'Classic' books you found surprisingly good

[Slim]

Following on from the dreary 1000 books to read before you die, which books were you put off reading but then found to be absolute corkers?

For me: The Three Musketeers. Saw the film, knew the story, remembered that horrible doggy cartoon, but then finally read it and realised it is fab

Any votes for other closet ripsnortingly good reads?

Jane Eyre. Caught a dodgy tv version and decided to read what I missed.
It's now one of my favourites, I can read it over and over again.
My copy's very tattered now.

Jane Eyre is also my all time favourite book
Mill on the Floss as well

Madame Bovary. THought it would be dull as dishwater but loved it once I got into it.

I love the 3 musketeers too. Then I read The Count of Monte Cristo, which is also fab (the TV series wasn't - it missed out the good bits!).

That's on my 'to read' list - got a copy but DH snaffled it first

Edith Wharton - Custom of the Country. Tis like an episode of Dynasty.

Vanity Fair. Bitchy and brilliant.

Dangerous Liaisons also very soap-opera ish

The Scarlett Letter

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Silas Marner - George Elliott. Very moving.
Agree Vanity Fair picked it up for a pound on impulse, rea;;y enjoyed it.

See, I have never read any George Eliot

Vanity Fair and Middlemarch were the first ones to come to my mind too Dior

Oh and also Villette.

Silas Marner is great

Agree with Dior on Wifes and Daughters. North & South too. I think Gaskell is a feminist Austen.
And, anything by Zola.

Lady Chatterleys Lover - it was lovely

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Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Bloody loved it and didn't expect to.

War and Peace. Only managed to get into it as it was a book club thing so i had to finish it. Thought first chapter was hilariously awful but fought through it somehow. then about 20 pages after that i found i was totally gripped, and stayed that way for the next whatever hundred pages.

The Life of Charlotte Bronte by (Mrs) Elizabeth Gaskell.

I found it totally riveting from beginning to end.

And Bleak House.

Agree Middlemarch and Vanity Fair

I loved Wuthering Heights!

Virginia Woolf's Orlando was a book group choice that I was dreading, and I did have to plough through, but I was sort of pleased at the end, pleased I'd read it I mean, not pleased it was the end.

Mill on the Floss - I found the early depictions of childhood very touching.

Desiderata I loved the Bronte bio too, there is another, more recent, one (author's name escapes me) but that too is just amazing, there is so much background historical info and it is very well-researched.

Victor Hugo's Les miserables, I read it in 6 days (pre children)