Major European Novels
Fall 2008
This subject traces the history of the European novel by studying texts that have been influential in connection with two interrelated ideas. (1) When serious fiction deals with matters of great consequence, it should not deal with the actions of persons of consequence—kings, princes, high elected officials and the like—but rather with the lives of apparently ordinary people and the everyday details of their social ambitions and desires. To use a phrase of Balzac's, serious fiction deals with "what happens everywhere". (2) This idea sometimes goes with another: that the most significant representations of the human condition are those dealing with persons who try to compel society to accept them as its destined agent, despite their absence of high birth or inheritance.
Readings
- Stendhal. The Red and the Black . Translated by Lloyd C. Parks. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 2006. ISBN: 9780451530288.
- LEC #: 1 · READINGS: Introduction
- LEC #: 2 · READINGS: Don Quixote . Chapters I-XXIII.
- LEC #: 3 · READINGS: Don Quixote . Chapters XXIV-XXX.
- LEC #: 4 · READINGS: Don Quixote . Chapters XXXI-end of excerpt.
- LEC #: 5 · READINGS: Balzac. Père Goriot , pp. 7-84. (Signet edition.)
- LEC #: 6 · READINGS: Balzac. Père Goriot , pp. 85-236.
- LEC #: 7 · READINGS: Balzac. Père Goriot , pp. 237-end.
- LEC #: 8 · READINGS: Stendhal. The Red and the Black . Book I, chapters 1-XXIII.
- LEC #: 9 · READINGS: Stendhal. The Red and the Black . Book I, chapters XXIV-end; Book II, chapters I-IV.
- LEC #: 10 · READINGS: Stendhal. The Red and the Black . Book II, chapters V-XXVIII.
- LEC #: 11 · READINGS: Stendhal. The Red and the Black . Book II, chapters XXIX-end.
- LEC #: 12 · READINGS: Flaubert. Madame Bovary . Part I; part II, chapters 1-5.
- LEC #: 13 · READINGS: Flaubert. Madame Bovary . Part II, chapters 6-11.
- LEC #: 14 · READINGS: Flaubert. Madame Bovary . Part II, chapters 12-end; part III, chapters 1-5.
- LEC #: 15 · READINGS: Flaubert. Madame Bovary . Part III, chapters 6-end.
- LEC #: 16 · READINGS: Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment . Part I; part II, chapters 1 and 2.
- LEC #: 17 · READINGS: Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment . Part II, chapters 3-end; part III, chapters 1 and 2.
- LEC #: 18 · READINGS: Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment . Part III, chapters 3-end; part IV; part V, chapters 1 and 2.
- LEC #: 19 · READINGS: Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment . Part V, chapters 3-end; part VI; epilogue.
- LEC #: 20 · READINGS: Tolstoy. Anna Karenina . Parts I, II.
- LEC #: 21 · READINGS: Tolstoy. Anna Karenina . Parts III, IV.
- LEC #: 22 · READINGS: Tolstoy. Anna Karenina . Part V.
- LEC #: 23 · READINGS: Tolstoy. Anna Karenina . Part VI; part VII, chapters 1-12.
- LEC #: 24 · READINGS: Tolstoy. Anna Karenina . Part VII, chapters 13-33; part VIII.
- LEC #: 25 · READINGS: To be announced
- LEC #: 26 · READINGS: To be announced
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗Historical OpenCourseWare
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.