I find myself observing parallels between works. I am currently digging into Saul Bellow's Herzog and can't help but relate it to White Noise by Don DeLillo. The failed marriages, the protagonist's struggle among social happenings, family, profession, and mental health. The protagonists in both pieces are described to be genius professors that study obscure subjects (i.e. Herzog studies Romantics and Jack Gladney studies Adolf Hitler). The writing styles might even be compared. I enjoy the books as individual works, however I can't help but find an interest in comparing the two.
What have you folks read that you've compared to other pieces read in the past?
I am convinced that Douglas Adams fell in love with PG Wodehouse and tried to rip off him. Mainly in the way of prose ("abstract" sentences) and dialogue, but then again maybe it's just common brit humor and wit. Never read Bellow or Delilo so i cant relate, got any others?
Kawabata - The House of the Sleeping Beauties / García Márquez - Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Kafka - The Process / Camus - The Plague
Gogol - The Nose / Dostoyevsky - The Double
Balzac - Colonel Chabert / Javier Marías - The Infatuations
>>7799032
>kafka - the process
tipstrilby.jpg
>>7798988
I'll have to do more research on that one myself. It can be difficult to relate works without assuming that they were influenced by one another or even trying to rip off haha. Interesting observation, man.
I recently reread Daphne do Maurier's Rebecca and found strikingly similar resemblances to Bronte's Jane Eyre. Though I was not head over heels for either novels, I found the similarities to be noteworthy. Upon doing some research, I found Rebecca had been ridiculed for its "copying" of Jane Eyre, which had been written about a century prior. The Gothic Romance novels depict young women who engage with older and rich men, who live in mansions...etc. there are supernatural themes as well as feminist themes and "female struggles" explored throughout both novels. Though du Maurier never officially admitted influence from Bronte's work, it is speculated that she had copied her work from the prose style of writing to the plot.
>>7799062
i'm sorry, f.am. I'm ESL, I couldn't remember the title in english
The Great Gatsby was a post-modernist take on the Canterbury Tales.
>>7799032
Definitely have to agree with you on Kafka v. Camus
>>7798966
Recently finished Danilo Kis' Encyclopedia of the Dead...received favorable comparisons to Borges' work. I can't help but Kis's writing diluted at best and often heavy-handed in comparison.
>>7799086
nope
>>7799086
Uh, no.
>>7799086
I apologize, but I can't seem to agree with you on that one, old sport.
Moreau and Bioy Casares' Morel, but it's obvious