Forgotten, Underrated, Below the Radar

Robert McCrum in the Observer contemplates the unpredictable afterlife of books

... a story of forgotten bestsellers, fashionable names swept into oblivion and overlooked figures growing in posthumous stature.

And asks 50 celebrated authors to name the books they consider to be the most underrated classics. The list they provide is fascinating, the arguments for picking up these books again convincing.

Part one is here, and part two here.

What would you add?

Okay here's my choice (though I can think of several others):

I read a most intriguing memoir by Belgian author Jan Yoors The Gypsies, in which he tells the story of how he ran away from home at the age of 12 to join a group of Lovari Roma, wandering from country to country. The writing was excellent, the characters sharp, and the story, continued into the sequel, Crossing, (which tells of his capture by the Nazis and the mass extermination of the Roma in the holocaust) ultimately heartbreaking. I bought the books (by post and out of curiosity) from a publisher who specialised in social anthropology. I don't think these books were ever marketed for a more general readership, but they really do deserve to be.