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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.

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Original poster
DarrellRivers · 09/01/2008 13:57

Evelen Waugh, think I might have read one, about beautiful rich young things, so sad,
Yes Stenibeck, read The Winter of Discontent, but not The Grapes of Wrath/Of mice and med, so I will put those down.
All v good, am excited, now have to trawl the charity shops to find them all

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TsarChasm · 09/01/2008 13:56

Yes, probably!

psychomum5 · 09/01/2008 13:56

ahhh......so we still have no real way of knowing how it is a classic then.....

yippee, can ake up my own 'classic' list.

top obviously the Narnia books as they are absolute faves.

would Harry potter now become 'classic'??

and please could we put up 'mallory towers' and 'the twins at st. clares', as they are more loves of mine....and

MaryAnnSingleton · 09/01/2008 13:55

agree with Evelyn Waugh - The Loved One is good too

marina · 09/01/2008 13:55

Mrs Humphrey Ward: Helbeck of Bannisdale
Mrs Gaskell: Ruth
Zoe Oldenbourg: The World is Not Enough (Argile et Cendres)
Winifred Watson: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
F Tennyson Jesse: A Pin to See the Peepshow
Elizabeth Taylor: Angel
Pamela Hansford Johnson: The Honours Board

Original poster
DarrellRivers · 09/01/2008 13:54

TC, if she had posted before embarking on her journey of love, do you think that might have changed the book?

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suiledonn · 09/01/2008 13:53

Have you read anything by John Steinbeck? East of Eden and Of Mice and Men are, in my opinion, two of the best books ever written.

Also, I would highly recommend Evelyn Waugh. Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisted are my favourite but his others are great too.

TsarChasm · 09/01/2008 13:53

Have we had Madam Bovary? (God that woman needed mumsnet! )

psychomum5 · 09/01/2008 13:52

I did 'to kill a mockingbird' for my english exams, and my teacher was stunned as I was the only one in the class to have read it voluntarily.......got an A from her for my oral paper about it.

Now have another copy of my own, as the first walked away on it own at one point, or got stolen borrowed by a friend and forgotten to be returned! (altho it was a long time ago, so it may be me losing it??).

ArcticRoll · 09/01/2008 13:52

Madame Bovary

Original poster
DarrellRivers · 09/01/2008 13:51

Now I think I have Crime and Punishment somewhere,
I'll dig it out

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Cappuccino · 09/01/2008 13:51

agree Booker shortlist often has some dross in it

there are still fantastic contemporary writers around tho' - don't give up on modern writers just because of the Booker

I've recently read Sarah Hall, Carol Birch, Janice Galloway ('Clara' is amazing read that read it NOW), A L Kennedy, Peter Hobbs

it's well worth looking for writers who are doing exciting things but don't tick the Booker boxes - dig a bit deeper than the Waterstones 3 for 2s and there is some really good writing going on

TsarChasm · 09/01/2008 13:51

As you are enjoying Nana I can thoroughly recommend Therese Raquin also by Zola.

Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath (well anything of his really)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) is good and Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)

I second F Scott Fitzgerald too. Tender is the Night is good. He also did a book of short stories (I think it was 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz') which I loved.

Apologies if you have read any of these already.

Original poster
DarrellRivers · 09/01/2008 13:50

psychomum5, yes i worried a bit about the 'classic ' classification, and hopefully someone will illuminate us further.
I take it as a book which stands the test of time, in that it 's themes , ie love, revenge, jealously, shine through the cultural scenery of the time.
To kill a mocking bird is a classic i reckon.

OP posts:
psychomum5 · 09/01/2008 13:49

oooh.....excitement.....does it count then???

Ooooh....I have read a classic

ArcticRoll · 09/01/2008 13:49

Crime and Punishment?

MuffinMclay · 09/01/2008 13:48

Pride and Prejudice.

Anna Karenina a close second.

dustystar · 09/01/2008 13:47

I LOVE to kill a Mocking bird. i must read it again.

ArcticRoll · 09/01/2008 13:47

Middlemarch-George Eliot

MaryAnnSingleton · 09/01/2008 13:47

yes, lovely book - cyana

Original poster
DarrellRivers · 09/01/2008 13:47

Any foreign titles suggestions?
Loved Anna Karenina but never ever managed to finish War and Peace.
Have soft spot for Russian novelists

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dustystar · 09/01/2008 13:46

Its about a black man in the south of the USA and how he gets an education and comes up North and gets involved with the black civil rights movement. Its a strange book and a bit disturbing but IMO definitely worth reading

cyanarasamba · 09/01/2008 13:46

Ooh Ooh - A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute. Lovely/heartbreaking wartime tale.

psychomum5 · 09/01/2008 13:45

how do you class a 'classic' tho.

Is it just authors that have died?

what is a 'classic'? I am a reader, so sorry if I sound like an idiot, but I am wondering how a book becomes a classic.

In my mind, classic = boring, but what do I know, I am not sure I have read oneConfused.

I do love C.S.Lewis and the Narnia books, and does 'To Kill a Mockingbird' happen to be counted too?

and what about Hucklberry Finn, or Tom Sawyer.....is that book counted....ohh, and the 'Swallow and Amazons' book.

Am now aware that I am mainly quoting books aimed at children, so it may say something to do with my literary levels.

I do however have some Jane Austin somewhere, just not read as yet as I never have the time (mainly because all my fave authors keep releasing new books damn them)!!

Original poster
DarrellRivers · 09/01/2008 13:45

Yes just read The Great Gatsby, v good, I didn't find it as depressing as I thought it was going to be.
So could follow on with some Updike perhaps
Yes, I think Graham Greene needs to go on the list

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