General classics discussion: which do you like?

JoannaC said:

Peder, I read “She” in university for a Victorian Popular Literature course. I love the Victorians! I never got into modern poetry but I love the Victorian verse, and there are so many great novels from that time. Do you recommend any others by Rider Haggard? My impression was that some of them were pure trash

Click to expand...

Joanna,
Maybe more than just some of them! Just looking at the titles of the Alan Quatermain series all lined up on a shelf in Young Adults gives one the strong impression that one is staring at formula writing. King Solomon's Mines, already mentioned, is the only one that seems to have some endurance, but I haven't read it, only seen it, and She seems to be on the verge of being forgotten. I had a tough time finding it. I was very interested to hear you say that it was used as an example in a university course. A good example, or a bad example?
Peder

I'd recommend The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. I also enjoyed The History of Mr. Polly by H.G Wells, The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. All books that I suggest you read

Peder, the course I took was on Victorian POPULAR literature, and the prof (who was a lovely woman who went back to get her PhD later in life) made it quite clear to us that most of what we were reading was the Victorian equivalent on Danielle Steele. Offhand, I remember reading She, Dombey & Son by Dickens and a few plays and poems. I also remember that was the year the "Best American Poetry" series put out a "best of the best" volume edited by literary curmudgeon Harold Bloom, and Bloom began the volume with a lengthy introduction about how all these people who should not be in the canon are trying to get in and we must be vigilant so the canon remains to be only Shakespeare, Milton, Donne, Johnson and perhaps Yeats if one is feeling generous. Then he proceeds to list about a dozen authors whom he feels are unfairly trying to nose their way into the canon, and it was pretty mucht he entire syllabus of this course

I read Jane Eyre also (I have read all the Bronte novels) but I don't think it matches Wuthering Heights for atmosphere. I might re-read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall one of these days. It is the Bronte novel I remember the least about.

Has anyone read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier? I just finished it. It started off a little slow, but the ending was so worth it! What a payoff! I loved how she totally set you up to be thinking something, only to find that the opposite was true. Great book.

I agree that Wuthering Heights was a great book but I think it would be worth reading Jane Eyre again too! Rather than compare it with Wuthering Heights, maybe it's better to compare with other 19th century writer Jane Austen. Jane Eyre is (as my granny would say) "riddled" with atmosphere... LOTS of gothic imagery, eg the split tree and constant references to (red) moonlight. Also, worth reading, if still not convinced of "atmospheric" Jane Eyre, is "Wide Sargasso Sea" another classic written from the focal point of the "mad woman in the attic". You can't have forgotten the mystery surrounding HER surely?

Wildfell Hall? Was that about Heathcliff when he comes back after making his fortune? Or have I got it completely wrong?

I read Jane Eyre also (I have read all the Bronte novels) but I don't think it matches Wuthering Heights for atmosphere. I might re-read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall one of these days. It is the Bronte novel I remember the least about.

I read Rebecca a long time ago, only remember that Du Maurier is a great writer.

Has anyone read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier? I just finished it. It started off a little slow, but the ending was so worth it! What a payoff! I loved how she totally set you up to be thinking something, only to find that the opposite was true. Great book.[/QUOTE]

JoannaC said:

Peder, the course I took was on Victorian POPULAR literature, and the prof (who was a lovely woman who went back to get her PhD later in life) made it quite clear to us that most of what we were reading was the Victorian equivalent on Danielle Steele.
...
Then he [Bloom] proceeds to list about a dozen authors whom he feels are unfairly trying to nose their way into the canon, and it was pretty mucht he entire syllabus of this course

Click to expand...

Joanna,
Thanks for the assessment. It is about what I night have expected. But it was a light entertaining fun read anyway.
Peder

I recommend Watership Down.

sirmyk said:

I recommend Watership Down.

Click to expand...

Oh, yes! Excellent book! It's a very easy read and really fun too. Most definately read it. The author is Richard Adams, by the way.

Hello! I just wanted to offer my little thoughts if they may be of use to you! I noticed that you mentioned Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series...have you tried your hand at Agatha Christie? Personally, I feel she is extremely unjustly neglected when it comes to "Classics" as she popularized the "Manor House Mystery" idea, and was even made a Dame of the British Empire for her works! Her books are full of ingenious plots which can baffle even the most seasoned Armchair Detective!! And, as you seem to enjoy the Victorian age, her works smack a little of that era, sort of bringing it into the modern world. These are my impressions, at least.

As for the Bronte novels, the only one I've yet finished is Agnes Grey, by Anne. I feel she, too, is unjustly neglected, for the novel was very moving and interesting...though the ending did bear a tincture of haste about it.

Hope my thoughts have been somewhat helpful or useful!

JoannaC said:

Has anyone read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier? I just finished it. It started off a little slow, but the ending was so worth it! What a payoff! I loved how she totally set you up to be thinking something, only to find that the opposite was true. Great book.

Click to expand...

Like Linda, I read it a really long time ago. I think I was in middle school. I don't remember a single thing about it. However, I came across the copy when cleaning out my old room at my mom's a few weeks ago. Maybe I'll get around to re-reading it soon.

Blue Raven, I have read Christie. I am reading "Nemesis" right now and am enjoying it. I think I prefer the Marple to the Poirot.

Peder, I am wondering what your thoughts are on Shakespeare. I love, love, love Shakespeare. It amuses me to see how much people like Bloom hold him up as the model of all that is, but he was actually a quite "commercial" writer. About half of his historical plays are sequels because the first ones were so popular. He had a stake in his theatres and the more tickets they sold, the more money he made. Yes, the plays are wonderful, but he did seem to be in it at least in part for the filthy lucre And of course Dickens got paid by the word and was known for introducing cliffhanger chapter endings so he could drag the story out a little longer...

Hmmm. I think I will go download some Shakespeare. My favs are Twelth Night, a Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and the sonnets. I think I'll try The Taming of the Shrew. Never read that one.

JoannaC said:

Peder, I am wondering what your thoughts are on Shakespeare. I love, love, love Shakespeare. It amuses me to see how much people like Bloom hold him up as the model of all that is, but he was actually a quite "commercial" writer.

Hmmm. I think I will go download some Shakespeare.

Click to expand...

Joanna,
My thoughts on Shakespeare are probably the conventional ones, greatest writer/playright in English language, and so on. And inexpert that I am, they are probably worth about tuppence.
I do enjoy him very much, however, whenever I do read him, but I just so seldom do. IMO plays in general make easier and more enjoyable reading than novels because they were written to be understood on first hearing - no going back - so they are easier to follow and understand. I have seen the movie versions of Hamlet and Henry the Fifth, both with Sir Laurence Olivier, and they are magnificent testimony to why Shakespeare has his stature as a playwright. Have also heard Sir John Gielgud read Shakespeare, live from the stage, and that was an experience out of this world.
So, I am glad if my suggestion of a minor author got you onto rereading Shakespeare. Not bad for an overall outcome!
Peder

P. S.

Joanna,
I hope you'll enjoy The Tempest, if you haven't already.
Written at the end of his career, as I understand it, the play is quite different from the others.
Peder

From Shakespeare, I've enjoyed Much Ado About Nothing. The banter between Beatrice and that other chap (I forget) was quite entertaining.

Since you mentioned, A Midsummer's Night Dream was redone by Neil Gaiman into something quite out of this world (literally) in his Sandman series. It's in his Sandman Library Vol 3 collection entitled Dream Country. Gaiman also attempts to explain just exactly why The Tempest was so different from the rest of his other works, in a story within Vol 10 of Sandman, The Wake.

You can't get them free, though you may be able to get them from your local library.

Just thought maybe you'd like to see your classics in a somewhat different perspective.

ds

JoannaC said:

Zolipara, I have never heard of any of those books. Do you have any more information about them?

Click to expand...

I picked out a few books that i really liked but dont get mentioned a lot on these forums. Of the classics i tend to prefer eastern european books so i picked out a couple of the lesser known russians. I dont know much about what type of books you like so i just picked some that stand out for me. Both Dead souls and Against the grain are highly entertaining while turgeneevs book is more melancholy.

Gogol - Dead souls :
This is the story of a russian swindler that thinks he has found a brilliant way to get rich. Its from a time when the landowners owned the peasants working on their land. Not exactly slavery, but not far from it. The landowners had to pay taxes for each of these peasants they owned. Naturally some of these peasants died, but they could be required to pay taxes for them even 5-10 years after they died due to how the russian goverment counted their citizens. This was ofcourse a annoyance to the landowners but the main character of the book had found a good solution. He offeres to pay a small sum to take over ownership of these dead souls. The story takes place as this swindler arrives at a unnamed town to conduct his somewhat strange business. Soon after strange rumors are running all over town about this man and his business.

Huysmans - Against the grain:
This is the ultimate example of "decadent" litterature. A favourite of Oscar Wilde, in fact he refers to this book a lot in his classic "A portrait of Dorian gray"(also highly recommended). The books main, and pretty much only, character is the highly intelligent and eccentric Duke des Esseintes. After finishing jesuittschool he moves to paris, spending most of his inheritance on clothes, parties etc. But he soon tires of this and decides to move away from the city to a small house where he intends to spend the rest of his days as a hermit. He builds his house to make the perfect environment. He surrounds himself with the few books he deems worthy of his intelligence. In this closed space des esseintes spends his time perfecting the artificial environment. There is a entire chapter describing how he chooses the colours for the house, another about exotic perfumes. There is even a chapter describing how he designs a living turtle to blend in as a part of the furniture. He paints the shell with gold and sets a variety of gems in the shell. But as the story goes on des esseintes is struggeling with his life as a hermit. He has no purpose.

Turgenev - Diary of a Superfluous man:
His best known work is probably Fathers and sons where he describes the revolutionary doctrines then spreading through russia. But its not the one i like best. Diary of a superfluous man is a short book about a young man lying on his deathbed writing a diary to pass the time. As he sits there thinking about his life he decides the best word to describe himself is superfluous. His life has not mattered to anyone, so he has nothing to write about. The only thing worth remembering from his life is a lovestory, so he decides to write about that. But as the story progresses you notice that the writer sees the events in a new light. Was it really a lovestory?

Thanks Zolipara, I was able to find all of these books and will read them. I have so many Gutenberg texts on my TBR list right now! I will be happily supplied for some time. There is some good stuff out there. There is a ton of early 20th century mystery available, has anyone read Buchan?

Anyway, I am still HAPPY to take more recommendations! Any classics or anything like that. I especially like mystery, children's literature, early gothic/horror and romance/literary stuff. What I have read so far from Gutenberg:

Wonderful Wizard of Oz (loved it)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (loved it)
Anne of Green Gables (loved it)
Pollyanna & Pollyanna Grows Up (liked it)
Animal Farm (so-so)
1984 (so-so)
Wuthering Heights (loved it)

Also, remember enjoying some of Dickens, most of the Bronte oevre, Sherlock Holmes stories and all of the poetry of the Victorian era in my literature classes in university. I just love the Victorian era.

The Secret Agent - Conrad - wonderful characters along with fantastic writing style/use of langauge, one of the few books i read which made me extremely sad afterwards and a day later london was bombed.