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.

with a few exceptions, I don’t like long novels much. lots of my favourites already mentioned on the thread.

Muriel Spark, Barbara Pym, PG Wodehouse, George Orwell are all truly great writers of short novels that are not difficult to read. Orwell’s essays and journalism are a masterclass in clarity.

I am a John Buchan fan and have read The 39 Steps many times simply because it is pocket size - and would recommend you try him, at least.

MR James’s ghost stories set the pattern for the genre for many years, are easy to read, and very enjoyable.

Patricia Highsmith is great if you like creepy thrillers.

Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler are easy to read and wonderful.

Id say Oliver Twist is quite easy if you want to try Dickens.

Agree that there are lots of very good classic detective novelists, but I’d try Agatha Christie first. She is the Queen of Crime for a reason!

Yes, it was! Great adaptation.

And yes to Agatha Christie. People think she writes cosy mysteries because of the background of her stories: English country cottages and stately homes, roses, afternoon tea, servants in lacy aprons...
She doesn't. Some of her work is as dark as hell.

I love all the Miss Marples and most of the Poirots but if you want something that's really bleak and still quite unnerving to read alone on a dark night, try And Then There Were None. Great BBC adaptation of it too.

Im not a huge classics reader but I loved middlemarch , Anna Karenina, return of the native (Thomas hardy) , portrait of a lady (Henry james) . I would start with an Edith Wharton. Her books are short and such easy reading...I recommend the age of innocence 🥰 im currently reading sherlock Holmes short stories and they are really enjoyable! And as someone else has already recommended, the short story the yellow wallpaper is fab! I got a wordsworth classics book of victorian short stories for Xmas which includes the yellow wallpaper and also has stories by Dickens, wilkie Collins etc and a great way to start reading classics. Oh also loved Oscar Wilds the picture of Dorian grey 🙂