Suggest a classic

[PinotAndPlaydough]

I’m an avid reader, I usually just browse and choose whatever I fancy. I would really like to read some of the classics, I think in the past I’ve been put off because I think they’ll be hard to read or the language might be confusing.
However they are classics for a reason and I want to give it a go, what do you suggest?

The Warden, Anthony Trollope.

Hardy is depressing.

Madame Bovary
Uncle Tom's Cabin (spoiler, it's a tear jerker)

I'm scarred by Jude the Obscure and will never read another Hardy.

I think Wilkie Collins is fantastic and The Woman in White especially is such a page turner. Might take you 50 pages to get into the rhythm of the book but once you're in the midst of the action it's unputdownable.

second the Woman in White.

Tale of Two Cities - it's a complete page turner, it's short, the characters aren't as grotesque as some Dickens.

Hardy is so bloody depressing.

Loads of suggestions, thank you! I think I’m going to try a tale of two cities as I read a Christmas Carol years ago and that wasn’t too bad and also nice and short.
The mixed reviews on Frankenstein also has me intrigued! Some fab ideas here 🙂

@MurderAtTheBeautyPageant

I'm scarred by Jude the Obscure and will never read another Hardy.

I think Wilkie Collins is fantastic and The Woman in White especially is such a page turner. Might take you 50 pages to get into the rhythm of the book but once you're in the midst of the action it's unputdownable.

In fairness, every single Hardy, even Tess of the D’Urbervilles )which features a dead baby called Sorrow, is cheerier than Jude.

The Woman in White is a good shout. A cool, ugly heroine, a charming villain obsessed with his pet mice, lots of substitutions, secrets and skulduggery.

I'm scarred by Jude the Obscure and will never read another Hardy.
I really like Jude the Obscure Also, if you've read that, you can take all the other Hardys.

His poetry is good, incidentally.

If you are interested in modern classics excellent women by barbara pym is very good as is diary of a provincial lady which I think is by E L Delafield but i may have got that totally wrong. Also I am a big fan of cranford by elizabeth gaskell

@Palavah

A Town Like Alice. A 20th century classic.

Read this recently and loved it.

@DameHelena

I'm scarred by Jude the Obscure and will never read another Hardy. I really like Jude the Obscure Also, if you've read that, you can take all the other Hardys.

His poetry is good, incidentally.

It's bleak. Then it continues in its bleakness and you think 'oh yes, this is depressing', but then the Very Bleak Thing happens that makes the previous bleak things seem jolly.

Good to know its hardened me up to all his other stuff though . I did read The Mayor of Casterbridge back in the mists of time. That's Jilly Cooper-esque in its frivolity compared to Jude!

A cool, ugly heroine, a charming villain obsessed with his pet mice, lots of substitutions, secrets and skulduggery.

I adore Marian and the Count.

Great Expectations is a good read for a Dickens imo.
And due to my current username I have to put a word in for War and Peace, when you've some time on your hands!

Crime and punishment - dostoyesvsky

Wuthering heights - bronte

Jane eyre - another bronte sister

The wider sargasso sea - Jean Rhys

All really incredible and readable books imo. Maybe start upwards though!

@KStockHERO

"Jamaica Inn" and "Rebecca" by Du Maurier are wonderful. "The House on the Strand" is also very good though I couldn't really keep up with the story in the olden-timey bit of the book .

"We have always lived in the castle" by Shirley Jackson is a good twentieth century classic too.

They're not technically 'classics' (yet) but I think Isabel Allende books are in the same league - "Eva Luna" and "Daughter of Fortune" are the ones that stick out in my mind but all her novels are astoundingly brilliant.

I loved Rebecca by du maurier. this makes me think i need to try her other stuff.

Also echo Isabelle Allende recommendation - absolutely wonderful and life changing books. I especially loved the House of Spirits - just gets better and better.

Tess of the D'Urbevilles and The Count of Monte Cristo are maybe my fave classics but modern classics are brilliant too like The Godfather - one of the best books out there imo. Shogun by James Clavell is also amazing.

I love Thomas Hardy... keep meaning to revisit!

Anyone suggested Brideshead Revisited yet?

Also really liked Delderfield's books - not sure if they're classics as such; enjoyed a series called The Avenue in particular.

@heymammy

Tess of the D'Urbevilles and The Count of Monte Cristo are maybe my fave classics but modern classics are brilliant too like The Godfather - one of the best books out there imo. Shogun by James Clavell is also amazing.

That's interesting! The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are my favourite films, so I read the book, and thought it wasn't a patch on the films. Maybe I'd have had a higher opinion of it if I'd read the book first.

It's bleak. Then it continues in its bleakness and you think 'oh yes, this is depressing', but then the Very Bleak Thing happens that makes the previous bleak things seem jolly.

This is the best and most concise description of Jude the Obscure that I've ever read.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is also good.
To echo other posters, Sherlock Holmes is great although I listened to the complete works audio book, narrated by Stephen Fry, which might have helped!

Jamaica Inn is fantastic

Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Bleak House is great as well. As with many classics, you've got to find the rhythm of it, in my experience, but then I found it unputdownable.

Ohh that was a bit of a spoiler from pp re Woman in White! Agree it's great and one of those books I found my hands were clasping the actual book as it was literally so gripping!

My question would be what kind of book are you after? Classics is quite a big category. Catch 22 quite different to Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Also what kind of length are you after? Middlemarch's length might be a bit daunting for eg. Whereas Therese Raquin and The Great Gatsby are shorter than average. Then you could build up to something longer?

Cold Comfort Farm

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was the first classic I read for pleasure and really enjoyed. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is a brilliant one too.