Meaty but decent holiday read, please

[ElusiveMoose]

I'm looking for ideas for something to take on holiday with me. I want something nice and long that I can get my teeth into, but also with a bit of literary quality. (Not TOO literary, though - please god don't suggest Ulysses!). I'm thinking along the lines of A Suitable Boy, Great Expectations, LOTR etc (if I hadn't already read them). Am toying with the idea of Gone with the Wind (anyone know if it's any good???), but I'd prefer something where I didn't already know the story.

The Time Traveler's Wife
The Book Thief
Fortune's Rocks
The Far Pavilions
Birdsong

Have you read Bleak House? My favourite Dickens. Or Nicholas Nickleby, which is v funny.

As an aside, did you know that Vikram Seth is writing a sequel to A Suitable Boy?

austerlitz

Gone with the wind is wonderful!! read it recently. The film is pretty faithful but the book is so much deeper.

How about 'The other Bolyn Girl'? Its not frothy but it is still a good romp.Everyone I have recommended it to loved it

Oh Austerlitz yyy. Wonderful wonderful book. GGood call cywywag.

[preens]

what is the book called the something or other about a greek island, lots of twists adn turns.

i read it on holiday twas v. good

the magnus!

John Fowles, The Magus?

How about Charles Palliser's The Quincunx?

test

Love these ideas, thanks. I'm a big fan of Indian-related stuff, so I fancy the idea of the Far Pavilions. Intrigued by Austerlitz, though it sounds a bit hard-going?? I've read some of the other suggestions, though another Dickens is a thought. MidnightExpress, I'm very excited about the sequel to A Suitable Boy; I love Vikram Seth.

Middlemarch

The First Circle -Solzhenitsyn

A Robertson Davies trilogy?

I too am very excited about a sequel to A Suitable Boy- it would be my desert island book.

I've already read Middlemarch, and Solzhenitsyn doesn't sound quite indulgent enough for a holiday book (though I would like to read some sometime). Robertson Davies is a good thought, though. People I know are always raving about him, but I've never got round to trying him. Which trilogy would you recommend to start me off, FaintlyMacabre?

Alias Grace, Cat's Eye or the Blind Assassin (something Margaret Atwood)
The Poisonwood Bible
The Golden Notebook

I took 'The Crimson Petal and the White' on holiday a few years ago and couldn't put it down.

for Roberston go for the Cornish trilogy
wide ranging and wickedly funny