Ulysses / James Joyce
Story: How Leopold Bloom, wife Molly, and young man Stephen Dedalus spend June 16, 1904. Nothing much happens, but Bloom has sex with Molly in the last chapter.Appear knowledgeable: Leopold, Molly and Stephen correspond to Ulysses, Penelope and Telemachus in Homer’s Odyssey.
Ultra-knowledgeable: On June 16, 1904, James Joyce had his first date with Nora Barnacle, his lifelong companion.
Absurdly knowledgeable: There are dozens of riddles embedded in Ulysses. The only as-yet unsolved one is the identity of the "man in the macintosh".
Throwaway one-liner: "A remarkable conflation of mythology, symbolism, philosophy, realism, and humanity."
War And peace/Leo Tolstoy
Story: Napoleon attacks Russia. Hundreds of characters fall in love, brood about life’s meaning, die fighting, or survive and continue brooding.
Appear knowledgeable: Trigger off arguments by mentioning General Kutuzov’s belief that wars are won only through "patience and time".
Ultra-knowledgeable: Tolstoy originally intended War and Peace to be merely the first part of a trilogy. Good lord!
Absurdly knowledgeable: In War and Peace, Tolstoy recommends the use of calculus to study history.
Throwaway one-liner: "The contrast between the universal yet delusive experiences of free will and historical determinism reflects an inner conflict within Tolstoy."
Remembrance of things past/ Marcel Proust
Story: A man’s fanatically detailed memories of watching idle rich Frenchmen and women party, gossip, sleep around, waste time.
Appear knowledgeable: By telling people they should refer to the novel as In Search of Lost Time, the correct translation of the French title.
Ultra-knowledgeable: Proust rewrote just the novel’s first page 12 times. Things Past is 3,000 pages long.
Absurdly knowledgeable: Proust was gay, and partially modelled Marcel’s lady love, Albertine, on his lover and chauffeur Alfred Agostinelli.
Throwaway one-liner: "Ostensibly about the irrevocability of time, it’s actually about intemporality."
