The Fieldston English curriculum contains a vast swathe of books, poems and short stories that open high schoolers up to the beauty of literature. However, a plethora of other timeless works exist outside the confines of the English department. Whether you are an avid reader seeking your next literary gem or a student looking to expand your horizons, here are novels, novellas and short stories that the Upper School English department recommends students read outside the classroom to enrich the reading experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
English teacher, Jarret Brown, has a couple of suggestions. First, he recommends John Steinbeck\u2019s \u201cThe Pearl.\u201d Published in 1947, the novella recounts the story of Kino, who discovers a massive pearl while diving in the Gulf waters and believes it will offer his family an escape from poverty. However, greed begins to consume the villagers as word spreads about the pearl. Kino encounters trials and tribulations attempting to sell the pearl. In the end, he devastatingly discovers that what was meant to bring his family wealth and joy instead brought destruction. What Brown values most about \u201cThe Pearl\u201d is that it \u201cteaches you about love. The power of love. I mean, the central character acts out of love and out of a deep understanding of what that is. I think we all need to know what it means to love and care for someone. To know that we are part of a family. That particular quality, I think, is crucial in helping us to navigate this world that we live in, which is sometimes difficult because we can be so unkind to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, Brown recommends \u201cA House for Mr. Biswas\u201d by V.S. Naipaul, published in 1961. Set in Trinidad, the novel is centered around Mohun Biswas, a man born into poverty and struggles to find his role in society. He yearns to own a house, and his pursuit of fulfilling this dream represents a quest for pride and agency. \u201cThe reason I think it would be a good book for students to read is that it speaks to this long-lasting and very important theme of migration and also family that we all can identify with. It also speaks about the way in which the world changes and how individuals have to adapt to it,\u201d says Brown. A book is all the more meaningful when it particularly resonates with its readers, and \u201cA House for Mr. Biswas\u201d did this for Brown through its exploration of ambition: \u201cWe all have it. There\u2019s nothing wrong with seeing how that manifests in different cultures and for different people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, Brown suggests Hemingway\u2019s classic tale of man versus nature, \u201cThe Old Man and the Sea.\u201d The novella, published in 1952, follows aging fisherman Santiago and his struggle to catch a giant marlin. He\u2019s faced an 84-day streak of lousy luck, unable to catch a fish. After an arduous battle, Santiago hooks the marlin as his perseverance and endurance are tested to reel it in. Despite the powerful forces of nature, Santiago refuses to give up. The novella presents \u201cthis wonderful treatment of what it means to endure or to follow through on a particular activity, and this whole idea of a journey in the sea,\u201d according to Brown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
English Teacher and Form IV Dean, Vinni Drybala, suggests \u201cThe Old Man and the Sea\u201d as well. Drybala believes the novella presents itself \u201cmore as an introspective, philosophical text than it does morals of the world around you. It\u2019s far more an isolationist text than a communal one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drybala additionally recommends \u201cCatch-22\u201d by Joseph Heller, which he read as a senior in High School. The satirical novel follows Captain John Yossarian during World War II, stationed on the fictional Mediterranean island of Pianosa. The title references military rule, \u201cCatch-22,\u201d stating that \u201ca soldier\u2019s request to be relieved from active duty can only be accepted if he is mentally unfit to fight.\u201d However, the rule\u2019s parameters ensured that no soldier would ever be deemed unfit for battle. Throughout the story, Yossarian grapples and navigates these absurdities as he attempts to avoid flying additional missions to stay alive. Drybala believes that the novel mainly speaks to the \u201cabsurdity of the human condition,\u201d helping its readers to understand life\u2019s meaning and complexities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
English Teacher Hsia-Ting Chang proposed Faulkner’s \u201cAbsalom, Absalom!,\u201d Nabokov’s \u201cLolita,\u201d and Austen’s \u201cEmma.\u201d Chang explained, \u201cI am drawn to novels that trap readers in a character’s psyche, no matter how disturbing or claustrophobic that experience might be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbsalom, Absalom!\u201d is widely regarded as one of the greatest Southern Gothic literary works. Set in Faulker\u2019s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, the story follows Thomas Sutpen, a man determined to establish himself as an extremely powerful figure in the South. He builds the plantation Sutpen\u2019s Hundred and marries into a prominent family. However, Sutpen is unable to escape his dark past, revealing secrets that cause the downfall of his dreams. Faulkner uses multiple narrators and nonlinear storytelling to symbolize the fractured essence of the truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although a controversial novel, Nabokov\u2019s \u201cLolita,\u201d published in 1955, is a highly well-known and prominent piece of literature. It delves into Humbert Humbert\u2019s infatuation with twelve-year-old Dolores Haze, whom he refers to as \u201cLolita.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEmma\u201d is a seminal piece of English literature, often considered one of Austen\u2019s best novels, alongside \u201cPride and Prejudice\u201d. Published in 1815, the story revolves around Emma Woodhouse, a youthful and beautiful woman who takes an interest in playing matchmaker. However, through her meddling, Emma unintentionally provokes harm to those around her. When reading \u201cEmma,\u201d the reader witnesses her character\u2019s evolution from a naive girl to an introspective young woman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chang finds deep value in each of these literary works because \u201cThese authors’ ability to walk the knife edge of sympathy and (in some cases) disgust is, for me, very compelling and helps me understand viewpoints that diverge wildly from my own\u2026I try to think about my own decision-making from a few different angles, and they remind me how siloed or insular my own thinking can be if I don’t check it or calibrate it against other ways of thinking.\u201d Chang highlights the true power that literature holds to help broaden perspectives and highlight alternative viewpoints, helping readers understand the complexity behind each and every human experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
English Teacher Charlotte Stabenau also relishes reading and rereading the novels of Jane Austen for her loveable female protagonists: \u201cThe women of Austen’s novels go through the stages of life in which so many changes, so that every time I read them, as my own woman’s life changes, I feel closer to them and, in a sense, understood without having to speak,\u201d says Stabenau. After all, a truly great book is one that accompanies the reader on their journey through life, evolving and growing up with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
English Teacher Ms. Gina Apostol recommends longer pieces of literature, including Melville\u2019s \u201cMoby Dick,\u201d Shikibu\u2019s \u201cThe Tale of Genji\u201d and W.E.B. Dubois’s \u201cBlack Reconstruction in America.\u201d Considered a great masterpiece of world literature, \u201cMoby Dick,\u201d first published in 1851, follows sailor Ishmael, who joins a whaling voyage aboard the Pequod with Captain Ahab. The plot essentially revolves around Ahab\u2019s desire to seek revenge against Moby Dick, the white sperm whale who bit off half his leg. Shikibu\u2019s classic Japanese literary work, \u201cThe Tale of Genji,\u201d explores the romantic endeavors of Hikaru Genji, a handsome nobleman born to an Emperor during the Heian period. Dubois\u2019s \u201cBlack Reconstruction in America\u201d is a work of history that delves into the period of Reconstruction in America following the Civil War. He argues that African Americans actively influenced the construction of an inclusive democracy while cementing their rights as citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor me, a reason to read long books is the amount of time it takes to read them\u2014and that time spent in my experience has been valuable for me\u2026It took me almost a decade to read Proust’s In Search of Lost Time\u2014but that time reading it was well spent: I gave myself permission to stop and drop it then pick it up,\u201d says Apostol. She additionally has cultivated the habit of trying to read all the books of a writer she is interested in: \u201cAs a kid, I did that with Kafka, Dostoevsky, Austen (I used to reread all her books in one go every summer when I was still in college), Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, Form III English Teacher Marjorie Gruder recommended \u201cA Vision of the World,\u201d a short story by one of my personal favorite writers, John Cheever. In it, a middle-aged writer in the suburbs begins to question life and his dreams after discovering a suicide note in his garden. According to Gruder, the protagonist learns that \u201cdespite the mundane quality of his suburban life, there are values and virtues that moor him to his world\u2026he comes to understand in his dreams the importance of love and beauty and valor. Those are virtues that I, too, hold dear.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for the literary work that I urge other students to read, it is Cheever\u2019s \u201cThe Swimmer.\u201d The short story is somewhat of a modern Epic that follows the protagonist, Neddy, and his goal to swim across his neighbor\u2019s swimming pools. In the 1964 short story, he embarks on an epic journey with a twist. In place of a world with supernatural elements such as centaurs and gods, Neddy is lost in a fantasy that he has created in his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found profound meaning in this story because it changed the way I view the hero\u2019s journey altogether. As a younger child, the hero\u2019s journey appeared in books like \u201cHarry Potter,\u201d but the narrative archetype felt like it was one reserved for \u201cthe chosen ones,\u201d not ordinary people in everyday humanity. However, Neddy embarks on a modern-day hero\u2019s journey, not as a conventional hero with admirable physical and mental strength, but instead as a relatable protagonist who goes on a journey as a flawed human being. Neddy\u2019s journey is traveling from fantasy to reality\u2013from midsummer to autumn, from pool to pool back to his empty home, from day to evening, from sunshine to rain\u2013so that he can come face-to-face with his real-life demons. The story invites everyone to embrace their own hero\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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