Classical Literature

[IrishEyes]

Can anyone recommend a good classic novel that you enjoyed? I didn't read as much as I should when I was younger. My New Years resolution was to read more of the classics. So far this year, I have read Dracula, Around the World in 80 Days and Of Mice and Men. I'm halfway through Great Expectations which is my first Dickens novel.

[Phoenix61]

1. Catcher in the Rye, The Wizard of Oz nt

[Xipe Totec]

2. Douglas Adams - A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Or, Victor Hugo - Les Miserables.

Either work is fine.

[IrishEyes]

15. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is on my bookshelf

I haven't read it yet but I have heard it is good.

[Xipe Totec]

16. It's mostly harmless nt

[backtoblue]

3. I recently re-read Utopia

Dickens is a good way to spend a cold night

[IrishEyes]

42. I really like Great Expectations.

I plan to read Bleak House and David Copperfield at some point.

[Bradshaw3]

4. Have to read Jack London

Call of the Wild of course or The Sea Wolf.

One of the best short stories ever written, Builds a Fire, won't take long because you can't put it down.

A great American writer and socialist defender of the working man.

[GreenEyedLefty]

5. I have so many on my list. Here are a few I have read in the last decade or so.

To Kill a Mockingbird
40 Years of Solitude
The House of the Spirits
Slaughterhouse Five
The Great Gatsby
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Age of Innocence

I have a degree in English. The one text that I studied that has stuck with me is "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.

[IrishEyes]

17. I liked To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby a lot.

I have the Picture of Dorian Gray but I haven't read it yet.

[charlyvi]

6. The Scarlet Letter. An American Tragedy, Native Son, Moby Dick, The Jungle, anything by Tolstoy or

Dostoevsky, Shakespeare's tragedies or histories and his poetry. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Vanity Fair, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, The Great Gatsby, Hemingway's short stories (Hills like White Elephants in particular), The Sound and the Fury, To the Lightthouse. Harvard had lists of the greatest novels for each century.

Here's the Twentieth: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1998/7/24/class-ranks-top-100-novels-of/
Best Novels of the 19th: http://listcoholic.blogspot.com/2012/02/best-novels-of-19th-century.html

[IrishEyes]

18. Thanks for the list.

I bought a copy of Anna Karenina for a dollar a few weeks ago. I haven't read anything from Tolstoy or any Russian writer before. I have read a lot of Shakespeare. I own a beautiful copy of his complete works that I have had since college.

[charlyvi]

32. Anna Karenina is one of my favorites.

I think it’s better than War and Peace, but that’s just me. Happy Reading!

[smirkymonkey]

61. I love Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich [novella]), Dostoevsky (Crime

and Punishment, The Brother's Karamazov, The Idiot, The Possessed, The Gambler, Notes from Underground) and Turgenev (Torrents of Spring, Fathers and Sons). I also really loved "Dr. Zhivago" by Boris Pasternak. It was one of those books where I felt like I lost my best friend when I had finished it.

[GreenEyedLefty]

7. One of my favorite college classes was on the short story.

Last edited Mon Feb 12, 2018, 09:12 PM - Edit history (1)

I read a lot of Flannery O'Connor, John Cheever, James Joyce ("Dubliners" is sublime) and Sherwood Anderson.

On edit: I put "American" in the title. The class was on the 20th century short story, not just American.

[charlyvi]

11. Sherwood Anderson could be funny as hell.

Last edited Mon Feb 12, 2018, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

I remember reading one of his Winesburg, Ohio, stories on the bus ride coming home from class once, tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard. I was glad the bus was kind of empty!

[IrishEyes]

22. Sounds good. I could use a good laugh.

[MaryMagdaline]

8. Pride and Predjudice

Mansfield Park
Brothers Karamozov

[IrishEyes]

19. I'm embarrassed to say that I have never read anything by Jane Austen.

I know the story of Pride and Prejudice. I will put it on my list.

[MaryMagdaline]

31. Good character studies - all of her novels

I did not read them till my 40's. My favorite author now.

[FSogol]

9. "On the razor's edge" by Somerset Maugham

Or "of human bondage"

Also recommend anything by Joseph Conrad, especially "lord jim"

[diva77]

28. I love The Razor's Edge! I thought the movie was great as well -- altho. they tweaked the

story somewhat; couldn't help falling head over heels for Tyrone Power in that!!!

[charlyvi]

37. Theres a 1984 version with Bill Murray and Theresa Russell

Murray is no Tyrone Power looks wise, but the movie is pretty good.

[charlyvi]

29. Of Human Bondage is a good S. Maugham as well. n/t

[sarge43]

10. The Great Gatsby and Huckleberry Finn n/t

[IrishEyes]

20. I like both of those novels a lot.

[sarge43]

53. They're the crown jewels of American literature.

If you're interested in genre, a couple of classics of science fiction:

The Stars, My Destination, Alfred Bester

The Time Machine, H. G. Wells

[TygrBright]

12. Catch-22. Slaughterhouse 5. To Kill a Mockingbird. n/t

[FSogol]

51. I recommend "Galapagos" by Kurt Vonnegut n/t

[RestoreAmerica2020]

13. The Pearl, Steinbeck; Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway

.. Jane Eyre, Bronte; Man of la Mancha, Cervantes all great classics ...those suggested above are excel lent recommendations as well.

[FSogol]

50. "Tortilla Flat" by Steinbeck is one of my favs. n/t

[RestoreAmerica2020]

55. Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden....

Steinbeck's litany of work is timeless!

[Atticus]

14. Little Women, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Black Boy---many mentioned above. nt

[CrawlingChaos]

44. I LOVED Heart of Darkness

One of those books that forever changes you. And it seems like everyone who's every read it feels the same way (although I'm sure there are exceptions).

[yardwork]

21. Vanity Fair, by Thackeray. Wuthering Heights.

[MissMillie]

23. Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

[First Speaker]

24. Wuthering Heights and Bleak House...

...the two great jewels in the crown of 19th century British novels. Wuthering Heights is the only novel that approaches the Shakespearean heights of King Lear or Hamlet...it's unforgettable. And what is there to say of Bleak House? Dickens' masterpiece, it has everything in it. You'll lose yourself in it for weeks.

[IrishEyes]

35. Bleak House will be my next Dickens.

Last edited Tue Feb 13, 2018, 12:26 AM - Edit history (1)

I will put Wuthering Heights on the list as well.

[The King of Prussia]

46. I live about 2 miles from Wuthering Heights

Ashamed to say that I haven't read it yet

[JI7]

25. Count of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables

Everything and anything dickens

[Mister Ed]

36. The Count of Monte Cristo is my all time favorite novel. n/t

[Sanity Claws]

26. 1984

I think it is old enough to be considered a classic.

[IrishEyes]

60. Yes, that is definitely a classic.

[diva77]

27. David Copperfield -- my favorite Dickens novel!

Also love Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

[mainstreetonce]

30. The Good Earth

I want to reread that soon.

[IcyPeas]

33. a few I enjoyed:

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert


already mentioned above that I second:

Picture of Dorian Gray
Of Human Bondage

[fierywoman]

34. The Master and Margarita, and Anna Karenina

The Charterhouse of Parma, Madame Bovary

[GeoWilliam750]

38. Agree with the Count of Monte Cristo

Also all four of The Three Musketeers series
The Iliad and The Odyssey
Anything Dickens
1984
A Brave New World
Gulliver's Travels
Sherlock Holmes

[IrishEyes]

40. I loved the Iliad and the Odyssey

As well as the Three Musketeers.

[blur256]

39. I honestly loved War and Peace

I kinda want to read it again as an adult. I read it in high school when I worked at a pool all summer just taking money. And I feel like it is somewhat relevant today.

[IrishEyes]

41. I have been meaning to read War and Peace.

[JI7]

47. i loved it also and what i learned from it has always stayed with me

many of these books are almost like a life experience .

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

43. Uncle Tom's Cabin.

I'd always wanted to read it, and then some years back when NPR's Talk of the Nation had a bookclub of the air, one month they did Uncle Tom's Cabin. I went for it, expecting it to be a total boring slog, but knew I ought to read it. Well! The first fifty pages were a bit slow, but after that I could not put it down.

I think one important reason it's so powerful is that there is absolutely no sense that slavery will ever end. Unlike every novel written after the Civil War. Plus, in the latter part it reads a lot like the Holocaust. Wow.

Oh, and I can brag that I got to be one of the people in the first half of the show who was on the air commenting. That was a genuine thrill.

[CrawlingChaos]

45. Moby Dick

The greatest book I have ever read. No hyperbole to say this book left me feeling more alive.

I expected to hate it and be bored to death. Instead, it moved me and shook me more than any book ever has. I was (and am) literally awestruck by it's brilliance.

[JI7]

48. Moby Dick was wayy ahead of it's time

when you look at a lot of the social themes .

i wasn't sure what to expect but it was worth it. i even enjoyed the long descriptions on whaling which some say is boring.

[CrawlingChaos]

49. YES! And profoundly relevant to our lives today..

Same here on the whaling chapters (I know exactly which ones you mean). They could easily have been skipped but by that point I was so immersed in the novel I didn't want to miss a thing.

And once you do make it to the end you are rewarded with the last three exquisite chapters which are nothing less than sublime. I read the last page and sat there for the longest time completely awestruck. Then I picked it up again and turned right back to page one. Amazing.

[TuxedoKat]

54. Yes, yes, yes!!!

I had the good fortune to take a class by a professor who in part had based his doctoral thesis on Moby Dick. I was very moved by reading it also and am profoundly grateful to have read it. I always say it is the book that taught me how to really read for meaning.

[IrishEyes]

59. I admit that I never read Moby Dick.

I tried when I was a teenager but I only read a little bit and gave up. After hearing how much you liked it, I will have to give it another try now that I'm older.

[madaboutharry]

52. I have three suggestions.

These are three books that I dearly loved. Each is wonderful in their own way.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Tess of the d'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

[OriginalGeek]

56. I remember pretty much loving most everything

from High school English Lit. It was one of the few classes that wasn't poisoned by my christian school's agenda. Just "Here's these books - read them". No teacher injecting anything - in fact all you had to do to pass was promise you read the books. I would have liked discussion of the books from a knowledgeable, secular teacher but these dopes would have ruined it (to be qualified to teach at this school one must have been related in some way to the pastor of the church that ran the school) so I'm glad they didn't feel it was important enough to learn the material themselves so they could inject their fundamentalism into it.

But enough about my issues.

I LOVED Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. It's still one of my all-time favorite books.

I loved Silas Marner too - I thought it was interesting that George Eliot was a woman and I felt bad she had to use a male pen name just to be taken seriously as a writer. Her writing was plenty great on its' own.

Beowulf was cool but I'm not sure how abridged our edition was. I sure don't remember a cartoon Angelina Jolie like the movie had. lol

I liked Les Miserables but, again, it was from a school book and I bet it was edited down to fit. Same with Great Expectations.

During free time I read all the Robert E. Howard Conan books. not classical but classic fantasy at any rate.

I remember really liking the Scarlet Pimpernel series but I read that for fun, not school.

Other non-school reading was any Sherlock Holmes book. I loved Agatha Christie too.

Tolkien, of course.

And Mark Twain.

and TONS of sci-fi.

[IrishEyes]

58. I read Beowulf recently.

I loved the Scarlet Pimpernel when I was a kid.

[TuxedoKat]

57. Here are some

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The May of Castorbridge - Thomas Hardy
Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
The Red and the Black - Stendhal
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Dangerous Acquaintances - Choderlos De Laclos

[VOX]

62. Some 20th Century musts: In Cold Blood, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Grapes Of Wrath...

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, From Here to Eternity, Ironweed, Of Mice and Men, All the King's Men, Cry, the Beloved Country, On the Road, Invisible Man...not even a starter list.

One element these "newer" classics share is that they're non-medicinal page turners. Nary a tough slog in the bunch.

[IrishEyes]

63. Thank you all for your suggestions.

I now have a great list of books to read.

[panader0]

64. All of the above plus 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac

[Upthevibe]

65. Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451

are excellent, and I don't think I saw posted yet....I highly recommend both...

[llmart]

66. Anything by Willa Cather.

Her descriptions of the prairies are incredible.