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Written by Anastasia Salter, Special to CC2K
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 It is inevitable in life that affairs which begin with romance and protestations of love eternal cannot all live up to the lofty ambitions that lovers first have for them: most such affairs come to an end. It is sometimes the case that love merely fades away, leaving only a small squeak of protest before the affair fades into silent memory, the romance and passion gone and replaced only with vague indifference. Not much is written of an ending of this kind: when a flame simply goes out, there is not much to tell. I have had affairs of the heart end in this fashion, only to encounter a once-loved one later on the street and let the whole matter pass with a vague hello.
But a romance does not always end so quietly: sometimes, it charges up with the heat of passions fiery and embittered, ending in flame and fury and passion turned upon itself to hate with the same strength as the past love. These are the sort of endings that inspire stories, whether those stories take the form of tabloids speculating on the bitter divorces of celebrities or the form of movies and novels saturated with the creator’s own passions.
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Written by Phoebe Raven, CC2K TV Editor
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 Preceding note: I can only hope you come by an excellent translation of The Magic Mountain. Thomas Mann was a master of language, sometimes he was seen in his study debating with himself over finding the one exact word he needed. He also wrote in the language of his time, wrote speech acts in an almost colloquial style and invented words if he needed them (it’s easy in German, we have great compounding!). So the quality of the translation is of vital importance. Just like it is with some of the other books discussed here. To a certain degree we can never appreciate and judge literature we haven’t read in its original language. Since no one can know it all and it’s a lot to ask you to learn German just to read Mann, go with the best translation you can find. (The quotations in this article are translated by me and more than amateurish. Forgive me!) Now to get to the point: Apart from the awesome alliteration fort he title of this article, Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain or German „Der Zauberberg“ has much more to offer than at first glance we perceive. What appears to be a story where nothing really happens, is in fact a story where everything happens. |
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Written by Nyko Morgan, Special to CC2K
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 When people ask me: ‘What is your favorite book?’ (For some reason, they do that a lot, so it’s not just a random starter!) I say: ‘Well, Faust. Goethe’s Faust.’ And I normally earn the most bewildered looks in return. ‘Why?’ is often the following question (in case the inquirer did not give up on me after the first answer). My response is always the same:
“Because never has someone put all the wisdom of this world in a more compact and amusing form.” Period. However, before going into detail in order to explain this statement, I want to make some rather formal points, which I consider quite important. |
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Written by Carol Zolnowsky, Special to CC2K
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Click HERE to read the intro to In Praise of the Classics Click HERE to read about the brilliance of Anna Karenina Click HERE to read about the dysfunctional love of Wuthering Heights Click HERE to read an essay about, and like, Ulysses Click HERE to read about the timeless beauty of Gone With the Wind Click HERE to read about the cosmic brilliance that is The Iliad Are you Man Enough to read Jane Eyre?  In order to explain why I love Jane Eyre so much, it might be useful to explain these two things about me:
1) I am a radical feminist. 2) I am an English teacher. So the combination of a (gasp!) strong female title character, in a (my word!) serious and well-recognized piece of literature, written by a (shocking!) well-regarded female author, well, how could I pass that up? After years of refusing to name my favorite book, on the grounds that there were too many (maybe I could narrow it down to my favorite seventeenth century metaphysical poet?), I finally found one. My admiration for this book is based partly on the strength of the lead character, partly on the addictive quality of the plot, and partly on the fascination moral and ethical discussions that the characters have as they debate on the proper course of action in any given situation.
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Written by Jaime Kawamoto, special to CC2K
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Click HERE to read the intro to In Praise of the Classics Click HERE to read about the brilliance of Anna Karenina Click HERE to read about the dysfunctional love of Wuthering Heights Click HERE to read an essay about, and like, Ulysses Click HERE to read about the ageless wonder that is The Brothers Karamazov Click HERE if you think you're man enough to read Jane Eyre
Click HERE to read about the cosmic brilliance that is The Iliad  I have the kind of living room with one wall devoted to bookshelves. Novels are piled three deep, crammed in sideways and spilling over onto end tables. These shelves contain everything from great literature (Margaret Atwood on my side, Hemingway on the hubby’s) to "where did I get THIS?" titles (Star Trek: The Rift, anyone?). The one book I can always find, even in the dark of a sleepless 3 am, is Gone With the Wind. Margaret Mitchell’s epic novel about that feisty dame Scarlett O’Hara is like the literary version of scotch to me: a complex, warm and mature companion that you can enjoy any time.
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