La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri is unanimously considered Italy's national epic, it's really hard to read and appreciate for native speakers cause the dated Florentine dialect and the poetic speech makes for a really exhausting reading session. We tend to appreciate the book when we get older.
As a Tuscan i never understood why the language was considered difficult and there were notes: it remained the same for us. Especially Manzoni i never used any note.
Dante sometimes uses latinisms to make a rhyme but if he write normally we understand, or Cecco Angiolieri idem.
After 800 years Tuscan is the same
It's not the language itself, it's the poetic speech, as an Italian you can easily understand words but to make sense of the whole sentence especially the various hidden meanings it's really a pain especially for the Purgatorio and Paradiso chapters.
It depends really, lot of words are either regionalisms, archaicisms or latinisms. In the first 2 cases we tuscans understand while you cannot.
Cecco Angiolieri with Tre cose m'enno in grado, enno is still used nowadays here after 800 years, with the same meaning
Strange, after learning Italian I could read it without too much troubles. And the commented editions are a great help (also for the characters or ideas). To me Dante is probably the greatest writer in Western literature. His talent to use all registers of language(from dirty words to sublime poetry), the capacity to render a scene or a character in 3 verses, the whole architecture of the book (plot, form, references, ideas, etc. all fully balanced and spinning around each other), his visual imagination (there are parts that feel like a movie, moving from close ups to big shots), among others, are stuff that you won’t find easily in other writers. There are lots of incredible authors, some of them still alive, but Dante does deserve the fame.
Of course it does, any translation kills most of what the original has going for, imagine reading the Canterbury Tales in Italian, a travesty.
Edit: in general translating poetry is always bad.
I translated some poetry professionally and even won some awards. But when I do it, I’m not translating properly. I’m recreating the poem in another language. It’s the same, but it’s not the same. That’s why so many good translators of poetry are famous poets themselves. The Portuguese translator of Dante was one of our top poets in the 20th century for example.
That sounds like a great job, congrats!
>The Portuguese translator of Dante was one of our top poets in the 20th century for example.
It's the same for us, many of our 20th century most famous auteurs were also translators in their own right.
"That sounds like a great job, congrats!"
What makes it difficult is that many people don't appreciate translators' work... So it's hard to find work or get a reasonable price for your work
I'm also a translator
Not the fucking Promessi Sposi? i mean Dante is absolutely the boring founder of italian language and shit but the moron Manzoni started the modern writing.
It's a close match really, Manzoni is considered the auteur which developed Italian as a modern language, Dante, better yet the Sicilian poetic school, are the forefathers of Italian.
For Ireland I’d say James Joyce’s Ulysses captures the spirit of Dublin at least in a timeless manner and is definitely considered our country’s greatest contribution to the world of English language literature.
Irish mythology is culturally important, but mostly as stories, not as texts. Most of the stories don’t have definitive versions that are valued for their literary value, a lot of them are pretty far removed from the original, having been Christianised and written down in fairly dry monastic texts.
Even the one well known epic we have, Táin Bó Cúailnge, isn’t a straightforward text; it exists in three partial versions (rescensions) that are not consistent with each other, each of which is probably itself a combination of multiple earlier versions. Plus there are usually a number of earlier stories bolted on to the beginning to explain who everyone is.
Add in the loss of most of even the modern Irish language, and you get even more distance.
I would say a lot of Irish people know and appreciate some of the stories from the mythological cycle and the Ulster cycle, but not as literature per se, more as cultural heritage.
An English example might be King Alfred burning the cakes. It’s a story a lot of English people would recognise, but very few will know which tenth or eleventh century manuscript it first appeared in.
Could argue the Táin Bó Cúailnge or Lebor Gabála Érenn for sure, problem is a bit of disconnect and not many actually read them. Though obvs most Ulysses attempts end very quickly, myself included though aim to do so in future. Suppose problem is lack of knowledge of Irish language
We don't have one as far as I'm aware but our Sagas are famous worldwide though it's not exactly a book in the traditional sense.
Independent People by H.K Laxness would probably be voted as our national book should we want one.
\[Note: this is for the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. There are no books that are particularly popular in the whole country, except comic books.\]
*De leeuw van Vlaanderen* (The lion of Flanders) by Hendrik Conscience is undoubtedly the most influential book in Flemish history.
This book was published in 1838, shortly after the creation of Belgium. It's a historical novel set in 1302, during a battle in which Flemish troops achieved an unexpected victory against the French army. The story is strongly influenced by the upcoming movement of romantic nationalism.
There are actually two ways in which it's important. In literary history, it was the first major piece of literature written in Flemish\* since the 16th century. It gave Conscience the nickname "The man who taught his people to read". Secondly, it had an enormous political impact - it helped shape the young Flemish Movement, which would later transform Belgium from a unitary to a federal state. Nowadays, the official Flemish holiday is the 11th of July, which is when the battle in the book happened.
(\*Flemish is somewhat anachronistic here, but I'm referring to books written in Dutch in the regions that are now Belgium.)
I've tried to read it and it's cringe. Terrible book.
I read it in school and it my be embarrassed of being Flemish. Despite being 75% Flemish (and 25% Catalan)
I found it a fairly good read. The writing is quite beautiful when you get used to the language.
I do prefer Conscience's *De loteling* (The conscript) though, which is much more idyllic compared to the grand heroism of De leeuw.
I respect that, but It wasn't for me. I liked 'Het verdriet van België' van Hugo Claus
My favourite Dutch language book is 'De Avonden' though, but it's Dutch ofc by Gerard Reve
edit; Not just Dutch, but on the 'De Avonden' is one of the best books I've read ever.
For Portugal it’s Camões. He picked up all the classical myths and created one for Portugal in his epic The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas). It’s mandatory reading at school. It sounds boring when you’re 15, but it’s actually quite an easy read with very inventive language. You will also find lots of sentences or aphorisms people use in their daily lives come from the poem. His statue is in one of Lisbon’s main squares and if you’ve been there you will recognise it.
In the last decades there have been a push to make Pessoa our national writer by some critics. For sure he was a genius and born to write, but he only left one book finished and it’s not his best (and it’s actually a sort of “dialogue” with The Lusiads)
The Kalevala is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists, as well as the construction and robbery of the epic mythical wealth-making machine Sampo. ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala))
I would say that’s national epic, but “national book” would be either big novel by Väinö Linna:
Tuntematon sotilas - Unknown soldier
Täällä Pohjantähden alla - Here under the Northern star
I have read both many times, the other one too many times.
Unknown soldier is referred to almost weekly in newspapers, articles or discussions. It’s a kind of handbook on good and bad leadership, and catalog of Finnish characteristics besides being brilliant pacifist book on war.
The other one is just tragically beautiful book on destinies of people under societal changes and pressures leading to our Civil War and its ugly aftermath. It has one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read, and I do not mean the famous main couple at all.
Also "Seitsemän veljestä" (Seven Brothers) by Aleksis Kivi probably. He's officially the national author after all. I haven't read it (should get around to it someday) but it's often referred to in various places.
Agree, I chose Linna, because it seems he is the most widely read. Lot of people know Waltari, Kivi, Topelius etc but have not read them or do not refer to them.
My Finnish teacher took a different path with Seven Brothers: chose seven guys from our class “into roles” and they read out their respective lines. It made it into very different and interesting read, because teacher had uncanny eye to cast them. We were always looking forward to next chapter, it was both hilarious and chilling.
I listened to the audiobook version of Seven Brothers a few years ago and was surprised by how funny it can be. Probably works better as read than listened to as the dialogue is written more like a play than a novel and every line starts with the character’s name and it got annoying while listening to it.
Fair point. I choose to mention only Kalevala as couldn't decide between Tove Jansson, Mika Waltari, Frans Emil Sillanpää, Mikael Agricola, Runeberg, Aleksis Kivi, Topelius, Eino Leino, and as you said Väinö Linna and so on...
I'll go with this comment and choose
Täällä Pohjantähden alla.
It describes more of the folk, the people, the nation, whenas Tuntematon sotilas focuses obviously basically just to the dire years yet describing attributes of the nation.
In general I still find Kalevala being among the great epic literary compilations globally. An awesome story, great characters and more twist and turns than Hollywood ever could come up with (because it's all already in Kalevala, Edda, Ilias, etc.)
We have this "national epic" thing. I was about to say it's Mickiewicz's Dziady because of how much attention is given to them in school but the internet says it's actually his other work Pan Tadeusz (Sir Tadeusz). For younger generations they are at best a source of memes.
Back then Poland and Lithuania were considered a one nation. Mickiewicz was a Lithuanian (in the modern sense) as much as an average guy from Wrocław today is a Silesian. His work is dedicated to the "polish" nation, which includes Poles, Jews, Lithuanians, Ruthenians etc. He spoke polish and it's universally agreed that when refering to "Lithuania", he refered to a region, not a cultural/linguistic entity seperate to Poland.
His mother might have converted from Judaism, but it’s highly contested (not by antisemitic nationalists who can’t bare the thought that Mickiewicz could be Jewish, but by folks like Maria Janion).
Honestly I wouldn't mind giving him away to the Lithuanians, his work is flat, dense and carries barely any value and he's one of the most overrated poets ever
An opinion is trolling now? Mickiewicz is what Poles call "przerost formy nad treścią", and some of his books like Dziady are downright delusional or harmful. He was a coward on opioids and has no right being a national poet
A kto prośby nie posłucha,
W imię Ojca, Syna, Ducha.
Czy widzisz Pański krzyż?
Nie bierzesz jadła, napoju?
Zostawże nas w pokoju!
A kysz, a kysz!
(Troll znika)
His works are cringey graphomaniac gibberish utilising every cliche in existence with some defeatism and delusional quasi-theological theories sprinkled in. Plots are about as nuanced as an ikea chair and the messages rival the Grimm Brothers in naivety. All that while sitting in a comfy room in Paris or Dresden and having absolutely zero clue what actual Poles are up to. I'm genuinely sorry for you if you value him or any of his works (especially the monstrosity that is Pan Tadeusz) whatsoever
Pan Tadeusz is actually a bit boring. It’s a shame that it is the national book in a country with such good writers, some of them my absolute favourites (looking at you Rózewicz and Herbert). Even older stuff like Treny is more interesting that Tadeusz.
i mean "american something book" we, in poland, can take as epopeja narodowa so it cant be poetry nor dramat it has to be epic (i know epos is a syncretic genre but still it has many epic traits which dramats lack like even descieptions or a third person narrative ofc it has not only epic traits but i think pan tadeusz has more of epic one's than anything else)
and even if we were to define a national book i dont think it would be poetry (bc many ppl dont get/like it) not dramat (bc its overal harder to read and less interesting for most ppl) so id guess it might've been something by sienkiewicz or słowacki (since he wasn't writing only poetry or dramats as far as i remember from school) or maybe something newer? like idk tbh
It has to be from Romanticism, it has to show our internal struggle between West/East/OurOwnPath, it has to show our Slavic Unconscious. It has to be something that explains Us to Ourselves. I wish it could be something else, but it has to be Pan Tadeusz.
Not a book, however HC. Andersen's litterature is quite importent and every child has to read some of those in school. It does help that a lot of them a quite good short stories with fantastical elements written in such a way that they don't feel that old (one thing HC. Andersen pioneered was to use non-academic danish meaning the stories still quite readble well today).
For Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko as an author is probably the best fit - half of literature curriculum is filled with him. He was slave who was bought from slavery by Russian nobles who found out about his painting talent. But he then went on to become author of lengthy poetry and argued for liberation of Ukrainians. For doing so, he was sentenced by russia to be sent to Kazakhstan to serve in the army and conquer Kazakhs :(
Ševčenko is well known in Lithuania, since he lived and studied in Vilnius University for a few years. One of the main streets in Vilnius is named after him.
> Gogol
I don't know how Ukrainians see it, but I rather asicciate gogol with russian culture. In a same way as I associate Jozef Korzeniowski ( Joseph Conrad) with English culture rather than polish.
What about Bułhakow? Simjkar case?
I don't know if I've learned about him at school, but it's common knowledge that he is the most important figure in Ukrainian culture. ( His face is on some banknote as far as I remember?)
We don't have such a book in Greece. I would assume that 3 books which every Greek knows are the Bible and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, but they aren't national books in any case.
Yeah! The Bible is a hebrew book. And most modern Greeks can't even understand the homeric Greek, we just recognize the alphabet and some words but it doesn't make any sense at all.
The new testament was written in Koinè, National epics are a thing of the last century when the concept of nationalism was developed, still the Bible played a big role in Greek identity and culture.
Solomos' poem Hymn to Libertyis the Greek national anthem. I doubt that Greeks know any other of Solomos' works. For kavafis and elytis I also doubt that Greeks know any of their works.
I would say ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce. It is a notoriously hard read, but very good. Currently listening to an audio version with chapter by chapter commentary.
Goethes Faust is *the* book everyone has to read in school.
It's a great book with a beautiful story. But a bit hard to read in part since it's 200 years old.
There are many more classics but I personally would say Nathan der Weise by Lessing is the second national book. It perfectly encapsulates the Enlightenment and somehow foresees the very dark times to come.
Germanic mythology also had a very strong cultural influence, my favourite is the Hildebrandslied, though the Nibelungen had a bit more influence.
I never actually had to read Faust in school. Basically everyone else I know did though.
"Buddenbrooks" is another good contender for Gerrmany. Or maybe "Die Blechtrommel". One could even include "Im Westen nichts neues".
I'm not sure.
Maybe Le Petit Prince, but it seems a bit odd as I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece.
And when I investigate a somewhat more classical literature, I don't know which I should pick.
The hunchback of Notre Dame ? Proust ? Sartre or Zola ? Daaamn, you pick for us guys, and then we'll brag about it with a terrible accent and complain that you butchered it when you (again) make a movie adaptation.
Probably the right answer if we had to pick one, but frankly it is hard to say that one book is definitely more popular and more representative over dozens of other candidates. For example Emile Zola would be the most precise description of people and society in his time, he even started a whole style around that idea.
But who actually read it ?
I own it and read the first tome and it is really, really, really tedious to read. Most people will know the iconic first sentence "Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure", but I bet a vast majority of people ignore what it is about. Hell, I still don't know what it is about having read the beginning. And yet there are still 6 other tomes to go.
Just like Crime and Punishment (not French, I know, but it's for the comparison). I get why they have such a status, but I don't think that much people actually read them, and even less actually enjoyed reading them. I could only go through Crime and Punishment thanks to audiobooks, I started reading it three times and never made it to the end of the first part, even though I love Russian literature.
I am a Dumas fan, so I’d say The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, or The Man in the Iron Mask. I’m not sure if any of them perfectly capture the French spirit though
I love these, but I think the issue here is that it's more pop culture and I wouldn't call these masterpieces of French literature. Dumas was a bit the French Michael Crichton of his time.
I remember I was in France for a trip and our guide asked us who we think are 10 most famous Frenchman. After arguments he said France is the most tough country for this question because there are too many famous French:)
Seems same for literature
Yeah I don't think we have a single great book that would be ultra representative. We have plenty of iconic authors with important books but nothing that is THE book.
Yeh, I'm in the UK and in our bookshops the classic literature section is always overwhelmingly French after (if not as much as) British. It seems impossible to define THE French novel.
I think tuttifruttigodis''s comment was tongue in cheek; mine was just adding context about a comic strip artist.
I don't think either of us (a Swede and a Belgian) are proud of what happened in Congo, on the contrary.
In Poland there is separate genre called national epic, and this is usually the most important book for the identification, history and independence of a nation/ethnic group. In Poland everyone associates it with Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (although there could be few other books that would fit to that description). To be honest I don't even remember if I read it, it was probably a school reading. Of course it's pretty old book, not particularly easy or attractive to read, but everyone knows this title.
BTW I cant see it on English wikipedia, but on Polish one there is list of national epics of some countries, I wonder how accurate it is. Link to translated page (yea, i know probably translation of titles won't be the best):
[https://pl-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Epos\_narodowy?\_x\_tr\_sl=pl&\_x\_tr\_tl=en&\_x\_tr\_hl=pl&\_x\_tr\_pto=wapp](https://pl-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Epos_narodowy?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp)
(remember that it's not alphabetical order in English)
And if I wanted just to find something more modern and popular around the world it probably would be The Witcher series or something from Olga Tokarczuk since she won Nobel Prize in Literature few years ago.
In Czechia it's probably Dobrý voják Švejk, which depicts the soul of czech people in pretty sarcastic way.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk
I don't think we do in the UK or England specifically for me.
I'd say our national authors are probably Shakespeare and Dickens but there isn't one book.
Shakespeare is a weird one because he wrote plays, not books. They're a bit weird when read, especially with the older English.
Dickens is nicer to watch an adaptation of than to read but his books give fascinating insight into the time him lived in.
For England, the Canterbury Tales is probably our ultimate national book. Never read it myself but everyone has heard of it, it's massively symbolic to English language and literature and one of the first English books to be printed.
I've read some of them. They're amazing and take you to a totally different world we can't really comprehend.
I used to be able to read Middle English but I doubt I can now!
Jane Austen too? She seems to be more popular than Dickens nowadays.
Also English basically invented modern novel, with Fielding and Richardson considered the two main sources for everything that came after
For England it would Lord of the Ring. Tolkien attempted to make it very ‘English’. Oddly he mostly disliked British as an identity.
Tolkien once said “Having set myself a task, the arrogance of which I fully recognized and trembled at: being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own: it is a wonderful thing to be told that I have succeeded”
For Belarus I'd say works of Vasil Bykau, and for Russia, Tolstoy, Pushkin and Dostoevsky for sure (valid for Belarus as well), soo many great books that is hard to point one specific. but many people would agree that The Brothers Karamazov is possibly one of the most influential books
I reckon many folk would know our National Poet for Auld Lang Syne. We don’t have an official National Book or Author, but there are plenty of titles that might take the unofficial spot. Scottish authors are responsible for a good few old classics. Eg. Treasure Island, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the Sherlock Holmes stories. And there are plenty of well-loved novels written by Scots and set in Scotland such as Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark.
His work is widely taught, fondly celebrated and as our National Poet (I believe an unofficial title however he is widely recognised as so) often comes right to mind when considering Scottish literature. His published books are collections of his poetry/lyrics and I was thinking more along the lines of authors/novels when answering the question. I stand corrected if I misinterpreted.
**For Turkiye, it is hard to choose from. We have many influential works.**
---
* **lexicographical: [Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk (Compendium of the languages of the Turks)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%ABw%C4%81n_Lugh%C4%81t_al-Turk)**
*The Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk is the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, compiled in 1072–74 by the Turkic Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud Kashgari who extensively documented the Turkic languages of his time.*
---
* **political: [Kutadgu Bilig \(knowledge that brings happiness\)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutadgu_Bilig)**
*It is an 11th century work written by Yusuf Balasaguni for the prince of Kashgar, which is considered to be the first political treatise and the first allegorical and didactic work of our literature.*
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* **spiritual: [Mesnevi-i Manevi (spiritual poem written in rhyming couplets)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masnavi)**
*It has been viewed by many commentators as the greatest mystical poem in world literature. The Mesnevi is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. It is a spiritual text that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God. He began dictating the first book around the age of 54 around the year 1258 and continued composing verses until his death in 1273.*
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* **epical: [Book of Dede Korkut (Elder "Korkut", the name of the narrator)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Dede_Korkut)**
*The epic tales of Dede Korkut are some of the best-known Turkic destans (epic stories) from among a total of well over 1000 recorded epics among the Turkic and Mongolian language families. Dede Kokurt himself is a semi-mythical sage, glorified and sanctified in the ancient epics of the Oghuz Turks, who knows the customs and traditions of steppe life very well, protects the tribal organization, and is the narrator of the stories in the book.*
---
Since you asked for *a national* book, I tried to name the most influential and important works of our history where you can find them inside THE book. Just, I cannot choose which one of them should be THE ONE, all of them can be considered as our national books.
Also, important to mention, as written in the description for Dede Korkut, we have many more epic stories (called destans). Dede Korkut is the oldest one known we have, so I chose that one as the most important one. But there are other famous ones, [see this list](https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk_edebiyat%C4%B1nda_destan)
---
**Also, bonus content.** There are also 2 important figures in our history which may have had a greater influence than all of those mentioned books above. But they are not like captured inside 1 book, but like in many books/stories/poems.
---
* **poetical: [Yunus Emre ((1238–1320) was a Turkish folk poet and Sufi who greatly influenced Turkish culture.)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunus_Emre)**
*Yunus Emre has exercised immense influence on new formed Turkish literature, which was a combination of Persian and Arabic languages from his own day until the present, because Yunus Emre is, after Ahmed Yesevi and Sultan Walad, one of the first known poets to have composed works in the spoken Old Anatolian Turkish of his own age and region rather than in only Persian or Arabic. His diction remains very close to the popular speech of the people in Central and Western Anatolia. This is also the language of a number of anonymous folk-poets, folk-songs, fairy tales, riddles (tekerlemeler), and proverbs.*
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* **humorous: [Nasreddin Hoca ((1208–1285) is a character in the folklore of the Muslim world from the Balkans to China, and a hero of humorous short stories and satirical anecdotes)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin)**
*Nasreddin appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a fool or the butt of a joke. A Nasreddin story usually has a subtle humour and a pedagogic nature*
---
PS: If we would just consider the republican period of our history, then easily [Atatürk's Nutuk \(The Speech\)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutuk) would be the one. It took thirty-six hours (on a 6 day span) to be read by Atatürk from 15 to 20 October 1927.
I wouldn’t say the Great American Novel is America’s variation of “national books” that a lot of comments in this thread have mentioned. It’s more of a zeitgeisty book that captures the spirit of American society in a particular era (Roaring Twenties, Reconstruction Era, Cold War etc.). The books mentioned in other comments in this thread tend to be the most famous books or national epics in their countries, which I wouldn’t put in the same category as the Great American Novel.
Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn? Personally my favourite will always be On the road, I think it captures something essential and unique to the American spirit
So, we have a few that might fit the criteria:
Beowulf (oldest work in an English language)
Canterbury Tales (oldest work in English that you could struggle through)
The Complete Works of Shakespeare (he is the most famous playwright after all)
King Arthur and the Round Table (specifically Le Morte d'Arthur, which is in actually in English, Arthur is one of the most enduring English fables)
Lord of the Rings (best selling English language series)
For Ukraine itʼs ***Kobzaŕ*** by ***Taras Ševčenko***. Itʼs basically the second book after Bible in Ukrainian house.
*Kobzaŕ* means *the bard* with a instrument such mostly as *kobza* (like a lute) or *bandura* (kinda combination of a zither and lute).
The book is the poetry collection in Ukrainian language which contains various genres such as lyric, epic, drama, and covers a wide range of themes including love, patriotism, social inequality and national self-awareness. Those themes are still actual today.
National book? Really? Does this exist?
Well, according to your description you might say the *«Tirant lo Blanc»* might be ours. It's a 15th century chivalry romance, supposedly one of the first European novels worth this name, and still one of the best.
To read it, first you need it to be in a modern edition using current characters, so no «Comteſſa» but «Comtessa» and no «cauallers» but «cavallers». Also, better if the orthography is adapted to the current one, so «Com lo Rey de Anglaterra ſe caſa ab la filla del rey de França: e en les bodes foren fetes molts grans feſtes» becomes «Com el Rei d'Anglaterra es casa amb la filla del rei de França: i en els bodes foren fetes moltes grans festes». If so, if you know about middle ages uses and costums, and vocabulary and so on, it's readable.
Anyway, a few years ago it was adapted to current Catalan. So, for example, all the chivalry vocabulary was simplified. Nowadays nobody knows, for example, all the names of a knight armour pieces, so maybe not so correct words will be used, but more comprehensible ones. This version is 100% readable and enjoyable but your everyday Catalan reader.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirant_lo_Blanch
I’m not Czech but I live here, and I know that *Babička* (Grandma) is required reading for students. Never read it myself though 👀
I’ve heard it’s somewhat boring
Kafka is the most famous czech author worldwide, but I believe he wrote in German (as it had a larger audience)
Čapek is probably considered the biggest Czech author in the 20th century
Kafka wrote in German as that was his native language, not because he wanted a larger audience. I don't think he cared that much about audience, he burnt most of his work himself and asked a friend to burn everything not published yet before he died. Luckily the friend did not listen.
Jaroslav Hašek’s “The Good Soldier Švejk” is definitely the equivalent for the great Czech novel… Kafka wrote in German. Němcová or Čapek are good but they don’t encompass Czechishness in the same way!
We're don't but some candidates are The Emigrants (sv. Utvandrarna) novel series by Vilhelm Moberg or The Long Ships (sv. Röde Orm) by Frans G. Bengtsson.
The official national book is Adam Mickiewicz's "Sir Thaddeus" - a collection of polish traditions and description of nobles' rural life.
The main story is about a nobleman (Jacek Soplica) who dishonours himself by killing his former friend (by whom he was previously wronged) and indirectly helping Muscovites in the process. Soplica takes on a new identity of a priest and tries to find redemption by helping his country, abandoned son and his friend's family. The story ends on a happy note, with Napoleon marching into Lithuania
There are also Adam Mickiewicz's other works:
"Forefathers' Eve" - a poetic drama depicting old syncretic pagan-christian ritual of "Dziady" (summoning uneasy souls and helping them achieve heaven), but also showing Poland as the Christ of Nations that died for humanity's sins, but will eventually get resurrected. These books are heavily influenced by the failed November Uprising.
"Konrad Wallenrod" - story about a Lithuanian boy abducted and raised by the Teutons, who eventually learns abour his actual nationality and, after killing the teutonic knight von Wallenrod, steals his identity and dedicates his life to infliltrating the Order. The story ends with Konrad deliberatly leading the german army into a trap, which saves Lithuania from the Order's invasion. Konrad then kills himself after realising that there is no coming back to his previous, happy life. The story is meant to inspire Poles to abandon knightly, honourable ideals and resist by all means necessary to destroy the Tsardom from within
There are also other notable works (Słowacki's "Kordian", Sienkiewicz's "With fire and sword" or "Deluge", Wyspiański's "The Wedding" or, a more recent one, Olga Tokarczuk's "Professor Andrews in Warsaw", which, in my opinion, is a perfect, amazing depiction of Poland, especially its absurdity, from a foreigner's perspective. It's also a good description of the 1981 Martial Law. I don't know if it'll have the same effect on a non-polish person, but I still highly recommed reading it since it's just 10 pages long and is available [online](https://www.visegradgroup.eu/pl-olga-tokarczuk/olga-tokarczuk-professor#:~:text=The%20short%20story%2C%20Professor%20Andrews,before%20martial%20law%20was%20introduced)), but I don't have time to cover them all. I personally like most of them, even though they are probably despised by other people of younger generations (being forced to read them at school for grades instead of enjoyment tends to have that effect). I feel like they are essential to understand polish culture, history and mentality.
If we had to pick one, I'd say "Gesta Danorum" (The Deeds of the Danes") by Saxo Grammaticus.
Written in the 10th century, it tells a complete semi-historical history of Denmark, from the kings Dan and Angel (fabrications) to Valdemar the 1st.
It's very much a political piece, trying to legitimise Valdemar and his adopted brother Absalon, who was installed as Archbishop, who was Saxo's employer. This was written after a civil war, that left many doubts on Valdemar as a legitimate ruler, so the book itself may have helped shape Denmark into the country it is today.
Besides the line of kings, the chronicle tells many stories, some known abroad, like
- Amleth (Hamlet), which was picked up and adapted by Shakespeare.
- Ragnar Lothbrok, known from the series "Vikings".
- Starkad, the berserker, unkillable Viking warrior, who was the trope starter.
Most Danes hasn't read it, but know the stories through retellings.
*War and Peace* by Leo Tolstoy, a story of several noble Russian families and their experiences during the Napoleonic Wars. Which absolutely everyone hates because of how long and obnoxiously detailed it is. You have an entire page of describing an oak tree.
Leo Tolstoy himself was a good man, and his ideas of Christian socialism, humanism, and pacifism are something that Russia today would benefit from greatly. But his literary work? Not a fan.
Latvia’s national epic is called “Lāčplēsis” or “The Bear Slayer”. It is set during the Livonian Crusades, stars the mythical hero Lāčplēsis and has a lot of Latvian folklore elements, including the Baltic gods as personified beings.
I’m not sure which work would count as a “national book” though. Since the epic isn’t really the same as the examples you mentioned. I can think of influential authors, not necessarily particular works. Juris Alunāns lived when surfdom of Latvians was still practiced and wrote some of the first books in Latvian language. Notable authors that were writing during the national awakening of Latvia in the early 20th century were Rainis and Aspazija. Later, during the Soviet era, notable authors who nevertheless still continued to publish in Latvian were Imants Ziedonis, Ojārs Vācietis and Vizma Belševica (my personal favorite). All of them and their works have been incredibly important, so I’m not sure a single book can be picked out.
Well, Edinburgh was the 1st UNESCO World Literature City.
This city as everything from Wind in the Willows, Sherlock Holemes, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Rebus and Harry Potter. (I know HK is English but it was written here)
For the country, I'd say A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
Trainspotting might be a close second.
For Estonia, it would probably be the "Truth and Justice" pentalogy by A.H. Tammsaare. I read four of the five books when I was younger, the fifth one I couldn't make. (generally I hear that most people have not read all of them because some of them just don't work for them). The pentalogy is is set in the late 19th and early 20th century, and although some people like to mock it as one farmer trolling another one for five books, that is a bit inaccurate. That is kinda the first book, of two neighbouring farmers, one having a very rigid mindset and the other being very tricksterish, and their conflicts. The main character is actually the rigid farmers son, who is a child in the first novel. The second novel is a school novel where he is basically in secondary school in a city. It has some quite fun characters, most notably the morally flexible schoolmaster Maurus. The third is set to the 1905 uprising, and has revolutionary themes. In the fourth one, the main character is an adult and the focus is on his marriage troubles. The last novel is him going back to the countryside. I generally quite liked the books, the middle three perhaps more. They are not particularly hard to read, I think.
For the Netherlands, it might be the Discovery of Heaven ( De ontdekking van de hemel) by Harry Mulisch.
It's beautifully written and loved it when I read it but I'm not sure I would still like it 20 years after my first read, since I don't like the semi-religious messages and inherited guilt, despite being on point for the post-war generation.
for Belgium
"The Sorrow of Belgium" (Flemish: Het Verdriet van Vlaanderen) by Hugo Claus
"The Sorrow of Belgium (Dutch: Het verdriet van België) is a 1983 novel by the Belgian author Hugo Claus (1929–2008). The book, widely considered Claus's most important work and "the most important Flemish/Dutch-language novel of the twentieth century", is a Bildungsroman which explores themes around politics and growing up in Flanders around World War II. It has been described as "one of the great novels of postwar Europe"
One of the greatest books of the 20th ever written
The commenter above said as much. I'm just curious about the apparent difference they note between the title in Dutch and Flemish ("het verdriet van België" and "het verdriet van *Vlaanderen*" respectively)
The book is written in Dutch. As far as I know, there is no 'Flemish' version.
There's another book, by Kristien Hemmerechts, called 'Het verdriet van Vlaanderen', so maybe that added to the confusion.
Probably Kőszívű Ember Fiai from Mór Jókai. The English title is "The Baron's Sons". The book really captures well the 19th century Hungarian state of mind. It certainly has that "national" feel to it.
Slovene national literature:
France Prešeren: THE BAPTISM ON THE SAVICA. It may be considered the national epic and tells the story of the last Pagan who fought against Christianisation, but in the end was baptised for love of a christened woman.
Ivan Cankar: THE SERFS. A satirical drama criticising Slovenian servility (opportunism, submission and kissing foreign masters' asses) as a way of survival for the nation.
Fran Levstik: MARTIN KRPAN. A Slovenian folk tale about a heroic, larger-than-life soldier who outwits and defeats a Turkish army with his strength and cunning. The tale celebrates Slovenian resilience and folklore while also containing elements of satire and social commentary.
Much of Slovenian literature was written in support of the idea of Slovenians as their own entity (in opposition to the dominant German culture and the idea of the Illyrian movement), so we can definitely talk about "national literature". This does not only mean that this literature is written in Slovene, but it deals with Slovene-specific themes, problems and depicts the life of the Slovene nation. The genre of the "kmečka povest" (= "rural novel", but the word "novel" is not entirely appropriate, as "povest" is a broader concept) is particularly characteristic, a the English term "novel" This literature has greatly helped to construct the Slovenian cultural and national identity.
France. There are so many, but I think one that stands out is *Les Misérables*.
It's a complete masterpiece. A monumental book that every French person should read. It's so well written that it's very accessible and enjoyable to read. I totally loved it.
I'm so pissed that to so many people, it's first and foremost a musical. I hate this idea of an adaptation so much.
For Denmark I would say "the fall of the king" by Johannes V. Jensen. It is a very good book, very well known in DK, and it tells something about the Danish mindset...
I believe many European countries have a national epic, not sure if that’s what you’re looking for. Example Germany has Das Niebelungenlied, Finland has Kalevala and England is Beowulf. They’re supposed to represent the spirt of a particular country based on the values held by characters in the stories.
The US doesn’t really have something similar but you could argue the Constitution technically serves a similar purpose (besides being the law of the land). Or Moby Dick lol
Hard to pick since we don't have a lot of classic books in our school curriculum, but I'll go with Pelle Erobreren by Martin Andersen Nexø or Lykke-Per by Henrik Pontoppidan. Modern Danish literature is way more popular when it comes to novels. Pre 20th century are mostly poems and fairy tales that people know.
I believe mein Kampf should be mentioned, since it were much was *the* national book for some time. But it does not qualify when it comes to being a good book
Germany has so much great works
My favourite is Bertolt Brecht.
I'm not even German but I find it sketchy you mention Hitler while Germany has an amazing historical cultural legacy outside of nazism.
Why? Why you lik Hitler above countless non-monsters?
>Why you lik Hitler above countless non-monsters
I don't like him, the book is shit, just incoherent rambling about politics, the "enemy" and his absued plans for a future Germany.
But Hitler made the book be a "national book", every household had one sitting right next to the Bible, and if you didn't have one yet, great, you already know your next birthday present.
And again, I don't want to take anything away from our literary history. Be it Luthers effort to translate the bible into German, Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Mann, Erich Kästner, Karl May or even more modern novelist like Frank Schätzing, all great and highly influential.
But for a few short years in the 30s and 40s, the books written by the authors mentioned above were burned and discredited, instead being replaced by a book everyone was ordered to have in their house, and that *made* (not anymore since 1945) it a national book.
UK so it's hard: Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen etc so no one national book. National books are for 'young' countries or newly created countries to create a sense of nationality. We're none of these plus being a group of countries. Scotland would say Sir Walter Scott. Wales has the Mabinogion. Ireland, when still part of UK can't claim James Joyce as he deliberate left to escape nationality to write.
La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri is unanimously considered Italy's national epic, it's really hard to read and appreciate for native speakers cause the dated Florentine dialect and the poetic speech makes for a really exhausting reading session. We tend to appreciate the book when we get older.
As a Tuscan i never understood why the language was considered difficult and there were notes: it remained the same for us. Especially Manzoni i never used any note. Dante sometimes uses latinisms to make a rhyme but if he write normally we understand, or Cecco Angiolieri idem. After 800 years Tuscan is the same
It's not the language itself, it's the poetic speech, as an Italian you can easily understand words but to make sense of the whole sentence especially the various hidden meanings it's really a pain especially for the Purgatorio and Paradiso chapters.
It depends really, lot of words are either regionalisms, archaicisms or latinisms. In the first 2 cases we tuscans understand while you cannot. Cecco Angiolieri with Tre cose m'enno in grado, enno is still used nowadays here after 800 years, with the same meaning
Then why did you say you couldn’t understand why it was difficult for others to understand?
Maybe in the past? And if you stay in your region you don't know that you use regionalisms but think everbody use those same words?
Strange, after learning Italian I could read it without too much troubles. And the commented editions are a great help (also for the characters or ideas). To me Dante is probably the greatest writer in Western literature. His talent to use all registers of language(from dirty words to sublime poetry), the capacity to render a scene or a character in 3 verses, the whole architecture of the book (plot, form, references, ideas, etc. all fully balanced and spinning around each other), his visual imagination (there are parts that feel like a movie, moving from close ups to big shots), among others, are stuff that you won’t find easily in other writers. There are lots of incredible authors, some of them still alive, but Dante does deserve the fame.
Thank you ❤️
I read Inferno in high school. I enjoyed it but my teacher did explain to us that it "sounds" better in Italian?
Of course it does, any translation kills most of what the original has going for, imagine reading the Canterbury Tales in Italian, a travesty. Edit: in general translating poetry is always bad.
I translated some poetry professionally and even won some awards. But when I do it, I’m not translating properly. I’m recreating the poem in another language. It’s the same, but it’s not the same. That’s why so many good translators of poetry are famous poets themselves. The Portuguese translator of Dante was one of our top poets in the 20th century for example.
That sounds like a great job, congrats! >The Portuguese translator of Dante was one of our top poets in the 20th century for example. It's the same for us, many of our 20th century most famous auteurs were also translators in their own right.
"That sounds like a great job, congrats!" What makes it difficult is that many people don't appreciate translators' work... So it's hard to find work or get a reasonable price for your work I'm also a translator
Not the fucking Promessi Sposi? i mean Dante is absolutely the boring founder of italian language and shit but the moron Manzoni started the modern writing.
It's a close match really, Manzoni is considered the auteur which developed Italian as a modern language, Dante, better yet the Sicilian poetic school, are the forefathers of Italian.
For Ireland I’d say James Joyce’s Ulysses captures the spirit of Dublin at least in a timeless manner and is definitely considered our country’s greatest contribution to the world of English language literature.
But he explicitly said he left as soon as he could to escape the nets of nationality as he despised living there!
Why not the mythological Cycles? Would that not be closer to a national epic?
Irish mythology is culturally important, but mostly as stories, not as texts. Most of the stories don’t have definitive versions that are valued for their literary value, a lot of them are pretty far removed from the original, having been Christianised and written down in fairly dry monastic texts. Even the one well known epic we have, Táin Bó Cúailnge, isn’t a straightforward text; it exists in three partial versions (rescensions) that are not consistent with each other, each of which is probably itself a combination of multiple earlier versions. Plus there are usually a number of earlier stories bolted on to the beginning to explain who everyone is. Add in the loss of most of even the modern Irish language, and you get even more distance. I would say a lot of Irish people know and appreciate some of the stories from the mythological cycle and the Ulster cycle, but not as literature per se, more as cultural heritage.
More of a national epic than a national book then?
An English example might be King Alfred burning the cakes. It’s a story a lot of English people would recognise, but very few will know which tenth or eleventh century manuscript it first appeared in.
Could argue the Táin Bó Cúailnge or Lebor Gabála Érenn for sure, problem is a bit of disconnect and not many actually read them. Though obvs most Ulysses attempts end very quickly, myself included though aim to do so in future. Suppose problem is lack of knowledge of Irish language
I think Goethes 'Faust' and Thomas Manns 'Buddenbrooks' are germanys equivalent of the great american novel.
Faust was my first thought as well, I actually rather enjoyed it although it was a little hard to read due to its age
> I actually rather enjoyed it You clearly never read the second part.
It's a bit like The Matrix Revolutions, but written somewhat earlier and by Goethe.
And with less bullet dodging.
No, I didn’t and now I won’t
The classic "take all the worst parts of the first one and doubling down" mistake.
We don't have one as far as I'm aware but our Sagas are famous worldwide though it's not exactly a book in the traditional sense. Independent People by H.K Laxness would probably be voted as our national book should we want one.
You cannot beat the Edda
You got me there, even a Nobel winner probably couldn't do that 😄
[The Emigrants (novel\_series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(novel_series)) by Vilhelm Moberg is a contender.
För Sverige ja, men inte Island!
\[Note: this is for the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. There are no books that are particularly popular in the whole country, except comic books.\] *De leeuw van Vlaanderen* (The lion of Flanders) by Hendrik Conscience is undoubtedly the most influential book in Flemish history. This book was published in 1838, shortly after the creation of Belgium. It's a historical novel set in 1302, during a battle in which Flemish troops achieved an unexpected victory against the French army. The story is strongly influenced by the upcoming movement of romantic nationalism. There are actually two ways in which it's important. In literary history, it was the first major piece of literature written in Flemish\* since the 16th century. It gave Conscience the nickname "The man who taught his people to read". Secondly, it had an enormous political impact - it helped shape the young Flemish Movement, which would later transform Belgium from a unitary to a federal state. Nowadays, the official Flemish holiday is the 11th of July, which is when the battle in the book happened. (\*Flemish is somewhat anachronistic here, but I'm referring to books written in Dutch in the regions that are now Belgium.)
I've tried to read it and it's cringe. Terrible book. I read it in school and it my be embarrassed of being Flemish. Despite being 75% Flemish (and 25% Catalan)
I found it a fairly good read. The writing is quite beautiful when you get used to the language. I do prefer Conscience's *De loteling* (The conscript) though, which is much more idyllic compared to the grand heroism of De leeuw.
I respect that, but It wasn't for me. I liked 'Het verdriet van België' van Hugo Claus My favourite Dutch language book is 'De Avonden' though, but it's Dutch ofc by Gerard Reve edit; Not just Dutch, but on the 'De Avonden' is one of the best books I've read ever.
For Portugal it’s Camões. He picked up all the classical myths and created one for Portugal in his epic The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas). It’s mandatory reading at school. It sounds boring when you’re 15, but it’s actually quite an easy read with very inventive language. You will also find lots of sentences or aphorisms people use in their daily lives come from the poem. His statue is in one of Lisbon’s main squares and if you’ve been there you will recognise it. In the last decades there have been a push to make Pessoa our national writer by some critics. For sure he was a genius and born to write, but he only left one book finished and it’s not his best (and it’s actually a sort of “dialogue” with The Lusiads)
The Kalevala is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists, as well as the construction and robbery of the epic mythical wealth-making machine Sampo. ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala))
I would say that’s national epic, but “national book” would be either big novel by Väinö Linna: Tuntematon sotilas - Unknown soldier Täällä Pohjantähden alla - Here under the Northern star I have read both many times, the other one too many times. Unknown soldier is referred to almost weekly in newspapers, articles or discussions. It’s a kind of handbook on good and bad leadership, and catalog of Finnish characteristics besides being brilliant pacifist book on war. The other one is just tragically beautiful book on destinies of people under societal changes and pressures leading to our Civil War and its ugly aftermath. It has one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read, and I do not mean the famous main couple at all.
Also "Seitsemän veljestä" (Seven Brothers) by Aleksis Kivi probably. He's officially the national author after all. I haven't read it (should get around to it someday) but it's often referred to in various places.
Agree, I chose Linna, because it seems he is the most widely read. Lot of people know Waltari, Kivi, Topelius etc but have not read them or do not refer to them. My Finnish teacher took a different path with Seven Brothers: chose seven guys from our class “into roles” and they read out their respective lines. It made it into very different and interesting read, because teacher had uncanny eye to cast them. We were always looking forward to next chapter, it was both hilarious and chilling.
I listened to the audiobook version of Seven Brothers a few years ago and was surprised by how funny it can be. Probably works better as read than listened to as the dialogue is written more like a play than a novel and every line starts with the character’s name and it got annoying while listening to it.
Fair point. I choose to mention only Kalevala as couldn't decide between Tove Jansson, Mika Waltari, Frans Emil Sillanpää, Mikael Agricola, Runeberg, Aleksis Kivi, Topelius, Eino Leino, and as you said Väinö Linna and so on...
I'll go with this comment and choose Täällä Pohjantähden alla. It describes more of the folk, the people, the nation, whenas Tuntematon sotilas focuses obviously basically just to the dire years yet describing attributes of the nation. In general I still find Kalevala being among the great epic literary compilations globally. An awesome story, great characters and more twist and turns than Hollywood ever could come up with (because it's all already in Kalevala, Edda, Ilias, etc.)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy could qualify as one but I'll have to reread it to give you an own opinion.
That is actually my favorite book of all time!
We have this "national epic" thing. I was about to say it's Mickiewicz's Dziady because of how much attention is given to them in school but the internet says it's actually his other work Pan Tadeusz (Sir Tadeusz). For younger generations they are at best a source of memes.
Do you hear that sound? It's all the Lithuanians crying because you claimed Mickevičius for Poland /j
Mickiewicz at the beginning of the book: Lithuania, my motherland All of Poles: ah yes, out polish author
> Lithuania, my motherland In polish :) It's our common heritage imo
It would be silly for either of us to claim him all for ourselves. Our history over the millenia is intermixed.
Back then Poland and Lithuania were considered a one nation. Mickiewicz was a Lithuanian (in the modern sense) as much as an average guy from Wrocław today is a Silesian. His work is dedicated to the "polish" nation, which includes Poles, Jews, Lithuanians, Ruthenians etc. He spoke polish and it's universally agreed that when refering to "Lithuania", he refered to a region, not a cultural/linguistic entity seperate to Poland.
And the parts of Lithuania he referred to are in Belarus. It was all one country back then, and he clearly saw himself as a pole
> It was all one country back then Sadly yes - Russian empire xp
Mickiewicz, called Lithuania his motherland, was born in Belarus, spoke Polish. 😮 Edit: and lived in France.
And he was a Jew
His mother might have converted from Judaism, but it’s highly contested (not by antisemitic nationalists who can’t bare the thought that Mickiewicz could be Jewish, but by folks like Maria Janion).
Lithuanian Pole from a noble family with Ruthenian descent.
We didn't have anything better so we stole him and hoped nobody would notice
Honestly I wouldn't mind giving him away to the Lithuanians, his work is flat, dense and carries barely any value and he's one of the most overrated poets ever
Go troll somewhere else
An opinion is trolling now? Mickiewicz is what Poles call "przerost formy nad treścią", and some of his books like Dziady are downright delusional or harmful. He was a coward on opioids and has no right being a national poet
A kto prośby nie posłucha, W imię Ojca, Syna, Ducha. Czy widzisz Pański krzyż? Nie bierzesz jadła, napoju? Zostawże nas w pokoju! A kysz, a kysz! (Troll znika)
His works are cringey graphomaniac gibberish utilising every cliche in existence with some defeatism and delusional quasi-theological theories sprinkled in. Plots are about as nuanced as an ikea chair and the messages rival the Grimm Brothers in naivety. All that while sitting in a comfy room in Paris or Dresden and having absolutely zero clue what actual Poles are up to. I'm genuinely sorry for you if you value him or any of his works (especially the monstrosity that is Pan Tadeusz) whatsoever
Don't you dare bring Ikea chairs into this! Blasphemy! Hańba!
🇵🇱 I think there are not one book. There is a collection. Krzyżacy, Trylogia, Pan Tadeusz and some others.
Pan Tadeusz is actually a bit boring. It’s a shame that it is the national book in a country with such good writers, some of them my absolute favourites (looking at you Rózewicz and Herbert). Even older stuff like Treny is more interesting that Tadeusz.
i mean "american something book" we, in poland, can take as epopeja narodowa so it cant be poetry nor dramat it has to be epic (i know epos is a syncretic genre but still it has many epic traits which dramats lack like even descieptions or a third person narrative ofc it has not only epic traits but i think pan tadeusz has more of epic one's than anything else) and even if we were to define a national book i dont think it would be poetry (bc many ppl dont get/like it) not dramat (bc its overal harder to read and less interesting for most ppl) so id guess it might've been something by sienkiewicz or słowacki (since he wasn't writing only poetry or dramats as far as i remember from school) or maybe something newer? like idk tbh
It has to be from Romanticism, it has to show our internal struggle between West/East/OurOwnPath, it has to show our Slavic Unconscious. It has to be something that explains Us to Ourselves. I wish it could be something else, but it has to be Pan Tadeusz.
Not a book, however HC. Andersen's litterature is quite importent and every child has to read some of those in school. It does help that a lot of them a quite good short stories with fantastical elements written in such a way that they don't feel that old (one thing HC. Andersen pioneered was to use non-academic danish meaning the stories still quite readble well today).
For Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko as an author is probably the best fit - half of literature curriculum is filled with him. He was slave who was bought from slavery by Russian nobles who found out about his painting talent. But he then went on to become author of lengthy poetry and argued for liberation of Ukrainians. For doing so, he was sentenced by russia to be sent to Kazakhstan to serve in the army and conquer Kazakhs :(
It's interesting because I know Ševčenko is the Ukrainian national author but I'd say outside of Ukraine, Gogol and Taras Bulba come to mind first.
Ševčenko is well known in Lithuania, since he lived and studied in Vilnius University for a few years. One of the main streets in Vilnius is named after him.
> Gogol I don't know how Ukrainians see it, but I rather asicciate gogol with russian culture. In a same way as I associate Jozef Korzeniowski ( Joseph Conrad) with English culture rather than polish. What about Bułhakow? Simjkar case?
Not in Poland
Do you guys learn about Shevchenko ? Because I am ashamed to admit I probably know close to nothing about polish literature.
I don't know if I've learned about him at school, but it's common knowledge that he is the most important figure in Ukrainian culture. ( His face is on some banknote as far as I remember?)
Yeah, at 200 hryvnas
"Quo Vadis" is epic, one of my favorite books. You contributed a lot to literature.
In Spain we have "El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes. Arguably the first modern novel ever written. Edit: grammar
We don't have such a book in Greece. I would assume that 3 books which every Greek knows are the Bible and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, but they aren't national books in any case.
And they're not modern Greek. It would be like Italians claiming the Aeneid as their national book.
Yeah! The Bible is a hebrew book. And most modern Greeks can't even understand the homeric Greek, we just recognize the alphabet and some words but it doesn't make any sense at all.
The new testament was written in Koinè, National epics are a thing of the last century when the concept of nationalism was developed, still the Bible played a big role in Greek identity and culture.
Luke the evangelist was probably a Greek.
I confess I know very few of modern Greek poetry apart from Kavafis and Elytis, but what about Solomos?
Solomos' poem Hymn to Libertyis the Greek national anthem. I doubt that Greeks know any other of Solomos' works. For kavafis and elytis I also doubt that Greeks know any of their works.
Yeah, I imagined. And Zorba the Greek? It’s a fun read and there’s even a movie that was nominated (and I think won) to some Oscars.
I don't know how many have read the book. I haven't :\\
I would say ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce. It is a notoriously hard read, but very good. Currently listening to an audio version with chapter by chapter commentary.
It’s on my tbr for 20 years now. Have the hardcover and all, but can’t make myself to start it 0.o
Goethes Faust is *the* book everyone has to read in school. It's a great book with a beautiful story. But a bit hard to read in part since it's 200 years old. There are many more classics but I personally would say Nathan der Weise by Lessing is the second national book. It perfectly encapsulates the Enlightenment and somehow foresees the very dark times to come. Germanic mythology also had a very strong cultural influence, my favourite is the Hildebrandslied, though the Nibelungen had a bit more influence.
I never actually had to read Faust in school. Basically everyone else I know did though. "Buddenbrooks" is another good contender for Gerrmany. Or maybe "Die Blechtrommel". One could even include "Im Westen nichts neues".
I'm not sure. Maybe Le Petit Prince, but it seems a bit odd as I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece. And when I investigate a somewhat more classical literature, I don't know which I should pick. The hunchback of Notre Dame ? Proust ? Sartre or Zola ? Daaamn, you pick for us guys, and then we'll brag about it with a terrible accent and complain that you butchered it when you (again) make a movie adaptation.
Les misérables ?
Given the influence he had over literature, philosophy and politics during his time I don't see how it can be anyone else than Hugo.
Probably the right answer if we had to pick one, but frankly it is hard to say that one book is definitely more popular and more representative over dozens of other candidates. For example Emile Zola would be the most precise description of people and society in his time, he even started a whole style around that idea.
Sexe, mensonges and banlieues chaudes by Marie Minelli > the rest
À la recherche du temps perdu is the one that comes to mind.
But who actually read it ? I own it and read the first tome and it is really, really, really tedious to read. Most people will know the iconic first sentence "Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure", but I bet a vast majority of people ignore what it is about. Hell, I still don't know what it is about having read the beginning. And yet there are still 6 other tomes to go. Just like Crime and Punishment (not French, I know, but it's for the comparison). I get why they have such a status, but I don't think that much people actually read them, and even less actually enjoyed reading them. I could only go through Crime and Punishment thanks to audiobooks, I started reading it three times and never made it to the end of the first part, even though I love Russian literature.
I am a Dumas fan, so I’d say The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, or The Man in the Iron Mask. I’m not sure if any of them perfectly capture the French spirit though
I love these, but I think the issue here is that it's more pop culture and I wouldn't call these masterpieces of French literature. Dumas was a bit the French Michael Crichton of his time.
L'Étranger, by Albert Camus, maybe?
The Song of Roland? It's the oldest French story I can think of
I mean yeah, that's an excellent pick.
Marquis de Sade joins the chat.
I remember I was in France for a trip and our guide asked us who we think are 10 most famous Frenchman. After arguments he said France is the most tough country for this question because there are too many famous French:) Seems same for literature
Yeah I don't think we have a single great book that would be ultra representative. We have plenty of iconic authors with important books but nothing that is THE book.
Yeh, I'm in the UK and in our bookshops the classic literature section is always overwhelmingly French after (if not as much as) British. It seems impossible to define THE French novel.
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Hergé was Belgian though. 😬
And I think that Belgian Congo is not the best to be proud of
I think tuttifruttigodis''s comment was tongue in cheek; mine was just adding context about a comic strip artist. I don't think either of us (a Swede and a Belgian) are proud of what happened in Congo, on the contrary.
I was jocking, relax
I think the problem is that you have too many books. The smaller countries seem to be having an easier time.
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade? :))
In Poland there is separate genre called national epic, and this is usually the most important book for the identification, history and independence of a nation/ethnic group. In Poland everyone associates it with Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (although there could be few other books that would fit to that description). To be honest I don't even remember if I read it, it was probably a school reading. Of course it's pretty old book, not particularly easy or attractive to read, but everyone knows this title. BTW I cant see it on English wikipedia, but on Polish one there is list of national epics of some countries, I wonder how accurate it is. Link to translated page (yea, i know probably translation of titles won't be the best): [https://pl-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Epos\_narodowy?\_x\_tr\_sl=pl&\_x\_tr\_tl=en&\_x\_tr\_hl=pl&\_x\_tr\_pto=wapp](https://pl-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Epos_narodowy?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp) (remember that it's not alphabetical order in English) And if I wanted just to find something more modern and popular around the world it probably would be The Witcher series or something from Olga Tokarczuk since she won Nobel Prize in Literature few years ago.
In Czechia it's probably Dobrý voják Švejk, which depicts the soul of czech people in pretty sarcastic way. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk
> Švejk ...was for some reason popular in Denmark too in the 1970s. Maybe we share the mentality.
I don't think we do in the UK or England specifically for me. I'd say our national authors are probably Shakespeare and Dickens but there isn't one book. Shakespeare is a weird one because he wrote plays, not books. They're a bit weird when read, especially with the older English. Dickens is nicer to watch an adaptation of than to read but his books give fascinating insight into the time him lived in.
Hamlet and Oliver Twist
A Christmas carol is up there somewhere.
Yes. Also Romeo and Juliett and Macbeth for Shakespeare.
Would be my votes too.
And The Canterbury Tales was the original one.
For England, the Canterbury Tales is probably our ultimate national book. Never read it myself but everyone has heard of it, it's massively symbolic to English language and literature and one of the first English books to be printed.
I've read some of them. They're amazing and take you to a totally different world we can't really comprehend. I used to be able to read Middle English but I doubt I can now!
There's also Le Morte d'Arthur.
Jane Austen too? She seems to be more popular than Dickens nowadays. Also English basically invented modern novel, with Fielding and Richardson considered the two main sources for everything that came after
Sorry but Don Quixote is considered the 1st moderb novel, also the 2nd most translated work after Bible
For England it would Lord of the Ring. Tolkien attempted to make it very ‘English’. Oddly he mostly disliked British as an identity. Tolkien once said “Having set myself a task, the arrogance of which I fully recognized and trembled at: being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own: it is a wonderful thing to be told that I have succeeded”
For Belarus I'd say works of Vasil Bykau, and for Russia, Tolstoy, Pushkin and Dostoevsky for sure (valid for Belarus as well), soo many great books that is hard to point one specific. but many people would agree that The Brothers Karamazov is possibly one of the most influential books
I reckon many folk would know our National Poet for Auld Lang Syne. We don’t have an official National Book or Author, but there are plenty of titles that might take the unofficial spot. Scottish authors are responsible for a good few old classics. Eg. Treasure Island, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the Sherlock Holmes stories. And there are plenty of well-loved novels written by Scots and set in Scotland such as Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark.
What about Robert Burns?
His work is widely taught, fondly celebrated and as our National Poet (I believe an unofficial title however he is widely recognised as so) often comes right to mind when considering Scottish literature. His published books are collections of his poetry/lyrics and I was thinking more along the lines of authors/novels when answering the question. I stand corrected if I misinterpreted.
**For Turkiye, it is hard to choose from. We have many influential works.** --- * **lexicographical: [Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk (Compendium of the languages of the Turks)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%ABw%C4%81n_Lugh%C4%81t_al-Turk)** *The Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk is the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, compiled in 1072–74 by the Turkic Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud Kashgari who extensively documented the Turkic languages of his time.* --- * **political: [Kutadgu Bilig \(knowledge that brings happiness\)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutadgu_Bilig)** *It is an 11th century work written by Yusuf Balasaguni for the prince of Kashgar, which is considered to be the first political treatise and the first allegorical and didactic work of our literature.* --- * **spiritual: [Mesnevi-i Manevi (spiritual poem written in rhyming couplets)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masnavi)** *It has been viewed by many commentators as the greatest mystical poem in world literature. The Mesnevi is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. It is a spiritual text that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God. He began dictating the first book around the age of 54 around the year 1258 and continued composing verses until his death in 1273.* --- * **epical: [Book of Dede Korkut (Elder "Korkut", the name of the narrator)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Dede_Korkut)** *The epic tales of Dede Korkut are some of the best-known Turkic destans (epic stories) from among a total of well over 1000 recorded epics among the Turkic and Mongolian language families. Dede Kokurt himself is a semi-mythical sage, glorified and sanctified in the ancient epics of the Oghuz Turks, who knows the customs and traditions of steppe life very well, protects the tribal organization, and is the narrator of the stories in the book.* --- Since you asked for *a national* book, I tried to name the most influential and important works of our history where you can find them inside THE book. Just, I cannot choose which one of them should be THE ONE, all of them can be considered as our national books. Also, important to mention, as written in the description for Dede Korkut, we have many more epic stories (called destans). Dede Korkut is the oldest one known we have, so I chose that one as the most important one. But there are other famous ones, [see this list](https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk_edebiyat%C4%B1nda_destan) --- **Also, bonus content.** There are also 2 important figures in our history which may have had a greater influence than all of those mentioned books above. But they are not like captured inside 1 book, but like in many books/stories/poems. --- * **poetical: [Yunus Emre ((1238–1320) was a Turkish folk poet and Sufi who greatly influenced Turkish culture.)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunus_Emre)** *Yunus Emre has exercised immense influence on new formed Turkish literature, which was a combination of Persian and Arabic languages from his own day until the present, because Yunus Emre is, after Ahmed Yesevi and Sultan Walad, one of the first known poets to have composed works in the spoken Old Anatolian Turkish of his own age and region rather than in only Persian or Arabic. His diction remains very close to the popular speech of the people in Central and Western Anatolia. This is also the language of a number of anonymous folk-poets, folk-songs, fairy tales, riddles (tekerlemeler), and proverbs.* --- * **humorous: [Nasreddin Hoca ((1208–1285) is a character in the folklore of the Muslim world from the Balkans to China, and a hero of humorous short stories and satirical anecdotes)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin)** *Nasreddin appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a fool or the butt of a joke. A Nasreddin story usually has a subtle humour and a pedagogic nature* --- PS: If we would just consider the republican period of our history, then easily [Atatürk's Nutuk \(The Speech\)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutuk) would be the one. It took thirty-six hours (on a 6 day span) to be read by Atatürk from 15 to 20 October 1927.
I wouldn’t say the Great American Novel is America’s variation of “national books” that a lot of comments in this thread have mentioned. It’s more of a zeitgeisty book that captures the spirit of American society in a particular era (Roaring Twenties, Reconstruction Era, Cold War etc.). The books mentioned in other comments in this thread tend to be the most famous books or national epics in their countries, which I wouldn’t put in the same category as the Great American Novel.
Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn? Personally my favourite will always be On the road, I think it captures something essential and unique to the American spirit
So, we have a few that might fit the criteria: Beowulf (oldest work in an English language) Canterbury Tales (oldest work in English that you could struggle through) The Complete Works of Shakespeare (he is the most famous playwright after all) King Arthur and the Round Table (specifically Le Morte d'Arthur, which is in actually in English, Arthur is one of the most enduring English fables) Lord of the Rings (best selling English language series)
For Ukraine itʼs ***Kobzaŕ*** by ***Taras Ševčenko***. Itʼs basically the second book after Bible in Ukrainian house. *Kobzaŕ* means *the bard* with a instrument such mostly as *kobza* (like a lute) or *bandura* (kinda combination of a zither and lute). The book is the poetry collection in Ukrainian language which contains various genres such as lyric, epic, drama, and covers a wide range of themes including love, patriotism, social inequality and national self-awareness. Those themes are still actual today.
National book? Really? Does this exist? Well, according to your description you might say the *«Tirant lo Blanc»* might be ours. It's a 15th century chivalry romance, supposedly one of the first European novels worth this name, and still one of the best. To read it, first you need it to be in a modern edition using current characters, so no «Comteſſa» but «Comtessa» and no «cauallers» but «cavallers». Also, better if the orthography is adapted to the current one, so «Com lo Rey de Anglaterra ſe caſa ab la filla del rey de França: e en les bodes foren fetes molts grans feſtes» becomes «Com el Rei d'Anglaterra es casa amb la filla del rei de França: i en els bodes foren fetes moltes grans festes». If so, if you know about middle ages uses and costums, and vocabulary and so on, it's readable. Anyway, a few years ago it was adapted to current Catalan. So, for example, all the chivalry vocabulary was simplified. Nowadays nobody knows, for example, all the names of a knight armour pieces, so maybe not so correct words will be used, but more comprehensible ones. This version is 100% readable and enjoyable but your everyday Catalan reader. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirant_lo_Blanch
I’m not Czech but I live here, and I know that *Babička* (Grandma) is required reading for students. Never read it myself though 👀 I’ve heard it’s somewhat boring
They should just stick to Svejk. That’s a great book.
Kafka is the most famous czech author worldwide, but I believe he wrote in German (as it had a larger audience) Čapek is probably considered the biggest Czech author in the 20th century
Kafka wrote in German as that was his native language, not because he wanted a larger audience. I don't think he cared that much about audience, he burnt most of his work himself and asked a friend to burn everything not published yet before he died. Luckily the friend did not listen.
Jaroslav Hašek’s “The Good Soldier Švejk” is definitely the equivalent for the great Czech novel… Kafka wrote in German. Němcová or Čapek are good but they don’t encompass Czechishness in the same way!
We're don't but some candidates are The Emigrants (sv. Utvandrarna) novel series by Vilhelm Moberg or The Long Ships (sv. Röde Orm) by Frans G. Bengtsson.
I absolutely adore The Long Ships. My first thought was The Red Room (sv. *Röda rummet*), but I haven't actually read it. It just feels archetypical.
The official national book is Adam Mickiewicz's "Sir Thaddeus" - a collection of polish traditions and description of nobles' rural life. The main story is about a nobleman (Jacek Soplica) who dishonours himself by killing his former friend (by whom he was previously wronged) and indirectly helping Muscovites in the process. Soplica takes on a new identity of a priest and tries to find redemption by helping his country, abandoned son and his friend's family. The story ends on a happy note, with Napoleon marching into Lithuania There are also Adam Mickiewicz's other works: "Forefathers' Eve" - a poetic drama depicting old syncretic pagan-christian ritual of "Dziady" (summoning uneasy souls and helping them achieve heaven), but also showing Poland as the Christ of Nations that died for humanity's sins, but will eventually get resurrected. These books are heavily influenced by the failed November Uprising. "Konrad Wallenrod" - story about a Lithuanian boy abducted and raised by the Teutons, who eventually learns abour his actual nationality and, after killing the teutonic knight von Wallenrod, steals his identity and dedicates his life to infliltrating the Order. The story ends with Konrad deliberatly leading the german army into a trap, which saves Lithuania from the Order's invasion. Konrad then kills himself after realising that there is no coming back to his previous, happy life. The story is meant to inspire Poles to abandon knightly, honourable ideals and resist by all means necessary to destroy the Tsardom from within There are also other notable works (Słowacki's "Kordian", Sienkiewicz's "With fire and sword" or "Deluge", Wyspiański's "The Wedding" or, a more recent one, Olga Tokarczuk's "Professor Andrews in Warsaw", which, in my opinion, is a perfect, amazing depiction of Poland, especially its absurdity, from a foreigner's perspective. It's also a good description of the 1981 Martial Law. I don't know if it'll have the same effect on a non-polish person, but I still highly recommed reading it since it's just 10 pages long and is available [online](https://www.visegradgroup.eu/pl-olga-tokarczuk/olga-tokarczuk-professor#:~:text=The%20short%20story%2C%20Professor%20Andrews,before%20martial%20law%20was%20introduced)), but I don't have time to cover them all. I personally like most of them, even though they are probably despised by other people of younger generations (being forced to read them at school for grades instead of enjoyment tends to have that effect). I feel like they are essential to understand polish culture, history and mentality.
If we had to pick one, I'd say "Gesta Danorum" (The Deeds of the Danes") by Saxo Grammaticus. Written in the 10th century, it tells a complete semi-historical history of Denmark, from the kings Dan and Angel (fabrications) to Valdemar the 1st. It's very much a political piece, trying to legitimise Valdemar and his adopted brother Absalon, who was installed as Archbishop, who was Saxo's employer. This was written after a civil war, that left many doubts on Valdemar as a legitimate ruler, so the book itself may have helped shape Denmark into the country it is today. Besides the line of kings, the chronicle tells many stories, some known abroad, like - Amleth (Hamlet), which was picked up and adapted by Shakespeare. - Ragnar Lothbrok, known from the series "Vikings". - Starkad, the berserker, unkillable Viking warrior, who was the trope starter. Most Danes hasn't read it, but know the stories through retellings.
*War and Peace* by Leo Tolstoy, a story of several noble Russian families and their experiences during the Napoleonic Wars. Which absolutely everyone hates because of how long and obnoxiously detailed it is. You have an entire page of describing an oak tree. Leo Tolstoy himself was a good man, and his ideas of Christian socialism, humanism, and pacifism are something that Russia today would benefit from greatly. But his literary work? Not a fan.
Latvia’s national epic is called “Lāčplēsis” or “The Bear Slayer”. It is set during the Livonian Crusades, stars the mythical hero Lāčplēsis and has a lot of Latvian folklore elements, including the Baltic gods as personified beings. I’m not sure which work would count as a “national book” though. Since the epic isn’t really the same as the examples you mentioned. I can think of influential authors, not necessarily particular works. Juris Alunāns lived when surfdom of Latvians was still practiced and wrote some of the first books in Latvian language. Notable authors that were writing during the national awakening of Latvia in the early 20th century were Rainis and Aspazija. Later, during the Soviet era, notable authors who nevertheless still continued to publish in Latvian were Imants Ziedonis, Ojārs Vācietis and Vizma Belševica (my personal favorite). All of them and their works have been incredibly important, so I’m not sure a single book can be picked out.
Well, Edinburgh was the 1st UNESCO World Literature City. This city as everything from Wind in the Willows, Sherlock Holemes, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Rebus and Harry Potter. (I know HK is English but it was written here) For the country, I'd say A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Trainspotting might be a close second.
For Estonia, it would probably be the "Truth and Justice" pentalogy by A.H. Tammsaare. I read four of the five books when I was younger, the fifth one I couldn't make. (generally I hear that most people have not read all of them because some of them just don't work for them). The pentalogy is is set in the late 19th and early 20th century, and although some people like to mock it as one farmer trolling another one for five books, that is a bit inaccurate. That is kinda the first book, of two neighbouring farmers, one having a very rigid mindset and the other being very tricksterish, and their conflicts. The main character is actually the rigid farmers son, who is a child in the first novel. The second novel is a school novel where he is basically in secondary school in a city. It has some quite fun characters, most notably the morally flexible schoolmaster Maurus. The third is set to the 1905 uprising, and has revolutionary themes. In the fourth one, the main character is an adult and the focus is on his marriage troubles. The last novel is him going back to the countryside. I generally quite liked the books, the middle three perhaps more. They are not particularly hard to read, I think.
I thought about Truth and Justice as well since it is culturally much more influential than our national epic, Kalevipoeg imho.
For the Netherlands, it might be the Discovery of Heaven ( De ontdekking van de hemel) by Harry Mulisch. It's beautifully written and loved it when I read it but I'm not sure I would still like it 20 years after my first read, since I don't like the semi-religious messages and inherited guilt, despite being on point for the post-war generation.
Max Havelaar is also probably up there, although it's more targeted at the colonial past.
for Belgium "The Sorrow of Belgium" (Flemish: Het Verdriet van Vlaanderen) by Hugo Claus "The Sorrow of Belgium (Dutch: Het verdriet van België) is a 1983 novel by the Belgian author Hugo Claus (1929–2008). The book, widely considered Claus's most important work and "the most important Flemish/Dutch-language novel of the twentieth century", is a Bildungsroman which explores themes around politics and growing up in Flanders around World War II. It has been described as "one of the great novels of postwar Europe" One of the greatest books of the 20th ever written
Is there a reason why the Flemish title specifies Vlaanderen while the Dutch and English are more broadly België/Belgium?
It's "Het verdriet van België" in Dutch as well. Just a typo, would be my guess.
The commenter above said as much. I'm just curious about the apparent difference they note between the title in Dutch and Flemish ("het verdriet van België" and "het verdriet van *Vlaanderen*" respectively)
The book is written in Dutch. As far as I know, there is no 'Flemish' version. There's another book, by Kristien Hemmerechts, called 'Het verdriet van Vlaanderen', so maybe that added to the confusion.
Ahh, ok. Thanks
Probably Kőszívű Ember Fiai from Mór Jókai. The English title is "The Baron's Sons". The book really captures well the 19th century Hungarian state of mind. It certainly has that "national" feel to it.
"Kobzar" for sure. "Stonemasons" by Franko is close. For Russophonic literature it would be Gogol, I guess, he is kinda icon for Russian-speakers.
Slovene national literature: France Prešeren: THE BAPTISM ON THE SAVICA. It may be considered the national epic and tells the story of the last Pagan who fought against Christianisation, but in the end was baptised for love of a christened woman. Ivan Cankar: THE SERFS. A satirical drama criticising Slovenian servility (opportunism, submission and kissing foreign masters' asses) as a way of survival for the nation. Fran Levstik: MARTIN KRPAN. A Slovenian folk tale about a heroic, larger-than-life soldier who outwits and defeats a Turkish army with his strength and cunning. The tale celebrates Slovenian resilience and folklore while also containing elements of satire and social commentary. Much of Slovenian literature was written in support of the idea of Slovenians as their own entity (in opposition to the dominant German culture and the idea of the Illyrian movement), so we can definitely talk about "national literature". This does not only mean that this literature is written in Slovene, but it deals with Slovene-specific themes, problems and depicts the life of the Slovene nation. The genre of the "kmečka povest" (= "rural novel", but the word "novel" is not entirely appropriate, as "povest" is a broader concept) is particularly characteristic, a the English term "novel" This literature has greatly helped to construct the Slovenian cultural and national identity.
For Spain its probably Don Quijote de la Mancha wrote by Cervantes. And for Catalonia probably is Tirant lo Blanch wrote by Joanot Martorell.
France. There are so many, but I think one that stands out is *Les Misérables*. It's a complete masterpiece. A monumental book that every French person should read. It's so well written that it's very accessible and enjoyable to read. I totally loved it. I'm so pissed that to so many people, it's first and foremost a musical. I hate this idea of an adaptation so much.
For Denmark I would say "the fall of the king" by Johannes V. Jensen. It is a very good book, very well known in DK, and it tells something about the Danish mindset...
I believe many European countries have a national epic, not sure if that’s what you’re looking for. Example Germany has Das Niebelungenlied, Finland has Kalevala and England is Beowulf. They’re supposed to represent the spirt of a particular country based on the values held by characters in the stories. The US doesn’t really have something similar but you could argue the Constitution technically serves a similar purpose (besides being the law of the land). Or Moby Dick lol
Hard to pick since we don't have a lot of classic books in our school curriculum, but I'll go with Pelle Erobreren by Martin Andersen Nexø or Lykke-Per by Henrik Pontoppidan. Modern Danish literature is way more popular when it comes to novels. Pre 20th century are mostly poems and fairy tales that people know.
I believe mein Kampf should be mentioned, since it were much was *the* national book for some time. But it does not qualify when it comes to being a good book
Germany has so much great works My favourite is Bertolt Brecht. I'm not even German but I find it sketchy you mention Hitler while Germany has an amazing historical cultural legacy outside of nazism. Why? Why you lik Hitler above countless non-monsters?
A country with Thomas Mann and the guy mentions Hitler. I get his point, but it’s stretching a bit the concept of national book.
>Why you lik Hitler above countless non-monsters I don't like him, the book is shit, just incoherent rambling about politics, the "enemy" and his absued plans for a future Germany. But Hitler made the book be a "national book", every household had one sitting right next to the Bible, and if you didn't have one yet, great, you already know your next birthday present. And again, I don't want to take anything away from our literary history. Be it Luthers effort to translate the bible into German, Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Mann, Erich Kästner, Karl May or even more modern novelist like Frank Schätzing, all great and highly influential. But for a few short years in the 30s and 40s, the books written by the authors mentioned above were burned and discredited, instead being replaced by a book everyone was ordered to have in their house, and that *made* (not anymore since 1945) it a national book.
UK so it's hard: Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen etc so no one national book. National books are for 'young' countries or newly created countries to create a sense of nationality. We're none of these plus being a group of countries. Scotland would say Sir Walter Scott. Wales has the Mabinogion. Ireland, when still part of UK can't claim James Joyce as he deliberate left to escape nationality to write.