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Original poster

Gripping classic to take on holiday! please i need ideas..

70 replies

McCloudismynewnameforawhile · 03/05/2009 21:35

Something that is clever without being too intellectual.

OP posts:
MadameCastafiore · 05/05/2009 18:19

The one with the mad first wife in the tower. That's good.

VeryAnnieMary · 05/05/2009 18:18

This Thing of Darkness - superb - just re-read it and am still chilled and uplifted by it.

The Moonstone or Woman in White are rollicking good reads - perhaps with a side of Suspicions of Mr Whicher for some non-fiction Victorian crime?

mrsbabookaloo · 05/05/2009 17:38

Yes to Rebecca and The Poisonwood Bible. Also Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, which treads the line between trash and non-trash very delicately but is the grippingest gripping book I have ever read and right in the middle i defy you not to GASP in shock....

janeite · 05/05/2009 17:35

Yes to 'Rebecca' - also perhaps 'The Handmaid's Tale' or how about a couple of lovely children's classics for pure entertainment/nostalgia value?

scottishmummy · 04/05/2009 22:39

rebecca

hellymelly · 04/05/2009 22:23

Oh yes the priory is a brilliant gripping read,loved it.

garden · 04/05/2009 22:17

enduring love-ian mcewan, notes on an exhibition-patrick ? (good!), children of men-pd james? happy reading!

pollywobbledoodle · 04/05/2009 21:17

alias grace by margaret atwood?
second the woman in white....gripping and witty in the way he describes individuals and their behaviour

fulltimeworkingmum · 04/05/2009 20:35

Definitely "The Moonstone" as it's gripping but not intellectual or trashy. I've also just finished "Interpretation of a Murder" and highly recommend it -keeps you guessing until the end.

HerNameWasLola · 04/05/2009 20:22

The Moonstone, definitely

ButtercupWafflehead · 04/05/2009 20:14

Woman in white
or
The Moonstone

Both classics - Wilkie Collins

beesonmummyshead · 04/05/2009 20:06

not a clssic, but i LOVE anything by Jodi Picoult. Very thought provoking. Her latest book 'change of heart' was fab!

janeite · 04/05/2009 17:33

'This Thing Of Darkness' is fab. Again, not a 'classic' but a really, really good, incredibly well-researched historical novel.

JeffVadar · 04/05/2009 17:28

Charles Palliser - The Quincunx

Anthony Powell - Dance to the Music of Time

Proust !

A wonderful book by Harry Thompson called 'This Thing of Darkness' a fictional biography of Fitzroy of the Beagle and a superbly written good read.

'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke.

Jux · 04/05/2009 15:23

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessle. Just finished it. Loved it, was brilliant.

janeite · 04/05/2009 10:58

Ooh yes, yes to 'The American Boy' by Andrew Taylor (although I didn't like his others) - not a 'classic' but certainly in the best tradition of classics. Take some Poe and Conan Doyle alongside it!

Original poster
McCloudismynewnameforawhile · 04/05/2009 10:45

thankyou so much, lots of ideas!

OP posts:
tigerdriver · 03/05/2009 23:52

do you want a "real" classic, in which case any of the above, esp Middlemarch or Vanity Fair.

Or a pretend classic: The meaning of night, Michael Cox, the casebook of Victor Frankenstein (Janeite has a view on that one) but good Gothic. The American Boy, Andrew Taylor. Or basically anything by Andrew Taylor.

3littlefrogs · 03/05/2009 23:49

Bit different from those previously mentioned, but the "Earth's Children" series by Jean Auel are very good. (Clan of the Cave Bear and so on.) I found them all fascinating and un-put-down-able.

jennifersofia · 03/05/2009 23:48

Oliver Twist!

MrsMerryHenry · 03/05/2009 23:38

The Poisonwood Bible. Just finished it. Utterly brilliant, beautiful and moving.

MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 03/05/2009 23:31

The Weather in the Street - Rosamund Lehmann

Balkan trilogy and Levant trilogy - Olivia Manning

MoominMymbleandMy · 03/05/2009 22:46

Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski, from Persephone Books.

FaintlyMacabre · 03/05/2009 22:42

Middlemarch
The First Circle- Solzhenitsyn.
Great Expectations
I,Claudius

Also I would second recommendations for Woman in White and A Suitable Boy.

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 03/05/2009 22:42

Forsyth Saga.

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