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Recommendation for pre 1914 book for ds13

37 replies

auberginesrus · 08/02/2017 22:43

My 13yo ds has been challenged by his English teacher to read a book written prior to 1914. He is singularly unimpressed with the idea. He's very bright and loves reading but only likes fantasy/magic/science fiction and mythology type stuff. We've tried him on Aldous Huxley but he can't into it at all. Any good ideas? The classics I love will most definitely not wash!

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Chickoletta · 15/02/2017 22:28

Edgar Alan Poe's short stories. Not technically a novel but pre-1914 prose nonetheless. I teach them to bright yr 9 classes and they always go down well, especially The Telltale Heart (and there's a brilliant Simpsons parody!).

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/02/2017 17:00

I immediately thought of the Time Machine by H G Wells. It is short and a good story.

But it's not a chore - Tom Sawyer, Moonfleet, Treasure Island, The Call of the Wild, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - I'd read all those by his age, and had no idea when they were written - what's he been doing with his time? Grin

I also absolutely loved the Scarlet Pimpernel when I read it.

DirtyBlonde · 10/02/2017 12:42

You could be really evil and suggest Fanny Hill.....

AuntieStella · 10/02/2017 12:41

Another vote for Rider Haggard

Start with King Solomon's Mines. It's the inspiration for all later archeologist adventure/thriller tales. Move over Indiana!

CheerfulMuddler · 10/02/2017 12:39

Actually, I agree with everyone who suggested War of the Worlds. Short, sci fi-y and really good. You don't want to force the poor boy to read literachoor, you want him to enjoy it.

CheerfulMuddler · 10/02/2017 12:35

The Scarlet Pimpernel! (1905)
Or how about some early PG Wodehouse?

Cedar03 · 10/02/2017 08:40

Treasure Island or Kidnapped by R L Stevenson

M R James Ghost Stories are creepy and definitely well worth a read.

cdtaylornats · 09/02/2017 14:23

Jules Verne - First Men on the Moon
Bram Stoker - Dracula
Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
or A Princess of Mars (1912)

I was once challenged by an English teacher to read Jane Eyre and said I would if he would read Isaac Asimov's Foundation. We did and although he said Foundation was okay I discovered he had got the next two in the series from the library.

ringlingsisters · 09/02/2017 08:59

Huckleberry Finn
Three Musketeers
The Emerald City of Oz
Some of O Henry's stuff is very readable
Early Wodehouse
Arsene Lupin
Father Brown
Zane Grey Grin
Kipling
haggard
Saki
Kipling
J M Barrie
Terrify him - The Turn of the Screw!

AdaColeman · 09/02/2017 08:44

Oh yes! Moonfleet, how could I forget that, really gripping plot, very well told.

alltouchedout · 09/02/2017 08:42

The Story of the Treasure Seekers is great!
Not Hardy though. Don't do that to the poor child.

GinIsIn · 09/02/2017 08:39

Moonfleet by J Meade Faulkner. Love that book! Smugglers, a few juicy murders, treasure hunting.....

Surreyblah · 09/02/2017 08:37

Yes, don't put the poor boy off literature by subjecting him to that!

Original poster
auberginesrus · 09/02/2017 08:33

Thanks all, some great suggestions to go at - I like the sound of the Forster one.

Traviata I love Jude the Obscure, one of my all time faves but I doubt he'd make it through the first chapter! Grin

OP posts:
Sgtmajormummy · 08/02/2017 23:12

Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.

(Nailed it. Grin)

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 08/02/2017 23:11

Yes yes to the machine stops.

Surreyblah · 08/02/2017 23:08

War of the Worlds is amazing, v modern, and is partly set in surrey, Smile

Marmelised · 08/02/2017 23:06

The machine stops by EMForster. 1909. Not at all like his other books. It's sci-fi and predicts the internet, Skype, tablets. More of a short story so not too onerous to read.
I read it in the 70s and rediscovered it as an adult once all the above had been invented. It was all still futuristic when I first read it!

AdaColeman · 08/02/2017 23:06

Treasure Island is a cracking adventure story.

The Blue Carbunkle for a Sherlock Holmes starter?

Sadly The 39 Steps is a year too late at 1915! Grin

confusedaboutthis · 08/02/2017 23:04

Another vote for HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds'. Its fabulous.

BroomstickOfLove · 08/02/2017 23:01

Or some of the Victorian versions of Norse mythology. There's a good selection here:

readdurhamenglish.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/top-ten-victorian-books-about-vikings/

traviata · 08/02/2017 22:57

Aldous Huxley is all just people talking and no action, so I'm not surprised it didn't appeal.

Surreyblah · 08/02/2017 22:55

Room with a View

rhetorician · 08/02/2017 22:54

or james fenimore cooper, the last of the mohicans (1826), Jack London, The Call of the Wild (1903), Hawthorne, the Scarlet Letter (also short)

Surreyblah · 08/02/2017 22:54

Dracula: v scary!

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