Which Novels Have You Returned To And Read Several Times In The Course Of Your Adult Life?
If you were to ask me that question, several novels would immediately spring to mind. I suppose I have read quite a few more than once, but not so many more than three times.
Le Rouge et le Noir
The one novel stands out as the obvious answer for me is "Scarlet and Black," by Stendhal, which I suppose I have read at least four times by now.
My first encounter with the novel was in my second year at university. It was a set text in a course I was taking, most likely "Politics and the Novel."
I am ashamed to admit that my first hasty impressions of the novel were not favourable! I remember ranting to a friend about why the novelist was spending so much time introducing us to some dreary French town of no interest to man or beast.
Ahem, such is the foolishness of youth, but, to my credit, if I may blow my own trumpet, I quickly warmed to the main character, Julien, his intelligence, his sense that life was something to be grasped, his idealism, his facility for feigning piety, a most convenient skill to aquire both then and now; but most particularly, I admired him for pursuing his campaign to seduce Madame de Rênal, which seemed - seems - a thoroughly laudable quest upon which to test a young chap's mettle.
Other Novels I've Read At Least Three Times
The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fitzgerald - and I am about to read it for the fourth or fifth time.
A Passage to India, by E. M. Forster
The Secret Agent, by Joseph Conrad
Orlando, by Virginia Woolf
What are your favourite novels? Are there any that you have read three or more times? Let me know in the comments, below!
Of these books you mention, I've only read The Great Gatsby... I'll check them out though. A few I can think of at the moment are: The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, The Star Rover by Jack London and I'm currently reading Fahrenheit 451 for the second time (which feels notably, and eerily, more prescient this time around). Thanks for the recommendations, hirohurl! :)
Thanks, @thatcryptodave ! I ought to have included The Stranger, by Albert Camus as I've read it at least three times.
I like your choices. I read Fahrenheit 451 a couple of years ago. I've read quite a bit of Jack London but not The Star Rover. If I read anything by John Wyndham it would have been at school, but the film version, I guess that would be "Village of the Damned" made quite an impression on me back in the day!
Have you read any of J. G. Ballard's novels? If not, I think you might enjoy them.
I've been meaning to read The Stranger for a while now as well. And I never made that connection between The Chrysalids and The Village of the Damned! Is that true?
I should add The Time Machine by HG Wells to my list, which I've read three times now. I've never read any of Ballard's work, no, but I'll give it a look. My favourite books are actually the heavy human stories like Love in the Time of Cholera and Anna Karenina, Silas Marner... Dickens... but I don't usually end up reading them more than once. Isn't that funny?
To clarify, the Village of the Damned is the film version of The Midwich Cuckoos.
I read The Time Machine when I was about 18, but my favourite H. G. Wells book is not a novel at all, but his "Little Wars," all about setting down some rules for playing war games with toy soldiers, and an account of such a battle, quite possibly played with his friend J. K. Jerome.
Those "heavy human" novels take a lot of digesting! Much as I love Dickens, I can't say I've read many of his novels more than once either.
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