Back to the Classics: A Suggested Reading List

by Personal InterestPublic RelationsUncategorized

I’m a public relations practitioner, and my profession’s core is communication– the development and expression of ideas and information. I’ve been at it for a long while, but I still find it beneficial to periodically return to the artistic classics of communicating, whether in the form of music, film, or literature. These provide us with a standard of excellence, while reminding us what true clarity of thought looks like.

 

With all this in mind– and also for fun– I’ve compiled a chronological list of seven classic novels (complete with general remarks) I enthusiastically recommend to anyone who’s ready to take a break from the here and now and gaze back upon the exceptional.

 

Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brontë

Fabulously atmospheric, it’s a darkly troubling love story featuring multiple narrators and a series of flashbacks. The fact that this was Brontë’s only novel (she died in 1848, at age 30) is a tragedy for all readers.

 

Dracula (1897), by Bram Stoker

Thrilling, harrowing, and terrifying– this is the gothic novel that laid the foundation for modern horror. Dracula is about the vision of pure, ancient evil, and the circle of friends who dare to defy it.

 

Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sherlock Holmes canon is composed of 56 short stories and four longer works. Collectively, they’re the origin of modern detective fiction, and this novel is the best of them. Also worth noting, Conan Doyle is a vastly underrated writer.

 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), by James Joyce

To me, Irishman James Joyce is the greatest writer of modern English– and this is his most accessible novel. It’s a coming-of-age tale, and though set in late nineteenth-century Dublin, it remains stunningly modern.

 

The Great Gatsby (1925), by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Considered by many to be America’s finest novel, it’s a window into a very different time– but with characters and themes that remain entirely relevant. Speaking of those characters, they’re detailed, layered, and brimming with intrigue.

 

Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), by J.R.R. Tolkien

This series is one epic fantasy tale divided into three volumes. Tolkien draws upon the root myths and legends of northern Europe to weave what I consider the most powerfully magical novel in the English language.

 

Watership Down (1972), by Richard Adams

All the main characters are rabbits. Really. It’s a mesmerizing, edge-of-your-seat story with marvelous heroes and one of literature’s most wicked villains. Also– its author didn’t begin writing until he was 46 years old.

 

Kurt Praschak

Vice President, Public Relations

SCG Advertising & PR

Nine Essential Poems

by Personal Interest

Poetry is doing things with language that exceed the scope of routine communication – it’s rather like painting with words.  I occasionally engage in the process, and a handful of my efforts have appeared in poetry journals.

 

But, I’m a rank amateur; at best, I’ll string together several words in a fashion that isn’t dreadful. Perhaps in my role as a public relations professional I’m slightly more effective at communicating a message. In any case, the nine works briefly discussed below (in chronological order) are examples of poets connecting with the literary otherworld. Though these poems span centuries and represent widely varied styles, each provides a glimpse of poetic perfection.

 

Beowulf (circa 800?), author/authors unknown

Available to us only because a single, hand-written copy somehow survived through centuries of British history, this Old English epic offers a vision of a world where heroism is the most valued currency. I recommend Burton Raffel’s 1963 translation, and also suggest listening to several lines in the original language to experience the ancient music in words that now are understood only by select scholars.

 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day / Sonnet 18 (1609), by William Shakespeare

In the pantheon of English writers, Shakespeare occupies the best seat. In addition to nearly 40 dramatic works, he penned 154 sonnets – and this is likely his best. It’s certainly his most often quoted, and while the Bard’s language can be challenging for 21st-century readers, “Sonnet 18” is quite straightforward. Few would argue against it being the greatest love poem ever written.

 

The Old Pond (1686), by Matsuo Bashō

I love the Japanese haiku, with its five-syllable, seven-syllable, five-syllable format and emphasis on nature imagery. Matsuo Bashō is revered as the greatest of haiku masters and his “The Old Pond” – all 17 syllables of it – is generally considered the closest anyone has ever come to writing a flawless haiku.

 

My Heart’s in the Highlands (1789), by Robert Burns

In Scotland, the “ploughman poet” rose from rural obscurity and became his nation’s most beloved writer of verse. Remarkably lyrical, most of Burns’ works function equally well as song lyrics or poetry. In just 21 lines, this particular poem captures the wild beauty of the Highlands, as expressed by a narrator who misses them desperately.

 

Ozymandias (1818), by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Among the best-known of the English Romantics, Shelley’s works were infused with his progressive socio-politics. Using the brilliant metaphor of a half-buried statue, his “Ozymandias” requires only 14 lines to express the transience of human power.

 

I Am the Only Being Whose Doom (written 1836), by Emily Brontë

No other writer fascinates me as Emily Brontë does. She died at 30, leaving behind a single novel, which became a seminal work of English literature. She also produced some 200 poems, which are renowned for the same emotion and wildness that defines her novel. “I Am the Only Being Whose Doom” articulates loneliness and despair with a startling directness.

 

The Raven (1845), by Edgar Allan Poe

Many readers mistakenly think of Poe as a quirky writer of dark tales and the occasional clever verse. In fact, the combined brilliance of his poetry and prose are unmatched by any other American writer. Since being published, “The Raven” has become perhaps the world’s most famous poem – and certainly the only one after which an NFL team is named.

 

Song of Myself (multiple versions published from 1855 to 1891), by Walt Whitman

The centerpiece of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass volume, “Song of Myself” faced immediate hostility because of its structural and rhythmic uniqueness. More recent critics have suggested that every 20th and 21st-century American poet has been influenced by the 1,300-line work.

 

Howl (1956), by Allen Ginsberg

As a college student in 1984, I sat in an undersized lecture hall some 15 feet from Ginsberg while he read “Howl.” It was absolutely spellbinding. The work, 112 lines of free verse, is a shrieking, sometimes harrowing attack on modern society. America’s Beat Generation yielded some remarkable literary works, and “Howl” may well be the finest of them all.

 

Kurt Praschak

Vice President, Public Relations

SCG Advertising & PR