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Original poster

Recommend me some quintessential British fiction

62 replies

Fishpond · 12/06/2012 01:08

I'm American and have read a fair bit of the British "classics" but I'm looking for the ones that fly a little further under the radar.

Disclaimer is I must be able to find them here! I've had a few recommendations before but couldn't find them anywhere (even amazon!) for purchase / loan.

OP posts:
mayaswell · 12/06/2012 10:39

Sorry, just re-read Sloobrius's post. Ignore me, please. My suggestion was going to be Elizabeth Taylor, In A Summer Season would be my rec.

mayaswell · 12/06/2012 10:36

What about modern British fiction? It's interesting that most of these are about times gone by, although their themes are often universal.
Brick Lane by Monica Ali? Anyone else got anything about how we live now?

highlandcoo · 12/06/2012 10:13

Second Daphne du Maurier; she is really entertaining.

Also Arnold Bennett, especially The Old Wives' Tale. A Victorian/Edwardian novelist who deserves to be much more widely known.

You could look at Persephone Books too. They focus on rediscovering women's writing from last century .. some of them are brilliant. Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day are v popular.

MarySA · 12/06/2012 09:50

Definitely Barbara Pym. Some are better than others. I like Excellent Women, the Sweet Dove Died, and A Glass of Blessings best.

Horopu · 12/06/2012 03:29

P.G. Wodehouse

beginnersluck · 12/06/2012 03:17

Lady Audley's Secret by Elizabeth Braddock (I think)
Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel and others by Daphne Du Maurier

notcitrus · 12/06/2012 02:34

As above, plus Gormenghast, Agatha Christie, PD James, Christopher Brookmyre (three very different murder story types!), Alice in Wonderland, The Wombles, Arthur Ransome, Winnie the Pooh with original illustrations. CS Lewis's Narnia books, for stuff Brits grew up on.

Original poster
Fishpond · 12/06/2012 02:32

Ooh and thanks lemon for the link!

OP posts:
Original poster
Fishpond · 12/06/2012 02:31

Sorry ...

By classics I mean...

Almost entire repertoires of Austen, Dickens, and the Brontes, Middlemarch, Cold Comfort Farm, Heart of Darkness, Room with a View and Passage to India, some Graham Greene, the two big Hardy's, some Maugham, all of Orwell, a lot of Shakespeare, can't do Virginia Woolf, tried Rushdie and couldn't get into it (worth persevering?).

I can't abide Ian McEwan sorry Grin

OP posts:
Sloobreeus · 12/06/2012 02:24

The Remains of the Day (written by Kazuro Ishiguro who is Japanese), Jane Austen, Tony Parsons, Charles Dickens, Saturday by Ian McEwan, Middlemarch by George Eliot, Julian Barnes, Graham Swift, Alan Hollinghurst...should get you going!

ICutMyFootOnOccamsRazor · 12/06/2012 02:10

A bit hard to recommend without knowing what you've read...

Have you read Brideshead Revisited?

lemonpoppyseed · 12/06/2012 02:07

No recommendations (just about to head to bed), but I'm in Canada and buy all of my British books from Book Depository. They do free shipping, and books arrive in a couple of days. I agree that the selection of British books in N America is pretty bad, but I usually find what I'm looking for at BD.

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