52 replies to this topic

[dido]

Oooh, amid all these heavy heavyweights, Aristophanes (anything but Wealth,), the Master and Margarita by Bulgakov and Ovid (his biggie is the Metamorphoses, but the Ars Amatoria or the Amores is funnier, and really more representative).

[Sherellen]

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

[Old Fashioned]

Any Victor Hugo.

[Marjolein]

This is such a great thread, thanks for all the suggestions.

GWTW, it's true that some books that you refer to as classics might not be classics to us, however I want to read classics from all over the world, not just our good old Flemish and Dutch classics. I went to the US as an exchange student, and took an American Lit class there. We read quite a lot of classics, but I want to read more than we did in that class. I prefer reading books in the original language, so I'm glad most books suggested here are originaly in English.

Old Fashioned, Victor Hugo is one of my favorite authors. I'm going to attempt reading his books in French now.

Anyway, keep on suggesting, I'm really enjoying this thread.

[GWTW]

Now I'm really interested, what are your good old Flemish and Dutch classics? I think the only book I've read that was originally written in Dutch is The Diary of Anne Frank  

[Hans]

Mme. Bovary, if you haven't read it already.

[Marjolein]

Anything written by Joost Vondel, is pretty much a classic. Max Havelaar, by Multatuli is good too. The Lion of Flanders, by Conscience is a good Flemish classic. There's lots of medieval stories, like The Fox Reynaerd, that are Flemish classics too, though very hard to read, as they are written in old Dutch. (Btw, Dutch and Flemish are the same language, only the accent is different, like the difference between british and american english). That's all I can think of now, but there's more. I just can't think of any now.

[silvy]

Henry James's "Washington Square"

Any Edgar Allan Poe

Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "Macbeth"

Jane Austen's "Emma" and "Pride and Prejudice"

Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights"

Cervantes's "Don Quixote"

Homerus's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" (sp?)

Any Oscar Wilde

[BattementCloche]

I am a certified Shakespeare Nut, so I have to say right off the bat, anything by him. Ones to get you hooked are Much Ado About Nothing and Love's Labours Lost; there are a few long speeches at the beginning of the latter, but it is worth it in the long run. Darker Masterpieces are Hamlet (of course), Macbeth and Othello, but I would recommend leaving those until you become fond of his work.

More Classics...

Oliver Twist and A Cristmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

These are only a very few of my favourites... I'll add to the list soon.

[BattementCloche]

A few more classics:

Any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books, but notably his Sherlock Holmes mysteries

Some of Jack London's works could be called classics, though I don't think they are generally recognised as such. As someone who loves wolves, I found the general attitude of "wolves are vicious, man-eating devils and we had better shoot them all' exhibited by many of London's characters rather sad and -- for lack of a better word -- disturbing, but I was able to look over that and enjoyed most of his works to some degree anyway.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Island of the Blue Dolphins and the sequel, Kia, by Scott O'Dell — these could be considered young adult fiction but my mother read them and liked them quite a bit.
The Borrowers series — these books are good for anyone from 9 or 10 to 90 or 100. Very lovely little books, most certainly classics:

• The Borrowers
  
• The Borrowers Aloft
  
• The Borrowers Afloat
  
• The Borrowers Afield
  
• The Borrowers Avenged

I'm not sure of the order, but if I find out I'll edit the list.

[Ostrich]

Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady

George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss

Miles Franklin: My Brilliant Career (Australian classic)

John Buchan: The Thirty-nine Steps (exciting!)

Edited by Ostrich, 18 July 2004 - 06:44 AM.

[Patricia]

Mafouz's CAIRO TRILOGY.  A beautifully-written family saga with universal themes.  That's a loaded sentence but a true one.  I've never been to Cairo, but after reading the Trilogy, plus other things by Mafouz, I can see and taste it.  Don't read on an empty stomach!

[Nanatchka]

The Wind and the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger
a Blandings Castle comedic novel by P G Wodehouse (choose any)
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
Howard's End, EM Forster
Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers
The Thurber Carnival, James M. Thurber

[Leigh Witchel]

Of Austen's "Six Princesses", I'm a Persuasion man myself.  I'm a great lover of Howard's End as well as The Iliad.  Wonderful books on the list, it reminds me that I once was literate!

[Ostrich]

Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd

I strongly second Jane Austen's Persuasion as well as Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Although it is a children's story, The Wind in the Willows is a classic well worth reading if you missed it as a child.

And don't forget J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings!

If you are at all interested in South African classics, try the short stories of Herman Charles Bosman(e.g. Mafeking Road, Unto Dust). They are works originally written in English.