Im writing my TBR list and would like to complete over the next year a Grand Tour of the Classics - think the grand tours of aristocratic youth visiting and lounging about all over the world for a year, but with books! I will be kick starting it at the start of November (great tie in with Nanowrimo as I write historical fiction predominantly so will keep me in the right era!). Now for the bit where you come in. I have a list going but I am a tad stuck and look to y'all for book suggestions that I could include. There are tons and tons of "classics" so the extra help would be useful, that and different people have different opinions of what is a classic? Post your suggestions if you would be so kind and I'll post the final long list that I will be reading as of 1st Nov. PS - the list needs to contain 52 books in total as I read one a week on average. Thanks for your help in advance x
Hmmmm... Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Moby Dick, Tale of Two Cities, Don Quixote, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Predjudice, Grapes of Wrath, Catcher in the Rye, Catch 22, Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings.. A classic is a book or series of books that remain(s) in print far after their time and are still loved today, just as much as they were at the time they were printed. Harry Potter, I'm certain will become a classic in due time.
Read THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Best book ever, in my opinion. MOBY DICK is very good. Also, consider Joseph Conrad in addition to the works above. For short stories, look at John Cheever and Flannery O'Connor.
Here's some of the classics I've enjoyed: -Treasure Island -Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde -Alice in Wonderland -Grimm's Fairy Tales -The Phantom of the Opera -Robinson Crusoe -The Wind in the Willows -Anderson's Fairy Tales -Sherlock Holmes I'm sure there are more of them, but these are some of the ones I've found on my bookshelf. They cover a wide range of stories, so you should be able to find some good ones in there. There are some that I have, but that I haven't really enjoyed. One of these was "The Count of Monte Cristo." I watched the movie first, and I actually liked the movie better. The book felt like it had way too many subplots. I thought it was confusing. However, I do think I'll give it another chance at one point.
The hymns and poetry of En-hedu-ana, the first by name known writer in history and also an example of influential and powerful female writers in ancient times. To quote wikipedia: En-hedu-ana (Akkadian: ; 2285 BC - 2250 BC), also known as Enheduana or Enheduanna, meaning "lord or lady ornament of An" or "high priestess ornament of An" (An being "the sky" or "heaven") was an Akkadian princess as well as high priestess of the Moon god Nanna (Sin) in Ur. She was the first known holder of the title, 'En Priestess', a role of great political importance which often was held by royal daughters [1]. She is regarded by literary and historical scholars as the earliest known poet in history [1]. Her untitled, collective religious written works, usually referred to as the Hymns to Inanna, En-hedu-ana's Hymns to Inanna, or simply En-hedu-ana's Hymns are some of the oldest examples of literature in recorded history. The hymns are also the first to use a first person narrative mode.
The Story of an African Farm Manon Lescaut The Three Muskateers Picture of Dorian Gray The Divine Comedy Little Women Turn of the Screw Jane Eyre Pride and Prejudice The Secret Garden Oronoko Agnes de Castro Three Men in a Boat Mayor of Casterbridge Sunset Song Barchester Towers Guy Mannering Plutarch
^ Some of these will take longer than a week I warn you! Unless you're doing nothing else except reading. Anyway, to name but a few: Vanity Fair - Napoleonic Wars, but with the focus on society rather than the wars. Dubliners - collection of short stories with the focus on the every man in Dublin circa 1905. Lolita - scandalous tour de force where the protagonist toys with more than just Lolita. Candide - wry sending up of the then philosophy. The Scarlet Letter - iconic ostracism of an adulteress. Day Of The Triffids - super creepy sci-fi from its golden age. Really, this list could be huge.
That's debatable... I'd recommend Gulliver's Travels, the earliest novel in the English language, and its finest piece of satire.
But again, its place in the history of the novel is debatable...some critics claim it is an early novel, many others claim it merely prefigures the novel. It's length comes very close to disqualifying it, as do several other factors. Gulliver's Travels is generally held to be the first definite novel written in English; there are examples you can point to that are earlier, but they are not really novels in a true sense.
Debatable sure. But if you want to read classics for the historical value and literary qualities its dangerous to define it even more euro- and male -centric then the worlds literature actually have been in history. There is no good reason that the Tales of Genji shouldn't be on its list for the influence it had in history and its qualities.
Since we're talking about old works that may not necessarily be novels, let me throw in BEOWULF. I like Seamus Heaney's translation.
I would actually recommend staying away from the Heaney translation. Poets have a tendency of making phrases sound better when translating. Thus, the original meaning is sometimes lost. While I do recommend Beowulf, I recommend reading it in Howell Chickering's translation because it is considered closer to the original.
Why limit yourself to the Inferno? The Divine Comedy as a whole is a must-read. Also, a few works of classic literature from around the world: Medea, The Trojan Women, and The Bacchae by Euripides The Iliad and Odyssey, as well as The Aeneid and Metamorphosis The Rigveda, Upanishads, and Mahabharata The Republic by Plato The Dao De Jing Well, some of them may not work in a week. The Mahabharata could easily take a year in and of itself, but the selections that aren't epic poetry should be doable.
thankyou for all the suggestions so far! - please keep them coming - been amazed by the response. I have a really good list going and can see that it is going to be hard to choose the 52. Clearly this is a reading plan for the next ten years! well, im not complaining. I like a challenge! There is such a variety of works here so at least i will be reading richly! Keep them coming! and Thank you again!
Forgot until I needed it for another thread Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth it is one of the few of her works her father didn't edit lol
1984 Animal Farm Brave New World Herodotus The King James bible and, if you're feeling brave, The Anatomy of Melancholy
