1955: Books and Literature

A Fable by William Faulkner wins the National Book Award and also the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Halldor Laxness(?) wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Best-selling fiction book of 1955: Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk. I’ve only read Wouk’s Caine Mutiny and his two WW II novels, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.

Published in 1955:
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published in Paris. Nabokov’s controversial novel doesn’t make it to the U.S. until 1958.

Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie. I like the way there was usually at least one Christie novel published every year, beginning in 1920 with The Mysterious Affair at Styles and ending in 1976 with her last Miss Marple tale, Sleeping Murder. One could always ask for the latest Agatha Christie mystery for Christmas.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I wrote here about the family trauma we experienced when we watched the movie based on this book several years ago.

Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein. Did anyone else read this and other science fiction/space travel books by Heinlein when you were a teenager? I remember them as good clean fun, but am I remembering correctly? And would they be terribly dated nowadays?

Andersonville by Mackinlay Kantor. Semicolon review here.

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. There’s always a bit of a kerfuffle about whether to read this one first since it tells about the creation of Narnia. I says read the Narnia books in publication order, beginning with the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. By the time you read the first five books, you’ll want to know where Narnia came from and how it all began.

The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberley. Reviewed at Why Homeschool. I read this book a long time ago, too, and I remember thinking it was hilariously funny.

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. Classic Mexican literature of the twentieth century. Pedro Paramo is a short book, but rather confusing for someone who’s reading in a second, acquired language, as I was when I read this one back in college. I wonder if I could still read anything half this complicated in Spanish?

The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien. Even as a teenager, I saw the Christian echoes in this book that never really mentions God or Christianity. Everyone should read, listen to, or at least watch the movie version of The Lord of the Rings. Everyone.

How many of the books published in 1955 have you read or at least encountered? Is there anything on that list I shouldn’t miss?

2 thoughts on “1955: Books and Literature

  1. I haven’t heard of that Wouk book! I’ll have to check into it.

    I loved The Winds of War & War and Remembrance. I have them on my bookshelf to reread someday.

    First I need to read the two others I have of his that I haven’t read… The Hope & the sequel called The Glory. Both historical fiction about the founding of Israel.

    My husband is the one who read the Narnia books to Stephanie when she was little so somehow I hadn’t read The Magician’s Nephew until a few years ago! It was magical (now that is really Narnia magic). 😉

    Stephanie and I talked on the phone about that part where Aslan sings the universe of Narnia into existence. Amazing… I would loved to have known Lewis.

  2. I read Marjorie Morningstar years ago and remember liking it. I read Winds of War many years ago. I read The Magician’s Nephew to my daughter two years ago, along with all the rest of the Narnia books. It was first in order in the book we read (it had the entire set of books in one giant book.) I don’t think reading it first ruined anything at all for me and my daughter.

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