Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Seven top books on envy

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Sara Jonsson tagged seven of the best literary treatments of envy, including:
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

The characters in this book struggle in the moral vacuum left after WWI, and feel apathetic jealousy for each other. Jake Barnes envies every man whose manhood is still intact (he was robbed of his by the war); Robert Cohn is jealous of Jake for having the love of Lady Brett Ashley; and Brett’s fiancee, Mike Campbell, is jealous of Jake, Robert, and every other man who catches his fiancĂ©e’s wandering eye. All keep their envy for each other somewhat under wraps, but it breaks through every now and then under the weight of too much alcohol and profound unhappiness.
Read about another book on the list. 

The Sun Also Rises is on Simon Akam's top ten list of the most attractive women in literature and John Mullan's list of 10 of the best taxis in literature. It came in at #6 on the American Book Review list of the 100 best last lines from novels; it is a book that Andre Dubus III frequently returns to.

--Marshal Zeringue