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?

I try to read 5-6 ‘classics’ every year. Some of my favourites recently have been:
The Spy who Came in from the Cold (John le Carre)
Silas Marner (George Eliot)
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
The Woodlanders (Thomas Hardy)
The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)
The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)

I’ve never read any Russian novels but have taken inspiration from this thread and hope to change that this year. I’ve also got Northanger Abbey, Villette and The Woodlanders on my list for this year, all read before but many years ago.

I read 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' last year and I thought it was very good. I have another Le Carré book on my Kindle that I will read at some stage, 'Silverview'.

Hello Sadness is a wonderful short French classic by Francoise Sagan. Very original. Highly recommend.

@WhatDidISayAlan I started a link about Dickens a couple of weeks ago as I haven't read any either

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/4427924-Dickens-what-should-I-read

I bought a scratch book bucket list poster from Etsy. I think it has 100 books on it that are mainly classics so am going to work my way through that. The idea of scratching off the ones you have read is strangely motivating for me 😁

Thanks @2022HereWeCome - will have a read!

All books by Jane Austen.
My bed time read.

@Athenajm80

I bought a scratch book bucket list poster from Etsy. I think it has 100 books on it that are mainly classics so am going to work my way through that. The idea of scratching off the ones you have read is strangely motivating for me 😁

I like this idea. Do you have a link?

IsFuzzyBeagMise: I finished Silverview this morning, it's a great read and astonishing that it was written such a short time before Le Carre died..
I'd recommend any Le Carre, Graham Greene, Dorothy L Sayers, Barbara Pym. I occasionally go back to Austen and Woolf. But my real passion last year was for the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. They may not be classics in the sense of English lit but they are classics of American detective fiction and reading them saw me through the grimmest times of the pandemic.

Thank you for your recommendations, Pliudev!
These sound good.

The Wind in the Willows
Alice in Wonderland
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Anything by the 3 Bronte women
Anything by Agatha Christie
All the Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy L Sayer

So I have finished my first classic of 2022, Little women. Slow start but I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it the more I read. It bought back lots of memories of my love for the old movie and made me love Jo all over again!

Now to start with the Russians!! Dostoyevsky The Brothers Karamazov

It's meaty but I am looking forward to diving it!

I tried to read Middlemarch last year but kept stalling. Then I started listening to Juliet Stevenson narrating the audio book and was absolutely gripped. Fantastic novel.

I have been reading Party Shoes this week. Need more classics to read though. I was not keen on Little Women for some reason. Any and all recommendations wanted.

I never clicked with Little Women. No idea why, it just didn’t work for me.

I’m going to be a while with my next classic as I am doing the two readalongs here that aren’t due to finish until the summer and end of year.

I can understand why some people didn't get on with little women, it is very twee and quite virtuous!

I have nearly finished book 1 of The Brothers Karamazov. Getting more exciting and dramatic now. Some great parts to it, some very drawn out, which i struggle with tbh but plod through. Struggling to keep up with all the characters though as they are all referred to with different names, shortenings etc. I know this is a very Russian thing but I have to concentrate even more just to ensure I am reading about the right character!

Yes, you need a little list with Russian lit. After years of Russian history with a helpful lecturer I have finally got my head around it and now it seems quite simple. Weird isn’t it.

@StColumbofNavron you studied Russian Literature? Was it a degree? What am interesting subject! I could certainly do with an expert guiding me at times!! I imagine the further I get, I will discover many layers.

Yes I imagine I will need a lighter, or at least easier read after this. I am in no hurry to finish though, so taking my time. The only thing I miss about reading a more straightforward book, is not been able to have a quick read while my kids are busy doing something for 15 min! There is just no point as I need to concentrate in peace and quiet with this one.

No, Russian history but there was occasional crossover as the lecturer was the sort of historian who would look at literature as primary material. I'm not super well read in Russian literature but aware if you know what I mean and by learning about Russia more broadly things like the names now are easier to comprehend. I was utterly absorbed in all things Russian for a good few years and even went to Russia. There is a War & Peace readalong going on here, we are reading one chapter a day until December and I read Anna Karenina the same way last year, but Tolstoy wrote short chapters so the longest is 12 mins (ish) so can be squeezed in. I have Crime & Punishment on my shelf that I picked up in my last charity shop haul but haven't attempted any Dostoyevsky yet.

Russian history, even better! Such a fascinating country.

On an aside from classics, have you read The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden? I read this series last year and loved it. Set in medieval Russia and can only be described as a fusion of historical fiction and fantasy. Very clearly done. I am not normally drawn to the fantasy genre but these books are amazing.

Cleverly not clearly.

I try to read a few classics every year (and some years I am more successful than others!). In recent years I have read:

The Woman in White - loved
North and South - loved
War and Peace - very good but could have done with less of the war!
Little Women - fine but quite girly (as you would expect)
Middlemarch - fine but dragged a bit for me
A Dance to the Music of Time - overall loved it but some books were better than others (there are 12 volumes so I did one a month across the year)
Testament of Youth - very good
The Quiet American - very good
Our Man in Havana - good
A Farewell to Arms - disappointing for me
A Town like Alice - loved
The Warden - good but didn’t love - however, planning to read the next one
The Sun Also Rises - better than A Farewell to Arms for me. Astonishing alcohol consumption
Slaughterhouse 5 - not for me
Jamaica Inn - good
The Pursuit of Love - very good
Love in the Time of Cholera - not for me

This year I plan to read some more Trollope and Cranford and/or Mrs Gaskell.

@TimeforaGandT, I've just finished the Barsetshire Chronicles and it's definitely worth reading Barchester Towers, the next in the series. Trollope expands the cast of characters and you get more of a sense of the interwoven relationships in the town, the friendships, rivalries and possible love interests. Recommended.

Also, for anyone who likes Trollope or Mrs Gaskell, can I suggest Arnold Bennett, particulary The Old Wives'Tale and Clayhanger (the first in a series set in the Potteries). He tells a good old-fashioned story but doesn't seem to be that widely read nowadays.

Oh, my maternal family are from the Potteries so I might give them a go.

Clay hanger is only 49p and The Old Wives’ Tale £2.49 so have bought both.