Classics....that are reasonably easy to read

[Manymoresometimes]

I've always read books, but never really classics, except Jane Eye. Ive read Beloved a part of an adult GCSE course and hated it, but maybe because i was younger.

Wuthering Heights and now Lord of the Flies on the BBC (which im hating) has made me thought. im a big grownup (dont laugh) and i need to try some classics.

All modern books bore me, HELP. Im open to anything.

I had Jane Austen forced on me at school and loathed it. Many years and an addiction to Georgette Heyer later I had another try and loved her novels. I think you really need to be at least middle- aged to appreciate her humour and observation of people's behaviour.

What about some classic crime?

I've recently read Margery Allingham's Crime at Black Dudley and Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet

I'd agree with everyone who has recommended North and South, to which I'd add South Riding by Winifred Holtby

Brideshead revisited is a fabulous read op, one of my favourite books ever.

Glad the see Candide recommended @Dappy777 !
Its another on my "definitely want to re-read" list

Looking at your update, maybe it's not just classics, but books that are a bit different.

I can see my bookshelf from here, so maybe try:

The blood miracles, Lisa Mcinerney (think that's the first one)
The crow road, Iain banks (or try iain m banks for sci fi)
Wise children Angela Carter
Anything by Louise Erdrich
Kim Rudyard Kipling

The Go Between
Brave New World
Moll Flanders
We have always lived in the Castle

all super easy to read and brilliant.

Maybe start with some children's classics?

The Secret Garden - already mentioned
A Little Princess
Ballet Shoes
Tom's Midnight Garden - not sure if it is a classic but it should be.

Personally I find Dickens very readable but others don't.

Daphne du Maurier is a good shout.

I recommend Guy du Maupassant. (In English translation!) His short stories are witty and poignant, and his novel Bel Ami makes it into my top ten. Lots to love, and very easy to read.

I didn't get on with Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House, and lots of the others. I do love A Christmas Carol though.

Oscar Wilde's plays are all short, witty and very readable.

William Goldings "Lord of the Flies" the new series on BBC is going to get some viewers searching for the book.
I have about 5 copies lurking about ( don't ask) one is a really tattered yellowing copy that is my favourite . It's not a book I want on Kindle it's a paper read .
I dug out the scruffy copy and the words /writing are mesmerising , so descriptive . He paints with words .

Ian Bank's "The Wasp Factory" . I had heard of it and was intrigued by the title ( WTF was that about ?) , read it on a bus journey . Twist at the end ,

Funny, I had the exact same experience. I had always dismissed her stuff as sophisticated chick lit. But I eat my words. If anything, I think she’s underrated. I prefer her to Dickens. He has the more vivid imagination, and a broader sweep of characters, but she’s much more knowing and subtle.

👏Yes. And try Dorian Gray. The dialogue is sublime. As a (odious and pretentious) teen, I wanted to live in Wilde’s world. I wanted to smoke opium cigarettes and speak like his characters. I still do.

Dracula is hilarious and terrifying at the same time. Also quite episodic, so perhaps easier to read.

If you want some lovely, big-hearted, funny 'between the wars' classics with female protaganists, I recommend Enchanted April, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Cold Comfort Farm.

I hated Lord of the Flies.

It didn't help that we had to read it at school in what is now year 9, then it was the book chosen for O Level.

OP if you don't like a book then it can just be personal taste, try another.

It might be worth starting a book journal.

I love and often re-read Rosamund Lehman's "An invitation to the waltz" and its sequel "The weather in the streets."

I’ve just listened to Prunella Scales reading Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskill, on Audible. I wasn’t looking forward to it but it was really enjoyable, warm and drily funny. It has spurred me onto to look for more of her books read by Prunella Scales on Audible

@Manymoresometimes, since you specified "easy to read" you might prefer The Beautiful and Damned to The Great Gatsby, even though Gatsby is the real classic.

Excuse my disagreeing, but I found it an aggravation frustration.

I really like your question—wanting to try classics, but sensibly trying to avoid something so daunting that you’ll give up. I made a reply to a reply, but later realized that most of this thread, and I as well, were doing something I dislike: Mostly just throwing titles at you, but not giving any little tidbit that would help you choose.

So I’ll start over. (And I share your disdain for modern books.)

The Beautiful and Damned: It’s Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby that’s the true classic, but this earlier book seems more energized to me. It’s the story of a young man—then, a young couple—in the 1910s-1920s who come from privileged backgrounds but are mostly waiting for a big inheritance, as their lives fall apart.

In Dubious Battle: I was surprised to find that I love Steinbeck, but, again, while Grapes of Wrath is the true classic, it’s huge, and to me bogs down intermittently. For some reason, I’m crazy about In Dubious Battle, and thought it the best book I’d read that year. It’s more or less about a down-and-out guy in the 1930s Depression who gets swept up on a small scale in a push for workers’ rights. In particular, I’m fascinated by the language, which is so simple, but so vivid. If you like nonfiction, Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley is a wonderful entertaining semi-memoir of a cross-country drive in the 1960s with his dog Charley.

Emma: I think Jane Austen is the finest English language novelist, ever. But although I love Pride and Prejudice, I’m starting to prefer Emma. Many people don’t like the character Emma, but I do.And I love all the collection of other people: the doddering hypochondriac father, the garrulously meandering neighbor, the young empty-headed friend. And I love the greater complexity of the plot.

Brave New World: This is, to me, one of the two foundational future dystopias in the English language (along with 1984).

Vanity Fair:This is admittedly long, but I eventually came to love it, and it’s now one of my top favorite books. The core story follows two girls, later into womanhood, who may be semi-friends but are totally different: The “bad” girl who is smart and conniving, and the “good” girl who is self-sacrificing and weepy. It’s a sprawling story interwoven with 19th century history, and very funny.

War and Peace? You have to be joking 😂

Not sure if its classic enough, but Gilead, Marilyn Robonson, is one where the authors voice just rings out. It made me slow down and feel, and Im a lazy reader who skips through most text in search of plot!

It's pretty easy reading, just long! I first read it as a teen
It's an amazing book

I did North and South for A level - bored me to fuck!

id go for some DH Lawrence / Sons and Lovers
Jude the Obscure
The Go-Between (did this for A level too and loved it)
Lafy Chatterky’s Lover
Maurice / EM Forster
Rebecca
Bell Jar
Also liked Steinbeck / Grapes of Wrath
Grahame Green especially Brighton Rock

How about some short stories:
Chekhov - Somerset Maugham - Katherine Mansfield - Raymond Carver to name but a few