I am a big reader, and I love reading fiction, fantasy, romance and a little poetry and general non-fiction as well (mostly about geopolitics and geography). I realise that classics is one gap I have in my reading journey. I basically only read classics as part of my highschool curriculum (Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre, Julius Caesar, and some prominent Indian classics authors like RK Narayan, Tagore and Premchand.
What classics would you recommend for someone who is new to classics? I think one of the things that intimidates me is the overly complicated language, so something accessible would be much appreciated!
PS. I know that the definition of what counts as a classic is debated widely, so give me all recs that fit into your definition of a classic 🙂
by AccidentCompetitive1
13 Comments
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Lolita by Nabokov, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Grapes of Wrath is astounding
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Watership Down by Richard Adams
a good short one is the metamorphosis by franz kafka 🙂 only takes a good 1-2 hours to finish and is a simple read for you to just dip your toes in
I really enjoyed The Decameron and The Count of Monte Cristo as a teen. I haven’t reread them but assume they hold up haha
The Trial by Franz Kafka, and They’re Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston are a few I’ve loved as an adult
Just finished *The Age of Innocence* by Edith Wharton last week and really liked it. It was one I hadn’t read previously, and I was surprised at how generally modern the language was.
These are some of my favourite “accessible” 19th century classics. They’re all under 100,000 words/400 pages:
– Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
– Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
– The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
Silas Marner
The Grapes of Wrath
Pride and Prejudice
Middlemarch
It took me a long time before I started reading classes. This is the order I read these in (with a lot of stuff in between) and the ones I liked.
Middlemarch is long enough to seem intimidating but it’s really just an enjoyable and insightful soap opera type of book that moves from one perspective to the next as people move about in this one town.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
I liked Wuthering Heights and I normally dislike classics. I just loved hating every character.
Dumas Three Musketeers is a fun read.