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Original poster

Which set texts did you have for school/college/uni and would you recommend them?

38 replies

CakeBeTheFoodOfLove · 04/02/2019 17:13

Just interested to know as I'm a very avid reader and surprised at the amount of set texts I haven't actually read! I can't remember all of the ones I did but secondary school was Of mice and men and Macbeth, college was Great expectations and I had too many to name for uni really (did an OU degree so lots of different modules with many books).

After talking to my sister who is doing GCSEs currently I've vowed to read Animal Farm (only read bits up until now), To kill a mockingbird and Jekyll and Hyde.

OP posts:
tobee · 04/02/2019 19:41

Ha! I knew people would react like that re Hardy!

But I love Dickens and loads of people can't stand him. We did no Dickens at school.

FranKatzenjammer · 04/02/2019 19:21

I studied Bleak House, As You Like It, Anthony & Cleopatra, The Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth and Coleridge- this was for A level, having already done a fair amount of Coleridge for GCSE), Keats and Milton. I would recommend all of these. The only set texts I didn't particularly enjoy were Washington Square (Henry James) and John Clare's poems.

Somethingsmellsnice · 04/02/2019 17:42

I did Jane Eyre (Bronte) and The Trumpet Major (Hardy) at school together with Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night and Richard III as Shakespeare, then An Inspector Calls as drama piece and Lyricla Verse (war and Love themes)

DS did as gcse last year Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe which I hadn't ever read so did. Definitely worth a read! He did Macbeth and Inspector Calls as well as 16 poems and unseen poetry.

MyOtherProfile · 04/02/2019 17:34

No, it was the Trumpet Major.

MyOtherProfile · 04/02/2019 17:33

@QuaterMiss I loved that! I can remember the French books much better than the English.

I did just remember that we did a Thomas Hardy but can't remember which. Possibly Casterbridge.

QuaterMiss · 04/02/2019 17:31

Nooooo ... How can anyone be bored by The Mayor of Casterbridge? Grin Stunning opening and one of the most absorbing and multi layered stories in all of English literature. I re-read it occasionally and I'm amazed every time.

Girlwhowearsglasses · 04/02/2019 17:29

I did theatre studies. If you haven’t read the following they are ‘must reads’

Lorca: Blood Wedding
Strindberg: Miss Julie
Brecht: Mother Courage
Hedda Gabler
The Cherry Orchard

tobee · 04/02/2019 17:26

PS we did Chaucer's The Miller's Tale which went down well with a bunch of 17 year olds.

tobee · 04/02/2019 17:25

Howard's End was one we did. I read it again a couple of years ago and understood it in a different way. I recommend.

We also did The Mayor of Casterbridge at o level and then Tess of the D'Urbervilles at a level. I don't recommend these personally as I found I'm bored rigid by long descriptions of the countryside and yokel types.

We also did Chaucer, Shakespeare and TS Eliot long poems which I did enjoy.

limerancevictim · 04/02/2019 17:20

You know if you're looking for classics you can get them for free for e-readers, kindles and the like via either the amazon store or project gutenburg (I think that's how you spell it).

limerancevictim · 04/02/2019 17:19

I love TKAM

My friend has challenged me to read Les Mis since I'm loving the adaptation so I'm trying that next.

DD is reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, which I have never read and I'm itching to get at her copy when she finishes it.

QuaterMiss · 04/02/2019 17:18

Le Grand Meaulnes - Alain-Fournier, French A'Level.

No. Hmm

MyOtherProfile · 04/02/2019 17:16

TKAM is one of my favourite books ever. I've been delving into my memory and can only remember that we did a Shakespeare. No idea what else we read so it obviously didn't impress me much.

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