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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask what your favourite classic novel is?

276 replies

SpectacleLectacle · 12/07/2020 09:53

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 Smile

OP posts:
exiledfromcornwall · 14/07/2020 12:19

I loved Three Men In a Boat, but I found Three Men On The Bummel, also by Jerome K Jerome, even funnier. I was on a plane coming back from holiday reading it, and I was literally crying with laughter.

k1233 · 14/07/2020 12:32

Three men in a boat was great!

MonsteraDeliciosa · 14/07/2020 13:22

I had no idea there was a sequel to TMIAB.

Yet another to add to my reading list!

zukiecat · 14/07/2020 13:29

Jane Eyre
Jamaica Inn
Black Beauty

Another favourite is a minor classic, The Yellow On The Broom by Betsy Whyte.

At school we had to read Sunset Song, part of A Scots Quair by Lewis Classic Gibbon. It bored me to death, and I've never been tempted to try it again.

ClareBlue · 15/07/2020 00:32

@Arrivederla

Pride and Prejudice

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

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

I've done this loads and was only talking to my daughter about 100 books to read before you die. We agreed on around 60 but opinion differed on the rest. She said Sylvia Plath. I suggested she would be on her own on that. I was wrong and am now going to read it.

My best 5 are Catch 22, Great expectations, Emma, Far from the MC and 1984 which I studied for O level in 1984. And for real filth dressed up as interlect you have to go for the Canterbury Tales.

lukasiak · 15/07/2020 00:36

True grit by Charles Portis. Humerous and dramatic with a criminally underrated female lead.

Destroyedpeople · 15/07/2020 00:41

Oh I loved the girl in True Grit the novel....somewhat different from the film version as I recall.

CasuallyFeminine · 15/07/2020 00:50

The Moonstone

MusicTeacherSussex · 15/07/2020 00:55

1984!

theThreeofWeevils · 15/07/2020 00:58

wanting to punch Becky Sharp

No. no, PP: wanting to punch Amelia very hard indeed in the solar plexus and to give Dobbin a ding upside the head too, for being such a sap.

somm · 15/07/2020 01:23

Love 'Cold Comfort Farm', 'Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm' and, I think it's; 'Conference at Cold Comfort Farm'. I couldn't believe how ahead of her time the writer was. I picked up the Christmas novel one year at Tesco, but found the other two through Persephone Books. I got so immersed in the characters. I normally don't like books that have some sort of made-up language (eg not into sci-fi), but with these books everything works. I've found other writers through Persephone Books that have enabled me to see how fascinatingly some women writers were ahead of their time, even though they often didn't get the recognition they deserved. It's not about the fact they're female writers; it's about the entertaining novels they wrote and the historical contexts.

Needhelp101 · 15/07/2020 01:26

Pride and Prejudice. Genuinely laughed out loud.
Jane Eyre. Unbelievably feminist for it's time and a damn good story too.

Needhelp101 · 15/07/2020 01:27

Oh, yes Patricia Highsmith too!

somm · 15/07/2020 01:31

Also love Saki, with his take on human nature.

Tavannach · 15/07/2020 01:40

Pride and Prejudice
Brideshead Revisited
Orlando
Catch 22
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

AhBallix · 15/07/2020 02:06

Madame Bovary
Frankenstein
Tess of the d'Urbervilles

alilstressed · 15/07/2020 03:10

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wuthering Heights
Rebecca

Inkanta · 15/07/2020 04:35

Jane Eyre.

Ironfloor269 · 15/07/2020 06:59

All of Jules Verne books, especially Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Disfordarkchocolate · 15/07/2020 07:05

Three Men in a Boat, laugh out loud funny and fairly short.

Remains of the Day, my favourite book.

Madam Bovery, my daughter couldn't understand why I saw any humour in this but as a divorced woman I certainly did.

PG Wodehouse. Very easy to dip in and out off.

Whenwillow · 15/07/2020 07:06

Good ideas here

sweetbirdofjuice · 15/07/2020 09:17

L'assommoir by Zola
Fathers and Sons by Turgenev
Anything by Solzhenitzyn

Sense and Sensibility
The Go- Between
Howard's End
Vanity Fair (I'm only halfway through so far)

forgetthehousework · 15/07/2020 17:02

@theThreeofWeevils

wanting to punch Becky Sharp

No. no, PP: wanting to punch Amelia very hard indeed in the solar plexus and to give Dobbin a ding upside the head too, for being such a sap.

Totally agree @theThreeofWeevils
CorianderLord · 15/07/2020 17:05

Not massive on classics but I enjoyed the Colour Purple.

Might not be as old as you want but it's poignant and just modern enough to not be a bit of a drag.

If you can hack Dickens, Great Expectations is good. But there are sloooow moments.

Also, Moby Dick and Ooronoko - surprisingly good considering their age.

CorianderLord · 15/07/2020 17:05

Oh yes Jane Eyre as well! Read it when I was 14 and was absorbed in it