Somehow, in typing out the progression of novels, i forgot "Of Human Bondage": it should go between Samuel Butler's "The Way of All Flesh" and Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye"; it's not a chronological list, but a list in terms of the way these novels used to be taught: the two Dickens's novels and the Butler in grade school; Maugham and Salinger in junior high school; Lawrence and Joyce in high school (or possibly college). That's not actually when i read them (that's a whole other story in itself).

But it was so strange to see people reading "Of Human Bondage"! But then, Brooklynites are great readers: people are always reading books on the subway into Manhattan. Yesterday, one person was reading soemthing titled "The Mercury Reader"... seated next to a woman reading something by Louisa M. Alcott.