Classic reads

[cjt110]

I have tasked myself with reading at least 1 classic per month. So many classic reads that I have never undertaken.

Am starting with Frankenstein.

What else would you suggest?

Sorry to have to say it but Frankenstein is AWFUL. Really boring and irritating.

Hope it won't put you off before you've got started.

I am not sure how many classics you have read already, so I am worried about seeming patronising by talking about ones you have already read. But . . .

Despite also being in the same "nothing like any of the films" category as Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a surprisingly enjoyable and easy read. It's also very short.

Another very short classic is Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath (also by Steinbeck) is amazing.

Dickens . . . I think the best ones are Great Expectations and David Copperfield.

Have you read any of the Brontes' books?

Gah I do sound patronising saying "nothing like any of the films" but I meant that's what I thought! I thought in Jekyll and Hyde he would take a potion, fall behind the sofa and get up again covered in hair, but its far more subtle than that, in fact he never really describes Hyde apart from saying he is small and dark.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Set book at school, hated it. Read it for book group many years later and loved it.

Frankenstein is a work of genius.

Thanks for the suggestions all...

I started to read Frankenstien and struggled...

Frankenstein is hard going but if you can get through it, it’s worth it.

Jayne Eyre.
The Arabian Nights (or whatever the full title is), it’s a surprisingly easy read.
Wuthering Heights.

I've just read Frankenstein and quite enjoyed it!

My suggestions are:
Wuthering Heights
Emma
Madame Bovary

Vanity Fair is amazing!

My favourite classics include Jude the Obscure (Hardy - pretty tragic, but amazingly written).

Gone With the Wind - I also love the film, but read the book last year and was blown away, brilliant.

The Way we Live Now (Trollope). Genius, about Ponzi schemes on the railways in Victorian Britain. So well written, could easily be contemporary.

I loved Jane Eyre and Great Expectations.

Frankenstein isn't awful! It's one of my favourite classics and in my top ten books list. What works for one though won't work for another though. I've heard so many people rave about Jane Eyre and I've tried it three times and i still haven't been able to get through it. Yet I love Wuthering Heights and Oliver Twist which many people detest.

The Picture of Dorian Gray; The Brothers Karamazov; Catcher in the Rye; Le Grand Meaulnes if you can find it, and if you want heavy, The Glass Bead Game!

Dracula
1984
Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord of the Flies

I have a love/ hate relationship with Wuthering Heights. I hate all the people in it and the claustrophobic atmosphere but somehow it really intrigued me.

Does Gone with the Wind count as a classic now? I hope so as it's one of my all time favourites. Absolutely fantastic!

Wuthering heights, Rebecca and dracula are some of my favourites

Animal farm and Wind in the willows are interesting too, and easy to read. It makes me recoognise the same characters in real life.

I loved Madame Bovary. Also Emma and Lord of the Flies.

I'd like to read more classics this year too. I'm aiming to start with Anna Karenina!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Rebecca!
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte is my favourite bronte book
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Secret Garden

It really depends what kind of story you are looking for, these are my favourite ‘classics’

I tried to read a lot of classics last year.

The ones I enjoyed the most were:

-Wuthering Heights
-Madame Bovary
-The Go Between (loved this! more of a "modern classic" though)
-The Grapes of Wrath (quite hard going to start with but stick with it)
-Great Expectations

Didn't get on with;

-Howards sodding End
-The Rainbow (DH Lawrence) not sure if this is a classic but very dull

The Woman in White - still one of my faviouite books
Bleak House
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

1984
Animal farm
To kill a mocking bird
Pride and prejudice
Brave new world
Jane Eyre
Rebecca
Brighton Rock
Frankenstein

Frankenstein such a great read! It can be quite challenging at times due to the language but it was published in 201 years ago!

I would also recommend:
Dracula
Jane Eyre
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
Down and Out in Paris & London
Wuthering Heights
Treasure Island