Must read classics?

[AlmostAPpropriate]

i love books. I do. lately though Ive realized that my book diet is alot lilke my real diet, full of junk food (twilight anyone?) Delicious, absorbing, easy reads.

So, in the interest of really loving great books I want to start reading true liturature...

Where should I start?

[oceane]

are you looking for a specific time period? or what qualifies as classic for you? what I do to get ideas is usually google for American Studies (or British Studies or whatever topic you're interested in) reading lists. that way I see what universities or colleges consider classics and usually those are similar no matter what instituition you have. at least for traditional literature classes.

some books I enjoyed that I consider classics
Bram Stoker: Dracula
Bronte sisters
Lewis Carroll
Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie
Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper ( still want to read Herland)
.....

[oceane]

double post

[Tra1978]

I love a lot of the classics. I re-read Jane Austen frequently. Pride and Prejudice is my favourite but they are all good.

Others I liked:
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas
Jane Eyre - Charolette Bronte

That's all I can think of off the top of my head without going downstairs to the bookcases.

[JERENAUD]

I like the continuity of the system described by the people who wrote the 'classical education' book - they go through history and select a couple of dozen books that they consider pivitol to the development of modern western literature, then discuss how to read and evaluate each book.

If you're more ambitious, there's always lists like this:

http://www.1001bestbooks.com/

Erica

[redhotmama]

Newer classics like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Catcher in the Rye,To Kill a Mockingbird and The Good Earth are what I'm drawn to...

[Thalia the Muse]

If you want to get really systematic about it, there's a list of 1,001 books you must read before you die -- although half the fun of a list like that is quibbling with it, and I personally think there's plenty on there I'd rather die than read (well, you know what I mean).

My own list of absolute must-read classics would only include books that are both "important" and also really enjoyable to read:

Don Quixote
The Iliad and the Odyssey
Some representative Shakespeare, although those are often more fun to watch than to read if you have access to good performances
Emma
Persuasion
Vanity Fair
Middlemarch
Gulliver's Travels
Tom Jones
The REd and the Black
Madame Bovary
Anna Karenina (I'm sure War and Peace is terrific, but haven't read it ...)
Crime and Punishment
Bleak House
David Copperfield
A Christmas Carol
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Dracula
At least a few of the Sherlock Holmes stories
The Age of Innocence
The Custom of the Country
Portrait of a Lady
Mrs. Dalloway
Huck Finn
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
A Child's Christmas in Wales
Claudine at School
The Sheltering Sky
The Leopard/Il Gattopardo
Invisible Cities
Out of Africa
As I Lay Dying
The Optimist's Daughter
A Delta Wedding
Gone with the Wind is worth reading because it's A) good trashy fun and B) a useful historical artifact. But it's extremely racist (one of the things that makes it a useful historical artifact), so proceed with caution if you're likely to be offended
To Kill a Mockingbird
In Cold Blood
A Death in the Family
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The Big Sleep
Franny and Zooey
The Invisible Man
Couples
American Pastoral
Atonement
The Confessions of Nat Turner
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Hamilton Stark
Nights at the Circus
Wise Children
Tripmaster Monkey
You Bright and Risen Angels (very weird, not everyone's cup of tea)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
A Wild Sheep Chase
Catch 22
Slaughterhouse 5
Possession
The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Klay
The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters

I cannot recommend On the Road, Catcher in the Rye, Tropic of Cancer, The Naked and the Dead, and many other Important Books because I didn't like them.

[Lit Chick]

My MUST list, just a few:
Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin (perhaps the most odd and beautiful book I've ever read).
Lady Chatterly's Lover - DH Lawrence
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (narly everything by her actually)
The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
Les Liaisons dangereuses - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Pere Goriot - Balzac
The Age of Innocence - Edith Whatron
Little, Big - John Crowley

I have a million others (see user name, I love books) but that's my tiny starter list. They are delicious books.

[the_lissa]

I will have to try Portrait of a Lady again. I tried and tried to read it in university and high school, and never could.

[Lit Chick]

James was kind of a jerk irl, but Portrait has some of the most wonderful quotes ever.
"Living as he now lived was like reading a good book in a poor translation". Love it!

[Thalia the Muse]

omigosh, hardly anybody seems to have read Little, Big! I read that a couple of years ago, and loved it.

I forgot Angle of Repose and Howard's End and a ton of others on my list. The French Lieutenant's Woman is another must-read, especially if you read a few real Victorians right beforehand. Also, The Master and Margarita.

Henry James does not appeal to everybody, but I think Portrait is worth strugglng through.

[Lit Chick]

Ah, for another modern classic, Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card. I have major issues with OSC's larger body of work, but Ender's Game is excellent.
Ooooh, and House of Leaves for experimental lit (listen to Poe's Haunted CD while reading)
Watchmen and Maus for classic grapic novels.
Gormeghast by Mervin Peake. One of my all-time favorites.
Bellefleur - Joyce Carol Oates. Parts are a little dizzying, but as a whole it is a wonderful family saga, very strange.
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy. It is stark and depressing, but amazing as well. Such brutal prose.
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly. Classic with a capital C. Fantatic book.
Carmilla - J.S.LeFanu - one of Stoker's inspirations for Dracula.

ETA - YES on Attonement. For some reason the movie made me zzzz, but the book (read long before the film) grabbed me and would not let me go.

More to come.

[Tra1978]

I also liked Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

I didn't see The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne listed yet but that is also one of my favs.

For modern classics I also liked Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

[holyhelianthus]

Haven't read through everyone's list but here is mine (though I'm sure I will forget a bunch and have to come back)...


The Edible Woman
The Handmaid's Tale (both by Margaret Atwood and you just really can't go wrong with her)
The Reader (This is actually quite new but so so so good!)
Like Water for Chocolate (again new but so so so so so so so good! )
East of Eden
Of Mice and Men
Catcher In The Rye
The Bell Jar
Fahrenheit 451
The Martian Chronicles
1984
Animal Farm
Wicked (again very new but a lot deeper then you'd think)
Tale of Two Cities
Madam Bovary
Lady Chatterley's Lover


I'll leave it at that for now. I know I took some license with "classic" but we can all use some variety, right?

[holyhelianthus]

How in the world could I forget The Lord of the Rings?

ETA- All Quite on the Western Front
A Room With A View

Thought of another...
The Picture of Dorian Grey

3rd edit to add- Toni Morrison's Beloved. It's a rough book but I think an important one.

[fivi2]

Originally Posted by AlmostAPpropriate

i love books. I do. lately though Ive realized that my book diet is alot lilke my real diet, full of junk food (twilight anyone?) Delicious, absorbing, easy reads.

So, in the interest of really loving great books I want to start reading true liturature...

Where should I start?

I could have written your post! Here is what I do - I look at those lists that you can find (books everyone "needs" to read) etc. Every time I go to the library, I find one classic to check out. I also usually get a "classic" in another genre - a classic science fiction, or mystery, or whatever (or a non-fiction - just something outside of my usual). The rest of the books I get whatever I want.

However - I do not force myself to read something just because it is a classic. I give it a try. If I cannot get into it, I return it to the library. Maybe I'll try again later in life, maybe I won't. There is nothing wrong with reading books you like!

[Carrotsoup76]

How's about

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
and for children
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
and
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

[katmann]

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Native Son by Richard Wright

Newer classics (at least for me)
The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

[Lit Chick]

Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

YES! Those are wonderful. He needs to write more, NOW.

[Daffodil]

I think these are some of the least likely to be found boring (not too long, interesting plots):

Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
The Mill on the Floss
Frannie and Zooey
anything by Mark Helprin
anything by Ursula K. LeGuin

I wanted to include A Tale of Two Cities, too, but I haven't read it since I was in high school, so I'm not sure what I would think of it now.