Old Books by Dead Nobel Laureates

Congratulations to Patrick Modiano

French novelist Patrick Modiano has just been announced as the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. Old Books by Dead Guys offers a hearty congratulations to him even though, not surprisingly, I’ve never read any of his work. Year after year people argue over whether the winner is truly the world’s greatest writer, or whether the whole thing is one big political contest, yet despite such quibbles the authors chosen are generally of high calibre and certainly worthy of accolades. What I enjoy about the annual Nobel festivities is that it provides a much-needed reminder to my self-centric nation that great literature does indeed exist outside the borders of the United States. Of course, many of the world’s greatest authors never won a Nobel, and the prize has only been in existence since 1901, which rules out a lot of Old Books by Dead Guys. Nevertheless, if you’re looking to explore new authors in world literature, the list of Nobel Laureates is always a good place to start.

So far Old Books by Dead Guys has reviewed 34 works by 10 Nobel Laureates. Not surprisingly, they all come from the first half of the 20th century. Click on the links below to read the complete reviews.

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1903 Nobel) Norway

• Arne: A Sketch of Norwegian Country Life (1859)
• A Happy Boy (1860)
• “The Father” (1860) in Stories by Foreign Authors: Scandinavian (1898)
• “The Railroad and the Churchyard” (1882) in Stories by Foreign Authors: Scandinavian (1898)

Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905 Nobel) Poland

• “The Light-House Keeper of Aspinwall” (1881) in Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian (1898)
• “Bartek the Conqueror” (1882) in Tales by Polish Authors (1915)
• With Fire and Sword (1884)
• The Deluge (1886)
• Pan Michael (1888)
• Quo Vadis (1895)
• Sielanka: An Idyll (1898)
• So Runs the World (1898)
• On the Field of Glory (1906)

Rudyard Kipling (1907 Nobel) United Kingdom

• Kim (1901)

Paul von Heyse (1910 Nobel) Germany

• “The Fury” (1853) in Stories by Foreign Authors: German I (1898)

Maurice Maeterlinck (1911 Nobel) Belgium

• “The Massacre of the Innocents” (1886) in Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian (1898)

Knut Hamsun (1920 Nobel) Norway

• Hunger (1890)
• Growth of the Soil (1917)

Wladyslaw Reymont (1924 Nobel) Poland

• The Comedienne (1896)
• The Peasants (1904-1909)
• “The Trial” in More Tales by Polish Authors (1916)
• “A Polish Scene” in Selected Polish Tales (1921)
• “Death” in Selected Polish Tales (1921)

Sinclair Lewis (1930 Nobel) United States of America

• Main Street (1920)

Pearl S. Buck (1938 Nobel) United States of America (raised in China)

• The Good Earth (1931)
• Sons (1933)
• A House Divided (1935)
• Dragon Seed (1942)

Hermann Hesse (1946 Nobel) Switzerland (born in Germany)

• Beneath the Wheel (1906)
• Demian (1919)
• Siddhartha (1922)
• Steppenwolf (1927)
• The Journey to the East (1932)
• The Glass Bead Game (1943)

Look for more reviews of Nobel Prize-winning authors at Old Books by Dead Guys. If I review enough of them, I’ll make this an annual event.