Mumsnet Talk

What would it be?

Going on holiday soon and I want to try something different - it'll be my last chance to get stuck into a book before the arrival of DC2 and I'm aware I haven't read any of the classics....what would you recommend if you had to choose one? Or maybe two, wishful thinking that I'll have time ;)

Jane Austen is a good place to start, Pride and Prejudice or Emma to begin with. Dickens I find boring, too much description. Jane Eyre, which lots of people like I found relentlessly miserable and struggled to finish. Woman in Black is great, if you aren't reading it alone in an isolated house on an island. Would be best read on a crowded beach!

Wilkie collins' woman in white

William Golding's Lord of the Flies. It's BRILLIANT. Also short so you can read another couple of books too.

Pride and Prejudice, Wutheing Heights, and Jane Eyre also good, but perhaps a little more difficult to maintain concentration on if you're not used to that sort of language and are likely to be distracted on holiday.

Others that I love are Lorna Doone, the Call of the Wild, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. In fact any Jack London is good, my favourite of his is the Sea Wolf - Wolf Larsen is one of the greatest characters ever written.

Jude the Obscure.

Another vote for Wilkie Collins Woman In White.

For something more modern Daphne Du Maurier, try Rebecca or Jamaica Inn.

Th Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte is wonderful too, by far my favourite book of any of the Bronte sisters.

Rebecca

Thackeray's Vanity Fair - great characters, page-turning plot, and is also very funny.

Lady Chatterley. Or Pride and Prejudice.

Emma or wuthering heights. Not sure I agree that Rebecca is a 'classic' but it is a great read, so would also recommend that, I must have read it 5 times!

The Great Gatsby.

The count of monte cristo is great big fat adventure story with a little philosophy!

Frankenstein is also a brilliant book and not the monster story we tend to think.

I also love Rebecca.

Pride and Prejudice.
Vanity Fair

I would say Rebecca is a classic, a modern classic but a classic nonetheless.

The woman in white is good but if I had to pick one I would go with Wuthering Heights. I could read it endlessly.

The Moonstone is proving good so far too...

What do you normally like? If you are not a usual classic reader, try to make a link wth your normal reading habits. Not everyone likes Jane Austen for example. But Wilkie Collins is very accessible because they read like thrillers. Jsne Eyre too. Lots of passion and mystery.

To Kill a Mockingbird, it's wonderful!

Wow, thanks all - living in USA at the mo so woken up to loads of suggestions.

I do like crime etc nkf but there's no particular reason I haven't read the classics, I suppose I just think they'll always be around and want to read more current things. But I don't want to never read things like Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights etc - so I thought I'd see what people suggested so I don't waste half my holiday plodding through a book that's not really grabbing me.

Thanks again for the suggestions, Saturday is a good Kindle day I think

Wuthering heights
Great expectations

Sorry that is two but cannot choose between them.

Rebecca is fabulous too actually.

Have Moonstone on my kindle, must read it one day!!!!

Middlemarch ticks all my boxes and it's lovely and long.

Dear Berri

I would choose either To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck . If you like crime , there are books about/ by Sara Parestsky ( ?) that my sister really likes Hope that helps Clare

I Capture the Castle by Dodi Smith. Charming, timeless and completely readable.

quickly read Anna Karenina before the film comes out and Keira bloody Knightly spoils it for you.

it is almost the perfect novel.

would also reccommend A Town called Alice, and the Go-Between.