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2022 year of classics

130 replies

stiltonandcrackers · 26/12/2021 20:52

I normally read historical fiction or just contemporary fiction and the odd biography. But there are so many classics that I both want to read and feel I should.

I have lined up Little Women to start with.
Dracula, The brothers Karamazov, Wuthering Heights and Anna Karenina.

Any suggestions of classics that you have loved?

OP posts:
SpideySenseTingles · 26/12/2021 22:45

My friend got me one of those posters of the 100 top books where you scratch off the ones you've read so I've been slowly working my way through a lot of classics this last year.

Classics I love and reread:
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Rebecca
Sherlock Holmes
1984
Dracula
All's Quiet on the Western Front

Classics that I'm glad I read but wouldn't re-read
Frankenstein
The Plague
Gullivers Travels
The Little Prince
Hard Times

In general I find Charles Dickens a bit long winded. Oh and I gave up on Les Miserables.

WhispersOfWickedness · 26/12/2021 22:41

Ah, okay, I hadn't read it before, I can imagine analysing it to death does take the fun out of it!!
Totally forgot I read A Picture of Dorian Gray this year too, I enjoyed that Smile

Wolfiefan · 26/12/2021 22:37

I love this thread. Some inspiration for me.
I love Wilkie Collins and remember loving North and South.

Fifthtimelucky · 26/12/2021 22:36

@Xiaoxiong

This was me in 2021! I read two Trollope (the warden and barchester towers), two Evelyn Waugh (decline and fall and vile bodies), and am now almost done with Bleak House (which really picks up after the first 100 pages and is brilliant).

It's one of the best decisions I made in the lockdown last January - to read all the books I knew enough to pretend that I'd read, but hadn't actually read Grin

If you enjoyed The Warden and Barchester Towers, I strongly recommend that you read the other four Barsetshire Chronicles. I love them all but the last is one of my favourite books of all time. The Palliser novels are also good (actually I enjoy all Trollope's novels).

My aim for 2022 is to finish rereading all the Dickens novels. I read them all years ago (though I didn't enjoy or finish Pickwick Papers) and last year I decided to revisit them all. I'm about half way through and currently reading David Copperfield. The last two will be the ones I know best: Bleak House, which I studied for A level over 40 years ago, and A Tale of Two Cities. And this time I hope to persevere with Pickwick Papers!

Siuan · 26/12/2021 22:35

I rarely watch costume dramas but am currently loving Vanity Fair and planning to read the book.
I read all George Orwell's books 40 years ago, the two most famous are my least favourite.
I'll add Anna Karenina to my list.

Enrosadira · 26/12/2021 22:24

@akissbeforebed YES TO THOSE!

Enrosadira · 26/12/2021 22:22

This year i read dracula, the count of montecristo. Reread wuthering height.

2022 has at least Frankenstein, tess and middlemarch. Let’s see….

I don’t know if it’s considered a classic here but The Radetzky March will forever be in my heart too.

Enrosadira · 26/12/2021 22:19

War and Peace is one of my fave. except for a boring part which i’d skip is fab.

3beesinmybonnet · 26/12/2021 22:16

I studied Bleak House at A level and hated it. Read it again a decade ago and was totally gripped from start to finish. Probably ready to read it again now.
Pride and Prejudice is a delight from start to finish, the sort of book you can open at any page just to enjoy the beautiful prose. Every sentence tells you something about the plot or the characters.
I didn't like Little Women and had to make myself finish it.

PigeonPigPie · 26/12/2021 22:11

Brothers Karamazov is my favourite of all time!! Currently on Anna Karenina.

Planning to read in 2022:
Brave New World
Middlemarch
Great Expectations
War and Peace
The Idiot

...yet to plan any further as I often like to choose spontaneously

123ZYX · 26/12/2021 22:08

@OldHip

Vanity Fair is a wonderful book. I'd like to join you for Dracula and The Brothers Karamazov. I read Little Women when I was younger and liked it a lot but it doesn't appeal to me to reread it - my overwhelming memory is of a certain type of overheated display of virtue. Wuthering Heights is great, again very overheated but lots happens in it, mostly to very annoying characters for inexplicable reasons but the writing is good and the atmosphere is great.

Wuthering Heights and Dracula are set in the same county aren't they? Which is mad really.

Dracula (meaning the story, rather than the character) moves around a lot in England, between Whitby, Devon and London. Whitby is definitely the area of England most associated with Dracula, which is Yorkshire and Wuthering Heights is the Yorkshire Moors.

Yorkshire is a beautiful county, but after driving through it in bad weather this year, I can see why it makes a good location!

LaDoIceVita · 26/12/2021 22:02

I've got The Warden and North and South on my 'Want to Read' list for next year, along with Brave New World and Brideshead Revisited. I'm also considering joining the War and Peace Readalong thread on here.

ShirleyBadass · 26/12/2021 21:56

Also, Rebecca.

And if Jane Eyre is on your list, Wide Sargasso Sea is a must too.

GoodMorningMillicent · 26/12/2021 21:53

I think I’ll join you. I’ve read many of the classics, but not for years and years, and I am increasingly disappointed with the majority of modern fiction I read.

Off to make a list!

StColumbofNavron · 26/12/2021 21:53

I’m possibly over committing as I am on the W&P readalong and planning on the Dickens. At least they are both Classics though so I am in.

I’m not reading exclusively Classics but I do like and read a good few each year. This year I read:

Catch 22 (should have been 200 pages shorter but otherwise ok)
Anna Karenina (just phenomenal, tackled one chapter a day - though finished two months early)
Frankenstein (a reread and I didn’t love it. I’m fact I would stab Victor in the eye if I came across him)
Frenchman’s Creek, du Maurier (she qualifies right? Nevertheless, some of the best dialogue outside of Jane Austen)
Twenty Years Later, Dumas (Musketeer capers)
Stoner, Williams (modern Classic)
The Return of the Native, Hardy (Hardy is high on my Classics list)
Pride and Prejudice (reread and wonderful)
Just finishing Vanity Fair that I’m finding meh.

OldHip · 26/12/2021 21:50

Vanity Fair is a wonderful book. I'd like to join you for Dracula and The Brothers Karamazov. I read Little Women when I was younger and liked it a lot but it doesn't appeal to me to reread it - my overwhelming memory is of a certain type of overheated display of virtue. Wuthering Heights is great, again very overheated but lots happens in it, mostly to very annoying characters for inexplicable reasons but the writing is good and the atmosphere is great.

Wuthering Heights and Dracula are set in the same county aren't they? Which is mad really.

Xiaoxiong · 26/12/2021 21:49

This was me in 2021! I read two Trollope (the warden and barchester towers), two Evelyn Waugh (decline and fall and vile bodies), and am now almost done with Bleak House (which really picks up after the first 100 pages and is brilliant).

It's one of the best decisions I made in the lockdown last January - to read all the books I knew enough to pretend that I'd read, but hadn't actually read Grin

123ZYX · 26/12/2021 21:43

I've got Frankenstein ready to read for this year. I've also have Jamaica Inn on my list and might re-read Wuthering Heights.

I love Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma so will probably read another Jane Austin this year.

ShirleyBadass · 26/12/2021 21:43

I read Vanity Fair last year and dealt enjoyed it.

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 26/12/2021 21:43

'Portrait of a Lady', Henry James.

123ZYX · 26/12/2021 21:40

@LaDoIceVita

The Count of Monte Cristo Jane Eyre Frankenstein The Moonstone Oliver Twist
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favourite classics. The only problem is it's so long that it puts me off re-reading it
WhatDidISayAlan · 26/12/2021 21:40

Anna Karenina is one of my personal faves. I also really like the Master and Margerita by Bulgacov, if anyone is interested in Russian lit.

I’m going to be carrying on with some more Emile Zola, and if we’re including modern classics, I’m also going to be dipping into Le Carre as I haven’t read any of his stuff.

123ZYX · 26/12/2021 21:39

@stiltonandcrackers

I normally read historical fiction or just contemporary fiction and the odd biography. But there are so many classics that I both want to read and feel I should.

I have lined up Little Women to start with.
Dracula, The brothers Karamazov, Wuthering Heights and Anna Karenina.

Any suggestions of classics that you have loved?

I read Dracula this year and loved it once I got into it. I found the first part quite hard going - I think because it was giving a lot of information about the location to readers who wouldn't know much about it. Keep going until the part set in England because it's worth it.
Flitter123 · 26/12/2021 21:36

The woman in white

akissbeforebed · 26/12/2021 21:24

Uncle Tom's Cabin
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Yellow Wallpaper (will take about 15 mins to read, more of an essay really)
Farenheit 451