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Must read classics

Three of My all time favorite Classics:

Bram Stokers' Dracula- thrilling and written in the most clever format

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-extremely funny, and not just for small children

Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray- not sure why but so captivating and interesting.
 
I agree with a lot of the suggestions made so far...
(you've got to know your Bible for reference, anyhow)
Here are some authors I think shouldn't be missed:
Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Wilde, Conrad, Wharton, Joyce, Faulkner, Nabokov, Borges...
 
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.
I would consider it an amazing classical piece of writting.
 
Mattyj said:
ilusyonada and AquaBlue said:
the books of steinbeck
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I must agree
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Why?

Why would someone reading this thread rush out and buy one of Steinbeck's novels based on these comments?

Tiffany said:
Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Wilde, Conrad, Wharton, Joyce, Faulkner, Nabokov, Borges...
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Why? Any in particular?
 
AquaBlue said:
You can go wrong with Steinbeck that's why.
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My only experience with Steinbeck was a boring one and I won't be revisting anytime soon. I really disliked Of Mice and Men. I thought it was a dull topic to write about and I couldn't get into it. 2 poor workers travel around the south during the depression in search of farming jobs with annoying dialect? No thanks.
 
My only experience with Steinbeck was a boring one and I won't be revisting anytime soon. I really disliked Of Mice and Men. I thought it was a dull topic to write about and I couldn't get into it. 2 poor workers travel around the south during the depression in search of farming jobs with annoying dialect? No thanks.
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Sorry to hear that Jackel003. I would say to give him another try. You might like him a second time around.
 
AquaBlue said:
Sorry to hear that Jackel003. I would say to give him another try. You might like him a second time around.
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I've heard good things about Grapes Of Wrath. I may give that a shot.
 
William Somerset Maugham's sellection: -- Ten Novels and Their Authors

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal
Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
War and Peace by Tolstoy.

* * * * * * * * * *

I've only read six of the above, and now working on one.
 
If you're thinking of giving Steinbeck a try, you might like The Red Pony, as its short and doesn't have as much of the awkward slang in it.

And yes...I did forget to mention Shakespeare...the Master, as I think of him. He is oft quoted and imitated...but never out-bested!
 
Violanthe said:
Among more recent "classics" I found Solzhenitsyn's Ivan Denisovich to be particularly intriguing. It was one of the books I was required to read for school, but surprised me that I actually ended up liking it.
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just wanted to mention that in another post about which book people must read i had put Alexander Dolgun - An American in the Gulag and wanted to let you know that Solzhenitsyn actually interviewed Dolgun and used some of his stories from the gulag in the book about Denisovich. That character is an imalgum of sorts of various people who Solzhenitsyn interviewed who had also survived the Gulag (as they got together often and kind of helped each other deal with it I guess). great book. short and easy to read.

I would go with anything by Austen, Bronte sisters, Steinbeck, a few Hemingway and Poe (not all) and can't think to list them right now, To Kill a Mockingbirg, Shakespeare, and on and on and on. I agree with a lot of what has been posted, with the exception of Dan Brown :( - blech

Here is a great link for looking at books. There is one section for 1000 great books for classical learning (and it goes from elementary to high school or in classical education it would be from grammar to rhetoric) and there is another section for 100 great books and it is divided by different genre. http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html I use this a lot with homeschooling my girls. Awesome list!
 
don't just go by age (on the site i listed above), though, as many books are listed for advanced readers, as many classical educators use a rigorous approach to learning through literature
 
Im am very satisified to see how much To kill a mocking bird has been recomended. It really is superb. I think first I recommend a bit of Tess of the Durbivills by Thomas Hardy as he hasnt had a mention yet although steer well clear of Return of the native as it is a bit stodgy and pointless, like wading through poridge. Then Id recomend the following authors who are my favourite:
Jane austin- read everything by here.
Charlotte Bronte: Read Jane eyer the other bronte sisters are good but this is the best.
George Orwell: obviously animal farm and Nineteen-eighty-four but 'Down and out in Paris and London' is a lovely little interesting book.
Leo Tolstoy: So far war and peace and Anna Karenina are all that I may recomend from my own experice but Im loving them so much I dont want to stop until I've read everything by him.

What I would advice is look through these suggestions people have made, get synopsis and choose something that seems interesting. I guarentee if you start with something good picking the next 'classic' to read beacomes an easy and natural process.:)

And one more thing..... The divinci code is NOT a classic
 
Jackel003 said:
My only experience with Steinbeck was a boring one and I won't be revisting anytime soon. I really disliked Of Mice and Men. I thought it was a dull topic to write about and I couldn't get into it. 2 poor workers travel around the south during the depression in search of farming jobs with annoying dialect? No thanks.
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I've never understood why education systems the world over have decided to force Of Mice and Men upon an entire generation. (It's not a terrible book), but:
1) At the time of its publishing it wasn't granted many good reviews
2) IT WAS AN EXPERIMENTAL NOVEL - it was an experiment by S. in trying to create a style of novel that could be directly transformed into a play. In this regard (See, S.'s America and Americans) it was a failure.
3) It's still not that good

So many people I know don't give S. another chance after reading oM&M. Instead, people should read either his brilliant (and nobel prize worthy) epics Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. Or, if you wanna go with something shorter, even his Cannery Row is a great read.
 
thanks for seconding (or thirding) that davinci code isn't a classic. blech.

and i forgot about tess of the d'urbervilles. it was required reading in school, but i liked it.
 
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