What classical books do you love?

[terranova]

Dostoyevsky's The Possessed and Crime and Punishment.

Anything Jane Austen wrote ever.

1984 and Animal Farm, well pretty much whatever Orwell wrote apart from "...Wigan Pier"

I read a lot of old communist classics from different traditions too.

I admit it took me 32 years to read Animal Farm but I read it in January in one sitting while I was awake with a fussy baby. Orwell is such an amazing writer.

[PennySycamore]

Does anyone ever read any Herman Hesse anymore? It was all the rage when I was in high school in the early 70s. Ok, it was the rage for me and a couple of my friends. I liked Siddhartha and Steppenwolf although the latter was extremely esoteric to a 10th grader. I think I read Magister Ludi, too, but I'm not sure.

My dad always said the Alice books weren't really for kids. I didn't read them until college and I loved them.

[Guest Anonymous]

Anna Karenina

The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion (Tolkien is getting a lot of shout outs on the "hated it" thread, so I'll be the one that sticks up for him. I love those books so much I read them all at least once a year, including the entirety of the appendices.)

A Separate Peace

Wuthering Heights

A Farewell to Arms

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The Color Purple

All The Shakespeare

All The Oscar Wilde

[freejoytoo]

More to the list:

Anything by Thomas Hardy

Anything by Shakespeare

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass

[Guest Anonymous]

Pride and Prejudice (I love the book, but the 1995 BBC miniseries is set in my brain as the “proper†version)

Mansfield Park

Persuasion

Northanger Abbey

Jane Eyre (Silly fun, if slightly ruined by post-colonial studies)

Valley of the Dolls (Trashy, but definitely a modern classic)

[freejoytoo]

How is Jane Eyre 'silly fun'?

[Guest Anonymous]

How is Jane Eyre 'silly fun'?

It's got all of those ridiculous novel elements (drama, intrigue, the orphan, and the secret past) and it doesn't take them too seriously. It seems to have been written for enjoyment and a bit of goofiness. It is certainly not as mean about the novel genre as Northanger Abbey.

[freejoytoo]

I completely disagree with you. It may hold tropes of gothic novels but I think the novel is very serious about Jane's sense of place and independence as a woman.

As a train of thought, I have always loathed Mr Rochester.

[Guest Anonymous]

But things are so much more fun when you imagine that people are being knowing and ironic!

If you want to ponder something depressing about Jane Eyre, think about the racial motifs with regards to good and bad and the whole Bertha Mason sub-plot.

[freejoytoo]

I read Wide Sargasso Sea a while ago. Other than that I've never really thought about the colonial aspects of it. I guess it's not surprising seeing when it was written.

I did notice a conservative attitude to class. Jane Eyre and the girls at the school, whilst treated like dogs, are educated and rightfully ladies but the girls Jane teaches are poor and aren't taught beyond simple skills because they are only cottagers' daughters.

[Guest Anonymous]

I read Wide Sargasso Sea a while ago. Other than that I've never really thought about the colonial aspects of it. I guess it's not surprising seeing when it was written.

I did notice a conservative attitude to class. Jane Eyre and the girls at the school, whilst treated like dogs, are educated and rightfully ladies but the girls Jane teaches are poor and aren't taught beyond simple skills because they are only cottagers' daughters.

I do agree with you about the class thing and about the role of women. I guess my opinion comes from reading it for the first time as a kid and having a sentimental attachment to it. I thought Jane Eyre was quite a jolly romp when I was eleven. As for Wide Sargasso Sea, I really dislike Jean Rhys. I mean, really dislike her. Her main complaint always seemed to be that people did not see her as "white enough" because she was from the West Indies, as if that was the main problem with racism. Her characters seemed to be based on the same old stereotypes (e.g. mixed raced kids were weak and sickly, like Eddie in 'The Day They Burned the Books') the only difference from mainstream British racism was that she refused to see herself as a 'horrid colonial', she just seemed to want to cry out "Hey look! I'm white, I'm really white! That should count for something!".

[freejoytoo]

I read Jane Eyre when I was ten but I never saw it as a jolly romp, it always felt quite serious to me. The bit I always got stuck on is where she goes to the cousins' house.

I know very little about Jean Rhys - that's the only book I've read by her and I don't really want to read it again because it bummed me out so much. I didn't know she was from the West Indies.

[Terrie]

If you want to read something that pokes fun at gothic novel sensibilities, read Cold Comfort Farm. It's one of the funniest things ever. I also strongly recommend the movie.

[B5SnowDog]

Jane Erye

1984

Animal Farm

Wuthering heights

Catch 22

Count of Monte Cristo

The Jungle

To kill a mocking bird

Slaughterhouse-five

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my desert island books.

[keen23]

It's very New England of me, but I LOVE Little Women, and to be even more in the minority, Amy was my favorite sister.

[Gil]

- Lord of the Flies

- Frankenstein

- The Crucible (okay, it's a play...sneaking it in anyway.)

- To Kill a Mockingbird

- Their Eyes Were Watching God

- Ragtime

- Othello

[Sweetpea1]

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my desert island books.

The Count of Monte Cristo is a favorite of mine, too.

[Terrie]

The Count of Monte Cristo is a favorite of mine, too.

Same here. I love Dumas, generally, though I had a terrible time with The Man in the Iron Mask.

[Sweetpea1]

I've got a bucket list. I'd love to read Dumas (and Victor Hugo/ Les Mis) in the original french. I can fake just enough that it might happen.

[B5SnowDog]

Jules Verne is another French author I love.

I also like Poe, the Sherlock Holmes stories, Captains Courageous, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Treasure Island, The Odyssey, and Pride and Prejudice. Sadly, my cats did something unspeakable to my copy of P&P and I have yet to replace it.