Right-I'm sick of Booker shortlist fiction-so help me, post your all time favourite work of classic fiction

[DarrellRivers]

Ann Enright finished me off finally with the dross that is called 'The Gathering'
So I decided to start reading some more classic works of fiction.
Am currently reading Nana by Zola, it's great [bit suprised]

At least these people seem to be able to write cracking tales (and not just emotional vomit)
I think I read most classic works of fiction when I was a teenager -ie Jane Austen, when I was too young to appreciate anything about life.

So post what should i read next, and what you loved about it.I think anything published in last 20 years should not be allowed but exceptions may be permitted.

Oh Kerala how could I have forgotten Margaret Atwood? I prefer the Handmaid's Tale though - rattling good feminist polemic.

Anna Karenina is fabulous too and War and Peace as other posters have said

Handmaids Tale incredible but "did" it for A level English and 6 months picking over it and writing essays marred my enjoyment of it.

Published 1980 so just makes it - one of my all time favourites is EARTHLY POWERS by Anthony Burgess. And not quite in the 20 years but I would argue the case for it - Rohinton Mistry's A FINE BALANCE.

I thought Madame Bovary was a pain the arse - stuffing poison into her mouth and all that. Still, not as annoying as Captain Corelli - what a waste of space he is.

Does anyone like Richard Ford - The Sportswriter etc? DH loves him but I thought he was a depressing and ponderous.

Darrell - if you enjoy Zola try reading Germinal. It's bleak in the extreme whilst managing to be strangely uplifting.

I'm with those of you who rate Middlemarch. the ending is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature I've come across; that and the beginning of The Famished Road by ben Okri which disappointingly disappears squarely up it's oen backside somewhere around p25.

I love The Poisonwood bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

My reading group were talking about this Radio 4 programme: a good read, which recommends older books.
I'd definately recommend Daphne Du Maurier's books, and Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe.

Loving this thread.

I adore Thomas Hardy - does anyone else think that the books/music you fall in love with as a teenager are the ones that you cherish more than anything? It's those A Level years and there is something about Far from the Madding Crowd and the Stone Roses that will always get me excited.

Also, Uncle Tom's Cabin - first book to make me weep

Modern Classic - The Line of Beauty (sooooo fab)

Middlemarch gets another vote from me. And someone mentioned A Suitable Boy, which I'm scared to re-read in case it doesn't deliver the same total immersion in the characters' lives for weeks on end someone else mentioned ...

Vintage Gardenia, I'll see your Dubliners and raise you Portrait of the Artist which I adore. 'Eveline' in Dubliners is just the most fantastic piece of writing I think. I also love Burney's Evelina (do you spot a pattern emerging in the name I picked for DD2?)

I taught contemp. British fiction as a kind of second string to Irish lit. in universities for most of the nineties and most of the students who hated it really loved more modern american and irish stuff when they got the chance to read it because they found more engagement with the 'big' issues of life, love, etc. that they felt were being skipped around in some of the English stuff ... It's a matter of taste of course but they tended to love Ellison's Invisible Man -incredibly powerful as other people have said; E. L. Doctorow is wonderful; Colm Tóibín and John McGahern are brilliant stylists.

I'll back away from the computer now or I'll write all night ...

Oh Fanny Burney. Don't. I made the mistake of taking a course on 18th century novels and restoration comedy. It gave me the choice of a lot of unfunny comedies and a lot of tedious (and mostly hugely long and unreadable) epistolary novels. I found Fanny Burney readable but not terribly engaging.

Anything by Balzac.
Iain Banks (as opposed to Iain M Banks - which is sci fi; very very good sci fi).

Funnily enough I'm usually put off if a book's been shortlisted or won some prize, but right now I'm reading Darkmans by Nicola Barker (shortlisted Mann Booker) and I love it. DH found it so boring he didn't bother finishing it though.

Sadly I must fit the 'average ' mnetters profile , Middlemarch Anna Karenina and Vilette already mentioned-has anyone said 'The Garden of the Finzi-Continis' yet??? Bassani-beautiful elegaic and not too long for those who can't face War and Peace (which is wonderful if you have the time )'. I agree with the OP tho' modern novels often depress me . Not read Anne Enright's fiction but I did love her memoir 'making babies' lovely and funny account of new motherhood

Anyone suggested Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov? Or in fact anything by Nabakov? He's an excellent writer. Every sentence is like nectar.

(sorry haven't looked through all 10 pages of replies to see if anyone already suggested this!)

Aaaah , this is my kind of thread

Someone mentioned A House for Mister Biswas ,can I second that - so understated but I LOVED IT

I agree with many previously mentioned but I'm at the many I've not read - so many books, so little time!!

Another vote for A Secret History - I was a classics student myself (although I didn't like any of the characters)
Also, The Sea The Sea and most other Iris Murdoch (loved A Word Child especially too), loved that world she created

Anyone who's not read War & Peace or Anna K, make it your NY resolution, wonderful
Not a classic but brill read: Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel - rest of the series a bit

Modern ish classics: the Life and Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon & London Fields by Martin Amis - are these >20 years old?

A comedy classic: The Ascent of Rum Doodle by WE Bowman - I laughed out loud and read it out to anyone who would listen

oh, I could go on and on... at self indulgence