Suggestions for the reading assignment:
This list is designed to help you to find an appropriate
book. Most of them are great representatives of the late
20th and early 21st century trends and tendencies in
literatures in English with an American focus. I also
added some remarkable titles from other centuries (18th
and 19th) to offer a wider range of
suggestions. I hope you will appreciate my effort ....:)
Some of the titles are accompanied by a link to watch a
part of the film based on the book. So you can watch the
film and read the book or do it in the other way, it
is up to you.
Read any item (one is enough) if you like, or choose any
other based on your decision.
British:
George Orwell: Animal Farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksnwIUyspps
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951936_1952083,00.html
1984
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951943_1952576,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rBDUJTnNU
William Golding: Lord of the Flies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUmkiX7qlGg&feature=related
Graham Green: The Quiet American
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyjmKeL0ER0
a special perspective of war
E. M. Foster: A Passage to India:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951944_1952611,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yJvteS8uEA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SzpXKLhEqs
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951943_1952550,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKuUPK2BfQ
Canadian:
Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuP0ZeatjE8
(received several
prizes!)
American:
J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye - easily
readable, story of a young man (teenager) and something
else...
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951939_1952246,00.html
Joseph Heller: Catch 22 war novel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgSSaENMuGA&feature=related
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951939_1952244,00.html
Ken Kessey: One Flew Over the Cockoo’s
Nest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jReNeEHH2lQ
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951944_1952606,00.html
Truman Capote: In Cold Blood (non-fiction:
based on real murders)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061809/
Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951941_1952371,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mM8iNarcRc
Alice Walker: The Color Purple
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088939/
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZtHkbYQmN6UJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Color_Purple+colour+purple&cd=1&hl=hu&ct=clnk&gl=hu&source=www.google.hu
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2190868761/
Moral – Jewish, ethnic fiction:
Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the
Sun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_Hansberry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hip2vqM7Wdg
Bernard Malamud: The Assistant
Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQfLPKR2uVA
Song of Solomon
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-bio.html
An outstanding one from New Zealand:
Jane Campion: The Piano :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3jUcEOWJO0
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi653787417/
Drama:
Arthur Miller: The Crucible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbaExSafCOg
John Osborne: Look Back in Anger (British)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOKPDR-zS04
Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Williams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsVxmk9pq2Y
Most of these books are really great representatives of
the literature in English, even you can check it:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1951793,00.html
If you lost the way and the hope, do not worry: some
well-known and enjoyable works:
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:v6noqkFECLIJ:www.libri.hu/konyv/pride-and-prejudice-2.html+jane+austen+pride+and+prejudice&cd=2&hl=hu&ct=clnk&gl=hu&source=www.google.hu
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AS5VdhiHHb0J:www.austen.com/pride/+jane+austen+pride+and+prejudice&cd=7&hl=hu&ct=clnk&gl=hu&source=www.google.hu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARWfCBr0ZDM
Charlotte Brone: Jane Eyre
http://brontec.thefreelibrary.com/Jane-Eyre/1-1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229822/
J.K.Rowling: Harry Potter
http://www.jkrowling.com/accessible/en/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EXn5Yoa_nU&feature=fvst
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:G1adFiwnXEUJ:www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/books-hp.html+harry+potter+the+book&cd=13&hl=hu&ct=clnk&gl=hu&source=www.google.hu |