Let's talk classic lit! - Page 2

[mammastar2]

Hm, what classics would I like to re-read?

Any Jane Austen.

Wuthering Heights.

Jane Eyre.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

Hard Times by Dickens.

Crime and Punishment - I didn't like it much in high school, but I'd like to re-visit it.

Madame Bovary - loved it!!

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane - didn't love it quite as much as MB, but also good if you want to make 19th century adultery into a theme

Vanity Fair by Thackeray - one of my favourites

The Great Gatsby

I also recently read A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh and it was amazing. From where it starts in tone to where it ends up is completely unexpected.

[annethcz]

I really enjoy Jane Austen novels, I've read most of them many times. It's like 19th century chick-lit.

I recently read Grapes of Wrath and really enjoyed it. It's amazing how much has changed in the last 80 years...

Currently I'm working on novels by Edith Wharton. I finished Age of Innocence yesterday. I adored it. Although some of the cultural references were completely lost on me, I enjoyed the story. I was moved by the descriptive imagry. Next up is Ethan Frome.

[karen ann]

I just got done rereading Decameron. First read it in college for medieval lit in translation. This time I read it all the way through rather than skipping right to the smutty stories as the professor had us do (way to get the class interested I suppose).

A few months ago I reread Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. That's another one from college, I think it was from the weird hybrid women's studies/history/sociology course on "Lizzie Borden and the Cult of True Womanhood" but I'm not sure.

I have reread all of Ian Fleming multiple times. Same with Philip K. Dick.

I do like Edith Wharton's books. I can't really get into Dickens, the Bronte sisters, or Austen... I like their *stories* but I can't wade through their *prose*. I loathe Hemingway.

[AnnaLaughs]

Kangamitroo: Oh, NO! Don't read Tess! Don't do it! I read that several months ago, not realizing how horribly depressing and totally infuriating it would be.[/QUOTE]



I love Hardy but he is terribly depressing! DH still hasn't forgiven me for Jude the Obscure. He said since I had read it before I should have warned him.

Other favorites:
The Mill on the Floss by George Elliott
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel by George Meredith
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

[rainbowmoon]

Widow for One Year by John Irving is another good one.

and of course The World According to Garp

[AnnaLaughs]

Originally Posted by Daffodil

Wuthering Heights didn't make a big impression on me when I first read it as a teenager, but I really liked it when I read it as an adult. For everyone who liked Jane Eyre, I recommend Villette, if you haven't read it. I liked Catcher in the Rye, but I liked Franny and Zooey (and everything else by Salinger) more. I really enjoyed Les Miserables, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, too (except for the boring parts, one of which unfortunately is the start of the book), although Hunchback is a lot more depressing.

I don't know if all of these count as classics, but some others I've enjoyed are:
The Mill on the Floss
The Magic Mountain
Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty (one of my all-time favorites)

Ohhhhh, I LOVED Villette. I think it's time to reread that one.

[Hoopin' Mama]

I am almost finished with My Antonia by Willa Cather. I'm happy I finally read Willa Cather, but probably won't again.

I am enjoying it though....it's so innocent thus far.