I need a book for clever well read 23 year old dil.

[CurlewKate]

She’s doing an English degree and she’s loved some of the books I’ve given her- I try to choose old fashioned sort of classics-she loved Muriel Spark, Graham Green and Evelyn Waugh, for example and A Month in the Country. She didn’t like Kingsley Amis or Barbara Pym. Any ideas?

The Pursuit of Love
The Go - Between
The Well of Loneliness

you get her a Persephone voucher?

Cold Comfort Farm - very funny
Lady Audley's Secret
North & South, Cranford or anything by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Crimson Petal and the White

Lymond chronicles? I came across the recommendation here and really enjoyed. Otherwise Barbara Trapido Oxford books (juggling etc..) or The Scarlet Petal and the White/Under my Skin? Rebecca West is a v good author and has an interesting back story too

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Kept me up reading all night.

I am also an English graduate and my 2 best books this year are by Ling Ling Huang. Natural Beauty and Immaculate Conception both have Black Mirror vibes.

If you’re going for something more literary Wolf Hall?

Daunt Books publish some fantastic rediscovered classics by authors like Natalia Ginzburg (lovely covers too), or Cynthia Dale. They’re really nicely produced and quite cool. And also check out Persephone Books as mentioned upthread.

And the British Library Women Writers series is also good for this kind of thing. And again, very nice covers.

Not dissing your taste at all because I like those as well, but flowers for algernon was a gcse set text for years so she likely would have read it.

Going off piste a bit OP would she appreciate some non fic as something a bit different? Invisible women is always a classic, but something like the literary detective might link in with her degree? I found strong female character a good read too and could give more recs depending on what she likes -pyschology/true crime/history/feminism?

Or something still quite classic but fun/easy to read like Agatha Christie?

I did an English degree and had a good year or two after where I was classic fiction-ed out and read either more fun stuff or non fic.

Thank you for recommending. I just ordered a few books from them after seeing your recommendation.

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘old-fashioned’. There is no such thing as ‘old-fashioned’ art. If something is great art, it’s timeless. That’s sort of the definition of great art. Only left-wing fanatics, who want to dismantle the canon, believe great literature can be dated. Is Homer ‘old-fashioned’? Or Dante or Shakespeare or Tolstoy or Proust or Milton or Blake or Jane Austen or Dickens or Dostoyevsky or Thomas Mann? Are Vermeer’s paintings ‘old-fashioned’? Or Mozart’s music?

If she likes Evelyn Waugh, I’m sure she’d like the following:

Aldous Huxley: Chrome Yellow
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point
Anthony Powell: A Dance to the Music of Time
Ford Maddox Ford: Parade’s End

My Name is Asher Lev.

My favourite books of recent years have been Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and A Gentleman in Moscow.

Going back a bit I also love the The Fountain Overflows trilogy by Rebecca West and re-read it every few years.

If she hasn’t read any Trollope, the six Barsetshire books are wonderful and a great introduction to him. The first two are The Warden and Barchester Towers.

One of my favourite book series is Venery by Suanne Laqueuer. Deep and meaningful romance, lots of layers and very realistic portrayals of human behaviour. The second book is phenomenal - A Charm of Finches.

In Memoriam by Alice Winn is gut wrenchingly beautiful.

Spent a small fortune in Bath recently at this bookshop. Gorgeous looking books but also some great literature gems

Octavia Butler wrote some instant classics- that's my opinion! Very original and capturing even though most books were written in the 70's.

If she's open to historical fiction, I am currently reading Exodus by Leon Uris, again well written with a lovely flow to it.

Lettice Cooper you can get them from Persephone books they are beautifully bound and make a lovely gift.

George Gissing (late 1800s) is really fantastic and not a hard read.

Just getting back into Patrick Hamilton (writing in the 1940s and 50s).

I think Hilary Mantel was an exceptionally good writer but I'm going to suggest maybe one of the non-historical ones. An Experiment in Love is really good, and there are also some collections of short stories which are excellent - I think one is Learning to Talk.

A pp suggests Iris Murdoch but I have never been able to finish one of her books even though I have tried.

Sorry about “old fashioned”! I was trying to convey books that as a very similar young woman I would probably have read at her age, but are not so well known now-but not the sort of classic that goes on forever. I’m getting lots of ideas for her and reminders to re read for me-which is great.keep them coming!

I’m letting “left wing fanatics” pass as not in the spirit of this thread. Happy to join you on another one to discuss.

Anything by John Fowles (specifically The Collector) or by Donna Tartt.

Also ‘An Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Mauriere is often overlooked as everyone thinks they known the story but is very layered.

Books I have read over and over since I was her age are -
Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin
Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg.

Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaffon is amazing. 😊

Interestingly, I’ve recommended Tales of the City to both her, DS and other young people, and they didn’t generally enjoy it. I think they find the sexual politics and the humour a bit problematic. I was very sad about that!

Love EW.

@CurlewKate aww that's really sad 😭
I love those books.

Elizabeth Jane Howard - either Cazalets or others (After Julius?). So well-written and emotionally astute, but not super popular. Recent book I've most enjoyed - Elif Shafak, There are Rivers in the Sky. Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel - again a bit old fashioned so she might not have come across it; and just gripping!