[JPK]

A couple of weeks ago I decided that over the course of the next year I'm finally going to tackle several staples in Classic Lit that I probably should have read by now, so I sat down and made a list of the books I already own and then added in several I could think of off the top of my head.

Unsurprisingly, I found that the list that I came up with skewed heavily towards old white guys. In response, I reached out to a couple friends and asked them to help fill out my list with some that were written by women. They delivered and while my list still leans towards men, it's at least no longer an 80/20 split.

Additionally, one of them suggested a wonderful app called Serial Reader which delivers a serialized chunk of a novel once a day to my phone. Now I'll admit that I wish it went to my Kobo instead, but they're typically small chunks so I decided I'll suffer through reading on my phone screen.

Anyways, I figure I'll use this space as I read though these so I don't clutter up the main reading thread, and it'll also serve as a good spot for people to recommend things to continue filling in my literary gaps.

Now I know that the definition of Classic Lit is very vague, so I'm open to suggestions that should be seen as Classics but may have been overlooked for usually sadly obvious reasons such as racism or sexism.

Finally, the good stuff. He's the current version of The List.

[JPK]

A CHRISTMAS CAROL - Charles Dickens
THE GREAT GATSBY - F. Scott Fitzgerald
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - Jane Austen
ANIMAL FARM - George Orwell
THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS - Isabel Allende
THE DIVINE COMEDY - Dante
DON QUIXOTE - MIGUEL de Cervantes Saavedra
WAR AND PEACE - Leo Tolstoy
LES MISERABLES - Victor Hugo
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT - Fyodor Dostoevsky
THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS - Ursula K Le Guin
A TALE OF TWO CITIES - Charles Dickens
WUTHERING HEIGHTS - Emily Bronte
THE ILIAD - Homer
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE - Shirley Jackson
WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE - Shirley Jackson
PARABLE OF THE SOWER - Octavia Butler
THE FOREVER WAR - Joe Haldeman
THE SATANIC VERSES - Salman Rushdie
END OF HYPERION - Dan Simmons
THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
LITTLE WOMEN - Louisa May Alcott
INVISIBLE MAN - Ralph Ellison
TREASURE ISLAND - Robert Louis Stevenson
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - Jonathan Swift
MOBY-DICK - Herman Melville
THE PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GREY - Oscar Wild

This post has been edited by JPK: Yesterday, 01:25 AM

[JPK]

So from that list I can now say I've read three of the novels.

I read ANIMAL FARM back in both middle school and high school but it's been over twenty years now and I really suspect this will read differently as an adult that can actually understand what Orwell was speaking to.

I did A CHRISTMAS CAROL early last week and ended up listening to this one as an audiobook. This is the only one here that I plan to take the audiobook route for but it was narrated by Tim Curry. How could I not? I found that this was excellent to listen to and believe that this story does deserve it's seemingly everlasting place in general media.

I started my Serial Reader experience with THE GREAT GATSBY as I missed out on this one back when a lot of people read it during school years. I landed on 4* for this one because it's a solid social drama on the surface but has so much to say when you look slightly deeper into the material.

Spoiler

Critiques on American culture, on materialism, on loving the memory of whom someone used to be over who they actually are, on changing yourself to try to be what you believe another person desires, on fidelity and adultery in marriage. Tom's awful but Daisy made her choices and isn't a victim here.

Next up is PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, which I'm about 4 days into now. I'm liking it so far but want to get to 10% before I really start to lay down my thoughts.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

JPK, on 15 December 2024 - 06:41 PM, said:

A CHRISTMAS CAROL - Charles Dickens
THE GREAT GATSBY - F. Scott Fitzgerald
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - Jane Austen
ANIMAL FARM - George Orwell
THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS - Isabel Allende
THE DIVINE COMEDY - Dante
DON QUIXOTE - MIGUEL de Cervantes Saavedra
WAR AND PEACE - Leo Tolstoy
LES MISERABLES - Victor Hugo
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT - Fyodor Dostoevsky
THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS - Ursula K Le Guin
A TALE OF TWO CITIES - Charles Dickens
WUTHERING HEIGHTS - Emily Bronte
THE ILIAD - Homer
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE - Shirley Jackson
WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE - Shirley Jackson

I don't understand... only one of those is in ancient Greek... no Latin made the cut? And no classical Chinese or Sanskrit?

Not even any classical Mayan?... madness!

Just kidding, enjoy... I once spent much of a year doing something very similar, but with audiobooks (not in ancient Greek or classical Chinese or other classical languages though, unfortunately...). If you like, you can test yourself on old copies of the "English literature" (with some world mixed in there) or Comparative Literature GREs at the end---one of my favorite parts of those tests is where they ask you to identify the author and the work. It's fun. (IMO...)

(As in "Classics Department" of "classical languages" (but almost always really only ancient Greek and Latin), corresponding "Classics" sections of some libraries and (fewer) bookstores, etc.)

[JPK]

Lol. I actually appreciate that, Azath, because it helps highlight what I was saying earlier about the list being primarily old white dudes. If people have suggestions for more diversity, I'll happily take them.

[Macros]

Pride is actually ok
My problems with it stem entirely from being forced to read it for English lit.

I'd throw into the ring:
Three Musketeers

Its the original swashbuckling derring do

[worry]

Some additions, though you may have read a good few of these already.

Older stuff:

• Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (it's really good imo!)
• Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
• Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
• Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
• Moby-Dick - Herman Melville -- uhh, too obvious? It took me a year (off and on) to read, in and of itself, so I dunno if it's a good recommendation for this project. And more people bounce off it than enjoy it, I take it. But it really is among the best things I've ever read (and a lot of it is fun!).

I don't know if you have a year-based cutoff for "classic" either but since your newest book is from the 1980s, maybe these count:

• Kindred - Octavia Butler (1979)
• Beloved - Toni Morrison (1987, so not quite 40 years since published)

And I mean, they're playing grunge on classic rock stations now so...

This post has been edited by worry: 15 December 2024 - 09:50 PM

[JPK]

Macros, on 15 December 2024 - 08:47 PM, said:

Pride is actually okMy problems with it stem entirely from being forced to read it for English lit.I'd throw into the ring:Three MusketeersIts the original swashbuckling derring do

THE THREE MUSKETEERS is a great book. I keep meaning to read the second book. Dumas' THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO is one of my top 3 books of all time.

worry, on 15 December 2024 - 09:48 PM, said:

Some additions, though you may have read a good few of these already.Older stuff:

• Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (it's really good imo!)
• Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
• Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
• Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
• Moby-Dick - Herman Melville -- uhh, too obvious? It took me a year (off and on) to read, in and of itself, so I dunno if it's a good recommendation for this project. And more people bounce off it than enjoy it, I take it. But it really is among the best things I've ever read (and a lot of it is fun!).

I don't know if you have a year-based cutoff for "classic" either but since your newest book is from the 1980s, maybe these count:

• Kindred - Octavia Butler (1979)
• Beloved - Toni Morrison (1987, so not quite 40 years since published)

And I mean, they're playing grunge on classic rock stations now so...

I hadn't really noticed the year cutoff, good catch. I'm definitely open to "modern" classics as well. There are some great suggestions I'll definitely add to the list here, and I haven't actually read any of them.

I'll also try to edit the list to add a section for classics I've read as well, since that'd likely help with offering suggestions.

This post has been edited by JPK: Yesterday, 12:25 AM

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Jack London's The Call of the Wild and Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth are classics I read when I was younger and really enjoyed. Looks like a good list you have though!

[Hammerhead88]

FRANKENSTEIN gives you another one written by a woman, not to mention that it's fantastic.

EAST OF EDEN - my favourite 'classic'

Anything by Graham Greene - I would go with end of the affair or quiet American.

[QuickTidal]

JPK, on 15 December 2024 - 06:53 PM, said:

Next up is PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, which I'm about 4 days into now. I'm liking it so far but want to get to 10% before I really start to lay down my thoughts.

Macros, on 15 December 2024 - 08:47 PM, said:

Pride is actually ok
My problems with it stem entirely from being forced to read it for English lit.

I always flip flop on which of Austen's works I like best, for some reason PERSUASION always tickles my fancy and tries to take the top spot....but PRIDE & PREJUDICE is my goto and I've read it the most. Probably because I love how awkward Mr. Darcy is when he's trying his best to seem "cool". Also Lizzie absolutely destroying Lady Catherine with verbal sass is a scene for the ages. Also the older I get the more I agree with Mr. Bennet's general outlook on life. “You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.”

I have more than one copy of it in fact...hell I have one that has little pockets in it with all the "letters" that everyone sends in the book actually written out in cursive as if people really wrote them and folded up as they would have been for delivery...it sounds cooler than it is...and it is a pain to read the cursive...but it's a neat keepsake.

I love all her work, but P&P is the one that always seems to sit with me best.

[Abyss]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 16 December 2024 - 08:21 AM, said:

Jack London's The Call of the Wild and Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth are classics I read when I was younger and really enjoyed. Looks like a good list you have though!

Seconded and would add

THE STARS ARE OURS! - Andre Norton

[Macros]

There's a book by some guy Tolkien is a bit of a classic

[worry]

Father Giles of Ham?

[amphibian]

I would suggest swapping Rushdie's Satanic Verses for Midnight's Children (or my favorite of his works, Shalimar the Clown). Satanic Verses is famous, but it's not a great book if that makes sense.

Some classics I think are worth adding:

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Hurston Neale
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
A Bend in the River, VS Naipul
Disgrace, JM Coetzee
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy