Classic book recommendations please

[Sunnyside4]

I've read psychological thrillers for years, but want to give one or two classics ago to see if I'm missing out on anything.

Can anyone recommend any classics. I don't mind something based on a relationship, but not anything too romantic. Oh, and something reasonably easy to get into.

Great Expectations - strong plot, a bit gothic, definately like modern psycological thriller.

Wuthering Heights - a crazier psycological thriller, very gothic. The romances are generally a bit mad, lots of brooding, so not simple 'happy ever after'

Vanity Fair - witty, strong plot, great antiheroine as a central character, quite a cynical take on relationships.

Pride and Prejudice - there's a romance at the heart of it, but clever and witty, fantastic secondary characters, and I've never felt that the central romance is a timeless love - Jane Austen is very cynical about marriage.

I'd start with these, strong narratives really push the stories along so you want to know what happens next, and the classics have remained popular as they do have insights into the human condition, so definate similarities to modern psycological thrillers.

I second P&P and would also add:

To Kill a Mockingbird – amazing analysis of childhood and gripping courtroom tale

Catcher in the Rye – unbeatable tale of growing up

The Great Gatsby – just perfect and memorable and makes me cry (the last line!)

Sherlock Holmes but the short stories not the novels – brilliant character and very clever plots

Some of the PP's suggestions are quite long if that bothers you @Sunnyside4? If so the ones I suggested are a bit shorter (TGG is only about 150 pages)

Therese Raquin by Emile Zola is a banger. Germinal by him is really good too. Also La Bete Humaine.

Around the World in 80 Days
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
sherlock Holmes
Lord of the Rings

To kill a mocking bird - harper lee

The great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

The bluest eye - Toni Morrison

Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde

Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Morgarian ( classic as a child but would still read as an adult)

The Secret Garden - Frances Burnett

little women - Louisa may alcot

Hitler stole pink Rabbit - Judith Kerr ( read as a child but loved it and read again as an adult it’s amazing).

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier. Sinister, creepy, twisty plot.

Rebecca is great.

She also wrote Julius which is about one of the most despicable characters I've ever read about.