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Recommend a Classic

boooeee

Dart Fener
boooeee
Joined
Aug 14, 2002
Messages
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So, I have some free time coming up because I'm switching jobs (yay) and I was wanting to find a good book to relax with. I've decided that I want to read a "classic" of lierature, and was hoping to get recommendations from the forum.

My arbitrary requirement is that it needs to have been written prior to 1900.

I read the Count of Monte Cristo last year (all 1400 pages). Definitely one of my favorite books (especially the first third or so at the Chateau D'If; the last third could have been tightened up a bit).

So, which of the "classics" actually deserves its reputation?
 
Huckleberry Finn.

Heart of Darkness makes your cut too. (1899)
 
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In my experience, most--not all--classics really DO deserve their reputation. If you want a classic that's funny, you can't go wrong with "The Pickwick Papers" or "Three Men in a Boat" (possibly the funniest book ever written).
 
Skeptic said:
In my experience, most--not all--classics really DO deserve their reputation. If you want a classic that's funny, you can't go wrong with "The Pickwick Papers" or "Three Men in a Boat" (possibly the funniest book ever written).
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Skeptic - You have me intrigued. I had never heard of "Three Men in a Boat", nor its author, Jerome K. Jerome.

Kullervo - I had considered Twain. I've read many of his essays (Letters From the Earth is great), but never a full novel. We were assigned Huck Finn in high school, but I don't think I finished it.
 
Most anything by Shakespeare - read it first, then find a good film adaptation to see what they do with the text.

Personal favourites are King Lear, Titus Andronicus (the film from about five years ago was fantastic!), Twelfth Night, and Henry V.
 
Anything by Jules Verne---but especially some of his lesser known works such as The Mysterious Island or Michael Strogoff.

You also might want to reconsider your 1900 cutoff---over the past few years I have been reading or rereading some of the novels on the Modern Library's top 100 novels of the 20th century. Some are outstanding (also some are terrible, but each to his own). Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html
 
The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite novel :)

For starters, I recommend The Moon and Sixpence, Lord of the Flies, The Old Man and the Sea, The Once and Future King (in fact, that's a must-read), and Tono Bungay.

Oh, and I second Pickwick Papers.
 
Dante's Divine Comedy. The Dorothy Sayers translation, if you can get it.
 
Also, Beowulf, the Seamus Heaney translation. Does that count? It was written well before 1900 but translated well after.:D
 
"Pride and Prejudice"; "Bleak House"; "Vanity Fair"; "The Brothers Karamazov"; "Don Quixote"; "Huckleberry Finn"; "Moby-Dick"; "Middlemarch."
With the exception of Cervantes, they all are 19th Century. (not by design)
 
Wuthering Heights

Anything by Jane Austen, especially Emma

Alice in Wonderland (bet you didn't see that coming ;) )
 
3 men in a boat had me laughing out loud. It has a Jeeves and Wooster feel. I additionaly liked it because I used live near the Thames in Berkshire so I knew a lot of the places mentioned. The Bells of Ousley is no longer a pub but a Harvester restaurant.
It has a sequel 3 men on the Bummel.

I liked Moby Dick by Herman Melville. A fascinating insight on an industry and way of life now disappeared. It starts with one of the best opening sentences ever: "Call me Ishmael".
 
I'd nominate "Da Vinci Code"

... 'cept it wasn't before 1900

... and it's not all that good
 
I watched the film on DVD 2 nights ago. Worse than the book. Which is saying something.
 
For a classic that was considered a classic eighty years ago, but is all but forgotten today, try Hudson's Green Mansions. Very dreamy feel to it. Sheridan LeFanu is pretty entertaining, if you like horror stories. Poe is worth reading beyond the three stories and two poems you get in high school--how many people remember the funny ones?

And if you'll relax the 1900 rule, there are some truly excellent authors who are currently somewhat neglected, like Jan de Hartog. MR James remains the greatest ghost story writer ever. GK Chesterton's Father Brown stories for the best mysteries. And the writer who wins my Monkey Seal of Approval for being the greatest American writer to date is Pearl Buck. Yes, that Pearl Buck. Only not that horrible The Good Earth. Even the Nobel committee made it clear that the prize was in spite of that book. Her best works are Mandala and Pavilion of Women.

eta: I forgot Lord Dunsany! Read him! If you can find him. It's not easy.
 
wait, there's a 1900 rule???

I didn't take any notice of that.

*re-reads the OP*

Oh, yeah. Well, some of my recommendations still qualify :P
 
the Iliad
the Odessey
On War (Clausewitz)
The Prince
The three musketeers.
 
I would say any Austen, for the language and the wonderfully constructed characters. I just started going back over my children's classics and I'm thoroughly enjoying them, Charlotte's Web, Wind in the Willows, Anne of Green Gables... Nostalgia and great literature. And don't go for The Iliad. Or if you do do it in comic form. My A level text is filled with trailing pencil marks where I feel asleep while notating.
 
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A bit better, but quite frankly Odysseus deserves a good talking to. Somke of the plays are quite good though, I love The Birds and The Medea.
 
Kullervo said:
Funny that the only people I know who have read it are Russians.

Are you Russian, Bent?
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I am not Russian and I have read it. There is evidence (but I am remembering this from 20 years ago) that Robert A Heinlein read and (as did I) enjoyed it. He wasn't Russian. Of course, you don't know me and, in fairness, I assume you did not know Heinlein, and I did not know Heinlein but , apropos of nothing, I have wonderful - and exclusive footage of him not enjoying a bellydancing performance at a WorldCon. The book is great - and not at all long!!!

Supporting Three Men in a Boat!! (Edited to add)
 
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Personally, I thought "The Count of Monte Cristo" had some very cool moments, but man did it drag on after the first half. Revenge is a dish best served bored, I guess. :)

I would recommend

Albert Camus, "The Stranger"
John Steinbeck, "The Winter of Our Discontent"
Graham Greene, "The Quiet American"
 
Could I put in a word for Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales From The Hills, Edith Wharton's, The Age of Innocence, and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray?

Jane Austen, yes, but not Emma. Try Pride and Prejudice.

If I could sneak a twentieth-century book onto the list, the most neglected classic novel I know is C P Snow's The Masters. I have a theory that it's neglected because none of his other books are any good; but with The Masters he just gets it right.
 
Lord Muck oGentry said:
Fair enough.The Odyssey is yer man. In the original, of course.
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Do not, DO NOT, attempt Ullyses by James Joyce. What a seriously over-hyped book. I bought it and have tried to read it 3 or 4 times, I can't get past the first 50 pages. I've really tried, but, ow, it's illegible.
I love the premise - a day, in real time, in Dublin, mirroring The Odyssey. But I just can't get involved with the characters.
On Odyssy mirrors, the film Brother, Where Art Thou was excellent.
 
StewartP said:
Do not, DO NOT, attempt Ullyses by James Joyce. What a seriously over-hyped book. I bought it and have tried to read it 3 or 4 times, I can't get past the first 50 pages.
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It is a brilliant book, if you can get past the writing.

Or so I heard. I couldn't make it past page ten. The man writes like a headache feels.

I forgot to recommend Madame Bovary. In her forty-five years of teaching, my English teacher never had a single student who actually liked Madame Bovary until me. She didn't even mind that I liked it because I found it deeply, deeply funny. And I got an A++ for my dramatic reenactment of the entire book in ten minutes with construction paper puppets shaped like bears.
 
I just read Dracula for the first time, and enjoyed it. There's a lot of religion in it, of course, but it's nice and creepy.
 
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is radically different from what you would expect, if you've seen any of the movies. I liked it.

I second the Madame Bovary suggestion, but I didn't find it funny. It's another monster story.....

If you're not suicidal, the novels of Thomas Hardy are great. Tess of the D'Urbervilles might be a good one to start with. However, if you are suicidal in the least, steer clear.

It's twentieth century, but Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time is a wonderful book for people who like critical thinking.

For sheer soap opera, you might try All This and Heaven Too, also twentieth century, but set in the mid-nineteenth century and based on a (yes, you guessed it) true story.

And, if you want to do Dickens, you might want to read my very favorite Dickens, Our Mutual Friend.
 
LibraryLady said:
And, if you want to do Dickens, you might want to read my very favorite Dickens, Our Mutual Friend.
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I liked Hard Times, although I will confess to disappointment that it wasn't quite the same as a movie with the same title that I quite enjoyed.
 
LibraryLady said:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is radically different from what you would expect, if you've seen any of the movies. I liked it.
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You beat me to it, when I read the OP Frankenstein was the first book I thought of. I liked it more than Dracula.

For pre-1900 books try some Japanese literature. The Tale of Genji, Tales of the Heike or The Confessions of Lady Nijo were all great books (the last one is a diary though, not fiction).
 
Another vote for Three Men in a Boat. And if you want to have real fun, pick up, "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis. This was from when she still wrote Speculative Fiction (Ellison's term, I think, for good Sci Fi)... She went all Woo on me with Passages..... But for any fan of Three Men in a Boat, it's a great book (even if you're not a fan of SF).

Pre 1900 - try Knut Hamsun's Hunger. Another one of those obscure classics; sold about ten times better in Europe than here, as did most of his stuff. (And no, he wasn't a nazi... Hitler gave him an audience when he was 80 and nearly senile, and one version has it that Hamsun gave him ◊◊◊◊ for the way Norwegians were being treated... yet another (Henry Miller, I believe) felt that he was always just a limelight hound and ANYONE who gave him an audience was acceptable.)
 
Dr Adequate said:
Jane Austen, yes, but not Emma. Try Pride and Prejudice.

.
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What? Emma is fascinating. Emma herself is obnoxious, I didn't find her lovable at all, but that is part of the beauty of it. It is a gorgeous portrayal of a young woman full of her own importance and unable to see the importance of others. Emma is a more interesting character that Elizabeth Bennett.
 
Oh, and there's the Chinese classic "Dream of the Red Chamber". It's pretty good, especially if you get a translation that doesn't cut out the naughty bits. It's also pretty funny, especially all the emphasis on young ladies who are of such refined nobility that they become deathly ill at the slightest provocation. "Pao Yu, distracted by the chatter of his cousins, neglected to refill Black Jade's teacup. Stricken to the core by this evidence of gross carelessness for her, Black Jade fell into a deep swoon. Like a pale lotus blossom on the bosom of the snow, she remained near death for three months."
 
Okay, I think I may have to take more than a week off between jobs.

Thanks to everybody for the suggestions so far. My short list at this point is:

Three Men in a Boat
War and Peace
Hard Times
Les Miserables
The Posthumous Memoirs of Br'as Cubas
 
Soapy Sam said:
"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection "
C.R.Darwin.
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Unfortunately, thanks to all the hype about it, the ending is no surprise. The murderer turns out to be Evolution, and the motive was godlessness and secular humanism. Evolution then went over the falls, locked in a death struggle with Religion.
 
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