Table of Contents
A READERS DIGEST BOOK
Copyright 2009 The Readers Digest Association, Inc.
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FOR READERS DIGEST
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Joyce, C. Alan.
C. Alan Joyce & Sarah Janssen.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-606-52274-5
1. Literature--Miscellanea. 2. Literary curiosa. I. Janssen, Sarah, 1982- II. Title.
PN43.J69 2009
802--dc22
2009020644
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Do you realize that all great literature Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, The Iliad and The Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, the Bible, and The Charge of the Light Brigadeare all about what a bummer it is to be a human being?
Kurt Vonnegut
ONE FOR THE BOOKS
Admit it: Even though youre a ravenous reader today, you probably still wince and shudder when someone mentions The Scarlet Letter, and you are overcome by memories of that high school English teacher who slowly squeezed the life out of what technically should have been a fun read for a 16-year-old. Seriously: Its got sin, adultery, revenge, self-flagellation, mysterious astronomical portentswhats not to like?
Or maybe you break out in a cold sweat when you see a copy of Moby Dick. (How many allegories can you pack into one book, anyway?)
Or your eyes glaze over every time you recall the end of James Joyces The Dead. (How the heck do you hear snow falling faintly through the universe?)
Or you start feeling queasy when you spot a copy of Upton Sinclairs The Jungle. (We get it; meat-packing plants were super-disgusting.)
Weve all been there. No matter how much you love literature, theres probably a roomful of authors and a mountain of books you would go out of your way to avoid reading again. But just because you studied the dickens out of Dickens in high school, that doesnt mean you know the whole storyor even the most intriguing parts if it.
Wouldnt David Copperfield have seemed a tiny bit more interesting if you knew the author had a strange fascination with human corpses (page 31)? Would you have enjoyed On the Road a little more if you knew that Kerouacs original manuscript ended, in effect, with a note that the dog ate my homework (page 37)? And wouldnt it have been mildly reassuring to know that even the gentlemanly Mark Twain, upon opening Pride and Prejudice, was overcome with the urge to dig up Jane Austen and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone (page 125)?
On the other hand, maybe you adore every last scrap of serious literaturebut you think science fiction is second-class writing and the exclusive province of pocket-protector-wearing men. If so, you probably didnt know that 2007 Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing has been churning out fantastic sci-fi for years or youve overlooked the works of Octavia Butler, the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur Genius Grant (page 55).
Think that the James Bond novels are a far-fetched waste of time? Take a closer look: Some of Ian Flemings real-life WWII experiences (he was a British intelligence officer, after all) directly inspired Bonds daring exploits (page 65). And all those preposterously sexy romance novels? Theyre kid stuff, compared to the steamy personal lives of their authors, complete with broken homes, illegitimate children, and seductive handymen (pages 68-71). We will admit that not every book has a silver lining, so to speak, but even the dreariest prose can provide a few laughsso toward that end, weve rounded up the worst of the worst writing of all time, both intentional and embarrassingly unintentional (pages 78-81).
Speaking of kid stuff, weve also unearthed little-known facts about classic childrens authorsfrom the Brothers Grimm to J. K. Rowlingthat cast their lives and books in a whole new light. Weve got the scoop on the real endings of classic fairy tales (hint: Cinderella had less kissing, more eye-gouging pigeons); the long, strange trip that turned Fifi the monkey into Curious George (page 88); and some decidedly child-unfriendly works by beloved authors like Shel Silverstein, who penned a pop song about venereal disease (page 93).
Or maybe you read any fiction you can get your hands on, while nonfiction always feels like homework? Theres a reason that the phrase stranger than fiction is clichsometimes the true story is infinitely more interesting than the imagined tale. Remember the scandal over author James Frey, who duped Oprah Winfrey into endorsing his memoir? He wasnt the first (or the last) author to deceive the talk-show doyenne (page 107). And you never know what youll find inside someones diaryespecially if it belonged to Albert Einsteins last girlfriend, who documented his relatively curious treatment for avian depression (page 123).
And when youve grown tired of all the curious facts that lie under the covers, theres even more to be found off the page entirelyfrom the revered poet who once worked as a prostitute manager to pay the bills (page 146), to the less-than-successful investment strategies of Mark Twain (page 152), to a 1940s precursor to TVs Big Brother, where a gaggle of oversexed authors and artists (and one legendary stripper) set up house together in Brooklyn (pages 158-59).
Theres much more to be found between the sheets that follow, including publishers rejection letters for now-classic works of fiction; the original vampire craze, 200 years before Twilight; a concise guide to the greatest chain-smoking, pistol-packing private dicks in crime fiction; the most offensive books youve ever loved; and the secret rock & roll lifestyle of some of the biggest best-selling authors of all time. We hope youll enjoy discovering these secrets as much as we did.
SHOT OUT OF THE CANON
Most of the authors and works profiled here stand among serious literatures all-time greats, but dont let that scare you away. Weve rounded up all the stories your English Lit teacher didnt tell you aboutthe authors who almost succeeded in destroying their greatest works, addictions that fueled the creation of classic novels, and some of the downright weirdest books ever written. Want to seem like an instant literary expert (without really trying)? Its all right here.
