#ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge discussion

Hello everyone!

I'd love to know what classics you read in February! What was your favourite? How about your least favourite? Anything you'd recommend?

I read Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and I absolutely loved it! I do think, though, that I'll need to reread it a couple times before understanding most of the scenes, but on the other hand, that's what's so enjoyable about this book. Apart from that, I read Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe for uni this month, and I really liked it. Although, I read it as a comedy instead of a tragedy hahaha. Lastly, I'm reading Emma by Jane Austen right now (because of the adaptation I'm planning on seeing), and I'm about 2/3 in. I'm really loving this one. Even though it's (I believe) Austen's biggest book, it never gets boring for me, so I'm hoping the ending will be just as good as the other Austens I've read :)

I read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf ***. The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie ***. reread Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte ****. But the definite highlight for the month was Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens which I started at the end of January
A big ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for that one

I read Jane Eyre (which I love love love) and The Three Musketeers (which was super fun) :)

I re-read Sanditon by Jane Austen. I'd read a version finished by someone else, but I wanted to compare the original to the television adaptation (Andrew Davies has lost control). It was also a pleasant counterpoint to my obligatory watching of the Superbowl (I don't enjoy American football, but I teach, so I have to be able to talk about major sporting events with my students).

I read The Beauty and the Beast, The Call of the Wild and the modern day classic The Princess Bride. I enjoyed all of them. Each was very different.

I read a French classic, a Russian classic and German classic by a Czech author.
The first one was Bonjour Tristesse by Franscoise Sagan. The Russian classic was The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. And the third classic I read in February was The Trial by Franz Kafka which I absolutely enjoyed and would highly recommend.

Re-read Frankenstein and I loved it just as much this time around!

Finished:
-Persuasion by Jane Austen and I loved that one too (Wentworth's letter just melts me)
-Dracula by Bram Stoker, this was way better than I was expecting but yeah the back half of it is a bit slow.
-The Scarlet Letter, this was a class assigned one and... I did not enjoy it lol
-Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. SUCH A GOOD BOOK. It was just incredible and I can't recommend it enough.

I read A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf and I really loved it, it was a different experience to read an essay. Now I’m almost done reading The Bell Jar, I simply adore Sylvia Plath.

I re- read the picture of Dorian Gray and started the Pride and Prejudice buddy read! Tale of Two Cities is next.

I read The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie and I'm still reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Both are very enjoyable!

I read To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and I absolutely loved it, though I did find it difficult at times and I'm sure I will have to re-read it again to understand more of it.
I've also read 1/3rd of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and 230 pages into War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy!

I read Wuthering Heights, Little Men and Jo's Boys. I wasn't really a fan of Wuthering heights (mainly because of the characters, Emily Brontë's writing is amazing). Little Men was by far my favorite

I read Little Women and Giovanni's Room :)

I read A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Austen's Emma, and an autobiography by Theodor Fontane about his childhood years in the early 19th century (Meine Kinderjahre). I liked all of them and so far I've watched four different adaptions of Emma so it's safe to say that I'm VERY glad I listened to the guy who told me to read it because !!!!!! I liked P&P but I adored this one so much more.

I listened to the audio books of The Lord of the Rings.

in march i read some poems and 'the tell-tale heart' by edgar allan poe and persuasion by jane austen

I read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and it was a delight!

Hey there, I read les miserables, the hobbit, and the fellowship of the ring

I read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and I will definitely be reading more by this author.

Heather wrote: "I re-read Sanditon by Jane Austen. I'd read a version finished by someone else, but I wanted to compare the original to the television adaptation (Andrew Davies has lost control). It was also a ple..."

So I take it, the Sanditon series is not very good?

I read One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is very different from what I normally read, but of course if I'm going to read a novel in the magical realism novel, I could never go wrong with one by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I enjoyed so much more than I anticipated and I grabbed a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera so I can read it sometime this year too!

I also finished up SEASONS, a collection of Robert Frost poems divided into four seasonal sections - the last one I read being Winter. I am proud to have finally read the poem where the famous line, "the woods are lovely, dark and deep" comes from.

Reesha wrote: "I read a French classic, a Russian classic and German classic by a Czech author.
The first one was Bonjour Tristesse by Franscoise Sagan. The Russian classic was The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. ..."

I'm very curious to hear your take / insights on The Trial. I read it a few years ago and didn't really like it. I was also dismayed to find out that it was an unfinished novel, just after I turned the last page. I read Metamorphosis after that, liked it better but it still didn't encourage me to read any more Kafka. It's very possible that his prose is just not my favorite style or the subjects themselves are too eccentric for my taste.

I’ve started a reread of Dombey and Son and am loving it so much more this time. Last time, it took me until about half way to start to enjoy it but I can’t quite see why now as it’s fantastic.

In February, I concentrated on Black/White racial issues reading nonfiction, Young Adult fiction, and these classics:

- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Ann Jacobs
- Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Secret Life of Bees (modern classic 2001) by Sue Monk Kidd

They were all fantastic and I would love to teach Passing because it is so well written and demonstrates that race is only a state of mind.

February Classic Reads:
--Kindred by Octavia Butler (modern classic)
--A Clockwork Orange (modern classic)
--The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (classic non-fiction)
--My Cousin Rachel by Rebecca Du Maurier (modern classic)
--Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston (classic non-fiction)
--Sula by Toni Morrison (modern classic)
--Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (modern classic)
--Tar Baby by Toni Morrison (modern classic)
--The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (translated modern classic)

They were all fantastic reads. My favorite was The Fire Next Time. Baldwin's writing is stunning and I look forward to reading more by him. Toni Morrison's writing is gorgeous as well and the stories really hit. I'm taking a short break from her in March, but continuing with my goal of reading all her novels this year in April.

The classics in February I read were: The Birchbark House - Louise Erdrich, Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote, and The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lucy wrote: "Hello everyone!

I'd love to know what classics you read in February! What was your favourite? How about your least favourite? Anything you'd recommend?"

I've read a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories in February. I am currently on the short story collection called His Last Bow. They are okay stories. I absolutely loved 'The Adventure of the Red Circle' but didn't enjoy 'The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans'. For some reason my edition contains 'The Adventure of the Cardboard Box' (I hate it even in its original collection).

I haven't been reading as many books due to issues in my personal life, but I am slowly trudging my way through the last of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

My February reads had been the following:

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote
-"Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser
-"The Awekening" by Kate Chopin
-" The secret agent" by Joseph Conrad.

The best is "Sister Carrie": I recommend it to everyone.
I think it'll turn out to be one of my best readings of all 2021.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie

The classics I read in February were: The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett I enjoyed them all, but I especially loved The Secret Garden <3

I first read some short Stories by Fitzgerald: The Sensible Thing, Rags Martin-Jones & the Prince of Wales, and Absolution. I also reread Rebecca and Emma. I also read short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson: The Body Snatcher and the Bottle Imp.