The novels that shaped our world

 

    Edinburgh's Book Festival starts properly tomorrow, but there was a special event, in conjunction with BBC Arts, in the George Street theatre this morning on the novels that shaped our world. Prefacing a series on radio and television this autumn to mark the 300th anniversary of the publication of Robinson Crusoe - considered to be the first English language novel - the event co-opted three members of the six-strong panel which has been choosing 100 novels of significance and asked them to outline the criteria with which they compiled their list and discuss what reading means to them. Edinburgh's own Alexander McCall Smith, novelist Kit de Waal, and TLS editor Stig Abell joined Joe Haddow, producer of Radio 2's Book Club, for an hour of lively chat with plenty of audience participation.

    While the panel felt that reading is "entertainment, first and foremost," a book's ability to "change us, move us, and give us a different view of something," should not be underestimated; "that's what literature is for," said Kit. Stig, a frequent re-reader, talked of (re-)reading for solace and comfort and escape, and noted that re-reading at different stages in life enriches our impressions, understanding, and perspective. Context and even location while reading were both accorded due significance, as was the influence - for good or ill - of English teachers. 

    The panel were unanimous in their condemnation of showing off about books, literary snobbery, and failing to respect others' tastes, no matter the preferred genre, though they made one exception to this, namely books which are badly written. Their list is, however, driven by admiration and the desire to share good things, as we might say to a friend, "I love this - do read it."

    In choosing their 100 they have identified a number of overlapping themes such as identity, class and society, coming of age, love, power, and so on. Questioned on what drew him particularly, Sandy said it was a sense of place, rather than a specific theme or type of plot, to which he responded most and he gave Forster's A Passage to India and the works of R.K. Narayan* as prime examples.

    Asked to name a book which had shaped them, several members of the audience contributed: War and Peace was cited for its deft portrayal of relationships, the subtleties of behaviour, and the futility of war; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, so much more than its legacy in popular culture; Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen continues to transport a reader who first discovered it aged eight when it "taught [her] magic - of the book variety." Other works mentioned included The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers for its articulation of loneliness and introduction to American literature, Pride and Prejudice for initiating a shift in a young reader's path in life, and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca for providing solace at a difficult time. Jane Eyre still connects a lady with the grandmother who bought a copy for her in Woolworths when she was ten years old. It unlocked her imagination, she said, and opened up "the inner life that can forever sustain you." 

    Above all, perhaps, it was the power of literature to foster empathy which was deemed its most important characteristic, one that is surely even more valuable in these troubled times.

 

*The book group read The Painter of Signs.

Comments

[LizF]

Oh I so agree with the panel - but I am a huge admirer of Kit de Waal anyway so the sense they make shouldn't surprise me.
So many books shaped me that the list would go on and on but I have another vote for the magic of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen which I re-read so many times and my readings of Jane Eyre will forever link me with the great-grandmother I never knew but who was the first owner of my copy.
Top of my list though has to be The Little White Horse (which I hope you enjoyed) and The Children of Green Knowe - a psychologist would probably have a field day as to why a shy only child would have loved those books!

Glad to see you back!

[Cornflower]

Thank you, Liz - I loved The Little White Horse!

[Dark Puss]

The role of all art is "change us, move us, and give us a different view of something" and books are one part of that (an important one I would agree). I would also offer someone a book saying "I didn't like this but I think it is well worth trying, see how you feel". On "well written", while my heart agrees completely, I wonder how that might be defined and I suspect that it moves with the times.

Books that shaped me? Colette's writing of course, earlier in my life I am less sure what "shaped" me, though I share with others a great fondness for The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Possibly the following and I include some recent shape-shifting books, (but what they most obviously gave me was a love of C20 and C21 novels many in translation!):

Herzog, The Tin Drum, Slaughterhouse 5, The Periodic Table, Invisible Cities, If on a Winters Night, Kafka on the Shore

[Cornflower]

An interesting list, thank you, DP.
The panel didn't dwell on or attempt to define 'well written', but as a benchmark they did give an example of the opposite. It's a book I haven't read so I can't comment.