Literature Classics Everyone Should Read

[Arduinna]

Help me out here, I've neglected the genre for many years.

Right now I'm reading Dracula. Wuthering Heights is next on my list.

[A&A]

The Grapes of Wrath

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Great Gatsby

Lord of the Flies

Their Eyes Were Watching God

The Crucible

Death of a Salesman

A Streetcar Named Desire

[Viola]

I'm reading The Mill on the Floss right now. I was supposed to read it for a literature class, but I never got very far in.

[Oriole]

Originally Posted by Arduinna

Help me out here, I've neglected the genre for many years.

Right now I'm reading Dracula. Wuthering Heights is next on my list.

Loved Dracula, couldn't get through ten pages of WH...

Here is my mixture of favorite titles and authors:

• Jane Eyer is on top of my list though.
• Alexander Duma is as well.
• Jules Verne is an incredible writer, so much ahead of his time in so many ways.
• I'd assume that Romeo and Juliette is a timeless classic that everyone should know.
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Uncle Tom's Cabin are my favorites from childhood.
• I also loved War and Peace in my teenage years.
• Edgar Alan Poe is a biggie, even if you are not into black cats, and scary houses.
• I also would think one should read The Odyssey at some point.
• Sherlock Holmes (!) by Conan Doyle
• Jack London (too much good stuff to mention, but at least something!
• Robinson Crusoe

[KaraBoo]

ooooo I love Dracula. I love the literary device of using diff. characters' journals to move the story forward. That was used by my favorite author: Wilke Collins. He rocks!

As for books you "should" read...I don't think there are any. I know, I know. That's cheating.

why not just do a google search for the exact words in your title? I'm sure some huge list will pop up.

[FREEmom1120]

I'm a big fan of The Scarlet Letter

[emmalyne]

second Jane Eyer (sp?) and I love most Jane Austin

[sojourn]

Things you JUST HAVE TO:

all steinbeck
hemmingway
faulkner

(yes, I probably did do a disservice and spell them wrong, but just imagine a chick who saw too many shows trying to talk rightly on the salient points of this stuff......not gonna werk.......).

and then you'll do vonegut and anne rand and back to titles, farenheit 451 and some orwell and then we must do pride and prejudice and Roots and...I'll keep flipping authors and titles b/c that is how I think...you gotta do odyssey and iliad (BOTH!), you gotta do all that catcher in the rye and what was the one always caught up on time (they had fab clothes?? escapes me now...) ......well, anyway, do one flew over the cuckoo's nest and I already said Kurt V so you'll get clockwork and breakfast and then there are so many more....lemme just think out loud more......THE Great Gatsby!!! that was fashion and time......and To Kill a Mockingbird rules and there is more. wait for it, wait....

[sojourn]

Here we go, some more.......once you "warm up" on some of those guys and get used to high writing and difficult lit, then please DO try out some Finnegan's Wake or anything by James Joyce. It is soooooo hard to read but Sooooo worth it IF you can finish it. shit is tough. hard core. It is just hard to read, plain and simple. good luck. I've got more. lemme think more.....

[sojourn]

Just one last one that was already lumped, but I'd like to give it distinction: As I Lay Dying. Man, that was a tight book. It is Faulkner and each chapter and part is done by each person, in their own person (so you see it thru their eyes). That it one of my all time fave books, not for drama or visuals or whatever you might expect in this day and age. I read it and reported before I tackled Joyce. It is a good starter for him and his style. The book itself, IMO, is simply brilliant. I just loved how it changed from each pov by each person. For such simple context. That is brilliant writing, imo.

[sojourn]

I'm just geekin out, now, but back to AR-Atlas Shrugged. Make sure you try it out, at least. Give it a whirl. You really pretty-much have to, all of you. I have more........I grew up in the country so I read a LOT as a youth......uhhhmmmm, did we mention the tom sawyer and huckleberry finn books? do those. uhhhh robinson crusoe.

You know, I hate to admit it b/c of poplularity, but I did do a LOT of C.S. Lewis as a kid. As soon as you search titles, you'll know my hesitation to mention, and also, I also did all the tolkeins and gosh, I actually did War and Peace. I wouldn't recommend that any sooner than I'd rec Hanto Yo. and no, I can't speak Souix.

[bjorker]

Some of these have been said, but this is the first to come to my mind:

- The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Okay that's enough for now.

[bjorker]

Sojourn, you crack me up. Good recs though. A definite !!!YES!!! on the Vonnegut.

[That Is Nice]

Oh, oh, oh! Great thread! I'm going to have a hard time choosing, but here are my choices:

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Great Gatsby

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Little Women

Of Mice and Men

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

The Scarlett Letter

Walden

The Catcher in the Rye

Roots

Romeo and Juliet

Hamlet

Canterbury Tales

Any John Steinbeck

Silent Spring

I'm sure there are more, but I can't come up with them right now.

[That Is Nice]

Originally Posted by bjorker

- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

[fek&fuzz]

Jane Eyre, again and again and again.

The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Filled with .

The Children by Edith Wharton.

[Tradd]

Love anything by Austen or Shakespeare (especially his sonnets). Most of Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. HATE Wuthering Heights, love Jane Eyre (recently read this). Reading Sense & Sensibility again for the umpeenth time.

EM Forster - A Room with a View is lovely - book AND movie!

I'm getting into poetry again, both American and British.

Want a HARD read - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Read it a few years back.

Little Women

The King James Bible - if you want poetry, check out the Psalms.

[Daffodil]

Some that I've enjoyed:

Jane Eyre
Villette
Wuthering Heights
Les Miserables
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
David Copperfield
The Mill on the Floss
The Magic Mountain
The Confessions of St. Augustine

And some kids' books you should make sure you've read:

The Jungle Book
Peter Pan
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Winnie-the-Pooh
The House at Pooh Corner

[Ruthla]

DD and I are working our way through a whole bunch of "children's classics" that I never read in my own childhood.

Maybe then we'll start working on "adult classics"- she's quite capable in terms of reading ability.

[Arduinna]

Great lists!

I'm taking advantage of free books on feedbooks.com that work on my Kindle. I have Jane Eyre, Northhanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice and Emma so far.

Thanks for the reminder on Edith Wharton, I loved The Age of Innocence and I've added Glimpses of the Moon for now!

Poe, my only real experience with Poe is dh reading the kids stories at DDs Halloween parties over the years. But I was always busy setting out the food or cleaning up to be able to listen. He intimidates me.

Has anyone read anything by Balzac?