How to get into reading classics and literary fiction?

[BunchofPocus]

I do like to read but mostly I read young adults books, chick lit and other genre type books usually with a strong (cheesy) romance element. Nothing wrong with any of that but I am now in my 30's and I just want to read better books!

I have a friend who has always had more literary tastes and has read a lot of classics and I also find her to be wise and insightful which she says comes from reading so much. I saw this https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2013/CastanoKidd.htm
which would seem to back up her sense that reading books has helped in this sense.

I asked her how to get into more literary fiction and classics especially, she recommended books like Dracula and Frankenstein as good entry points for classics but I just couldn't get into either of them, they were both such a hard slog even though I know both stories are good. For literary fiction she recommended an entry point list including works by Angela Carter, Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto and Ottessa Moshfegh but again after trying quite a few I just can't get into them, my friends description of them sounds great but when I try to read them I just get bored.

I feel a bit defeated because I really wanted to elevate my reading and to feel like I was actually learning something while being entertained but perhaps I'm just not smart enough?

I lecture on Twain sometimes and always have to stress that shuck Finn is NOT a children’s book, common misconception but it most certainly is adult literature. Twain did not want children to read this book, children wouldn’t understand the satire at all so please don’t offer this up to young children! Not in the least because it says the N word 219 times.

Great book for adults though so read away if you’re an adult, just don’t recommend reading it as a bedtime story…

Shuck Finn? I meant Huck Finn, sorry.

I agree with suggestions like The Secret History and Fingersmith - completely unputdownable, while also being ‘proper’ books. I would add Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, This Sweet Sickness) and some of Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell’s best (Live Flesh is an example) into this category.

I also agree that Graham Greene. Concise and to the point, which is the very opposite of many classics, which tend to be rather bloated. The Human Factor is my favourite. A contemporary of Graham Greene was Patrick Hamilton; Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude are extremely readable and beautifully written. Not ones to read if you’re after something light and uplifting, though!

However, if you try a range of books and still haven’t got into anything it is ok to give up, you know. There are other ways to become wiser and more insightful. I enjoy reading, but these days most wisdom and insight I have comes from podcasts. The Rest is History is fantastic and has reawakened an obsession with ancient history from childhood.

Try abridged versions! I did for Crime and Punishment.
Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina were two others I enjoyed, but I loved Wuthering Heights.
(tip: read aloud when you are struggling with difficult language. It helps you make sense of it!) Romeo and Juliet as well. 🩷

I would say Tom Sawyer is more of a children's book than Huckleberry,

I stand corrected.
Shows how times change. My class teacher read Huckleberry Finn to us as the class reader when I was in Year 4 (1995) I have to admit I didn’t even register the N word at the time (would have been completely alien to me, didn't realise the significance) so I completely forgot it was in there. Also can confirm I did not pick up on any satire.
I should probably read it again.

If you like romance I would definitely try Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. It was my favourite book when I was a teenager and is quite easy to read.

I am a fan of Dickens, Trollope, and Austen, and also Tolstoy. But I have my limits. I have managed some Henry James but not all. Faulkner can be very hard for me and I can't read James Joyce at all.

Check out Booker prize or Orange Prize winners.

A personal recommendation that just sprung to mind is The Remains of the Day.

I also suggest poetry: Shakespeare and John Donne are two of my faves.
By memory (forgive inaccuracies):
Stay o sweet
and do not rise
The light that shines
shines from thine eyes
day breaks not
it is my heart
because you and I must part
stay or else
my joy will die
and perish
in its' infancy....

Incidentally the same teacher also read us Watership Down and we watched the awful film, too. Looking back, she was not a great judge of fiction for 9 year olds!

While I think there have been some awful Booker winners and nominees, I love both of these! I’ve read The God of Small Things several times. Just goes to show how individual reading taste is and that the op can only try out for herself what others are recommending.

And interestingly, in first year uni Poli Sci my prof skipped a whole chapter of Plato's Republic based on that word.

I am geeking out on this thread and the wonderful suggestions here!!!!
🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓

Margaret Attwood is a modern classic novelist, and Hilary Mantel is very good, too.

Another way to introduce yourself to some of the classics might be to read some of the modern re-writings/spin offs. Demon Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver is a brilliant reimagining of David Copperfield and I also enjoyed Longbourn by Jo Baker, which is based on Pride and Prejudice. I love nineteenth century fiction but the language and culture references can take a while to get used to, so versions written in modern English could help.

Lots of good suggestions but try 'A Tale of Two Cities' Dickens - just wonderful. You'll understand why his reputation has stood the test of time.

or for good fun,

' Experiences of an Irish RM' Somerville and Ross.

Each chapter is almost stand alone so you can take it at your own speed.
'a book no self respecting person could read in a railway carriage with any regard to decorum'.

Barbara Vine books are psychologically thrilling and unputdownable. One of my favourite authors. I think I’ve read every one plus all her work writing as Ruth Rendell. Never mind that she is not in the literary cannon; it’s a fabulous body of work x

Yes to poetry. Try John Donne( 1572-1631).

No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a
promontory were, as well as if a manor
of thy friends' or of thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee.

(And if that doesn't get you out on the streets nothing will.)

I love Donne's erotic poetry. I bet he was amazing in bed.

Haven't RTFT but I hear you.
I would really struggle to read in earnest these days -I'm just to busy. But I keep my hand in with an Audible subscription. Books which I think I'd probably struggle to persevere with become accessible if 'consumed' while I travel to work or cook dinner or fold laundry.

You know when it's good book when you'd rather read it than sleep, work, anything else.....

Or when you're upset it has ended.

Or when you want to reread it again and again.

Definitely have a look at the Persephone Books website, fab books by underrated and often unknown women writers. Just finished Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, very short and very wonderful. Also have a look at their Dorothy Whipples, ‘The Priory’ is such a thoughtful and immersive book. All her books are so good especially for characterisation.

I have degrees in English lit so people expect me to be curling up with Shakespeare and the Brontes every night. I really don’t. I like a bit of cosy crime and a hard day often has me reaching for a Miss Read, all robins in hedgerows and vicars bearing sponge cakes. I think Maggie O Farrell is a stunning writer, Tracey Chevalier never disappoints (me). I second the Alexander MCall Smith books as modern classics, his Ladies Detective Agency series is funny, kind, feminist, all good things.

Lots of the older classics are amazing but not all are to everyone’s taste, so much of the subtext is historical and we really can’t replicate it. I hated Wuthering Heights and am still getting over the horror of Middlemarch. For some reason Heart of Darkness hit the spot, found it stunning and odd and glorious, also some Dickens, especially Bleak House, and Anna Karenina. You’ll find ones that stand out to you, but it won’t be all of them.

@Greengagesummer65 we did Bleak House for A level English Lit, it was grim! I actually gave up at approx 75% of the way through , but still passed the exam. It felt like torture!

You want to go for the “big” classics, I would rather start to get into more high brow literature by taking it a little easier to start with!
John Irving’s books are fantastic.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never let me go is so gripping and thought provoking.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is more accessible than 1984, I think.
Jane Eyre in combination with Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (the modern prequel to Jane Eyre) would be a great combo.

I agree Bell jar and du Maurier, you might like.
Maybe also:
Notes on a scandal
Disgrace by Coetzee
Catcher in the rye
The curious incident of the dog at night time
Yellowface
Animal farm
Emma Bovary
Books by Agatha Christie

I'd recommend not forcing yourself with any book really though. If you don't like it, just move on.