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Edward St. Aubyn's Reading List

If the author of the Patrick Melrose novels could meet any character from literature, he would choose Isabel Archer. And then he’d propose marriage.

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By the Book: Edward St. Aubyn (2013)

NYT By the Book column (2013-01-10).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Experience
Martin Amis · Buy on Amazon
"The things I remember best were enjoying Martin Amis’s “Experience,” Gore Vidal’s “Palimpsest” and V. S. Pritchett’s “A Cab at the Door.”"
Palimpsest
Gore Vidal · Buy on Amazon
"The things I remember best were enjoying Martin Amis’s “Experience,” Gore Vidal’s “Palimpsest” and V. S. Pritchett’s “A Cab at the Door.”"
A Cab at the Door
V. S. Pritchett · Buy on Amazon
"V. S. Pritchett’s “A Cab at the Door.”"
Cover of Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory
Vladimir Nabokov · Buy on Amazon
"being re-dazzled by rereading Nabokov’s “Speak, Memory.”"
Mrs Henderson
Francis Wyndham · Buy on Amazon
"“Mrs Henderson,” a short story by Francis Wyndham."
Little Toot
Unknown · Buy on Amazon
"The first book I fell in love with was “Little Toot,” the story of an adorable tugboat operating out of New York Harbor. He was my first hero, overcoming impossible odds and being far more courageous than all the big bullies around him."
La Chèvre de Monsieur Seguin
Unknown · Buy on Amazon
"In mid-childhood, my favorite book was “La Chèvre de Monsieur Seguin.” The eponymous goat was a more ambiguous hero than Little Toot, a figure of suicidal disobedience and hedonism, but also of heroic defiance."
Phèdre
Jean Racine · Buy on Amazon
"The works I studied over those two years were Racine’s “Phèdre” and Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” for French A-level. Racine’s austere adhesion to the classical unities and many other aspects of those works became part of the foundations of my sense of taste."
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert · Buy on Amazon
"Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” for French A-level. Flaubert’s slogan “le style est tout”... became part of the foundations of my sense of taste."
Cover of The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady
Henry James · Buy on Amazon
"“The Portrait of a Lady,” by Henry James. James’s idea of a “center of consciousness” presiding over a scene... became part of the foundations of my sense of taste."
Cover of Ulysses
Ulysses
James Joyce · 1922 · Buy on Amazon
"Joyce’s “Ulysses”... Joyce’s claim that “imagination is memory”... became part of the foundations of my sense of taste."
Cover of King Lear
King Lear
William Shakespeare · Buy on Amazon
"poetry by Yeats and T. S. Eliot; and “King Lear” were my set books for English."
Das Kapital
Karl Marx · Buy on Amazon
"“Das Kapital.” Karl Marx is long overdue for a revival, and who better to champion it than the leaders of the free world?"

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