1. amateurvoice

    amateurvoice New Member

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    What classic novels would you recommend?

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by amateurvoice, Feb 7, 2011.

    Trolling through my bookshelf today, I realized it is overflowing with fantasy, fiction, and young adult novels. I would like to broaden my literature background and steer away from what I usually read. The only actual classic I've read is Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, and I absolutely loved it. It ranks as one of my favorites to this day, but what other classic novels do you all recommend and which ones to hold off on for now? Thank you.
     
  2. k.little90

    k.little90 Active Member

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    Whuthering Heights! Its one of my favorite books and I absolutely love it!

    Also, as weird as this sounds, Frankenstein. It's well written and the story behind how the author came up with it is fascinating.

    The Great Gatsby

    Lord of the Flies (Awesome, although a little creepy!)

    Drat... that's all I can come up with right now. If I think of anymore later, i will let you know :D
     
  3. amateurvoice

    amateurvoice New Member

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    I've been wanting to read Whurthering Heights for a long while now, but I just didn't because it only become recently popular (again) because of all the mentioning of in it Twilight, and that just ticked me off a lot.

    Actually, I hate to say it but Frankenstein would actually give me nightmares I think. I know that's really pathetic (stop looking at me like that).
     
  4. abbigailrosewood

    abbigailrosewood New Member

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    I definitely second Wuthering Heights as well!
    Also, Monk by Matthew Lewis, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and The Vagabond by Colette.
     
  5. abbigailrosewood

    abbigailrosewood New Member

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    Twilight is NOTHING compared to Wuthering Heights. It's such a joke that they even attempt to market it that way.
     
  6. k.little90

    k.little90 Active Member

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    I forgot that it was mentioned in Twilight..... and yeah, nothing compared. Wuthering Heights is amazing and very well written, where Twilight is just a fad (sorry, but true....)
     
  7. Unit7

    Unit7 Contributor Contributor

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    The only classic I can think that I have actually read is To Kill A Mockingbird. Wait is that a classic? Hell I am not even sure what defines a classic!

    But either way its a great read.
     
  8. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    Personally don't like Wuthering Heights, anyway here are the ones I love.

    Plutarch Paralell Lives
    Aphra Behn Oronoko
    Louisa May Alcott Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, and Jo's Boys
    Olive Schrivner Tales of an African Farm
    Wilkie Collins Antonina, The Moonstone
    Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice
    Catherine Maria Sedgwick Hope Leslie
    Maria Edgworth Castle Rackrent
    Walter Scott Heart of Midlothian
    Lewis Grassic Gibbon Sunset Song
    Anne Bronte Agnes Grey
    Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre, Villette
    George Orwell Animal Farm
    George Bernard Shaw Saint Joan
    Chaucer Canterbury Tales
    Shakespeare Henry IV (much easier to read than most Shakespeare plays and so funny in places)
    Henry James The Ambassadors
    Agatha Christie Nemesis and Hound of Death
    CS Lewis Screwtape Letter, Perelandra
    Thomas Hughes Tom Brown's Schooldays
    Charles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit
    Thomas Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles (this one is car crash though - its his usual depressing fair but so depressing I needed to know the end)
    Anthony Trollope Barchester Towers
    Arthur Conan Doyle Hound of the Baskervilles
    Victor Hugo Les Miserables
    Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca
    Mark Twain Tom Sawyer, Prince and the Pauper

    I could go on lol
     
  9. arron89

    arron89 Banned

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    Gulliver's Travels. Still the finest piece of satire in the English language.
     
  10. amateurvoice

    amateurvoice New Member

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    Wow, you're very well read. I'm impressed with your list. Thank you for your suggestions! :)
     
  11. Ellipse

    Ellipse Contributor Contributor

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    I have to suggest Lovecraft's stories because they are worth reading at least one.

    And Robert E. Howard, the original creator of Conan the Barbarian. His Conan is much more charismatic, intelligent, and cunning than the movie version. A very good anti-hero.
     
  12. guamyankee

    guamyankee Active Member

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    East of Eden - John Steinbeck
    Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
     
  13. Alter-Ego

    Alter-Ego Active Member

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    Ayn Rand. Fountainhead. She writes amazing descriptions, even though the story can be a bit Mills and Boon.

    Herman Melville. Moby Dick. Don't laugh it's truly a classic and great writing.

    Jack Kerouac. On the Road. A watershed book, that changed the way people thought a book should be written.

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment. Can be really hard going, but incredibly descriptive. The Russian classics have a way of really putting you in the scene.

    Mark Twain Roughing It, and The Innocents Abroad. I love the humor of Twain in these travel books.

    Those are a few that come to mind, and with the others listed I think you have enough to keep you busy for a while.
     
  14. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls
    Hemingway's collected short stories
    John Steinbeck, East of Eden and Of Mice And Men
    Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness and his short stories
    Rudyard Kipling, Kim and The Jungle Books
     
  15. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    If you ever want more lol let me know :) I don't read as much as I used to.
     
  16. geeksheikhomie

    geeksheikhomie New Member

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    The Great Gatsby, a classic and my all-time favorite book.

    To Kill a Mockingbird, the great American novel, bar none.

    Dracula lol, is pretty fun.

    And as for Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice and The Twelfth Night are fun to read.
     
  17. yellowm&M

    yellowm&M Contributor Contributor

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    I might be repeating a couple so if I am I'm sorry about that

    Little Women-Louisa May Alcott, it's been one of my favorites for years

    Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen, another favorite of mine

    The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald, sad but really good

    The Catcher in the Rye-J. D. Salinger

    Cry the Beloved Country-Alan Paton, the writing style for this one is really weird, but once you get into it the story is really interesting and good

    The Scarlet Letter-Nathaniel Hawthore, a dark but very captivating read

    Their Eyes Were Watching God-Zora Neale Hurston, this one I read this summer and it was absolutely fantastic.

    oh and anything by Shakespear really. Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Nights Dream are all very good.

    That's all I can think of for now...
     
  18. TWErvin2

    TWErvin2 Contributor Contributor

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    Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Short but a great story.
     
  19. Jaded Mist

    Jaded Mist New Member

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    Glanced through and I didn't see any suggestions for these...

    Just about anything Charles Dickens. "Our Mutual Friend" is quite good, as is "Oliver Twist", "Great Expectations" (that one I did see a recommendation for), "Little Dorrit", and "Bleak House".

    If you're in the mood for Romance, some of Jane Austen's stuff is enjoyable. "Sense and Sensibility" and "Persuasion" being the main two to stand out there.

    "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkein. "The Hobbit" is enjoyable also.

    Most of "The Narnia Chronicles" by C.S. Lewis are a pleasant read also.

    ~JM
     
  20. Dandroid

    Dandroid New Member

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    Anna Karenina,
    a Hero for our Time,
    Midnight's Children,
    100 years of Solitude,
    Sirens of Titan,
    Vanity Fair.
     
  21. Terry D

    Terry D Active Member

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    The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- Robert Louis Stevenson
    The War of the Worlds -- H.G. Wells
    A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess
    The Stand -- Stephen King
    The Godfather -- Mario Puzo
    The Legend of Hell House -- Richard Matheson
     
  22. ~BORNtoWRITE~

    ~BORNtoWRITE~ New Member

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    I fell absolutely in love with To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee is brilliant. Also, Little Women is a very easy book to read, and Alcott writes very simply but beautifully. Although hard to read and LONG, Orwell's 1984 is such a good book if you push through till the end. I think that the Chronicles of Narnia were my favorite childhood books, and I still catch myself picking up one of the 7 books every once and awhile. C.S. Lewis is so captivating, he is truly amazing and one of my favorite authors. You haven't lived until you have experienced Gone With the Wind. Those are my fave's, but another interesting book is Of Mice and Men, although tragic, it makes you think, which is always good. Hope I helped! :)
     

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