Classics

[surrey_sucks]

Are there any "classics", either older or modern, that you'd recommend?

Over the past few years I've read a few, and would love to read more. Right now, I'm reading Grapes of Wrath, and surprisingly, I love it! (I read East of Eden a few years ago, and hated it.)

Comments

[abiona_sashenka]

The Great Gatsby is one of the few on the usually 'required reading' lists that I would say a majority of people wind up loving. And Lord of the Flies (although there is a bit more dissent about it than Gatsby). I loved Grapes of Wrath, too, if I remember senior English correctly. :D

[surrey_sucks]

LOL--both those books are books that I tried reading in high school but couldn't finish. But I should try them again--there have been a few books that I didn't like in my youth, but enjoyed a lot more when I re-read them as an adult.

I'm about half-way done with Grapes of Wrath, and I didn't think I'd like it so much!

[echosequence]

I really enjoyed Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. Read it in high school as a required summer reading assignment and STRUGGLED through parts of it, but liked it anyway. Mostly the thematics of the heath and the idea of the "reddleman" were really interesting to me--those bits were well-written. The soap opera was less interesting but the themes made it really cool to me.

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson is damn near impossible but I am so entertained by the story, and the irony that Richardson wrote it so that people would hate Lovelace but they all loved him anyway because who doesn't like a bad boy? The film version has him portrayed by Sean Bean which seems a bit too perfect.

I'm not sure if those are "classics" but they're older works that are pretty canon in British lit for high school/college. I never would have read them if they hadn't made me in school! Haha.

[surrey_sucks]

I haven't yet read a Thomas Hardy book, but I'm thinking about it!

[allbery]

I think the best standard classic that tends to get assigned in school that I've ever read is To Kill a Mockingbird, which is exceptional.

I can also generally recommend anything by Jane Austen.

[surrey_sucks]

Yes, To Kill a Mockingbird is great!

[trek_girl42]

I'm reading "East of Eden" right now (at page 150) and am absolutely loving it! :P

I'll second "Lord of the Flies" and anything by Jane Austen, and add a recommendation for Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'urbervilles" and Elizabeth Gaskill's "North and South".

[surrey_sucks]

I went to the library and borrowed few books, including Lord of the Flies and Tess of the D'urbervilles.

[kiaramoon]

The Count of Monte Cristo, of course. Best adventure story in the history of ever:P

[durgajadisme]

This! I have never been so delightfully surprised by a book that seemed so boring on the outside. Dumas = Best Hack Ever.

[kiaramoon]

Haha for real. Couldn't agree more:)

[surrey_sucks]

Hmm...I will keep that in mind! Thanks!