'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?

Agree, Forsyte Saga (if you saw the TV adaptation - the books are way better).
And Moll Flanders - hilarious.

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the turn of the screw by henry james - absolutely bloody brilliant. Thought he was a bit "arch" but there is one point in this book where the hairs on the back of my neck stood up ...

East of Eden (Steinbeck)
Evelina (Burney)
Roxana (Defoe)
Les Miserables, I lugged that book around for a whole week, couldnt put it down.
Solzhenitsyn- The Life and Death of Ivan thingamy (sob sob)
Pamela(Richardson)
Tom Jones (Fielding)-so funny

I found War & Peace quite gripping, although the military manoevres sometimes went on a bit long (I know it is called War & ...)

Loved Woman in White.
Mill on Floss needs a serious edit

"Hard Times" by Dickens. Not one of his better known novels, but a real page turner.

brideshead revisited - wonderful, in fact most Evelyn Waugh is fabulous

Goodbye to all that
F Scott fitzgerald everythign really
Tristram Shandy
Arabian Nights
All Greek/Icelandic myths
39 steps
Bleak House
Sherlock Holmes (I love these! but hate modern detective fiction)

TROLLOPE

Do you remember me asking for reading suggestions for my hanging-around-in-the-waiting-room jury service, back in February? And somebody said how about Trollope (which I'd never read a word of)?

Since then I have (along with all my other reading which is a bit relentless) done all six Palliser novels, and am most of the way through The Way We Live Now - and on every single page I find an insight - emotional or social or historical (or linguistic, too - he has this way of capturing someone's state of mind with such glorious fluent precision) - and it is fabulous.

I feel that nobody should be allowed to read Trollope till they are 40 (or indeed a bit more ), and think they know the world a bit, and then be set free on this treasure trove.

Bink, sorry to hijack but bet you would love victoria glendinning's biography of trollope, it's one of the best biogs i've ever read.

Yes, list v v dreary esp the modern stuff (Sebastian bloody Faulkes aaargh). Was a bit surprised by no poetry or drama. Perhaps we need an alternative list?

Disclaimer needed here: despite studying English at uni I avoided novels whereever possible and stuck to poetry as it was (usually) shorter and more interesting. I have a serious allergy to Dickens and am still (at the age of 32) working my way up to George Eliot. I do like Trollope though.

Enid: am with you on Waugh and the genius of Sherlock Holmes. Both introduced by DH (along with Richmal Crompton).

Agree with slim (have read birdsong btw, I think it's overrated).

Lol

jude the obscure

Bink - read Tbe Warden (absolutely charming) and then you can carry on through the rest of Barchester Towers with the lovely Mrs Proudie etc.
Elizabeth Gaskell - Wives and Daughters is definitely the best - there's a little too much "maithering" in her Manchester novels (Orth & South/Mary Barton)
Dickens - try Little Dorrit - slightly different from the norm.

crime and punishment - think about it loads in terms of justice and doing what you think is right.

Pops into my head in school meetings, fmaily arguements etc. Makes you be true.

Anna Karenina - best account of unrequited love I have ever read.

Jude the Obscure

beansprout reminded me -

Pushkin, Eugene Onegin - work of genius, and so emotionally satisfying