Which "classics" have you never read but feel you ought to?

29 replies

Ujjayi · 17/11/2014 16:54

I have always loved reading & read many classics through my teens. However, I'm aware that my child-rearing years have mostly been one chick-lit after another.

After perusing this board yesterday, I retrieved Jane Eyre from my bookshelves & am trying again with it (I don't think I have ever got past the third chapter).

I am also determined that I shall have read a Dickens novel by the end of the year.

Which classics have passed you by?

OP posts:

AWholeLottaNosy · 17/11/2014 18:07

Sadly I think doing English A level put me off the 'classics'. I read Madame Bovary by choice a few years ago. Really didn't get it.

Not read Jane Eyre, Little Women, Wuthering Heights or most of Dickens. Am I missing out?

Do love a good novel tho!

DuchessofMalfi · 17/11/2014 18:06

Meant to add that I don't really feel I ought to read any classics, but these are the ones that interest/intrigue me.

I read Dracula last week - that was a rattling good read, and not difficult either.

DuchessofMalfi · 17/11/2014 18:04

Wuthering Heights - on my list to tackle read next year.

Trollope's Barchester Chronicles. Have made a half-hearted attempt with an audio version of The Warden, which I did like, although was a little wordy (sometimes I find myself struggling/getting frustrated with the Victorian novelists' wordiness - am looking at you Hardy as well :o, where Austen doesn't do that).

Can't get on with Dickens, but would like to read/re-read Wilkie Collins.

MiddleAgeMiddleEngland · 17/11/2014 17:25

Vanity Fair, although I have a copy on my to-read pile at the moment.

The Barchester Chronicles. I look at them in bookshops, then decide they don't look interesting enough and put them back.

Jane Eyre is really good, you'll enjoy it.

If you've not read any Dickens at all, or lately, Great Expectations is a good place to start, or perhaps A Christmas Carol at this time of year.

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