Hi fellow bookworms!

I'd love to know what your favourite classics are (and why you like them so much). I'm on a classic reading spree . I dont even know why. Suddenly I'm totally hooked on to reading them...

So anyway, I really want to know what classic to read next.

Thanks!

By using the term "classic," I assume you're referring to works that fit the "literature" genre. In that case, I have several recommendations:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: 19th century British literature at its best; a story about a poor governess who falls in love with her eccentric employer, Mr. Rochester

Middlemarch by George Eliot: A 19th-century look into the complications of British marriages and relationships (I wrote my bachelor's honors thesis on this novel.)

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding: A sharp and witty 18th century British novel about that raucous rascal, Tom Jones, and his escapades

The Dead by James Joyce: A novella that examines turn-of-the-20th-century Irish society (my favorite Joyce work)

Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert: A 19th century Frenchman's look into marriage, one woman's expectations, and her ultimate demise

To Kill a Mockingbird: A modern American classic published in 1960 that examines racism, prejudice, and integrity from a child's perspective

I can give you more recommendations as well. Just let me know what periods of literature you are most interested in. (Although, as you can see, I am partial to 19th and 20th century British literature.)

Pride and Prejudice byJane Austen. Publishes in 1813. Here's what the blurb on my book describes it as:

"...the story centers around the charming Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters whose family circumstance dictates that they marry well, and it concerns the misunderstandings that result - sometimes hilariously - from hasty judgements..."

I also recommend To Kill a Mockingbird

I've read Pride and Prejudce. it is SO good. I loved it!

By classic I mean the books that have survived the ages and have become timeless (yes, I know, i sound like a very academic person, which I'm not, really).

Thanks for the suggestions.

Any more?

Would Tom Sawyer or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn fit in?

I second Huckleberry Finn. Also, you could try some Alexandre Dumas, author of the Three Musketeers and the Count of Monte Cristo. They are fun adventure stories (which for me is part of the value of classics- how entertaining they are).

I'd recommend "The Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger and "Wuthering Heights" by Bronte. Both are wonderful books.

How about Great Expectations by Charles Dickens? I really liked this book. It took me forever to read though. Or maybe if you like the more romantic ones i would second Jane Eyre and Sense and Sensibilty.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by A. Conan Doyle. I've read and re-read this stuff for years. It's just great writing and great stories, plain and simple.

Hi !

I love Charles Dickens!!!

Planning on reading Wuthering Heights soon.

Thanks for suggesting. I'll be sure to read ALL of them.

---Debi.

PS= More more more!!!

I like:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Hard Times by Charles Dickins

and I'm not sure if this one counts as a classic, but Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is one of my favourite books.

I recently read Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights for the first time, and it left me deeply impressed. So this is my new fevorite classic, if you like.
Other classics I liked in particular were Great Expectations (Charles Dickens), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins) and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Barnett, one of my favorite children's books of all time.
I'm sure I forgot some here, but these are the ones that immediately came to my mind. I strongly recommend all of them (or at least the first four ones) to anyone who likes beautiful writing combined with an intriguing story that sometimes makes you shiver. Or cry.

Hmmm...what a difficult question!
I second To Kill A Mockingbird and would like to introduce a new title to the list: *drumroll please...* The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Absolutely timeless.

I'd vote for "The Chosen".

I second the motion. 'The Chosen' was one of the few books that actually sent chills down my spine. I read it from cover to cover without putting it down once.

Never heard of "The Chosen" tell me more.

Classic Humour could be any of PG Wodehouse's over 100 books. They're all hilarious. I can second Pride and Prejudice, and would also like to suggest a not so famous Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son.

"The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" by Homer are some of the best I have ever read. I am only in the middle of a direct translation from "The Iliad", but I know the story and I really recomend them to anyone who likes that type of story. However, a direct translation can be very difficult to understand.

"Wuthering Heights" is my all time favourite novel; anything by Jane Austen or George Eliot is worth reading. Thomas Hardy's novels are superb too, not light cheery reading by any standards but worthy of anyone's time.

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath offers an amazing look into how economic despair can destroy the core of a family. It is also a chronicle of the very real migration of thousands of Oklahoma and Arkansas families to California.
That mass exodus affects life in Southern California to this day -I know of many Los Angeles folks whose parents moved away from those states, back during the dust bowl.

An even gloomier tale [ but an enthralling one ] of a large family in emotional tatters is the famed Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky.

It has betrayal, jealousy, romance and felony all in one sitting. This is a wonderful book - although rather ponderous to read.

Either "Pride and Prejudice" or "To Kill a Mockingbird". I also really liked "All the Kings Men" and "Fahrenheit 451" when I was forced to read them.

My favorite classics are A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations & A Christmas Carol by Dickens, The Three Musketeers & The Count Of Monte Cristo by Dumas, Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Crime & Punishment by Dostoyevsky, Murders in the Rue Morgue & The Tell-Tale Heart by Poe.

It has to be "Wuthering Heights", closely contested by "To kill a mockingbird" as a modern classic. I am pleased to see that others love them too.

Scottie

Doing a quick scan of several posters favorites, I noticed 'To Kill A Mockingbird' mentioned at least four times. Really amazing! That book was my immediate thought as I saw the thread topic, possibly because I recently re-read it, but also because it's deservedly on my top twenty list of all novels. With respect to American literature, I rank Harper Lee in my top ten (along with Steinbeck, Hemingway, Twain, London, Faulkner). Any of these author's works--Lee's only work was '...Mockingbird'--are priceless references for American culture and history.