List

Book lists like this shouldn't be taken too seriously, because they're more reflective of the reviewer's tastes than they are indicative of the quality of the selected works.

I've read quite a few of these, but by no means all of them, and indeed a number of them are among my favorites.  Reminded again, I just put Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" on hold at the library.

I want to read any novel now considered a masterpiece that was so maligned in its time that the author felt compelled to never write another.

Scholars argue whether this be true of Hardy.

If it be, such sensitivity--or perhaps sensibility?--must have been rare in Hardy's day.  It certainly is now.


TS