Classical Suggestions

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purplesilk
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Post by purplesilk »

I just finished Uncle Tom's Cabin for the same reason you posted this discussion. I don't remember any of the classics I read for school and thought it would be a shame not to re-read them.
Seraphy
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Post by Seraphy »

Old Man and Sea
The Bluest Eye
Walden
Invisible Man
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MandyMe
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Post by MandyMe »

I'm very fond of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and Lord Byron. The way the books, plays, and poetry are written is almost lyrical in nature and I appreciate the way the flowery words can hide darker or tawdry undertones.

Some other classics I enjoyed:
The Count of Monte Cristo
Little Women
Huckleberry Finn
Frankenstein
The Illiad
The Odyssey
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Bearsfan
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Post by Bearsfan »

I'll second For Whom The Bell Tolls, what a well told story. It is also not difficult to read because it is not really that old. I recently read Treasure Island for the first time. It was decent, but a much tougher read.
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ralfy
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Post by ralfy »

There are lots to consider. Try, for example, Bloom's canon list.
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DATo
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Post by DATo »

I think it depends on what type of reader you are. By this I mean, if you are an accomplished reader who tends to vet a novel thoroughly with an eye to symbolism, metaphor, motif, etc then any of the classics mentioned above would suffice; but, if you tend to read more superficially then I would recommend authors like Dickens, Steinbeck, or Austin as a good place to start. Even these author's works are deeper than they appear at first glance but I think they are more accessible to the average reader than say, for instance, the Russians (Tolstoy & Dostoyevsky).

To give you an example of what a reader can miss with regard to a novel which could otherwise be read and thoroughly enjoyed superficially I have posted an exegeses of things I found in a Dickens book - link included below. The topic is called Observations: David Copperfield, by Charles DIckens . (May be of interest to those who have already read the novel but it contains spoilers - a warning to those who have not.) forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php ... amp;t=9962
“I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed reading accident. I hit a book mark and flew across the room.”
― Steven Wright
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ralfy
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Post by ralfy »

Also, check out books like The Well-Educated Mind.
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Artistic
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Post by Artistic »

I don't know if this could qualify as a novel but the translation reads like one:
Odysseus.
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shyluh_anne
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Post by shyluh_anne »

I love Fahrenheit 451. But I am a huge Ray Bradbury fan. The Catcher in the Rye is also great.
SheldrakeWriter
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Post by SheldrakeWriter »

I'm not the first and I won't be the last, but can I highly recommend Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment? It's a slightly daunting prospect given its size, but I tore through it in a few weeks once I'd got going and I am by no means a speed-reader. Dostoevsky found a way of meshing philosophy with narrative in a way very few writers have done. Classic status has many criteria, but no writer who has managed that feat is not in the category.
As well as being a finely structured novel (at 600 pages or so its still does not need an editor to go through it with a scythe) it is also a genuinely modern reading experience. We are inside the protagonist's head in a way that we have become familiar with since then, but the novel retains a freshness to that experience which I find hard to match. Given the acts that the protagonist performs over the course of the story, it is a thoroughly engaging investigation of the sinister side of the human condition.
If I have one recommendation for a reading process, it is to dive right in. Twenty pages here and thirty there will make progress wearingly slow. Read it ninety pages at a time or don't read it at all.
Latest Review: "A Newlywed's Adventures in Married Land" by Shweta Ganesh Kumar
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