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 Mon Feb 27, 2006 23:07 pm Best novel I've read in my native language |
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Hi Jamie (K) - what does the K stand for by the way? Are we talking about novels that were originally written in my native language or translated into my native language? If the former is the case I will have to think about the question for a while...
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FrankU
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| Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:49 am What's the best novel in your language? |
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The only Nobel Price winner from my country is Ivo Andric. HIs books have been translated in english and many other foriegn languages, and i my opinion is that his novels and novels of Dostoevsky are the best i've ever read.
I suggest his Nobel winning novel The bridge on drina, but there are also many more which are (my opinion) better.
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missanja
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| Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:52 am Best novel I've read in my native language |
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| FrankU wrote: | | Hi Jamie (K) - what does the K stand for by the way? Are we talking about novels that were originally written in my native language or translated into my native language? If the former is the case I will have to think about the question for a while... |
I was thinking of novels originally written in your language, and maybe (or maybe not) translated into English. Among German novels I like Der schwarze Obelisk by Erich Maria Remarque.
The (K) stands for my last name. Maybe you can guess it. It's German, and it means the janitor of a church. |
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Jamie (K)
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FrankU
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| Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:10 am Dostoevsky novels? |
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| missanja wrote: | The only Nobel Price winner from my country is Ivo Andric. HIs books have been translated in english and many other foriegn languages, and i my opinion is that his novels and novels of Dostoevsky are the best i've ever read.
I suggest his Nobel winning novel The bridge on drina, but there are also many more which are (my opinion) better. |
Hey Missanja, welcome! How many Dostoevsky novels have you read? Can you read and understand texts in Russian? How different is the Serbian language from Russian?
CU
Frank
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| Tue Feb 28, 2006 14:20 pm Special authors |
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Interesting question, but, in my opinion, there isn’t one best novel, although I’ve occasionaly (only too rarely) thought ‘this is the best book I’ve ever read’ – and then, after a while, I couldn't think what all the fuss was about. Maybe it has to do with a particular moment or mood.
However, I can say which authors have stayed in my heart. Here are only a few:
The Proven?al Marcel Pagnol, the English George Orwell (especially for “Down and Out in Paris and London” and “The Road to Wigan Pier”) and Charles Dickens, the Swede Axel Munthe (The Story of San Michele), the Irish Oscar Wilde, the Americans Barbara Kingsolver and John Steinbeck, the Colombian Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez, the Lebanese Gibran Khalil Gibran and the Spanish Antonio Gala. |
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Conchita
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| Tue Feb 28, 2006 20:49 pm Most enjoyable novel |
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Hi,
I would like to nominate any book by P G Wodehouse. Someone once said: The world is divided into two categories - those who think P G Wodehouse is the greatest ever novelist and those who haven't had the chance to read him yet.
Alan
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| Wed Mar 01, 2006 0:03 am Novels in German |
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| FrankU wrote: | As for novels in German, it sounds as if you have read some yourself? Which one did you like best?
PS: My surname has to do with cities and living in a town... |
Is your last name "Umgebung"? "U-Bahn"? 
I've read several German novels and novellas in German, and many in English translation. (I don't like reading them in translation anymore.)
I hated the main character in The Sorrows of the Young Werther, and if he hadn't shot himself at the end, I would have jumped into the story and strangled him myself. What an over-dramatic, self-absorbed little twit. I love Keller's Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe, and anything by Theodore Storm, because their language is so visual. Right now I'm enjoying Herbert Rosendorfer's Briefe in die chinesische Vergangenheit. I also think that Kafka's Metamorphosis is a hilariously funny book. I thought it was spooky until I'd lived in the Czech Republic and seen how people behave there. Now I think it's very funny.
One of my sisters would second Alan's recommendation of anything by P.G. Wodehouse. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:52 am What's the best novel in your language? |
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@ FrankU erm serbian and russian are two completely different languahes. I've had a chance to study russian at primary and in high school, and I may say that russian is very difficult language, especially their grammar. However, i read all Dostoevsy's novels and short stories trenslated into serbian, and my fauvorites are The brothers Karamazov, The Gambler and White Nights.
I really really suggest reading Ivo Andric's novels, no matter if you have political prejudice about my country. As I said he is nobel price winner for literature, and he is one of the best.
If somebody is interested in reading other Serbian wrtiers who are translated into english and other languages i will name them....
Greetings from Belgrade - european Manhattan
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missanja
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| Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:19 am What's the best novel in your language? |
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| Missanja, have you ever read any Slovene novels by Miha Mazzini? |
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Jamie (K)
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FrankU
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| Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:24 am What's the best novel in your language? |
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| missanja wrote: | @ FrankU erm serbian and russian are two completely different languahes. I've had a chance to study russian at primary and in high school, and I may say that russian is very difficult language, especially their grammar. However, i read all Dostoevsy's novels and short stories trenslated into serbian, and my fauvorites are The brothers Karamazov, The Gambler and White Nights.
Greetings from Belgrade - european Manhattan |
Hi again missanja, thanks for telling us more about your native language. So, are you saying if you hear a Russian talk you would not be able to understand him? What about other Slavic languages, do you understand Slovenian for example? You say Belgrade is the European Manhattan. Can you tell us more?
Thanks
Frank
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| Thu Mar 02, 2006 13:58 pm What's the best novel in your language? |
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| missanja wrote: | | serbian and russian are two completely different languahes. |
Serbian and Russian are not two completely different languages. They are both members of the Slavic language family, and they have enough grammar and vocabulary in common that speakers of one can often understand speakers of the other, although they may not understand absolutely everything, and once in a while they will understand nothing.
An example: Last night a Serbian student in my class did not understand the meaning of an English sentence in the subjunctive. I do not speak Serbian, but I translated the sentence into Russian and used one Czech word. She immediately understood and said it in Serbian. Only the question word was different between the Russian sentence and the Serbian one. The grammar was almost the same between Russian, Serbian and Czech.
Another example: I had an American girl in my normal English classes who had a lot of trouble with the verb tenses in complex sentences. I looked at her writing and realized she must speak some Slavic language at home. It was Serbian. I gave her a couple of English sentences to translate into Serbian. I do not know Serbian, but I understood the sentences, knew her Serbian verb tenses were also wrong, and told her, "No, the sentence should be something like...." She didn't believe me, and she phoned her father. Her father said my Serbian verb tenses were right, and that hers were wrong.
So, Serbian and Russian are different languages, but they are related and have much, much more in common with each other and with the other Slavic languages than the Germanic languages do with each other. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Thu Mar 02, 2006 17:08 pm What's the best novel in your language? |
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Jamie- about your explanation ... yes serbian and russian are both slavic langauges, they have similarities but have many differences... for example, somebody who doesn't speak russian, and speaks serbian could understand a little of conversation between two russians, but russians do not understand any serbian when they are listening to conversation. My friend from Belgrade now lives in Moscow, and he told me that, and explained me what happened when he arrived there when he didnt know any russian...
russian grammar and serbian are both difficult, because we have seven cases, and russians have so many exeptions in their grammar rulles... there are more differnces than similarities between them...
about slovenian language i don't know much... it sounds different than serbian and craotian, and when i spoke to some slovenian people, they told me that for them is easy to understand our language, but i found it very hard to understand their....btw theere were many slovenian people here during the europenas basketball championship in september last year, and a lot of them are still coming here because they adore belgrade....
i said that belgrade is european manhattan, and it is... like NY belgrade is the city which 'never sleeps'...last week in new yourk times was an article about belgrade and its future development, and they wrote something similar...
i've seen so many european cities, and i may say that all of them are typical 'capitalistic' cities - during the week, after seven oclock they are 'dead'... here in belgrade you can go out whenever you want and you can have party time any day any time...Franky if you want to know more you can send me a PP, because this topic is about books in native languages....
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