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Original poster

Right-I'm sick of Booker shortlist fiction-so help me, post your all time favourite work of classic fiction

238 replies

DarrellRivers · 09/01/2008 13:36

Ann Enright finished me off finally with the dross that is called 'The Gathering'
So I decided to start reading some more classic works of fiction.
Am currently reading Nana by Zola, it's great [bit suprised]

At least these people seem to be able to write cracking tales (and not just emotional vomit)
I think I read most classic works of fiction when I was a teenager -ie Jane Austen, when I was too young to appreciate anything about life.

So post what should i read next, and what you loved about it.I think anything published in last 20 years should not be allowed but exceptions may be permitted.

OP posts:
VintageGardenia · 16/01/2008 13:40

A random selection:

20th century:
A very very very funny book is Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. It's my comfort read.
V diverting & entertaining: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
Dubliners by James Joyce

19th century:
I would second everyone who has said Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair, Wuthering Heights, Madame Bovary. Also Evelina by Fanny Burney (written in letters).
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (or The Buccaneers)
Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

InLoveWithSweenyTodd · 16/01/2008 13:25

1984

TillyBookClub · 16/01/2008 12:18

Found this thread and loved it. Inspired me so much I thought we'd base our next Mumsnet Bookclub on it and do Mumsnet Favourite Classics for February.

I'm going to create a shortlist of books mentioned here and then we'll all vote on which one to do for February's Book of the Month. The shortlist should go up in a week's time so tell me which one you want to see put forward - I'll keep checking this thread and adapting the list with the books that get the biggest push.

We'll aim for a list of 8-10 books, and then it'll be off to the polls to see which one everyone wants to do...will let you know when the shortlist has been created and its time to vote...

pollywobbledoodle · 10/01/2008 21:42

oops, was about 40 when i read the magus for the first time...am obviously a late developer!

Original poster
DarrellRivers · 10/01/2008 16:49

cappucino, i forget most books that i have read
surely they can't become unread
now for my Dickens contribution i think i shall read Great Expectations, and I don't think i ever read ny Trollope so may have to visit those.
and Salinger good suggestion too.
Christ now I need a whole year free to read everything.
Nevermind, thread saved so can return for future perusal in 2010

OP posts:
stillaslowreader · 10/01/2008 14:33

The English Patient is a good book. More Vegemite than actual marmite.

mrsruffallo · 10/01/2008 14:31

I must try Phillip Roth have heard a lot of good things about him.
The Magus is one of my sister's fave books and she bought it for me for my 26th b'day so maybe her timinh was wrong but I couldn't see what all the fuss was about at all!!!

TsarChasm · 10/01/2008 14:29

Yes I seem to recall reading that somewhere Seeker. I'll leave it as a fond memory then.

ahundredtimes · 10/01/2008 14:29

Yes I remember reading What's Bred in the Bone - was it called that?

Hardy - love his poetry, not so keen on the books.

I think Irving is perfectly acceptable. Salinger a step-above I'd say Capp.

If anyone else says they don't like Middlemarch I shall ask for this thread to be deleted. [power-crazed emoticon]

I lay in bed last night wondering why Waugh had such a good outing on here. Then I decided he was an A level text.

I'll tell you a really good recent book - American Pastoral by Philip Roth.

seeker · 10/01/2008 14:27

I think you have to be under 25 to enjoy The Magus - anyone older shouldn't even try.

seeker · 10/01/2008 14:26

I wrote an essay at University on some aspect (forget which) of Dickens based entirely on Coles Notes and a few TV adaptations. Hadn't ever read a whole Dickens. Still haven't - although I am trying Dombey and Son now.

TsarChasm · 10/01/2008 14:26

I loved The Magus! Mind you, I read it years ago. Don't know if it would stand a re-read or not.

FrannyandZooey · 10/01/2008 14:24

everyone that likes John irving should try Robertson Davies as well

funny and clever

mrsruffallo · 10/01/2008 14:21

I agree with Wuthering heights and John Steinbeck esp. East Of Eden, Of Mice and Men
I also like Graham Greene, Thomas Pynchon and Daphne Du Maurier ( Rebecca and Jamaica Inn)
Loved Madame Bovary and (not sure if they are classics but two of my fave books ever are;
Stone Junction-Jim Dodge
The Bone People- Keri Hulme
Gone off John Fowles since I read The Magus. I thought it was awful!
I thought The Handmaids Tale was okay.

stillaslowreader · 10/01/2008 14:17

I wonder how much he got paid for writing that dreary stuff ( I must admit I nonread it).

FrannyandZooey · 10/01/2008 14:16

Oh Capp, I don't know

do you really hate Hardy and Irving? I adore them, but that doesn't mean you won't like Franny and Zooey. Erm, oh dear, I don't know. I would hate you to read it and hate it. I won't force you. Follow your heart

TsarChasm · 10/01/2008 14:15

Welcome to old age Cap!

stillaslowreader · 10/01/2008 14:14

me too, m and j!

Cappuccino · 10/01/2008 14:14

oh dear

"books we have forgotten also fall into the rich category that is non-reading"

I have read nothing then. Nothing at all

it is so very annoying. I can remember my old boyfriend's phone number from 1989, I can remember whole conversations about complete trivia I had with dh when I was 23, but the classics of literature that I devoured during my degree and the contemporary literature I have read ever since....

gone

gone

gone

margoandjerry · 10/01/2008 14:10

Oh yes. Middlemarch. I should have loved it. Wanted to love it. Expected to love it.

Hated it.

TsarChasm · 10/01/2008 14:10

Of course instead of reading all these books we could always bluff it.

Did anyone catch the item on R4 Today this morning about not reading books?

I'm rather about it because I like reading, but it would certainly cut down on that 'to do' list of books I feel I ought to have read by now

Here's the gist of it from the Guardian

Cappuccino · 10/01/2008 14:08

Graham Swift's Waterland

it is hovering dangerously around the 20 year cut-off but it is worth making an exception

(Franny I have downloaded Franny and Zooey but am in two minds about whether to commit. Especially since you like Hardy and Owen Meany. Sell it to me)

stillaslowreader · 10/01/2008 14:05

Middlemarch is marmite too.

FrannyandZooey · 10/01/2008 14:03

yes that analogy would work except I hate marmite

margoandjerry · 10/01/2008 14:01

Owen Meany is the marmite of the book world, I suggest.

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