Recommendation for pre 1914 book for ds13

[auberginesrus]

My 13yo ds has been challenged by his English teacher to read a book written prior to 1914. He is singularly unimpressed with the idea. He's very bright and loves reading but only likes fantasy/magic/science fiction and mythology type stuff. We've tried him on Aldous Huxley but he can't into it at all. Any good ideas? The classics I love will most definitely not wash!

Moonfleet by J Meade Faulkner. Love that book! Smugglers, a few juicy murders, treasure hunting.....

The Story of the Treasure Seekers is great!
Not Hardy though. Don't do that to the poor child.

Oh yes! Moonfleet, how could I forget that, really gripping plot, very well told.

Huckleberry Finn
Three Musketeers
The Emerald City of Oz
Some of O Henry's stuff is very readable
Early Wodehouse
Arsene Lupin
Father Brown
Zane Grey
Kipling
haggard
Saki
Kipling
J M Barrie
Terrify him - The Turn of the Screw!

Jules Verne - First Men on the Moon
Bram Stoker - Dracula
Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
or A Princess of Mars (1912)

I was once challenged by an English teacher to read Jane Eyre and said I would if he would read Isaac Asimov's Foundation. We did and although he said Foundation was okay I discovered he had got the next two in the series from the library.

Treasure Island or Kidnapped by R L Stevenson

M R James Ghost Stories are creepy and definitely well worth a read.

The Scarlet Pimpernel! (1905)
Or how about some early PG Wodehouse?

Actually, I agree with everyone who suggested War of the Worlds. Short, sci fi-y and really good. You don't want to force the poor boy to read literachoor, you want him to enjoy it.

Another vote for Rider Haggard

Start with King Solomon's Mines. It's the inspiration for all later archeologist adventure/thriller tales. Move over Indiana!

You could be really evil and suggest Fanny Hill.....

I immediately thought of the Time Machine by H G Wells. It is short and a good story.

But it's not a chore - Tom Sawyer, Moonfleet, Treasure Island, The Call of the Wild, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - I'd read all those by his age, and had no idea when they were written - what's he been doing with his time?

I also absolutely loved the Scarlet Pimpernel when I read it.

Edgar Alan Poe's short stories. Not technically a novel but pre-1914 prose nonetheless. I teach them to bright yr 9 classes and they always go down well, especially The Telltale Heart (and there's a brilliant Simpsons parody!).