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Do none of you American folks rate Raymond Chandler? Over in the UK, he is *very* highly rated as a 'serious' author. If any of you guys think he wrote dime detective novels as tie-ins to Humphrey Bogart movies, then think again! I re-read his works a while ago, and was astonished at how well...

Darren, an excellent list, to be sure, but with respect, are they books to *introduce* someone to American literature? Personally, I'd sooner have my teeth drilled than read Henry James. I put him next to Thomas Hardy in my personal 'how the **** did they ever get a book contract in the first...

Jeff, Les Miserables is hugely different from the musical! Apart from anything else, Victor Hugo could never resist lenghty ramblings about various topics. Thus, there's a huge section on nunneries in Les Mis which doesn't advance the plot one iota (and which some editions relegate to an...

Far be it from a Brit to recommend US novels, but I'd suggest starting with the more approachable classics, like The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. If you start with the really heavyweight (in more than one sense) things like Moby Dick, you can be...