2022 year of classics

[stiltonandcrackers]

I normally read historical fiction or just contemporary fiction and the odd biography. But there are so many classics that I both want to read and feel I should.

I have lined up Little Women to start with.
Dracula, The brothers Karamazov, Wuthering Heights and Anna Karenina.

Any suggestions of classics that you have loved?

@Hellohah if you like Rebecca (& I agree) try my cousin Rachel, fab story.

I couldn't get into Jamaica Inn when I tried to read it in Cornwall this year.

My favourite du Maurier is Frenchman’s Creek. It’s very different to all her others but honestly the dialogue is just fantastic - if you like Austen I think it would work.

I did love Rebecca … until I read the above, but they are very different so I don’t think I’m comparing apples with pears.

p.s. I have just over 5hrs of Vanity Fair left on my Kindle. I am desperate to finish it today but if not it’s looking like my first classic for 2022. I’ll save my commentary for when I’ve finished.

For the Russian lovers among you I can recommend Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi. It was probably my non-fiction book of the year, funny and horrifying description of the refugee experience as Teffi escaped the Bolsheviks. I believe Teffi is still widely read and loved in Russia.

What an inspiring thread! I read Hard Times and North and South for A level and really liked them. I've started the new year with Of Mice and Men, which I never read at school (the other English set did it - we did something else that I can't now remember!).

I've never read any Russian literature. I had Anna Karenina at one point and tried to read it when DS1 was a small baby (big mistake!), but I seem to have got rid of it. I have quite a few on my shelves though, so thank you all for inspiring me - I shall try and read a few this year.

zafferana I don't know if you know but there's a War and Peace readalong starting today. Just a few pages each day and a discussion about what we've read.
So if you are thinking Russian literature might be a thing for 2022 ....

Thank you @highlandcoo, I'll take a look. I don't have War and Peace, but I could download it onto my Kindle and read along.

That's what got me through reading Tom Jones, which is a huge doorstopper, for A level - my boyfriend was doing it too and we set reading goals discussed it as we went along.

Oh and it was Animal Farm that my set read for GCSE, while the other set did Of Mice and Men.

Maybe see you over there zafferana At the moment I'm tearing the house apart looking for my copy. So frustrating - I just assumed it was in the (alphabetically organised!) bookshelves and it's not.
I think Waterstones is open this morning so may have to get there this morning, just when I was enjoying having the house to myself for the first time in ages ..

Rebecca
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I Capture the Castle
The Moonstone
The Woman in White
To Kill a Mockingbird
Gone with the Wind
Classics don’t have to be heavy going!

Middlemarch is one of the best books I've ever read.

War and Peace is also fantastic though I tended to skim through the 'war' sections.

I'd like to suggest
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
Short Stories by Somerset Maugham
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (bit gruesome though)
Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

I so want to read these. I might join audible just to read them. I could not get on with Catch 22. But maybe as an audio book................

@yika I really surprised myself by liking the war bits more than the peace.

@Nailsbythesea Catch 22 is a fantastic novella, but over 400 odd pages it’s get wearisome.

I've now got a long list of Russian themed books! My dad was a Russia specialist in the RAF and I've always been fascinated by the country and culture and am trying to learn the language (dad taught me some words and phrases). I'm going to join the Ear and Peace read along for starters.

War and Peace!!!

I want to get back into reading and I’ve always found MR James’ shorts brilliant.

Whistle and I’ll come to you my lad was always a favourite!

While we're on the Russian literature tip Turgenev is definitely worth exploring. His novels are mostly much shorter than those of Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy!

Oblomov by Goncharov is another classic but I never managed to finish that.

Does Agatha Christie count?

For those saying "Rebecca" I recommend treating yourself to listening to Anna Massey reading it as an audiobook. I'm listening to it for the second time as a Christmas listen. I'm halfway through now and am already preparing myself for the bereavement I'll feel when I've finished! She reads it so well and I've found it a great accompaniment to peeling veg & tidying up etc this time of year.

A Town Like Alice

Jst re read Jane Eyre. What a beautiful book.

I really loved The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch.

Following this thread. Great idea. Think it might help w my mental health.

Ooooo love Somerset Maugham. The Razors Edge and Of Human Bondage. Fantastic books. Read them at that ‘coming if age’ adolescent phase. Really made me question what a good life was.

I'm almost finished 'Of Mice and Men' and have found some of the language in it outdated and offensive and I'm surprised this book is still being taught for GCSE and hasn't been 'cancelled'! Several mentions of the N word and the only female character is denigrated as 'a tart'. I suppose it's a jumping off point for discussions about race and misogyny and about how times and language have changed and what was acceptable in 1937 (when the book was written) and now are very different, but it hasn't aged well IMO.

What is a classic?

I loved Catch 22. I'm going to read along with DC's literature selection at school.

I fancy some Sci Fi, like Issac Asimov and Ursula Le Guin.

After catching up with the thread I’m finding everyone’s tastes so interesting - didn’t know how many Russian Lit lovers there are out there. I’d second a PP’s recommendation re The Ladies Paradise as a starting point for Emile Zola - I picked up a copy in a BBC staff charity book sale about ten years ago and it’s become one of my favourite books. (The BBC series “The Paradise” was loosely based on the book but I didn’t rate it at all).

I’m after a recommendation. Despite having very eclectic tastes in books I’ve never read any Dickens. Any suggestions for a first read? I have Great Expectations on the shelf but wondered what people thought about a good first one?

@WhatDidISayAlan the Hard Times readalong has just kicked off, it is chapters 1-6 for January.

Finish no 1 for this year:

Vanity Fair, W. M. Thackeray

I wanted to love this, but I just didn’t. I couldn’t even really love/hate Becky Sharp as seems to be the thing because she was absent for large portions. The ever present narrator and his asides are amusing, cutting and welcome when the plot dries up for a bit. The last two hours were great, but perhaps that’s because I just read it until finished.

I’m sure you have some awareness of the plot but it centred around two young women who finish school together, Amelia Sedley from a mercantile, affluent family and Becky Sharpe, half French with Bohemian parents. It’s about how they make their way in the world. Amelia, through obedience and duty and Becky through sheer force or will and personality. Both have hard times and good times. A 3star for me.