Right-I'm sick of Booker shortlist fiction-so help me, post your all time favourite work of classic fiction

[DarrellRivers]

Ann Enright finished me off finally with the dross that is called 'The Gathering'
So I decided to start reading some more classic works of fiction.
Am currently reading Nana by Zola, it's great [bit suprised]

At least these people seem to be able to write cracking tales (and not just emotional vomit)
I think I read most classic works of fiction when I was a teenager -ie Jane Austen, when I was too young to appreciate anything about life.

So post what should i read next, and what you loved about it.I think anything published in last 20 years should not be allowed but exceptions may be permitted.

[dustystar]

I really enjoyed Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

[cyanarasamba]

Vanity Fair - fabby fabby fab. All of Jane Austen too. In fact you can't go wrong with most of the classics - that's why they made it as classics. Dickens not to everyone's taste but I love it too.

[mumblechum]

I know you've already read Jane Austen, but it might be worth revisiting Pride and Prejudice.

I'm a real Austen fan, have read all 6 books over and over. My dh recently bought me "mr Darcy's Diary", putting his point of view and I enjoyed that as well.

Don't like Dickens, has v. strange ideas about women.

Joseph Conrad's not bad.

You could try the Woman in White or the Moonstone, both by Wilkie Collins.

[mumblechum]

Oooh yes, Vanity Fair as well.

[wheelybug]

All time favourite - 3 men in a boat, Jerome K Jermone

But also:

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Gone with the Wind (not as romantic as the film !)
Anything by F Scott Fitzgerald
Room with a view

[dustystar]

I also enjoyed the Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and The Go Between by LP Hartley

[LoveAndSqualor]

what about modern classics? Have recently been splurging on C20 American lit. EL Doctorow and Updike are both wonderful. Read Updike's Rabbit series from start to finish and was just blown away - every other line a revelation.

[dustystar]

I like Graham Greene as well - Brighton Rock is good

[DarrellRivers]

Again think i read Vanity Fair whilst teenager, but can't remember lots of it although I watched a recent film adaption and was at how they had twisted the ending into a happy one.
Surely the point of it was Becky Sharpe is a low conniving minx who got her just desserts!
That's on my list
I do enjoy Dickens , and is quite good ie one chapter a night(might be here till christmas though)
DustyS- what is Invisible man about? (aprt from obvious sounding title)

[dustystar]

It is but i still liked the book

[MaryAnnSingleton]

Persuasion or The Outsider by A;lbert Camus

[DarrellRivers]

Yes just read The Great Gatsby, v good, I didn't find it as depressing as I thought it was going to be.
So could follow on with some Updike perhaps
Yes, I think Graham Greene needs to go on the list

[psychomum5]

how do you class a 'classic' tho.

Is it just authors that have died?

what is a 'classic'? I am a reader, so sorry if I sound like an idiot, but I am wondering how a book becomes a classic.

In my mind, classic = boring, but what do I know, I am not sure I have read one.

I do love C.S.Lewis and the Narnia books, and does 'To Kill a Mockingbird' happen to be counted too?

and what about Hucklberry Finn, or Tom Sawyer.....is that book counted....ohh, and the 'Swallow and Amazons' book.

Am now aware that I am mainly quoting books aimed at children, so it may say something to do with my literary levels.

I do however have some Jane Austin somewhere, just not read as yet as I never have the time (mainly because all my fave authors keep releasing new books damn them)!!

[cyanarasamba]

Ooh Ooh - A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute. Lovely/heartbreaking wartime tale.

[dustystar]

Its about a black man in the south of the USA and how he gets an education and comes up North and gets involved with the black civil rights movement. Its a strange book and a bit disturbing but IMO definitely worth reading

[DarrellRivers]

Any foreign titles suggestions?
Loved Anna Karenina but never ever managed to finish War and Peace.
Have soft spot for Russian novelists

[MaryAnnSingleton]

yes, lovely book - cyana

[ArcticRoll]

Middlemarch-George Eliot

[dustystar]

I LOVE to kill a Mocking bird. i must read it again.

[MuffinMclay]

Pride and Prejudice.

Anna Karenina a close second.

[ArcticRoll]

Crime and Punishment?

[psychomum5]

oooh.....excitement.....does it count then???

Ooooh....I have read a classic

[DarrellRivers]

psychomum5, yes i worried a bit about the 'classic ' classification, and hopefully someone will illuminate us further.
I take it as a book which stands the test of time, in that it 's themes , ie love, revenge, jealously, shine through the cultural scenery of the time.
To kill a mocking bird is a classic i reckon.