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Classics - what would you recommend to me?

119 replies

pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 14:32

I've resolved to read more classics this year.

I'm currently reading 'Middlemarch' and finding it a slog. Towards the end of last year, I read 'Northanger Abbey' which I found okay.

They can be of the more modern variety so I also read some Maigret short stories and Dashiell Hammet's 'The Thin Man'. Maigret was okay, didn't much like the Hammet.

Classics I have enjoyed - ' A Tale of Two Cities', and I absolutely love 'The War of the Worlds'. And my all time favourite is 'I, Claudius'.

Based on that skeleton information, what else might I enjoy?

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ThePieceHall · 09/01/2026 16:46

HelenaWilson · 09/01/2026 16:36

Don't forget classic children's fiction, for something lighter
E. Nesbit
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Arthur Ransome
Louisa M Alcott
L.M. Montgomery
to mention just a few

Oh, and not children's, but Sherlock Holmes. Also fairly undemanding.

Edited

Oh yes, agreed.

The Little House on the Prairie collection
The Borrowers
The Anne of Avonlea series
Ballet Shoes

ThePieceHall · 09/01/2026 16:44

ThePieceHall · 09/01/2026 15:10

Dracula
Frankenstein
I Capture the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The Tenant of Widfell Hall
The Haunting
The Dud Avocado
Anything by Colette
Anything from the Persephone catalogue
Anything by Victor Hugo
Anything by Octavia Butler
The Day of the Triffids

I meant We Have Always Lived in the House on the Hill by Shirley Jackson.

HelenaWilson · 09/01/2026 16:36

Don't forget classic children's fiction, for something lighter
E. Nesbit
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Arthur Ransome
Louisa M Alcott
L.M. Montgomery
to mention just a few

Oh, and not children's, but Sherlock Holmes. Also fairly undemanding.

Original poster
pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 16:32

Does Laurence Sterne have any champions?

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Original poster
pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 16:30

I do like Iris Murdoch, so they would be re-reads but again it would be interesting to see how I feel about them now.

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nigelisalier · 09/01/2026 16:30

Brideshead Revisited
The Great Gatsby
Cider with Rosie

Original poster
pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 16:29

I find your suggestions intriguing @TwoTuesday. Love Angela Carter, love Wodehouse (the ultimate comfort read), I find MR James interesting as a person but kind of dull as a writer. Scott Fitzgerald can do one. I cannot compute how a person can love the first two even the first three but then also Scott Fitzgerald.

I think mainly that I am reaslising that I hate anything that I ever had to study - even tangentially - at any point.

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crumpet · 09/01/2026 16:29

BBC Sounds has Julie Andrews reading Pride and Prejudice if you’d like an audiobook

Ohpleeeease · 09/01/2026 16:27

pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 16:20

I do have a copy of Riceymand Steps by Bennett. I wonder if that's a good place to start with him.

I am not a Hardy Fan. That said, I have vowed to re-read Tess this year to see if I hate it as much now as I did as the very young person I was when I first read it.

Show quote history

Hardy is too mushy and sentimental for me, but Jude took the narrative back to the city.

How about Iris Murdoch? I enjoyed A Fairly Honourable Defeat. Well, enjoyed might be the wrong word but I found it fascinating.

Echobelly · 09/01/2026 16:24

I'm a big fan of Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell (very underrated) and Anthony Trollope. In some of Trollope's books not an awful lot happens but they just absorb you into the time and place so it's great escapism in that way. And he has his surprisingly modern moments and unexpected twists, especially Orley Farm

Original poster
pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 16:22

I think I'd like to try Trollope but I'm unsure where to start. Is The Way We Live Now a good place?

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TwoTuesday · 09/01/2026 16:20

And Angela Carter fairy tales too

TwoTuesday · 09/01/2026 16:20

Short stories are good if you fancy a shorter read, eg ghost stories of M R James, PG Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster stories, Scott Fitzgerald's Diamond as Big as the Ritz story collection etc. Not sure if they count as classics, but they are old at least!

Original poster
pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 16:20

Ohpleeeease · 09/01/2026 15:58

North and South is a much easier read than Middlemarch.

I wonder if Arnold Bennett’s Five Towns novels would be up your street? Quite readable and with a dose of bleak Victorian industrialism.

You might like Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.

I do have a copy of Riceymand Steps by Bennett. I wonder if that's a good place to start with him.

I am not a Hardy Fan. That said, I have vowed to re-read Tess this year to see if I hate it as much now as I did as the very young person I was when I first read it.

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Echobelly · 09/01/2026 16:11

I'm a big fan of Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell (very underrated) and Anthony Trollope. In some of Trollope's books not an awful lot happens but they just absorb you into the time and place so it's great escapism in that way. And he has his surprisingly modern moments and unexpected twists, especially Orley Farm

drspouse · 09/01/2026 16:02

I also really enjoyed Passing by Nella Larsen. Published in 1929 I think.

CrossPurposes · 09/01/2026 16:01

Ohpleeeease · 09/01/2026 15:58

North and South is a much easier read than Middlemarch.

I wonder if Arnold Bennett’s Five Towns novels would be up your street? Quite readable and with a dose of bleak Victorian industrialism.

You might like Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.

Oh yes, Arnold Bennett is a good shout.

drspouse · 09/01/2026 16:01

Ohpleeeease · 09/01/2026 15:58

North and South is a much easier read than Middlemarch.

I wonder if Arnold Bennett’s Five Towns novels would be up your street? Quite readable and with a dose of bleak Victorian industrialism.

You might like Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.

That's on my 2020 list but I also read Anna of the Five Towns later and enjoyed that more.
Mind you I read North and South while WFH and home schooling so I might not have been in a very relaxed frame of mind.

Ohpleeeease · 09/01/2026 15:58

North and South is a much easier read than Middlemarch.

I wonder if Arnold Bennett’s Five Towns novels would be up your street? Quite readable and with a dose of bleak Victorian industrialism.

You might like Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.

drspouse · 09/01/2026 15:58

I did a Classics Challenge in 2020 - I'm attaching screenshots from my Goodreads. I think it was anything over 50 years old.

Classics - what would you recommend to me?
Classics - what would you recommend to me?
Classics - what would you recommend to me?
Classics - what would you recommend to me?
Original poster
pippistrelle · 09/01/2026 15:57

I would recommend against Lady Chatterley's Lover. Honestly one of the worst books I've ever tried to read.

I agree heartily. Second only to 'Portrait of the Artist as Young Man'.

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Wallabyone · 09/01/2026 15:55

Another vote for Jane Eyre. Have you read Animal Farm? Short and accessible.

SmileyMoonset · 09/01/2026 15:54

Some excellent suggestions for you here, I’m
excited for you to have the opportunity to read all these for the first time!!!

FadedRed · 09/01/2026 15:52

Cranford by Elisabeth Gaskell
John Wyndham: Midwich Cuckoos, Chocky , Crystalids, The Kraken Wakes etc
AJ Cronin, especially the medical ones.
Nevill Shute.

ArtTheClownIsNotAMime · 09/01/2026 15:50

Jane Eyre
The Woman in White (this is very long and so you might not like it)
Moby Dick seems very marmite but I enjoyed it, probably because I really like nonfiction and it's a but of a blend

I would recommend against Lady Chatterley's Lover. Honestly one of the worst books I've ever tried to read.