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.

Lots already mentioned but not seen -

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith

both very funny but in different ways

Oh also

Travels with my Aunt - Orwell
The Prisoner of Zenda - can’t remember
Vile Bodies / Scoop - Evelyn Waugh
Zuleika Dobson - Max Beerbohm

Graham greene not Orwell!!

The length is not a problem for me but when the OP is asking for something accessible W&P is not the answer. The huge cast of characters with difficult naming conventions, interminable philosophising and lengthy descriptions of war all make it challenging for someone new to the classics.

Probably not, but equally I think it's so often presented as some kind of impossible book to read and it really isn't. And I loved the breadth of topics covered.

Been a while since I hit this thread

Anyone suggested Jeeves and Wooster? Short and funny.

Prisoner of Zenda - Anthony Hope. I first read this when I was about 12. I've got quite a collection of his books now, including the sequel to the Prisoner of Zenda, Rupert of Hentzau.
Love all the Edwardian adventure books - John Buchan (39 Steps), Guy Boothby (Dr. Nikola) and of course the original Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Burroughs father built electric cars in the 1890s -
"George Tyler Burroughs, father of Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB), was an American Civil War veteran and pioneer in storage battery manufacturing who created batteries for early electric cars in Chicago. He operated the American Battery Company and allowed his son, Ed, to drive a prototype electric "nine-seater horseless surrey". "

Oh yes brilliant. Or the Blandings books. So so funny and comforting and cheering. I gave a PG Wodehouse omnibus book to my Dad when he was ill just before he died. It had come full circle as he had given me a set as a child. We both always found them hilarious.

Was just going to suggest this! Laugh out loud funny.

@MsAmerica Emma is my favourite Austen too. It's sublime and also funny.

Oh that is a great fun fact! I will look for Dr Nikola and Tarzan. Does The Riddle of the Sands fall into this category? Or is that later? Another classic only I didn’t mention it because I thought there was a lot of weather and geography which got a bit tedious 😂however maybe due a reread too!!

Oh I do too! I love Olivia. And the naughty Marigold. And Etty. So evocative and raises questions that back then were taboo like abortion. Lehman is a true master/mistress of her task.

I read A Christmas Carol every December.

Some great suggestions here op.
My American choices would include..

To kill a Mocking Bird
In Cold Blood
Of Mice and Men
On the Road
The Bell Jar

Love TKAM and OM&M and bell jar. Not read others must read.

Love Emma too for the reasons you say. Austen was very clever. Dry wit.

Don't forget children's classics:

E. Nesbit - the first really to write children's fiction from the children's point of view, with realistic sibling relationships and no moralising. Some of her humour is actually better appreciated as an adult.

Arthur Ransome - not just children's holiday stories, but tell the reader a lot about life in the Lakes and on the Broads at the time they were written. And Peter Duck is a thumping good adventure story.

And classic crime:
Dorothy L. Sayers was very literary, in fact her literariness can be annoying at times. But very much worth reading. Gaudy Night is a book I can read over and over.

Agatha Christie's books appear simple, but if you read some of the other detective fiction that was popular and successful at the time, you see that she was head and shoulders above any of her contemporaries. It's also interesting to come back to her novels after having read her life, as you can see where she has used her own experiences.

I see someone mentioned The 39 Steps. Personally I think the second Richard Hannay novel, Greenmantle, is far superior, but it's hardly ever mentioned.

My DM has today encouraged me to read Hesse when I visited her. The Glass Bead Game I just found hard going and the Carlos Castenada books I know are hippy shit with mind altering drugs don’t need to read to know that

I just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which is very readable and interesting

I loved E. Nesbit too. I shall have to revisit them.
Buchan's book Prester John is also good, in the way it describes living in Africa back in those times when there were so many wild animals around.

So do I! It's wonderfully atmospheric. I especially love the beginning, with the description of fog-bound London and Scrooge seeing the ghostly coach and horses flying up the stairs, and him going to bed in his cold, creepy house. It has to be read tucked up in a warm bed!

What Katy Did series are nice American children’s classics.

If I attempt War and Peace again I will need a crib card with all the different names one person is called. I got so confused I gave up although. I tried reading it as I had watched the BBC version which was wonderful

Having just watched Cranford on Netflix I will be reading that next and have made a note to read North and South

I read Lord of the Flies as an adult and hated it, but then as I child I adored Wuthering Heights and devoured it in a day. Re-read it and found it a chore.

Brave New World was studied at A level as was A Passage to India, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and A Portrait of a Lady, I have no inclination to read any of them again and I loved them so much I failed

I retook my A level and studied Return of the Native and have gone on to read more Hardy

What Katy Did series are nice American children’s classics.

I like the first three - What Katy Did, At School and Next. Not so keen on Clover and In the High Valley,

Brighton Rock
Turn of the Screw - short and spooky
Stepford Wives

I haven’t read Emma, but the film Clueless was based on it I think? I think I’ll add this to my (very long 😂) list actually