Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Classics virgin. Help please!

37 replies

Posey · 05/10/2006 20:36

Am an avid reader, read some stuff thats actually quite a challenge so not just a chick-lit reader (though not averse to a bit of easy reading!)
But am embarrassed to say I have only read some bits of classic books that I had to at school
Think its time I bit the bullet and gave some a try. Can I have your recommendations please for a good first time classic.

OP posts:
franca70 · 05/10/2006 22:05

Lady Audley's secret sounds like something I'd love to read

oh, why did you hate MB?

norkmaiden · 05/10/2006 21:40

something like Lady Audley's Secret - a Victorian page-turner, available in those 99p Wordsworth editions?
Dracula?
Woolf's Orlando is v charming.
AS Byatt - Possession, for a modern one.
Everyone should read 1984.

I hate hate hate Madame Bovary though.

Original poster
Posey · 05/10/2006 21:36

This is good, you keep mentioning books I have read. But enjoying the new suggestions. Thank you!

OP posts:
NastyNemo666 · 05/10/2006 21:34

down and out in paris and london by george orwell was interestin
Hard times by dickens

wheresthehamster · 05/10/2006 21:32

Also The History Man, Cold Comfort Farm, Lorna Doone. Some of George Orwell's stuff wasn't bad either.

franca70 · 05/10/2006 21:08

I second all the books already listed, esp lolita, madame bovary and jane eyre. what about some graham greene? and pg woodehouse (jeeves and wooster) for some lighthearted classics?
and when you feel ready there's also anna karenina......

franca70 · 05/10/2006 21:08

I second all the books already listed, esp lolita, madame bovary and jane eyre. what about some graham greene? and pg woodehouse (jeeves and wooster) for some lighthearted classics?
and when you feel ready there's also anna karenina......

Original poster
Posey · 05/10/2006 21:05

Ooh have read Little Women too!
Thanks for all the suggestions, really helpful.

OP posts:
HumphreyPETERCUSHINGCushion · 05/10/2006 20:57

'Little Women' by Louise May Alcott may be a good place to start.

I love Charles Dickens, and 'Nicholas Nickleby' in particular.

Also 'Middlemarch' by George Eliot.

And 'The Ice Palace' and 'The Great Gatsby' by F.Scott Fitzgerald.

Not so keen on Thomas Hardy, but did enjoy 'Far from the Madding Crowd'.

FrankenZooey · 05/10/2006 20:57

Oh Posey I don't like it (the name that is) -I may start a thread pouting.

Well, definitely try Great Expectations, it is very funny and exciting and has some unforgettable characters. I don't rate the Brontes that much except Jane Eyre, which is marvellous - very sexy and thrilling. Any Jane Austen is good, really - just pick the one you like the blurb for.

And choose a Thomas Hardy if you haven't read any - 'Jude' is so insanely dramatic that I adore it, but maybe one of the others to break you in gently?

Original poster
Posey · 05/10/2006 20:52

Blimey - I feel a lot better reading your list, as I have read 5 of them!!
I guess I was thinking along the lines of Bronte/Austen/Dickens.
You reckon Pride and Prejudice?

BTW like the new name!

OP posts:
FrankenZooey · 05/10/2006 20:46

Madame Bovary is wonderfully fab. I also love Room with a View, Candide, Three Men in a Boat, Diary of a Nobody (the last 3 are very funny), Jude the Obscure, Wuthering Heights, any Jane Austen but Pride and Prejudice is always great, Great Expectations, 1984, Brave New World.

How about some modern classics as well, such as Catcher in the Rye, Clockwork Orange, Lolita, The Sea, The Sea or A Prayer for Owen Meany?