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Original poster

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!

OP posts:
BroomstickOfLove · 08/02/2017 22:54

Frankenstein?

HarrietSchulenberg · 08/02/2017 22:53

Yes, E Nesbitt's The Story of The Treasure Seekers is ace. Very funny and a good read. It's in serial chapters too so if he really doesn't like it he could just read a couple and still have enough to talk about.
For huuuuge bonus points he could force himself through Sarah Fielding's The Governess, which was the first novel written specifically for children (1749). God, it's dull, but would definitely bag him some kudos if only for perseverence.

SunnySomer · 08/02/2017 22:52

Oh. Derr. Sci fi. Maybe Jules Verne?

Surreyblah · 08/02/2017 22:52

Dickens of course!

Christmas Carol if he wants a short one!

rhetorician · 08/02/2017 22:52

erskine childers, The Riddle of the Sands - adventure/early spy novel. Pub 1903, not too long

traviata · 08/02/2017 22:51

Stories by M R James, very ghostly and creepy.

SunnySomer · 08/02/2017 22:50

Some Dickens? Maybe Great Expectations?

traviata · 08/02/2017 22:49

E Nesbitt is a good idea, maybe '5 Children and It?'

traviata · 08/02/2017 22:48

not Jude the Obscure!!! Page after page of rural bleakness interspersed with horrific tragedy...

SorrelForbes · 08/02/2017 22:48

The E Nesbitt Bastable books are full of magic and fantasy but he might think them a little young? I still read them though!

traviata · 08/02/2017 22:47

Sherlock Holmes novels/ short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Maybe 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' to start?

H G Wells 'the War of the Worlds'.

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

thereinmadnesslies · 08/02/2017 22:45

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy?

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