[xayaxos]

I was talking to a friend the other night, a friend who's been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and done it all a second time for fun, and she told me that I should read more classic literature. The only problem is I don't know what to read, what to look for in the second-hand book stores or what to borrow from the library (not that I have a library card). She did loan me Miracle of the Rose by Jean Genet to start with, but what else should I read?

What literature would you recommend?

[Cymric]

The count of Monte Cristo
The Allegory of the cave by Plato
Anything by shakespeare

[AuntiePam]

Emile Zola -- especially The Dram Shop and The Earth and if you like some psychological horror, Therese Raquin

Meditations -- Marcus Aurelius (the Maxwell Staniforth translation)

I'd like to be able to recommend more but I'm just starting to read classics too. :)

I'm amazed that classics are so readable. Duh. I guess that's why they're classics; they're timeless.

[Beleg]

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Wolfe
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemmingway
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstien by Mary Shelley
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Sons and Lovers by D. Lawrence
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Catcher in the Rye by Salinger

Anything by Mark Twain.
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
Anything by the Bronte sisters

These are some of the 'classics' from the top of my mind.

[Priestvyrce]

Henry Fieldings' Tom Jones is a fun romp.

Steinbeck- Grapes of Wrath and his travelogue- Travels with Charley was a hoot.

Albert Camus' The Stranger- a short novel with a huge impact.

[AuntiePam]

Beleg, you mention the Bronte sisters. I tried to read Wuthering Heights, but the edition I had was punctuated so badly, it was unreadable.

I plan to try it again someday, but this time I'll have the book in my hands so I can make sure the semicolon demons aren't included. :)

[Beleg]

Wuthering Heights is an excellent book. You'll find many who court it passionately, and many who have it on top of their detestation piles, but in my opinion it's a law unto itself. Once you get around the characteristic wordiness of Elizbethian Authors, It contains a truly reaction provoking story and characters that are as real as my next door neighbour. I was both addicted and repulsed by the story; Heathcliff absolutely disgusted me, I wept at his treatment of Catherine and her progeny, sometimes I was so peeved at the unfairness of all the events that I flushed the book down the drain and sulked around for hours but once I got it back I never could put it down again.
No other book has appealed to my emotions like this, no other book has drawn me out so much other then perahaps To Kill a Mockingbird and Roots.
All this sounds so soapy and so disgustingly unqualtative and I can't objectively assure you that you'll like it, but everyone I meet and talk too, who has some reservations about it, I implore too atleast try this one. If you are daunted by the wordiness and flowery narrative, get a condensed, modernized version issued by Oxford which only serves in amplifying the magnificance of the actual story.
But then again I am a sucker for Elizbethian age Stories, I usually love the thinly vieled dry humor and the stylistic way everything happens...and I usually love floweriness and stylistic narrative techniques.

[And once in a while, I just have to rant about WH. :p]

I guess you can get a Penguin Classic Paperback of 'Wuthering Heights' which might or might not be annotated. Small but excellent printing and minimum nomenclature/grammar mistakes. They are excellent. [But not sure they are avalable in UK or US]

Anne Bronte, the youngest of the three sisters is my favorite as a whole. She only published two novels before her pre-mature end, but they are some of the most stylstically sensible books I have read and the humor and irony crack me up. [Neither emotionally draining nor obviously preachey as some books around]

Somemore 'classics'.

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham.

A light fantasy written for children but contains memorable characters that never fail to crack me up

Heidi by Jonathan Sypri

A tale about a young orphan girl living in high German/Austrian Alps alongside her grandfather and her adventures as a playmate/maid to a wealthy but sickly girl of Frankfurt. An innocent tale that provides instant relaxation.

Roots by Alex Healey

A part fictional, most non-fictional account of the life of a slave captured in Africa and sold in the States. The best book of it's type, IMO.

Huck Finn by Mark Twain

Advenutres of Huck across the lenght of Mississippi alongside Jim. An awesome critique of the norms of that time, contains informal prose, a homely feel and great adventures. One of the best books ever, IMO.

[I]Animal Farm by George Orwell

Tale of animals on a farm who can speak and who 'revolt' against their oppresive master and seize control of the farm themselves. Headed by the 'pigs' the tale tells of the evolution of the farm headed by the pigs...
A great poltical satire and whacks both Communism and Capitalism on the head without differenciation. The novella intrinsically is an amusing tale too although it is nigh on impossible to read the story without noting the poltical element.


Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

A women in 1979 finds some obscure diary's belonging to her grandfather who served in the First World War. A novel divided in six pieces all of which cater to the tale of Stephen and his progeny, his stay in pre-worldwar Paris, where he falls in love with the wife of his business partner. Bittersweat; haven't read a story which demonstrates the cruelty's of war more mercilessly and what It does to people's normal life.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

One of my favorite books by perhaps my favorite author.

Anne Shirley's an orphan and comes to Green Gables, in the care of the aging Cuthbert as an adoption switch. Details her early adolesence years and how they effect the quaint little place in general and herself and the cuthbert's in particular. The author grew upon in particularly puritan envoirnement and the resulting reactionary undercurrent in evident in her works and her most memorable character, Anne.


Don Quixote by Miguel De Cerevantus

How can one stop reading a book when he comes across an opening sentence like this,

Idle reader: thou mayest believe me without any oath that I would this book, as it is the child of my brain, were the fairest, gayest, and cleverest that could be imagined.

Excellent book.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

'[He] would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.'

:d

The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot

The tale of Maggie Tulliver and her family, who faces hard times due to her father's injury. Excessively wordy in just the right kind of way. A book full of wit, irony and how nature loves to dump a young girl's dreams. The book is perhaps one of the most realistic novels I have and one of Britian's most un-stylized 19th century works in my opinion. [Caution: Excessive prose, extreme flowriness, attention to every minute details and repetitive pandering into the realm of philosophically fantasic can be called some of the vices of the book]

Maggie: A girl of Streets by Stephen Crane

A ruthless novel detailing the lives of an innocent girl of a typical lower-class, slum wandering family. A good chronicle of how things stood in American cities at the turn of the 20th century. If you are looking for a saga-type critique of society in those times and are prepared for some gruesomeness, I'll recommend this.

Anything by Ernest Hemmingway, although 'From Whom the Bell Tolls' and 'A Farewell to Arms' are my personal favorites. Short, concise prose, emotionally compelling, draws the reader into the story and makes the reader relate with the plight of the character.


Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A group of boys are going somewhere when their plane crashes and they are left alone on an inhabbited island. Details what a child's nature might be if left un-primmed and unguided for a considerable ammount of time. Liked by people for it's many un-eumpheism and the underlying humanistic themes. Liked by me for it's thought-provoking story, tension creating narrative, great characters, excellent plot or unplot based on how you view it and the masterful way the writer handles youn'ns reactions.

[Priestvyrce]

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A group of boys are going somewhere when their plane crashes and they are left alone on an inhabbited island. Details what a child's nature might be if left un-primmed and unguided for a considerable ammount of time. Liked by people for it's many un-eumpheism and the underlying humanistic themes. Liked by me for it's thought-provoking story, tension creating narrative, great characters, excellent plot or unplot based on how you view it and the masterful way the writer handles youn'ns reactions.

For the love of God, I couldn't remember the author's name! But I remember reading it in the 10th Grade and was so blown away by it. Too bad, that they could never capture the feel of the book in any of the movies based on it.

[Priestvyrce]

One classic that I have never gotten around to reading is J D Salinger's Catcher In The Rye , maybe I'm too old for it now, but I dearly loved reading his short stories and would like to compare the novel to what I remember his short stories were like.

[Beleg]

One classic that I have never gotten around to reading is J D Salinger's Catcher In The Rye , maybe I'm too old for it now, but I dearly loved reading his short stories and would like to compare the novel to what I remember his short stories were like.

It is better, In my opinion. Why do you feel you are 'too old' for it?