happy birthday, brenda!

A very happy birthday and a great many debauched and revelrous returns, my dear azewewish!

*pops open champagne bottle*

Here's to life, love and the pursuit of fictional frivolity!

holland and world literature

This post has two topics: Holland and World Literature.

1. Holland
Holland was lovely this time, and the visit with the parental units harmonious, relaxing and happy-making. What a contrast to Christmas two years ago! This goes to show that there is hope for us all and that seemingly insurmountable psychological poisons can be worked through, and that one can emerge from the other side of the tunnel. Also, I played mahjongg till I dropped. We always do in Holland.

2. World Literature
In the car, on our way back to the ferry, I asked t'hub to enumerate nations of this world with a view to boasting of my incredible knowledge and learnedness in the ways of World Literature. Alas, I was soon chastened. My erudition is sadly lacking and I am much less well read than I had supposed. When he said China, I had to um and ah and admit that I had read the first few chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber but that was about all, and when it came to Finland, I could only dredge up children's books, and as to Portugal or Spain: I had to pass altogether. T'hub reeled off novel after French novel which revealed my pathetic dipping-of-toe into the world of French literature.

So, to mend this sorry state of affairs, I have determined that I will no longer rely only on the vagaries of the book trade and the current Booker Prize list for my reading plans but will make a systematic list of Novels To Read from World Literature.

So my question is: Any recs?? Especially recs from literatures other than English, German, Italian and Russian.

My initial list:

Japan
Am reading The Makioka Sisters by Takinaki and I love it! I LOVE IT!

Next: Tale of Genji by Lady I forget-her-name (but it's always nice to read something written by a woman in a century long, long ago)

China
Dream of the Red Chamber
And um... I don't know any other Chinese titles even!! Help. How embarrassing.

Spain
Calderon, Life is a dream (not sure I got the title right)

Alas, La Regenta

Brazil
There must be something that's not too unbearably magic realist.

Denmark
Jens Peter Jacobsen, that Impressionist novel whose title escapes me right now

Australia
Thomas Keneally, Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith

France
Giraudoux, Trojan War something

Alain Fournier, Le Grand Meaulnes

Something by Balzac

Belgium
Something by Maeterlinck

Poland
Quo vadis by man whose name escapes me right now

Something by Andrzej Szczypiorski

Hungary
Something. But what?

Czech
Hasek's Sveyk (however you spell it)

Greece (ancient)
Homer, Odyssee

Something by Aeschylus and by Euripides and by Sophocles

Persia (mediaeval)
Nizami, Seven Princesses

Hafiz, poetry

German-speaking
Something by Stifter, Schnitzler, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Jean Paul, Kleist (um, I may have to choose one only; the year only has 12 months after all)

There are some writers I'm not going to bother with, e.g. Zola who bores me to death with his metonymic finicky realism. I can appreciate it but not love it. And I need more women. And more Asians. And more pre-19th century. Has anybody read Voltaire's Candide, and is it any good?