Recommend me a classic novel please?

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I fancy reading a classic novel but stuck for ideas. I've read and enjoyed all the Hardys, Austens, Gaskell and Brontë. I also really enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which is a slightly later classic. I've read some Dickens but not sure if his style is what I'm after, and I like reading about women's stories which I'm not sure he specialises in, correct me if I'm wrong.

I really want a book I can get immersed in and feel sad when it ends, if you know what I mean!

Any suggestions?

Sorry to come back for a third time but I just went back to your OP and see that you like women's stories, Edith Wharton is good at this, but also re Trollope you could start with the first of the Palliser novels - "Can you forgive her" which centres 2 women - Alice Vavasour and Lady Glencora. I think he writes women pretty well and understands their plight in Victorian times, but gives them real agency and depth.

Vanity Fair...for the marvellous Becky Sharp anti-heroine

Wilkie collins again!

But The Moonstone. laugh out loud funny. Multiple narrators who are all perfectly drawn. Page turning thriller.

The Miss Clack chapters are my favourite.

A Room with a View - I found it much more of a joy to read than Howards End.

How about the Harriet Vane focused Lord Peter Wimsey books? Start with Strong Poison.

Loving the Wilkie Collins love on here. Another vote for him!

“A Room with a View - I found it much more of a joy to read than Howards End.“

This. My favourite Forster novels are A Room with a View and Maurice.

Brideshead Revisited?

Dracula (keep going until the part set in Whitby - it's worth the effort of getting to it)

Around the World in 80 Days - brilliant from the start

Anything by Nancy Mitford
Diary of a Nobody

Moll Flanders is great!

For modern classics I’d recommend Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood - Beloved and the Blind Assassin are my faves by each of them. And if you don’t mind a LONG read, A Suitable Boy.

Second all these. But also love Atwood's The Robber Bride. It's a more intellectual version of Desperate Housewives!

Oooh yes I loved Room With A View, thought it was miles more engaging than Howard's End.

If you enjoyed RWAV and would like a sort-of-related modern novel, I highly recommend Sarah Winman's Still Life. Definitely has the 'classic' feel about it, and is a rollicking good read.

The Robber Bride had a very very bad effect on me when I read it in the middle of being cheated on and broken up with

But it is still, IMO, Atwood's best.

Ah glad to have found fellow Wilkie lovers. He’s one of the few male authors who actually seems to understand and genuinely like women and make them the centre of their own stories.

No Name is brilliant but I found it quite agonising and haven’t gone back for a reread yet. Actually quite a similar feel to some du Maurier books in that way when they’re quite intense, but if OP likes Hardy she’ll love it.

I'm 1/3 way into the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark - it's only about 180 pages long but so well crafted - I decided to read it after watching Ian Rankin on a Sky Arts prog recently wax lyrical about the book and Muriel Spark. I'll be finished by the day after tomorrow and I don't rush books like eating fast food - I like to savour every well crafted sentence.

You said no more Bronte - have you read Anne's Wildfell Hall - I think i liked it more than JE or WH.

"Nana" by Zola.
"Madame Bovary" by Flaubert.
"The Pursuit of Love" by Nancy Mitford.

Testament of Youth
Wild Swans
Anne of Green Gables and Little Women series

Not women’s stories, but must-reads:

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Catch-22
Fahrenheit 451

The Turn of the Screw for a good ghostie read
Awakening by Kate Chopin for a women focused story
Another vote for Mrs Dalloway
What about drama? The Doll’s House by Ibsen is great

Vanity Fair is a great book. Long but very enjoyable.

I, Claudius is good too.

Love vanity fair and would second the Georgette Heyer suggestions if you’ve been reading Brontë / Austen etc - of course they’re written as historical novels rather than at the time, but they’re excellent, funny and very engaging and well researched. They’re what I ended up reaching for when I wanted more female focussed stories.

Would also hugely recommend Dorothy Dunnett “Lymond Chronicles”. I’m listening to them on audiobook at the moment. They’re dense, complex, and brilliant. Male protagonist but as you go through the series, the female characters are equally weighted and just as rounded and impactful. I would recommend also reading them alongside a discussion forum on tapatalk if you need recaps and plot summaries as I did!!

Definitely

I like Galsworthy and Anthony Trollope. Also Vanity Fair as Becky Sharpe is my favourite villain.

South Riding, Winifred Holtby

I was going to say the same. A fantastic book to get lost in. Strong female characters and wonderful villains.

Another vote for Wilkie Collins!
And if you like Collins, then you will also enjoy Lady Audrey's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.