Gripping classic to take on holiday! please i need ideas..

[McCloudismynewnameforawhile]

Something that is clever without being too intellectual.

Oliver Twist!

Bit different from those previously mentioned, but the "Earth's Children" series by Jean Auel are very good. (Clan of the Cave Bear and so on.) I found them all fascinating and un-put-down-able.

do you want a "real" classic, in which case any of the above, esp Middlemarch or Vanity Fair.

Or a pretend classic: The meaning of night, Michael Cox, the casebook of Victor Frankenstein (Janeite has a view on that one) but good Gothic. The American Boy, Andrew Taylor. Or basically anything by Andrew Taylor.

thankyou so much, lots of ideas!

Ooh yes, yes to 'The American Boy' by Andrew Taylor (although I didn't like his others) - not a 'classic' but certainly in the best tradition of classics. Take some Poe and Conan Doyle alongside it!

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessle. Just finished it. Loved it, was brilliant.

Charles Palliser - The Quincunx

Anthony Powell - Dance to the Music of Time

Proust !

A wonderful book by Harry Thompson called 'This Thing of Darkness' a fictional biography of Fitzroy of the Beagle and a superbly written good read.

'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke.

'This Thing Of Darkness' is fab. Again, not a 'classic' but a really, really good, incredibly well-researched historical novel.

not a clssic, but i LOVE anything by Jodi Picoult. Very thought provoking. Her latest book 'change of heart' was fab!

Woman in white
or
The Moonstone

Both classics - Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone, definitely

Definitely "The Moonstone" as it's gripping but not intellectual or trashy. I've also just finished "Interpretation of a Murder" and highly recommend it -keeps you guessing until the end.

alias grace by margaret atwood?
second the woman in white....gripping and witty in the way he describes individuals and their behaviour

enduring love-ian mcewan, notes on an exhibition-patrick ? (good!), children of men-pd james? happy reading!

Oh yes the priory is a brilliant gripping read,loved it.

rebecca

Yes to 'Rebecca' - also perhaps 'The Handmaid's Tale' or how about a couple of lovely children's classics for pure entertainment/nostalgia value?

Yes to Rebecca and The Poisonwood Bible. Also Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, which treads the line between trash and non-trash very delicately but is the grippingest gripping book I have ever read and right in the middle i defy you not to GASP in shock....

This Thing of Darkness - superb - just re-read it and am still chilled and uplifted by it.

The Moonstone or Woman in White are rollicking good reads - perhaps with a side of Suspicions of Mr Whicher for some non-fiction Victorian crime?

The one with the mad first wife in the tower. That's good.

Anything by Sebastian Faulks or Kazuo Ishiguro? For classics of the future ; )

Otherwise

Great Expectations
David Copperfield

All absolutely brilliant riveting reading!

Agree Vanity Fair. Like a modern day story, it's excellent.

Also have just read a triolgy of Nancy Mitford novels, they were really funny and a great read.

Silas Marner by George Elliot is a beautiful and warming story, I loved it.

Pride and Prejudice - if you haven't read it before definitely take it, lovely easy reading and you know the ending (yay!)

Also anything by Edicth Wharton especially the Age of Innocence.

Don't bother with anything by the Brontes or Thomas Hardy - depressing drivel. I tried to read Tess of the sodding D'Urbervilles whilst on a beach in Barbados once, it didn't work!

Riders-Jilly Cooper, classic of it's genre anyway

Vanity Fair is a v good read. God yes, leave the Hardy at home.

dare i say the pickwick papers....originally written for serialisation....just like a soap really!

not a classic but an interesting read is among the bohemians by virginia nicholson...