Can you recommend a lovely classic novel?

[PoloM1nt]

I've just been through a phase of reading a lot of contemporary fiction and lots of it was great but I really fancy reading a good classic novel now.

I would like a book that ultimately makes me feel good once I've finished it. A nice 'curl up by the fire' type novel, along the lines of Austen, Hardy, Elliott, the Brontes etc, but I've read those.

Suggestions welcome!

Not sure if Jude the Obscure falls into the "feelgood" category @WildRosie!

Yes- Three Men in a Boat is hilarious!

I capture the castle (best book ever)
Wuthering Heights
Great Expectations

Oh, I also second Germinal. I loved it and really didn't expect to.

Oh wow ! Cold Comfort Farm - wish I hadn't read it yet so I had the pleasure of reading it again without knowing the ending .....
Wide Sargasso Sea is a good one ( Jean Rhys )

Not sure if anyone will read this but just wanted to post a quick update for anyone interested in this reading list. I've just finished North and South and I loved it!!! I was totally immersed in it. Thanks to the posters who suggested it! One thing- and i'd love to know if anyone else found the same- without giving away spoilers I found the very ending so abrupt! It was very satisfying but so abrupt and I just wanted to read a little bit more about the final resolution! Don't know if those who've read it agree.

Anyway I'm now going to try some Trollope as suggested.

X

What is comforting about any Thomas Hardy novel?? I can't believe anyone suggested Jude the Obscure as a feel good read... done because we are too many!

My feel good reads are Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome, and Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith. If you like Dickens (which I don't), the Pickwick Papers is probably his most lighthearted one with the least brutality towards children...

@onemouseplace

Sorry to tag you but glimpsing the thread title made me think immediately of the violin-playing Warden. I loved how his successor, with an every growing family, was called Mr Quiverful.
And yes, the Barchester Chronicles are delightful. I also like the Palliser novels but it's Barchester that has a place in my heart.

I have recently reread Howard's End by EM Forster and Rebecca by Daphne Dumaurier and got so much pleasure from the language. They are beautiful books although obviously both set in a less PC time. I really loved them. I also live Anna Karenina although haven't read it for a long time.

Moby Dick - seafaring madness and quirky characters with wonderful descriptions of the sea
Cider with Rosie - one of my all time favourites
Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Woman in Black for fireside atmosphere
I often think I’ll read Tales of the City again, just for the lovely eccentric characters.

Some fab suggestions on here.

@Jocasta2018 Barchester definitely has a place in my heart too, which is why I feel obliged to remind you that the Warden played the 'cello. The violin wouldn't have been at all the same.

Stoner

Perfection

Lovers of Rebecca might be interested to know that there is a new (Netflix, I think) film coming out soon. They were filming in North Devon earlier this year.

I second A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, just beautiful.
Rebecca
My cousin Rachel
Far from the Madding Crowd
The Forsyte Saga.
The Suffolk Trilogy
A Gentleman goes riding

Came on to recommend North and South but just saw your update! One of my favourite books and there is a lovely tv adaptation with Richard Armitage which is well worth a watch

@reticule I love you! Trollope, Cold Comfort Farm, I Capture the Castor, perfect!

Love in the time of Cholera is, for me, the ultimate love story. Anyone else enchanted by it?

Place marking.

I feel like this is all I recommend these days... but like RiotAndAlarum I love the Anne of Green Gables series. I bought all of them for my Kindle recently - so funny and moving.

I agree with Three Men in a Boat; My Family and Other Animals is similarly droll, idyllic and lazy on the off-chance you’ve never read it.

You must watch Richard Armitage as Mr Thornton in BBC’s North & South - it’s under Drama on iPlayer box sets 😁

I read Sanditon and the author who took it over played out the storyline as a mad and improbable series of events. It was uber-shit, so if the TV series is too, the writer of that won’t be entirely to blame.

Another one for The Wide Sargasso Sea. In December I also love to read Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol gets me in the right mood.

Haven't RTWT, has anyone mentioned Elizabeth Taylor's novels (not the actress!)? Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, A Wreath of Roses, loads more.
Novels by Colette - the Claudine series were particular favourites of mine when I was young.
Somerset Maugham's masterpiece Of Human Bondage.

Try East Lynne. It's marvellous

Scarlett Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. Fabulous fun.