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.

As you are enjoying Nana I can thoroughly recommend Therese Raquin also by Zola.

Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath (well anything of his really)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) is good and Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)

I second F Scott Fitzgerald too. Tender is the Night is good. He also did a book of short stories (I think it was 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz') which I loved.

Apologies if you have read any of these already.

agree Booker shortlist often has some dross in it

there are still fantastic contemporary writers around tho' - don't give up on modern writers just because of the Booker

I've recently read Sarah Hall, Carol Birch, Janice Galloway ('Clara' is amazing read that read it NOW), A L Kennedy, Peter Hobbs

it's well worth looking for writers who are doing exciting things but don't tick the Booker boxes - dig a bit deeper than the Waterstones 3 for 2s and there is some really good writing going on

Now I think I have Crime and Punishment somewhere,
I'll dig it out

Madame Bovary

I did 'to kill a mockingbird' for my english exams, and my teacher was stunned as I was the only one in the class to have read it voluntarily.......got an A from her for my oral paper about it.

Now have another copy of my own, as the first walked away on it own at one point, or got stolen borrowed by a friend and forgotten to be returned! (altho it was a long time ago, so it may be me losing it??).

Have we had Madam Bovary? (God that woman needed mumsnet! )

Have you read anything by John Steinbeck? East of Eden and Of Mice and Men are, in my opinion, two of the best books ever written.

Also, I would highly recommend Evelyn Waugh. Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisted are my favourite but his others are great too.

TC, if she had posted before embarking on her journey of love, do you think that might have changed the book?

Mrs Humphrey Ward: Helbeck of Bannisdale
Mrs Gaskell: Ruth
Zoe Oldenbourg: The World is Not Enough (Argile et Cendres)
Winifred Watson: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
F Tennyson Jesse: A Pin to See the Peepshow
Elizabeth Taylor: Angel
Pamela Hansford Johnson: The Honours Board

agree with Evelyn Waugh - The Loved One is good too

ahhh......so we still have no real way of knowing how it is a classic then.....

yippee, can ake up my own 'classic' list.

top obviously the Narnia books as they are absolute faves.

would Harry potter now become 'classic'??

and please could we put up 'mallory towers' and 'the twins at st. clares', as they are more loves of mine....and

Yes, probably!

Evelen Waugh, think I might have read one, about beautiful rich young things, so sad,
Yes Stenibeck, read The Winter of Discontent, but not The Grapes of Wrath/Of mice and med, so I will put those down.
All v good, am excited, now have to trawl the charity shops to find them all

tsarcharm.....is your aimed at my Q. about harry Potter??

if so.....double

psychomum, no, about madame bovary being a mumsnetter for you

Henry James The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove.

No Psychomum I was replying to Darrell from earlier but you lot type so blimmin fast! .

Mind you, Harry may very well be a modern classic. I am one of about three people on the planet who haven't read him yet but I'm all in favour if he gets children to pick up a big book enthusiastically.

My dd is mad on Rainbow Magic books - I wish she would get into HP - all these darn fairies seem to be the same story to me.

Middlemarch

If you like Russian literature, you should read The Master & Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov and Death & The Penguin by Andrey kurkiv.

Kurkov

Sorry KKkerry
Who is it by?

without having read the whole thread:

les miserables by victor hugo

what about pg wodehouse?

Right. I'll say it one more time

Middlemarch by George Eliot.

It is my favourite book of all time. Read it.