Classics - what would you recommend to me?

[pippistrelle]

I've resolved to read more classics this year.

I'm currently reading 'Middlemarch' and finding it a slog. Towards the end of last year, I read 'Northanger Abbey' which I found okay.

They can be of the more modern variety so I also read some Maigret short stories and Dashiell Hammet's 'The Thin Man'. Maigret was okay, didn't much like the Hammet.

Classics I have enjoyed - ' A Tale of Two Cities', and I absolutely love 'The War of the Worlds'. And my all time favourite is 'I, Claudius'.

Based on that skeleton information, what else might I enjoy?

Daniel Defoe
Emile Zola
Evelyn Waugh

Have you read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell?

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith? I think it counts as a classic( a more modern one).
Jane Eyre. I read this every 3 years or so.

Rebecca.

Far from the Madding Crowd
The Portrait of Dorian Gray
Dracula
Little Women
Lady Chatterlys Lover

Also..My Cousin Rachel.

Cranford!

Dracula
Frankenstein
I Capture the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The Tenant of Widfell Hall
The Haunting
The Dud Avocado
Anything by Colette
Anything from the Persephone catalogue
Anything by Victor Hugo
Anything by Octavia Butler
The Day of the Triffids

Jane Eyre

Also, Cold Comfort Farm
Jamaica Inn
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings series

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
North and South
Vanity Fair
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lady Chatterly's Lover
The Go-Between
All Quiet on the Western Front
A Farewell to Arms

I would say pick an author and read their works in order as you get a sense then of their evolving style. You might like Orwell, based on your likes so far.

I also struggled with middle March. I found Jane Eyre/tenant of wild fell easier, also sense and sensibility/pride and Prejudice over Mansfield park.
Lots of great recommendations here, I also love bridgehead revisited, to capture the castle, age of innocence, gone with the wind…
keep trying new books, life is too short to read dull books!!!!

I'm another voting for Jane Eyre - I'm in the middle of another reread of it at the moment and I think it gets better each time round.

EM Forster - A Room with a View, A Passage to India, Maurice etc
Dickens - Great Expectations
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway

I did really like Defoe's 'A Journal of the Plague Year'. What else of his would you recommend pease@seashaken ?

I see a few recommmendations of North and South. Is is a mammoth doorstop? After the commitment to Middlemarch, I'm not sure I'm quite ready immediately for another huge book. But I will explore for later.

Your list made me smile ruefully, @highlandharpy. I can't bear three of your five, which just shows how personal book taste is.

I also quite liked Rebecca and I have Jamaica Inn on the shelf so maybe I should head in that direction. So, thank you for Du Maurier suggestions.

You made me think, @ThePieceHall . I've read quite a lot of John Wyndham (love the Midwich Cuckoos) but I haven't read the Day of the Triffids. Put off by the plant premise. But I think it's definitely one for the list. Also one I've never even heard of - The Dud Avocado, will check it out. Big yes to Shirley Jackson.

Vanity Fair is a good read, and a little lighter than Middlemarch.

I haven't read Zola. This is because I'm a French speaker to a reasonable standard and feel like it's cheating not to read it in French, but I fear it would take me a long time. Maybe I should allow myself a translation.

I do like Orwell, except Animal Farm. Just recently enjoyed his essay 'Bookshop Memories'.

I'm a bit 'meh' about Jane Eyre. Read it. It was fine. I know this is sacrilege to many.

I'm grateful for all recommendations and I will explore. It's helpful in narrowing down what might be of interest to me.

Anthony Trollope - I really liked The Way We Lived Now and there are many others to enjoy.

Jane Eyre
The Woman in White (this is very long and so you might not like it)
Moby Dick seems very marmite but I enjoyed it, probably because I really like nonfiction and it's a but of a blend

I would recommend against Lady Chatterley's Lover. Honestly one of the worst books I've ever tried to read.

Cranford by Elisabeth Gaskell
John Wyndham: Midwich Cuckoos, Chocky , Crystalids, The Kraken Wakes etc
AJ Cronin, especially the medical ones.
Nevill Shute.

Some excellent suggestions for you here, I’m
excited for you to have the opportunity to read all these for the first time!!!

Another vote for Jane Eyre. Have you read Animal Farm? Short and accessible.

I would recommend against Lady Chatterley's Lover. Honestly one of the worst books I've ever tried to read.

I agree heartily. Second only to 'Portrait of the Artist as Young Man'.

I did a Classics Challenge in 2020 - I'm attaching screenshots from my Goodreads. I think it was anything over 50 years old.