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Original poster

Suggest a classic

59 replies

PinotAndPlaydough · 12/03/2022 12:58

I’m an avid reader, I usually just browse and choose whatever I fancy. I would really like to read some of the classics, I think in the past I’ve been put off because I think they’ll be hard to read or the language might be confusing.
However they are classics for a reason and I want to give it a go, what do you suggest?

OP posts:
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LeniGray · 13/04/2022 10:32

Orlando by Virginia Woolf, beautifully written.

happygolurkey · 10/04/2022 17:33

good on you for going with Frankenstein!

Another great one to try at some point might be The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Original poster
PinotAndPlaydough · 07/04/2022 13:51

Well I went against lots of advice and tried Frankenstein. I found it a slow starter but actually really enjoyed it. I’m trying the take of two cities next which looks far more intimidating!

OP posts:
Rifling · 02/04/2022 14:35

Take no notice of the Hardy haters! I reread at least one Hardy a year and love him just don't start with Jude.

My recommendations:

  • Jane Eyre
  • The Painted Veil
  • The Woodlanders
theremustonlybeone · 02/04/2022 08:56

Madame Bovary- Gustav Flaubert

The3rdWatermelon · 02/04/2022 08:50

Crime and Punishment

Dracula

The Moonstone

Sherlock Holmes

The Woman in White

Three Men in a Boat - this one is my absolute favourite book, it’s so very human. Likewise Three Men on the Bummel which is a touch less florid in its descriptions.

WellThatsMeScrewed · 02/04/2022 08:28

A modern classic - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver actually any of her books!

With Jane Austin - don’t just read P&P as I actually enjoyed her other books more.

Darklane · 28/03/2022 20:34

Anything by Elizabeth Gaskell
Wuthering Heights & Jane Eyre of course.
If you think classics are always serious & can’t be really funny read Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.

Geppili · 26/03/2022 00:24

Our man in Havana by Graham Greene

Cards of Identity

Cold Comfort Farm

The Nine Tailors

Shostaklovhich · 23/03/2022 23:33

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was the first classic I read for pleasure and really enjoyed. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is a brilliant one too.

Stopsnowing · 23/03/2022 23:26

Cold Comfort Farm

tobee · 23/03/2022 23:21

Ohh that was a bit of a spoiler from pp re Woman in White! Agree it's great and one of those books I found my hands were clasping the actual book as it was literally so gripping!

My question would be what kind of book are you after? Classics is quite a big category. Catch 22 quite different to Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Also what kind of length are you after? Middlemarch's length might be a bit daunting for eg. Whereas Therese Raquin and The Great Gatsby are shorter than average. Then you could build up to something longer?

LadyMacduff · 19/03/2022 21:15

Jamaica Inn is fantastic

Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Bleak House is great as well. As with many classics, you've got to find the rhythm of it, in my experience, but then I found it unputdownable.

milski · 19/03/2022 21:11

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is also good.
To echo other posters, Sherlock Holmes is great although I listened to the complete works audio book, narrated by Stephen Fry, which might have helped!

JaninaDuszejko · 19/03/2022 21:05

It's bleak. Then it continues in its bleakness and you think 'oh yes, this is depressing', but then the Very Bleak Thing happens that makes the previous bleak things seem jolly.

This is the best and most concise description of Jude the Obscure that I've ever read.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 19/03/2022 11:04

@heymammy

Tess of the D'Urbevilles and The Count of Monte Cristo are maybe my fave classics but modern classics are brilliant too like The Godfather - one of the best books out there imo. Shogun by James Clavell is also amazing.
That's interesting! The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are my favourite films, so I read the book, and thought it wasn't a patch on the films. Maybe I'd have had a higher opinion of it if I'd read the book first.
absolutelynotfabulous · 19/03/2022 10:46

Anyone suggested Brideshead Revisited yet?

Also really liked Delderfield's books - not sure if they're classics as such; enjoyed a series called The Avenue in particular.

Justwanttotravel · 14/03/2022 22:57

I love Thomas Hardy... keep meaning to revisit!

heymammy · 14/03/2022 22:53

Tess of the D'Urbevilles and The Count of Monte Cristo are maybe my fave classics but modern classics are brilliant too like The Godfather - one of the best books out there imo. Shogun by James Clavell is also amazing.

MrsIglesias · 14/03/2022 22:48

@KStockHERO

"Jamaica Inn" and "Rebecca" by Du Maurier are wonderful. "The House on the Strand" is also very good though I couldn't really keep up with the story in the olden-timey bit of the book Blush.

"We have always lived in the castle" by Shirley Jackson is a good twentieth century classic too.

They're not technically 'classics' (yet) but I think Isabel Allende books are in the same league - "Eva Luna" and "Daughter of Fortune" are the ones that stick out in my mind but all her novels are astoundingly brilliant.

I loved Rebecca by du maurier. this makes me think i need to try her other stuff.

Also echo Isabelle Allende recommendation - absolutely wonderful and life changing books. I especially loved the House of Spirits - just gets better and better.

MrsIglesias · 14/03/2022 22:45

Crime and punishment - dostoyesvsky

Wuthering heights - bronte

Jane eyre - another bronte sister

The wider sargasso sea - Jean Rhys

All really incredible and readable books imo. Maybe start upwards though!

PierresPotato · 14/03/2022 22:16

Great Expectations is a good read for a Dickens imo.
And due to my current username I have to put a word in for War and Peace, when you've some time on your hands!

MurderAtTheBeautyPageant · 14/03/2022 22:12

A cool, ugly heroine, a charming villain obsessed with his pet mice, lots of substitutions, secrets and skulduggery.

I adore Marian and the Count.

MurderAtTheBeautyPageant · 14/03/2022 22:11

@DameHelena

I'm scarred by Jude the Obscure and will never read another Hardy. I really like Jude the Obscure Grin Also, if you've read that, you can take all the other Hardys.

His poetry is good, incidentally.

It's bleak. Then it continues in its bleakness and you think 'oh yes, this is depressing', but then the Very Bleak Thing happens that makes the previous bleak things seem jolly.

Good to know its hardened me up to all his other stuff though Grin. I did read The Mayor of Casterbridge back in the mists of time. That's Jilly Cooper-esque in its frivolity compared to Jude!

livingonpurpose · 14/03/2022 17:24

@Palavah

A Town Like Alice. A 20th century classic.
Read this recently and loved it.