Literary Blog Hop

This blog hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase. It is made for bloggers who mainly blog and review about classic literature or literary fiction.

This weeks task is to highlight one of my favorite books and why I think it to be literary. So here it goes:

I think it may be easier to describe why a book is not literary than why I think it is. First of all a literary book is not what everybody enjoys to read but I do. That does not necessarily mean I enjoy every literary book I read. Take Madame Bovary for an example. I did not like it at all. This may be because I read a horrible German translation of it, but that topic would be worth another post. I did like Lolita, The Dud Avocado or The Elegance of a Hedgehog though just to name a few.

Next a literary book has no shallow main characters. That means the character could be an idiot but soon discovers he is one and tries to change it. Characters need to develop during the course of a book. Those who stay the same all along are not interesting. Take Pride and Prejudice for an example the one is pride the other is prejudiced but both overcome that nasty flaws of character and get together.

A literary book is not coming without a social standpoint or other question of morality. It gives the ambitious reader what he or she wants. Something to think about, to get along with or completely disagree.

At last the style of an author who writes literary books is not the same as the one of any other author. The use of language is the channel which affects the reader. Everything like feelings, thoughts, actions and moods are transmitted by it. Take To kill a Mockingbird. I totally connected with the style of Harper Lee so that it was a pure pleasure to read it.