I usually read or watch media in the otaku spheres of culture, but I occasionally am enticed to branch out into the more classic stuff. I really like the genres of fantasy (for what it can provide in the high-conceptual sense), mystery (interesting story), and psychological/philo (for interesting character depth and general narrative depth). I was wondering if there’s any author’s classics (except Murakami’s, who I already plan to read the works of based off the common fondness for them) that fall under at least some of these categories? Magical realism could be good, as long as it’s delivered in an interesting and engrossing fashion.
The only other classics I’ve read are Dostoevsky’s (Crime and TBK), and Dumas’s (Count). I much more liked Brothers out of the two Dost. works, because I really liked the ideas in his monologues and the functioning portrayal of those ideas through his main cast, however I’m not fond of his writing style in general (could be a translation issue but sometimes it feels like some characters ramble too often. Reading those scenes combined with the strangely structured syntax was jarring) and the general premise and pacing can sometimes be grating for storytelling purposes (plus Dmitri was annoying sometimes so scenes with him are occasionally off-putting). On the other hand, while I don’t think The Count of Monte Cristo has an especially deep/interesting cast or story, I think in contrast to Dost, his storytelling is much more well done (I read the unabridged).
Edit: I’ve also read No Longer Human (if that’s a classic) years back, it was an interesting read.
What classic would you recommend that finds a good balance between an interesting story, theming, and characters?
by RadiantOberon