Chris wrote:
> Ulysses is the greatest book ever written in the
English language.
I always felt that Ulysses was the end of a certain tradition in the novel: the novel as compendium of Western culture. Joyce packed the pages with so many allusions that scholars are still trying to figure them out. I would also say it is the greatest in the English language before movies swept the world.
But among my nominees for greatest novels in the English language would be:
Absalom! Absalom! -- the time/narrative shifts are just amazing and Faulkner brings so many varied voices to life. I also find that he has more variety in his women and their voices than Joyce does (I know Molly's soliquy and all, but I still think Faulkner showed greater talent is capturing the spoken female voice. Molly's soliquy is to me more of a literary stunt than captured voice. Rosa Coldfield's monlogues beat it hands down for me. And both are beaten by the Benjy section of The Sound and the Fury.).
The Invisible Man -- what can I say? It keeps getting better and better with each reading.
Voss -- All of Patrick White's novels are great, but the daring and balance here between male and female is amazing. Reading it you feel like a new light has been shed on the world.
Mason & Dixon -- it is as if Pynchon had invented a new dialect of English for this novel. He makes language capable of transmitting meanings which I had not realized possible.
I am glad I am not the only one to have troouble with the Henries -- James and Miller. Also, I have never been into Nabakov that much -- maybe the best writer in the post-Joycean tradition, but saying so might be damning with faint praise.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister