What are your favourite classic books?

[yugflalska]

I haven’t read much…if any…classic literature, beyond what I needed to read at school. I’m a modern thriller via audiobook kind of person usually. We are getting some shelves fitted and I’ve decided to buy some classic books to help fill them. I’m worried I’m going to find it a tad impenetrable, but would love some recommendations of classic books people genuinely enjoyed reading.

I'm still making my way through classics but favourites so far:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by Scott F Fitzgerald
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Top two are in my top 5 favourite books ever.

Wuthering heights
Rebecca
I capture the castle
The painted veil
Far from the madding crowd
Darling buds of May
The great gatsby
Cold comfort farm
Tess of the d'urbervilles
The woman in white
My cousin rachel
Anne of green gables

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
Toms Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

My classic recommendations:
Black Beauty
Jamaica Inn
Alone in Berlin
In Cold Blood
Call of the Wild
Mice & Men
Storm of Steel

Definitely’To Kill a Mocking Bird’

Lorna Doone
Lord of the Rings
1984
Brave New World
Wuthering Heights
Dr Zhivago

Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen but I'm currently re-reading the Anne books by Lucy M Montgomery and loving them.
I'd also recommend Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson, which is a Persephone title, and A Horseman Riding By by RF Delderfield.

Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion - Jane Austen
Candide - Voltaire
Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol - Dickens
Vanity Fair - Thackeray

Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina beautiful story read many times

So many!

I enjoyed -

Rebecca
My Cousin Rachel
Vanity Fair
Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion
The Great Gatsby
A Tale of Two Cities
The Three Musketeers (and all the sequels!)
Anna Karenina
Silas Marner
1984
Lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men
Jane Eyre
Animal Farm
The Far Pavilions
Gone With the Wind
Around the World in 80 Days
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Watership Down

I did NOT enjoy -

Great Expectations
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Grapes of Wrath
Les Miserables
The Catcher in the Rye
The Secret History
Catch-22
Brideshead Revisited
Madam Bovary
The Wind in the Willows
The Hobbit
The Alchemist
The God of Small Things

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Harvey. I don't know why; it's very bleak - but the landscape and the language just transported me.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Classic horror, almost a blueprint for it. Riveting plot.
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - actually anything by her; beautiful masterful use of language (and this one is very short, too).
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. This told me something about the USA that I did not know, and kind of feel that I should know, as things go today.
Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela. You might not think it is a classic, especially as it makes no pretense of being fiction - but it is a classic. It tells us who we are.

The Colour Purple
Oranges are not the Only Fruit
Secret History

Thanks all, I have spent an eye watering amount on getting most of these books! Can’t wait to get started.

Rebecca is one of my all time favourite books. I know some people aren't a fan of the ending but I think the whole book is riveting.

1984 is frightening considering how long ago it was written but is also one of my favourite classics.

I read Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm at secondary school in English lessons and all have stayed with me to be honest.

Anything by Agatha Christie.... I think she was a genius.

The Count of Monte Cristo
David Copperfield
Great Expectations
The Mayor of Casterbridge

Thrillers

Dashiel Hammett author. Maltese Falcon etc Sam Spade character

Earle Stanley Gardner author Perry Mason collection

Raymond Chandler author Phillip Marlowe PI novels

Humour

Mr Blandings builds his dream house

Anything written by Thorne Smith

Paul Gallico author. Mrs Harris, Snow goose, Thomasina

I loved The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurice, quite magical.

Don't buy, join the library 😊

Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle. Made up of lots of short stories due to them being serialised at the time. I've listened to the entire collection twice now. Might have something to do with the excellent narration by Stephen Fry. I'm sure the books would be great without the need for audio though.

My personal favourite is The Picture of Dorian Grey

My Cousin Rachel. I think it's even better than Rebecca.

Love In a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford
When the Green Woods Laugh - HE Bates
Villette - Charlotte Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
The Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann
The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Diary of a Provincial Lady - EM Delafield
East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Are you me??! I love all these too!

Was just about to say ‘the mayor of Casterbridge. Brilliant book.
Great Expectations was good too.

1984 - George Orwell
Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Dracula - Bram Stoke
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Awakening - Kate Chopin
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhyss
Catch22 - Joseph Heller
Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wild
Metamorphosis - Kafka
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
The Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
How Many Miles to Babylon - Jennifer Johnston
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood