Would like to read a classic book, as never read one before and would defo like to broaden my interests. What do I recommend for my first read xx
Would like to read a classic book, as never read one before and would defo like to broaden my interests. What do I recommend for my first read xx
Jane Eyre
Thanks @Bee, just seen that one in Waterstones with a cloth cover x
Wuthering Heights is perfection.
It is! ❤
Agreed.
Definitely Wuthering Heights ❤️
You can’t beat a bit of Jane Austen either- it’s often hilarious, and so well-observed.
My favourites are Persuasion, Emma, and Pride & Prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre ☺️
These would be my two top recommendations!
Madame Bovary.
Henry James was a very influential American novelist- I find his longer ones a bit wordy for my taste, but there’s a very short one which I think is just brilliant, called Washington Square. It’s about a rich heiress and her rather cruel father who tries to see off a fortune-hunting suitor.
The Great Gatsby is relatively easy reading if you can’t be bothered with something long
Pride and Prejudice is the best one to start with
I tend to agree, Rheanna.
A Christmas Carol. Little women or Emma.
Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre would be my top suggestions.
I was the same I loved pride and prejudice Jane Eyre and Rebecca x
Rebecca.
Wuthering Heights
Rebecca
Frankenstein! ?
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre or Rebecca – they were the first two I ever read whilst at school and I loved them both
Charles Dickens is my favourite, love quite a few of his.
Wuthering Heights is a firm favourite too although I found it a bit of a slog at first, there are websites for translating what Joseph says lol.
Pride and prejudice makes me laugh. I love the writing. And it’s easy going for a start. Tess of the D’urbervilles is a classic but a bit more tricky. Wuthering Heights is a massive slog for a start.
Wuthering Heights is my favourite classic book, absoloutely brilliant and not a love story in the classic sense at all. Personally I find Dickens very dull to read, far too descriptive and not enough action!
I can recommend Rebecca (but not sure how much I enjoyed it in the end!)
Also, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is very good. Currently reading The Moonstone by the same author and that is turning out to be pretty good as well.
I love Anna Karenina, Great expectations and lorna doone x
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Tess of the D’Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy would be my recommendation. It is an epic, classic, timeless story but Thomas Hardy has a very reader-friendly style. Great descriptions of landscape and the everyday and a proper page turner, too. Romance, tragedy – it’s all there.
I was going to say Rebecca too, I love this book so much.
Rebecca is one of my all time favourites ?
Mine too, but I think that it draws so heavily on Jane Eyre that it would be a shame not to have read that too.
@Bee also one of my all time favourites…love Jane Eyre too ?
Wuthering Heights
Or how about A Christmas Carol?
Rebecca, pride and prejudice or persuasion. Tess is good although a bit heavier.
Don’t mean to sound thick, what is it with classics, is it how they were wrote in that era and style of words or the story telling x
Nicola, it’s more that they are books which have changed the way we think about storytelling, and which have particular qualities that have stood the test of time so they can still enrich our understanding of life and literature now.
Aww thank u, just think it’s never to late to learn and have only started to read as a hobby the past few yrs, it just opens r mind xx
It’s definitely never too late where it comes to reading. ?
Dracula. Wuthering Heights. The Woman In White. Tess of the Durbervilles
Little women, Jane Eyre, Brideshead Revisited and Rebecca.
Jayne Eyre, Dracula, Rebecca, Wuthering Heights (I have never been an Austin fan). In terms of modern classics On The Road by Jack Kerouac, I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill or Love In A Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Oh the Austen’s! Harriet! I will be quoting them in our meeting tomorrow morning.
Didn’t even know about half these books Harriet, I’m learning so much lol x
Any of the Bronte sisters would be a good choice ?
Jane eyre…..
Wuthering heights
Like you I’ve wanted to broaden my reading – this year I’ve read 1984 and Far From the Madding Crowd – enjoyed both of them with more classics in my bookcase to read! Enjoy!
I watched the film the other day if far from madding crowd, it was amazing, I’m over the moon with responses, thanks Hun x
Pride and prejudice without a doubt !!!
For your first, ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen. Then ‘Pride and Prejudice’ ?
The short stories of Thomas Hardy. My personal favourite classic is Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, but I adore all of his novels. I also love Jude The Obscure and Heart Of Darkness. I’m not an Austen fan, I’m afraid; I prefer things a little darker.x
Of mice and men would be my suggestion. But I don’t like Jane Austiine and a lot of the authors that have already been suggested. All quiet on the western front and above us the waves are both good books which challenge the views but not what most people would call classic.
I read Animal Farm a few weeks ago and now I’m on to 1984! Both enthralling and so well written.
1984 is on my list.
Oscar Wilde – the importance of being Ernest is also one of my FAVOURITE classics. Such a funny book.
there is an excellent black and white film of this, not sure how it compares to the book though. A handbag!?
Wuthering heights is a definite for me. Rebecca is also epic
To kill a mockingbird
Brilliant recommendations above – to which I would also like to add The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins – a great Victorian mystery novel
Loved this!
Little women!!!
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by thomas hardy is my absolute favourite. I loved withering heights too.