Classics

[Sydney]

My recent literary obsession is classic literature. I've been reading Dickens, Tolstoy, Dumas, Hugo, etc. I'm worried that the works of all these great authors are someday going to be ignored, so if you know of any classics that you can remember and would like to recommend, please discuss them here.

 

[Sydney]

Well to start this off, my favorite is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I read it and I couldn't beleive that something written so long ago could be so difficult to put down.

 

[Ell]

One of my favourites is Crime and Punishment by Doestoyevsky. Also liked War and Peace once I got over all the Russian names!

Jayne Eyre is a favourite, but I think it's a love or hate kind of book.

ell

 

[Halo]

Jayne Eyre is a favourite, but I think it's a love or hate kind of book.

I loved Jane Eyre, and I'd definitely agree with what Ell says. I've never yet heard anyone say "It was OK"; people either love it or hate it.

 

[ions]

Just to continue/reiterate Ell's post, Dostoevsky should be included in any list of classics. Notes From The Underground, The Idiot, Brothers Karamazov are also all well regarded classics to be included along with Crime and Punishment. Not that Dostoevsky's other books shouldn't be listed as well, I just don't feel like listing them all.

Herman Melville's Moby Dick is considered the first 'American' classic is it not?

I don't think the classics are in any danger of being forgotten. Especially if Oprah keeps selecting authors like Tolstoy for her army. There's a reason many of these books have stood the test of time and will continue to. They still speak to human emotion and struggle as well as anything written today. They've earned the title of Classic and Classic never really goes out of style.

 

[Sydney]

That's reassuring to hear, but I've found that particularly in schools classic literature (always with the exception of Shakespeare and Homer) is being traded for books like Tortilla Curtain, Raisin in the Sun, Fahrenheit and In the Time of the Butterflies. Those are all some of my favorites, but I was disappointed to find that schools aren't stressing reading the classics anymore. None of my friends in high school will pick up Tolstoy independently, because it isn't assigned. That said, if Oprah keeps selecting classic authors there shouldn't really be a problem. :^)

 

[ions]

Books by Tolstoy aren't HS level reading. I can't imagine a typical Grade 11 class getting through War and Peace or even Anna and getting 'it'. High School English should be preparing students to enjoy material like that not forcing them to read it. More likely they'll resent it more than anything.

There were books in HS that I read and got good marks on the work assigned but it wasn't until years later when I re-read them that I really got them more completely.

 

[Sydney]

Good point, I suppose its true that when you are forced to read something in school and then write a huge essay on the book it really takes the joy out of it... I wish that weren't true, it would be wonderful to get Tolstoy on summer reading lists. In regards to Tolstoy's work I highlyhighlyhighlyhighly recommend his short stories. They are much lesser recognized than Anna Karenina and War and Peace but make sure you read them.