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.

Based on the definition of a classic as over 20 years old and has stood the test of time:

Lynne Reid Banks: the L-Shaped Room (how attitudes of out of wedlock babies have changed!).
E.M. Delafield: The Diary of a Provincial Lady
Margaret Drabble: Jerusalem the Golden
Paul Gallico: The Snow Goose
Robert A. Heinlein: The Door into Summer (I know it's SciFi, but it's so good, it's beyond classification)
Giorgio Bassani: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
David Grossman: See Under: Love (a wonderful Israeli author)
Elizabeth Jane Howard: The Long View
Penelope Lively: Moon Tiger (now here's a Booker Prize winner who can write!)
Elizabeth von Arnim: The Enchanted April
Herman Wouk: Marjorie Morningstar
A.B. Yehoshua: The Lover (another brilliant Israeli author)

seeker......seriously (the Narnia comment)???

oooh......never realise that......well, will have to re-re-re-re-read yet again.

oooh, the hardship

Is he comparable to Nancy Mitford, or would she come below EW?

Yes, I like him - I especially liked The Loved One I remember, but I wouldn't vote for him in an all time favourite work of classic fiction.

How about the Raj quartet by Paul Scott? Historical interest but also devastating love story and great chracter assassinations of the Brits in India.

Also 100 Years of Solitude (ok not that old, but still a classic). And All Quiet on the Western Front.

Thankyou Justagirlfromedgeware.
Those type of books are difficult to find because they are never at the front of the bookstore, and not in the hardcore classic section
Personal recommendation just the thing

darrellrivers.....and too.

and you bein named after one of her faves of mine too!!!!

I get the impression that the OP wants some meat, some sweeping grand epic. Is that right? Because she's suffered with The Gathering.

(I thought The Gathering was well-written actually, very well-written)

The World According to Garp and other John Irving novels, esp Cider House Rules and A Widow for One year.

The Corrections - Johnathan Frantzen

I am Charlotte Simmonds - Tom Wolfe

You may notice I am a fan of American writers / themes...

100x, i agree, good but not a classic work of fiction

The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni

I was going to suggest Crime and Punishment too

Oh yes, Raj Quartet, mrs Bumblebee - fab. And Alexandria Quartet - Laurence Durrell.

Tom Wolfe, did he write Bonfire of the Vanities?
Another big favourite

But I only put Malory Towers on the list for you Darrell!

Which surprise you, psychomum - the anti woman or the Christian propaganda?

yes, I agree ahundred, and for witticism (does this word exist?) I actually favour wodehouse, who is on my personal list of all time classic.
justgirlfromedgware, I love both Bassani and Yehoshua

Well thanks then Seeker [graciouslyacceptingemotion]

Q - what is Narnia propagandising? Christianity? or something more sinister?

Hated Middlemarch mtself but love Mill on The Floss, also Eliot. Adam bede also supposed to be good.
Can I just put it a good word for a modern book - The Book Thief. Am reading at the mo. It is simply, yet poetically written; totally gripping and devestating. I think this could become a classic (just as long as Richard and J keep their paws off it)

Richard and Judy now has reverse effect on me.
I don't buy it if it part of their book club

Ah, cross posts, seeker. Tis God you are on about.

well, I got the christian propaganda, but not the anti-women, seeing as Lucy and Susan feature highly, as do other girls in it.

maybe I am missing something, or seriously naive 9which is a distinct posibility).

anyhooo......gotta run for school.....see ya later ladies, and can I book my detention later please

So, so glad to see Middlemarch (Dorothea is actually on our names longlist, but I think Bloke is likely to veto), To Kill a Mockingbird, and A Prayer for Owen Meany on this list, but am surprised that no one has mentioned my personal favourite, Wuthering Heights.

If I could only read one book ever again (and believe me, I go cold at the prospect) it would be Bronte's masterpiece. Heathcliffe was the first literary character I fell in love with. You can keep your Darcys (well, maybe I could borrow him now and again..., give me a man with a bit of passion anyday!

if you are going to carry on with zola you must read germinal. any daphne du maurier is good. doris lessing?
ooh how about some gogol, bit oddball but i really loved it.

Agree that a lot of Waugh comes across as more lightweight comedy (although I'd rank his comedy above Wodehouse who seems to just take a theme and repeat ad nauseam)...

But would put Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited up there with the classics..who else does guilt with such gusto (except Greene)...

I think they have almost been cheapened though by having TV/film adaptations made of them...takes away from the original book..

Would have to put the Bronte sisters up there with the classic writers too...Jane Eyre? Deep work of art or ultimately a sentimental love story?

hope no one says Wuthering Height - am wading thtough it for book group