To ask what your favourite classic novel is?

[SpectacleLectacle]

I have a plan to read some classics this summer I’ve never got round to... what’s your absolute favourite classic novel? And why?

I guess I’m thinking mainly of those that would be in the ‘Classics’ (in terms of fiction rather than the subject!) section of a bookshop but feel free to diverge from that

To be honest I've found most the the classics I've read pretty heavy-going (I've left many unfinished). But I really enjoyed Rebecca by Daphne Du Murier.

The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird

Wuthering Heights. Anna Karenina. Middlemarch. Kate Atkinson - Life after life - future classic.

Vanity Fair.
I was like a pp re finding a lot of the classics heavy going (and English Lit at school ruined my enjoyment of reading for quite some time), but I found it a real page turner.
Also enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Gray, and would second the suggestion of Rebecca or anything else by Daphne du Maurier.

Les Miserables (in English!)
Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is one of my favourites.
I do love rereading Cold Comfort Farm though. Very funny and way ahead of its time.
Happy reading!

A few years ago I got Audible as I didn't have time to read but was outside doing manual work and / or walking a lot, so I decided someone could read me all those worthy classic that proper grown ups are supposed to have read.

Favourites include:
Little Women
To Kill a Mockingbird (don't read if you get offended by historic racism)
1984 (utterly horrified me at how the world is actually going this way!)
Animal Farm
Jane Eyre

War & Peace (unabridged!!) was a tedious waste of what felt like about 3 months of my life).
Wuthering Heights was underwhelming, I had such great hopes for it.

Pride and Prejudice

Adored Vanity Fair both the first time I read it and the second. Also, Pride and prejudice is wonderful.

Wuthering Heights

It’s my favourite novel

Pride and Prejudice (or anything by Jane Austin)
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
Rebecca

Persuasion is my absolute favourite.

Other contenders are Wuthering Heights, Little Dorrit, The Warden and Barchester Towers.

Jane Eyre
Little Women
The Secret Garden

Pride and Prejudice

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton. This is a novel that has really stayed with me.

Frankenstein
Jane Eyre

The Clayhanger Family series by Arnold Bennett, often referred to as a trilogy, but actually is four books. Extremely accomplished writing, with wonderful characters.

I’m a fan of Thomas Hardy too, Far from the Madding Crowd is a good one to start with for a first dip into Hardy.

Lighter, but still classics in their own ways, are I Capture the Castle, and Cold Comfort Farm.

Also love The House of Mirth

Like Wuthering Heights too - it's like a big gossip.

I did love the Count of Monte Cristo - do not be fooled by the movies, I'm yet to see one that has the correct ending.

Did not like The Three Musketeers (bunch of drunken wastrels - again movies totally misrepresent) and wasn't fond of The Man in the Iron Mask (again, movies have a lot to answer for).

War and Peace never really got going for me.

Wuthering Heights. I love the imagery and the humour and the way the story is told by a third party to a stranger.

I second Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles is my favourite classic.

The Great Gatsby
Lolita (is that a "classic"?)
1984
Count of Monte Cristo
The Brothers Karamazov
A Picture of Dorian Grey

Pride and Prejudice; its still so fresh after two hundred years. I've actually just finished The Other Bennet Sister, it's about Mary Bennet the middle sister. It's written in the style of Jane Austen and was fabulous. Not a classic obviously but very good if anyone loves Jane Austen.

@k1233 I love the Count of Monte Cristo too and agree about the ending. I also love The Three Musketeers. I think people tend to think of these children’s books, but they’re really not and they’re a brilliant read.

I’d also recommend A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. It’s more recent than you probably intended OP but it’s fantastic.

Wuthering Heights for me too. I also like Return of the Native.

I love The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I am a big fan of detective fiction and The Moonstone is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, examples of British detective fiction.