of containing Derek Jacobi. I have several James Herriot books on my shelves.
@Martha: I maintain that Sir Pterry is completely mainstream, as long as you keep the right company.
@LatchKeyKid I read the Silmarillion again earlier this year. I really can't make it through the rather turgid History of Middle Earth collections.
I have Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett on my lap as I type this. And yes, I'm reading it, I was distracted by an ebay sale going "Kerching!" on my phone.
Like the Once And Future King - which reminds me that T H White doesn't appear to be on anyone's radar despite providing a kind of sub-plot in H is for Hawk.
I've heard that all references to him have been dropped from the film adaptation.
Someone whose name has cropped up a few times recently in my reading about 'mystical' writers and nature writers is Richard Jeffries.
Does anyone still read him?
He grew up in a village near Swindon and wrote novels and articles with a focus on the natural world. He was a big influence on the poet Edward Thomas apparently. Thomas wrote his biography.
Jefferies was an early pioneer of what we would call science fiction today. His novel After London envisages a dystopian future where things revert to medieval conditions.
There is a small museum dedicated to him in his home village. I wonder if it gets many visitors?
I've not read any Jefferies but perhaps I'll get around to it once I've read all those books which are crying out 'How long O Gamaliel, how long? Read us ... read us ...' or even more plaintively, 'Finish reading us ...'
How about Penelope Lively or Beryl Bainbridge?
Penelope Lively was always an example of a very good author 'hidden in plain sight'. Her books still stand up well. AS Byatt probably belongs with Murdoch and Bainbridge, as a literary novelist who won lots of plaudits and prizes but hasn't quite had the staying power.
I still haven't read Olive Schreiner but I should - I am haunted by an all too brief stay in the Karoo. I loved Eve Palmer's The Plains of Camdeboo.
@Gamma Gamaliel Yes, I have read H is for Hawk and seen the film, and they did indeed cut all the TH White references. I was fully expecting that though, and they stayed remarkably close to the book for the rest of it.
I know of him but his books are mentally filed in my "old fashioned children's books" category, along with Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels.
The Life And Strange Surprising Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner, how he ... etc is a rather turgid read and Defoe's ending where Crusoe returns to the island, cuts down all the trees and turns into a slave plantation doesn't appear in any children's version I'm aware of.
Like many of my generation I retain a soft-spot for the 1964 French TV series which was dubbed into English and shown repeatedly on BBC children's television for the rest of that decade.
Iconic soundtrack.
@Enoch, yes, Waugh, what is he good for? Overdue a reevaluation I think.
Tolkien's still popular and has been mentioned but does anyone still read Mervyn Peake?
It's odd those, originally written for an adult audience are now 'children's' - the latter particularly. Is it just the Lilliputian section? And do they leave in the bit about putting out a fire in the royal palace by pissing on it?
The authors I read as a child were Rosemary Sutcliffe, Richmal Crompton, Henry Treece, Geoffrey Trease, Arthur Ransome, John Masefield, Elizabeth Goudge - any of those still on the shelves?
One set of books I do remember reading as a kid was the Hardy Boys, but I've not heard them mentioned in a long time.
My feeling is that children's authors have experienced much more churn because a bunch of books have either aged out or aged badly, and the standard of the best authors has - if anything - gone up, as it's become a much more from a literary perspective.
I've read a number of those authors, but largely because my father was fond of buying job lots of secondhand books - many by then decades old - but I don't think many of them are still on the shelves (bar maybe Ransome).
Similarly, I assume a lot of boys own/war adjacent stuff has aged badly/out (Biggles, John Harris etc).
Almost the same as my list. I am guessing that Rosemary Sutcliffe will be the last to be forgotten. Memory of the BBC Children's Hour adaptation of The Eagle of The Ninth is still clear - it was brilliant.
Alan Garner, anybody?
When I first discovered them I was really taken. They still make a good read if you like politics (university politics, national politics, family politics, etc etc) but I find it easier now to see Snow's weaknesses and pomposity.
Henry Treece ... ah yes.
Does anyone remember G A Henty?
All that rah-rah jingoistic stuff was out of fashion in the '60s but the books were still lurking in school libraries.
Does anyone still read Conan Doyle's historical fiction? The White Company?
He thought that stuff was better than Sherlock Holmes.
Does anyone read any R L Stephenson other than Jekyll & Hyde, Treasure Island and Travels With A Donkey In The Cevannes?
I looked back at some of his writing recently and was taken by how concise and compelling it was.
When it comes to children's fiction the Uncle books by J P Martin are sadly neglected.
An eccentric elephant living in a rambling castle called Homeward and waging a class war against Beaver Hateman and his gang made it far too 'classist' for a Britain rapidly modernising under the Wilson government.
But there was a subtlety there. Uncle was pompous and 'entitled' and had skeletons in his cupboard. He once nicked a bicycle.
And with illustrations by Quentin Blake what wasn't to like?
British Library Crime Classics collection
Great crime novels from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. I've been introduced to a lot of authors who are mostly forgotten these days but back then were equal to - if not better than - the ubiquitous Agatha Christie. People like Freeman Wills Croft, John Bude, Carol Carnac, Anthony Berkeley, Christiana Brand and many many more. So far, my collection of these books totals over 80!
A particular recent like was Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer. It's very funny, with everybody lying in the attempt to protect each other. Trying work out what actually happened is very difficult. It would make a wonderful TV special.
Another favourite (for very different reasons) is
Before The Fact by Francis Iles (a pen name for Anthony Berkeley Cox). This was made into the film Suspicion by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant. I won't give away the details, except to say that whilst Cary Grant is excellent, the book is far darker than the film and the ending is far far darker and more shocking than Hollywood would ever have allowed.
I'm a fan of Alan Garner. That includes his later works. Treacle Walker certainly made an impact on many readers recently.
I picked up Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Eagle of the Ninth" in a charity shop and thought it one of the best books I've read recently. The same for some of the Leon Garfield books I also found. Books like Harry Potter couldn't hold a candle to them in terms of the way language is used and plot is developed.
Mary Stewart seems to have pretty much faded, apart from the excellent Merlin trilogy. But her romantic adventure novels are a bit dated now. Anya Seton is another author who wrote absorbing books, and Jean Plaidy is a novelist who filled in many gaps in my youthful knowledge of history. You won't see them in libraries now.
And did you ever try Angela Thirkell. Especially in her first books the comedy and characters are amazing.
Mind, even as a child, I thought the Famous Five, which I don't think anyone has mentioned, were silly and too unbelievable but had friends who loved them.
With books for adults, if you look at the list of Nobel prize winners for literature over the last 1¼ century, even sticking to those who wrote in English some most people will have at least heard of, but by no means all. Unless you check in Wikipedia, who was Pearl Buck, winner in 1938?
I love all the children’s authors that Firenze mentioned. And quite a lot of the other authors mentioned so far.
Moving onto the mid 20th century - any other fans of AJ Cronin? Rumer Godden? Eiluned Lewis?
This thread has thrown up more that I wish to follow up or re-read.
The novel was adapted to a full-length feature film, The Eagle, in 2011.
I couldn't bear to see it, in case it sucked and ruined the memory of a beloved novel.
I’m struck by how many authors that have been mentioned in this thread are authors I’ve never heard of. These unfamiliar-to-me authors pretty much all seem to have been mentioned by shipmates in the UK or perhaps Ireland, so it makes me wonder if there’s a Pond difference at work.
A couple of my kids have read several of his books.
The five find-outers were much better!
You might try and find a copy of Eve Palmer's Return to Camdeboo with some of the best Karoo lamb recipes I know. Some years ago I stayed on the old Palmer homestead in the Camdeboo, a farm steeped in history. When were you in the Karoo, @Stercus Tauri?
Yes, I recall that wit and stylish writing in Thirkell: she took Anthony Trollope as a model, if I recall.
Right now I wouldn't mind curling up with some Elizabeth Goudge for nostalgia's sake. Lyrical and gentle stories of homecomings.
I had been thinking the same about Innocent Blood - I couldn't find it in any charity shop, nor was there any copy in the city libraries, so I had to go to another library. To me, it seemed about that particular book rather than the author (presentation of subject matter incompatible with current sensibilities), as I see her other books around, though fewer of them than I used to see in charity shops - these days the J section of murder mysteries is dominated by Peter James.
I do think about how some authors seem forgotten, especially British authors who didn't become popular in the US, because these days social media has such a strong influence on what people read, and Americans are the English-speaking majority.
There are three British authors born in the early 1900s all called Penelope (Mortimer, Fitzgerald and Lively), and I was recently part of an online discussion where people were responding to a post about Penelope Lively, saying they had read and enjoyed The Blue Flower -totally oblivious to the fact that this was written by a different Penelope, or that there was more than one Penelope!
Some children's authors I read as a kid: Nina Bawden, Ursula Moray William, Rumer Godden, Betsy Byars, Edith Nesbit, Penelope Farmer (another Penelope!), Judy Blume. All those were popularised at that time by TV adaptations or Jackanory. Of course, Judy Blume's continued popularity was boosted recently by the film adaptation of Are You There God, It's Me Margaret.
I was surprised when one of my students said he was reading a Jackie Collins novel - it had been decades since I'd heard anything about her, and I wouldn't expect her to be popular with today's young adults - but I suspect that had something to do with the fact he lived with his nan.
Ooh, yes, I went through a Cronin and Godden phase a while back.