Your Favourite Classic?
I’m looking for some new classics to read. I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s, a number of Thomas Hardy’s and Charles Dickens’.
My favourite of these are:
Pride & Prejudice
Emma
The Trumpet Major
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Bleak House
David Copperfield
So what’s your favourite classic? What would you recommend to me? Anything from the well-known to the obscure. Sell me the story and make me want to read it! Please not Jane Eyre or Little Women, I can’t stand the way they are written.
Thank you in advance!
How about Lord of the Flies by William Golding?
I know it’s classed as a children’s book but it’s not a children’s story.
I don’t know if you already know the story but basically it’s about a group of children stranded on an island and how they cope with creating their own society. It’s a pretty graphic book and some parts of it will have you gasping or saying eeewww! It’s anything but predictable, I hate it when you’ve already guessed the ending half way through.
I read this book in a couple of days. The way it’s written keeps you interested in the story and makes you want to know what happens to the children.
Please, please give ‘The House at Old Vine’ series by Norah Lofts a try. These stories have everything, romance, history, ghosts, witchcraft, mystery and just plain good storytelling!
Catcher in the Rye – Salinger, the most empathetic book I’ve ever read.
I think its a love it or hate it book though.
Recently read it at my book club, more than half didn’t rate it at all. Unbelievable!
The books of Mark Twain or Arthur Conan Doyle.
I have to admit that I liked the WILLIAM BROWN `Just William` books of my childhood by Richmal Crompton, a woman of all people! Today I have collection 32 of the 34 books and one of them, “William`s Crowded Hours,” now sells for £250 a copy. They were so true to life, I think I`ve read most of them and have to put my hand up to cheating about it!
The books were very popular in my day, and hard to find in the library because they were always out, so, when I came across three or four which I hadn`t read, I could only take out two and I hid the other two behind great dusty Medical reference tomes of books in another part of the library, the medical reference part, knowing very well that no-one even took those type of books out and would certainly not look for the William books in that particular section.
Trouble was, at one time I came across six I hadn`t read and hid them behind the large tomes to take out later when I`d read the two I was taking out, but without much warning we moved to a house seven miles away. I didn`t have any transport then, and no money for bus fare to take me to the library, so I`d willingly bet those six WILLIAM books are still lingering behind the medical reference tomes in the medical section of that library!!
Hee, hee!! Just like Just William!
Lord of the Rings
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
My Antonia – Willa Cather
Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorn
A Seperate Peice – John Knowles
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
and I am reading a book right now called The Memory Keepers Daughter – Kim Edwards. It might not be a classic but it is a great book.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was voted by the national Librarians Assoc. as the greatest book ever written…I’d have to agree.
Have you read any George Orwell? 1984 – Animal Farm?
oh its got to be Anne of Green Gables! This was a childhood fave and even now I reread it and fall in love with the story and characters all over again. Its wonderful to watch Anne go from being a slightly odd, gauche little girl, adopted and not really loved, to this beautiful young woman with amazing dreams….. I have to go home and read it now! Enjoy xx
Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur.
Gone with the Wind
(Btw, Jane Austin wrote Pride & Prejudice & Emma. You say you can’t stand her but they are 2 of your favorites.)
My Favorite Classic is Classic R&Bs.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott
Ok my favorite is Pride and Prejudice but you already read it
Rose in Bloom by louis May Alcott
Anne of Green Gabels L.M montgomery
The professer Charlotte Bronte
I’m with you on ‘Catcher In The Rye’ – most over-rated book of all time! (A character you never care about who does nothing and goes nowhere.)
Best classics I’ve ever read are Tolstoy’s ‘War & Peace’ (story of two families through the Napoleonic Wars – a lot of characters, but Tolstoy really gets inside the head of every one, making it very realistic – you really feel like you are there, whether its at grand ball, or on a battlefield) and ‘Anna Karenina’ (tragic story of a wife’s affair – again the way that Tolstoy gets you inside the head of each character, so you completely see and understand how they see the world is what makes it). Long books – but utterly brilliant.
If you like Dickens – try ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ (unlike most of his other novels – very fast pace and exciting).
Like Tom Sawyer too, like Captbullshot says – again because Twain makes you feel like a child whilst reading it. I found ‘Moby Dick’ was very heavy going though.
Maurice by E.M. Forster
William Faulkner – The Sound and The Fury
Victor Hugo – Les Miserables
My favourite children’s classic is Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows”. Even as an adult I enjoy the gentle story of Mole, Rat and Toad. The movies they have done just do not do justice to it at all.
My favourite adult’s classic is George Eliot’s “The Mill on the Floss”. Such a good book! The characters are interesting and the writing is just wonderul. I can highly recommend it.
Many mentioned already but have you tried Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper? Years since I read it but I did read somewhere it was Queen Victoria favourite book.
the st ledger, run at doncaster.
Two American classics: Moby Dick and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
My favorite is a REAL oldie…The Sheik, by Edith Maude Hull. It’s so old that it is in public domain. You can read it here: http://books.google.com/books?id=Ho_DLuM…
This is the book on which the Rudolph Valentino movie was based. It made him a star. I first read a copy at my great grandmother’s house when I was a child. I’ve since collected as many copies as I can find in antique stores. It’s tragic, romantic and a tear jerker through much of it.
If you want something a little easier to find, Ben Hur is a wonderful book. You probably already know the story.
Of the sci-fi genre, you should read “Stranger in a Strange World”. It’s a little dated but still a marvelous story as is Brave New World. For just a fun read, any Edgar Rice Burroughs book is great, particularly Tarzan. They are also in the public domain if you don’t want to purchase them.
Does Lord of the Rings count as a classic? If not then I’d probably say either 1984 (brilliant book – you should definatly read it) or Pride and Prejudice.
You should also read Lord of the Rings, or any Tolkien book really, they’re all brilliant!
I liked Wuthering Heights, especially the second part where Heathcliffe goes completely crazy.
Wuthering Heights is my favourite.
Jane austen is too boring, and Dickens is depressing.
Pride and Prejudice
LORD OF THE RINGS!
Alexander Dumas always, always made his stories fast paced and his characters just seem so vivid. If you haven’t read anything by him, you should. Start with The Count of monte Cristo. That one is my favorite. And remember, most of the movies based on his work really bite. Especially The Three Musketeers.
Then there’s John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, Cannery Row. *The Grapes of Wrath is my favorite*. They’re not as prettily written as a lot of other classics are. But Steinbeck knew what he was doing just the same. I have never finished one of his books and thought “Well that was a waste of time.”
i like
stuff by MARk twain
and sherlock holmes
the stuff you said
is a little to girly girl for me to like
Kim by Rudyard Kipling. It is a book with loads of layers and great historical verity.
You say you have read some Charles Dickens so you may have already read Great Expectations, but if you haven’t I would strongly recommend it. It’s a great book and Dickens’ masterpiece, in my opinion anyway.