5 ms·

Ask HN: Good books written before ~1900?

I recently saw a post on HN that recommended (among other things) reading books that were over a century old as a way to reflect on how different things were prior to the ubiquity of technology (i.e. social media, the 24/7 news cycle, smartphones, etc.) I'm thinking of spending a week or so doing a 'digital detox' and aside from hiking, meditation, and journaling, I'd like to spend most of my time reading. Does HN have any recommendations? I'm open to pretty much any genre, fiction, nonfiction, or otherwise. A few that I have on my list already: - Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville - Crime & Punishment by Dostoevsky - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

jonathanleane 6y ago
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams
mytailorisrich 6y ago
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
082349872349872 6y ago
The Bourgeois Gentleman Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir :-) Emma Essays Gulliver's Travels HMS Pinafore In Praise of Folly Journey to the West[1] Mullah Nasruddin stories[2] Nicomachean Ethics Panchatantra Uncle Remus War & Peace[3] [1] haven't read this one yet myself, but the old cartoon "Havoc in Heaven" was good, and books are usually better than their movies. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin , collections are probably available under multiple titles [3] much more in the book than the movie. it also looks like I should queue up Eugene Onegin.
alexmingoia 6y ago
The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō (1906)
Normille 6y ago
DRACULA [1897] Interesting as it was one of the first [if not THE first] novels to be written in epistolary format [ie. composed of a series of extracts from journals, letters, newspaper articles and even wax cylinder recordings, rather than narrated by a single person]. So there's a nice contrast there with works of today which might use a similar style, but compose the narrative from emails, text messages, TV reports, etc. As a novel, it's a very mixed bag. The beginning and ending are classic gothic horror --very action packed and exciting and feel quite modern. However, there are vast tracts in the middle which are hard going, having been severely beaten with the 'Victorian Melodrama' stick; women faint at the drop of a hat, men fall to their knees, beating their breasts, crying and wailing their devotion in front of all present and everyone eulogises at length on 'good vs. evil'. ROBINSON CRUSOE [1719] I didn't realise this one was that old, til I looked it up! Another cracking story but, to an even worse extent than Dracula, suffers from the attitudes of its day. Crusoe is such a pious, pompous self-obsessed prig that, whenever I read the book, I end up hating him and wishing he'd suffer some painful testicle-crushing accident, to wipe the sanctimonious expression off his fizzer. In spite of being holed up in a cave with barrels of rum, sacks of tobacco, piles of guns and gunpowder and more food and livestock than the average farm, Crusoe continually whinges about his terrible lot in life. [Try being cast ashore with only an ice skate and a netball for company, or confined to barracks with only a couple of bottles of hand sanitiser to drink --you pampered pillock!] And, of course, when he meets Friday, he treats him with the kind of masterly benevolence you might show a favourite dog; change your name, change your culture, change your religion, change your language. Good boy! Now you're fit to be a slave for an Englishman. [and, even the addition of a live-in servant to his already well-appointed cave, doesn't stop Crusoe endlessly bemoaning the terrible fate life has given him]. TREASURE ISLAND [1883] Another great adventure story. It's got pirates and buried treasure. What's not to like?! As with the previous two I've mentioned, Jim Hawkins, the hero character is annoyingly pious and good. However, in the case of Treasure Island, these niggles are more than rectified by the introduction of a great supporting cast of villains including Billy Bones, Blind Pew and, of course Long John Silver. I don't know if Robert Louis Stevenson intended this, or I'm putting our contemporary preference for 'flawed heroes' onto what he wrote. But, unusually for novels of that era the 'baddies' in Treasure Island are portrayed as rounded individuals with likeable aspects to their personalities, rather than being cast as one-dimensional pantomime villains. I think it gives the book a feel that's more modern than its vintage would lead you to expect.
shoo 6y ago
Seneca's essays & letters.
gshdg 6y ago
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
rurban 6y ago
It would be much easier and shorter to ask for good books after 2000.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
dodgyb 6y ago
Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around the World A fascinating account of the first solo circumnavigation of the world. Definitely a digital detox that will prep you the next book in this list http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6317 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6317 John Esquemeling - The Buccaneers Of America This is a fascinating read and provides some insight into some of the influences on the origins of American democracy. One to read before you start the de Tocqueville. https://archive.org/details/historybuccanee02perkgoog/page/n10/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/historybuccanee02perkgoog/page/n... Rudyard Kipling - Kim A spy thriller set during the great game between Russia and the Indian Raj. Most anything by Kipling is a rollicking good read. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2226 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2226 The travel writings of Isabella Bird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita Not pre 1900 but it is the perfect counterpoint to the paranoia inducing crime and punishment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita
simonblack 6y ago
There are literally thousands of books in the Gutenberg Press, (http://www.gutenberg.org http://www.gutenberg.org) that include stuff as recent as the 1920s. After the 1920s, things peter out because of the harsher copyright laws ("The Mickey Mouse Laws") since then. These include books by many famous authors such as Dickens, Conrad, Conan Doyle, Defoe, Kipling, Poe, etc, etc, etc. Enough to keep you occupied for years!
veddox 6y ago
Darwin "The Voyage of the Beagle" Homer "The Odyssey"
tomjen3 6y ago
Adam Smith the wealth of nations You will understand much about the world and you will know how small the overlap between what is in the book and what people think is in it is.

jonathanleane 6y ago

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

mytailorisrich 6y ago

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

082349872349872 6y ago

The Bourgeois Gentleman Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir :-) Emma Essays Gulliver's Travels HMS Pinafore In Praise of Folly Journey to the West[1] Mullah Nasruddin stories[2] Nicomachean Ethics Panchatantra Uncle Remus War & Peace[3] [1] haven't read this one yet myself, but the old cartoon "Havoc in Heaven" was good, and books are usually better than their movies. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin , collections are probably available under multiple titles [3] much more in the book than the movie. it also looks like I should queue up Eugene Onegin.

alexmingoia 6y ago

The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō (1906)

Normille 6y ago

DRACULA [1897] Interesting as it was one of the first [if not THE first] novels to be written in epistolary format [ie. composed of a series of extracts from journals, letters, newspaper articles and even wax cylinder recordings, rather than narrated by a single person]. So there's a nice contrast there with works of today which might use a similar style, but compose the narrative from emails, text messages, TV reports, etc. As a novel, it's a very mixed bag. The beginning and ending are classic gothic horror --very action packed and exciting and feel quite modern. However, there are vast tracts in the middle which are hard going, having been severely beaten with the 'Victorian Melodrama' stick; women faint at the drop of a hat, men fall to their knees, beating their breasts, crying and wailing their devotion in front of all present and everyone eulogises at length on 'good vs. evil'. ROBINSON CRUSOE [1719] I didn't realise this one was that old, til I looked it up! Another cracking story but, to an even worse extent than Dracula, suffers from the attitudes of its day. Crusoe is such a pious, pompous self-obsessed prig that, whenever I read the book, I end up hating him and wishing he'd suffer some painful testicle-crushing accident, to wipe the sanctimonious expression off his fizzer. In spite of being holed up in a cave with barrels of rum, sacks of tobacco, piles of guns and gunpowder and more food and livestock than the average farm, Crusoe continually whinges about his terrible lot in life. [Try being cast ashore with only an ice skate and a netball for company, or confined to barracks with only a couple of bottles of hand sanitiser to drink --you pampered pillock!] And, of course, when he meets Friday, he treats him with the kind of masterly benevolence you might show a favourite dog; change your name, change your culture, change your religion, change your language. Good boy! Now you're fit to be a slave for an Englishman. [and, even the addition of a live-in servant to his already well-appointed cave, doesn't stop Crusoe endlessly bemoaning the terrible fate life has given him]. TREASURE ISLAND [1883] Another great adventure story. It's got pirates and buried treasure. What's not to like?! As with the previous two I've mentioned, Jim Hawkins, the hero character is annoyingly pious and good. However, in the case of Treasure Island, these niggles are more than rectified by the introduction of a great supporting cast of villains including Billy Bones, Blind Pew and, of course Long John Silver. I don't know if Robert Louis Stevenson intended this, or I'm putting our contemporary preference for 'flawed heroes' onto what he wrote. But, unusually for novels of that era the 'baddies' in Treasure Island are portrayed as rounded individuals with likeable aspects to their personalities, rather than being cast as one-dimensional pantomime villains. I think it gives the book a feel that's more modern than its vintage would lead you to expect.

shoo 6y ago

Seneca's essays & letters.

gshdg 6y ago

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

rurban 6y ago

It would be much easier and shorter to ask for good books after 2000.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

dodgyb 6y ago

Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around the World A fascinating account of the first solo circumnavigation of the world. Definitely a digital detox that will prep you the next book in this list http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6317 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6317 John Esquemeling - The Buccaneers Of America This is a fascinating read and provides some insight into some of the influences on the origins of American democracy. One to read before you start the de Tocqueville. https://archive.org/details/historybuccanee02perkgoog/page/n10/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/historybuccanee02perkgoog/page/n... Rudyard Kipling - Kim A spy thriller set during the great game between Russia and the Indian Raj. Most anything by Kipling is a rollicking good read. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2226 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2226 The travel writings of Isabella Bird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita Not pre 1900 but it is the perfect counterpoint to the paranoia inducing crime and punishment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita

simonblack 6y ago

There are literally thousands of books in the Gutenberg Press, (http://www.gutenberg.org http://www.gutenberg.org) that include stuff as recent as the 1920s. After the 1920s, things peter out because of the harsher copyright laws ("The Mickey Mouse Laws") since then. These include books by many famous authors such as Dickens, Conrad, Conan Doyle, Defoe, Kipling, Poe, etc, etc, etc. Enough to keep you occupied for years!

veddox 6y ago

Darwin "The Voyage of the Beagle" Homer "The Odyssey"

tomjen3 6y ago

Adam Smith the wealth of nations You will understand much about the world and you will know how small the overlap between what is in the book and what people think is in it is.