Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

What are your favorite classics? You can define classics however you see fit.

I remember loving The Grapes of Wrath in high school.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Lorna Doone, Wives and Daughters, Peter Pan, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass, Pride and Prejudice are favorites.

Plus, Uncensored The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairytales. Can’t go wrong with hacking off toes and heels. Allerleirauh; or the many-furred creature Is my absolute favorite though.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Well, all of Austen's books, really, but Persuasion is my favorite

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Edit: I forgot about The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I didn’t read many classics in high school, and didn’t like the ones I did read.

My favorite classic reads as an adult are Rebecca and Little Women.

For the Little Women fans, I just read Marmee, the story told from the point of view of the mother -with some extra backstory added and some details from the real family of Louisa May Alcott.

I read Little Women when I was about 11 and after that all the modern teen books about "will he take me to the prom?" or "how to deal with a mean girl" seemed shallow! (Teen books at the time were pretty limited/YA didn't exist as a genre.)

I love Austen, especially Emma.

A lot of classics that I read in school, I now think I was too young to appreciate - The Return of the Native, Silas Marner, The Scarlet Letter. I had no experience of passion, suffering, sacrifice, etc. I didn't like any of those at the time. I did like Charles Dickens from early on, especially David Copperfield and Great Expectations.

One summer in high school, I read Les Miserables: Victor Hugo and another summer War and Peace (I had no social life!) Both of those stuck with me. At the time, I thought I had to read every word, and both books, while wonderful, had long digressions on politics, war, social problems, etc.

I loved The Secret Garden growing up. I also love The Three Musketers, Pride and Prejudice and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

How could I forget The Three Musketeers? Also Around the World in 80 Days, Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes. We had all those in children's format. I think they were called Big Golden Books, about 8x11 inches, with lots of pictures.

Tess of the d'Ubervilles - a book which, oddly enough, reminds me of a happy period in life, and of the area where I grew up and where my family comes from.

Just off the top of my head:
Jane Eyre
Rebecca
Pride and Prejudice
Anna Karenina
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables are probably my two favourites.

Dickens occasionally surprises me. I thought David Copperfield would be boring, but it was interesting.

The only ones I read in high school that I remember liking are A Separate Peace and Giants in the Earth. Classics that I've read since then that I've enjoyed include: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, An American Tragedy, Don't Look Now and The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier (all of her books are good!), Far From the Madding Crowd, Childhood's End, Dune, Lonesome Dove, Doña Bárbara, Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family, East of Eden, Vanity Fair. I'm still trying to finish several long classics: The Count of Monte Cristo, David Copperfield, Don Quixote.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorite books. My school didn't read a lot of the traditional classics, so other than that one, most of them I've read on my own as an adult. Though it was long, I really liked The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. I'm a fan of Mrs. Dalloway and The Great Gatsby

I forgot about To Kill a Mockingbird. That's definitely a good one!

Ira wrote: "I loved The Secret Garden growing up. I also love The Three Musketers, Pride and Prejudice and [book:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-..."

The Secret Garden is still my favorite book that I first read in childhood. I plan to reread it soon.

I am going to do a small stretch here and say anything by Herman Wouk. Pretty sure most of his books are tagged that way.

What most of you list as classics are not my thing, those that I have read were school assignments that I would not have read unless I had to.

Joanne wrote: "I am going to do a small stretch here and say anything by Herman Wouk. Pretty sure most of his books are tagged that way.

What most of you list as classics are not my thing, those th..."

Yes, I would say Wouk's books are modern classics.

East of Eden is one of the best books I've ever read. After reading and being scarred by The Red Pony in school, I avoided him for years. Thank goodness I gave him another shot after my daughter raved about his books. Interestingly, I have not read Grapes of Wrath.

Joanne - I am also a Herman Wouk fan!

Perri wrote: "East of Eden is one of the best books I've ever read. After reading and being scarred by The Red Pony in school, I avoided him for years. Thank goodness I gave him another shot after my daughter ra..."

I thought East of Eden was way too melodramatic, but I loved The Grapes of Wrath. Unfortunately, it's still way too relevant today. Also, I really liked the humor in Cannery Row.

Robin P wrote: Also, I really liked the humor in Cannery Row"

Travels with Charley was also laugh out loud funny

Aside from a certain book about a red head in Canada. Alice in Wonderland, Oliver Twist, The Woman in White.

I have a problem with calling To Kill a Mockingbird a "classic" ... since I read it in highschool when it was a NEW book! LOL

It IS my favorite book of all time, though. So all you younger members can certainly count it as a favorite classic!

I love the classics!

Some of my favorites are:

19th Century:
Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Middlemarch & Adam Bede - George Eliot
A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Bleak House - Charles Dickens
Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser

20th Century:
The Grapes of Wrath & Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner
The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Winds of War - Herman Wouk
The Go-Between - L.P. Hartley
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

I love classics! A few of my favourites are:

Jane Eyre,
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text,
Wuthering Heights,
The Man Who Laughs,
Carmilla and
Ball of Fat.

Modern classics that I love are:
The Bell Jar
The Summer Book and
Of Mice and Men

so many- I'm an Austen fan. And LM Montgomery

A few years ago, Oprah's book club did Anna Karenina. I gathered some friends together and we read it, totally loved it so we started a classics book club and read some amazing books I had never read before- To Kill a Mockingbird, Dracula, the Red & the Black, Zola's Paradise. So many good books I would not have read (and some duds as well, I won't like!)

Pamela wrote: "so many- I'm an Austen fan. And LM Montgomery

A few years ago, Oprah's book club did Anna Karenina. I gathered some friends together and we read it, totally loved it so we started a classics book ..."

Pamela- what’s your favourite L m Montgomery without Anne? Mine is Jane of Lantern Hill

My favourite is
The Left Hand of Darkness 1969
Other ones that I think have aged well and enjoyed including year published according to Goodreads
Maurice 1971 written in 1913-14
Kindred 1979
The Mabinogion 1200
The Divine Comedy 1320
The Importance of Being Earnest 1895
Dracula 1897
Animal Farm 1945
Interview with the Vampire 1976
Jurassic Park 1990
The Golden Compass 1995
I feel like a Terry Pratchett book should be in the list but I'm not sure which one it would be.

Thomas wrote: "Pamela wrote: "so many- I'm an Austen fan. And LM Montgomery

A few years ago, Oprah's book club did Anna Karenina. I gathered some friends together and we read it, totally loved it so we started a..."
I'm not Pamela, but mine are The Blue Castle and the Emily books Emily of New Moon (I have to admit, I might even prefer Emily to Anne).

For other classics, I have a shelf each in my library devoted to Dante and Jane Austen.

So many!

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Rebecca
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Little Women
The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
Pride and Prejudice
The Count of Monte Cristo
A Room of One’s Own
1984
Les Misérables
Beowulf
Antigone
Anything by Poe
And I love Shakespeare! Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and Romeo and Juliet top the list there

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text is my favourite book of all time. I also have a big soft spot for Dracula

I do love a good classic, those great books that have stood the test of time. I don't always enjoy every 'classic' I've read, but I do always appreciate them, either for the boundaries they pushed or their influence on later works.

These are just the ones from my absolute favourites list and are in no particular order

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

A few off the top of my head:
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
One of Ours - Willa Cather
Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
Stoner - John Williams
The Fields (30) - Conrad Richter
Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Maurice - E.M. Forster
The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy
Can You Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope
Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family - Thomas Mann
A House for Mr Biswas - V.S. Naipaul
Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset

So many favorites...but I guess these are my tops:
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
Rebecca
A Farewell To Arms
Little Women

I've yet to find one I've really enjoyed, but of those people have mentioned here I 4 starred To Kill a Mockingbird. The rest 3 stars or less or DNF.

Kathy wrote: "The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
One of Ours - Willa Cather
Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
[book:Stoner|166..."

Oh, I forgot to mention Kristin Lavransdatter. That is definitely among my favourites!

A good chunk of mine are from the 19th century: War and Peace, Les Misérables, Pride and Prejudice, Moby-Dick or, The Whale, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre

Some favorites from the 20th century: The Lord of the Rings, Catch-22, Slaughterhouse-Five

I’d be reluctant to call anything less than 50 years old a classic, as I feel that to truly be called a classic, it has to pass the test of time.

When I was 12 our family went to see the musical "Oliver". I loved it, and when my Dad told me it was based on a book, I got a copy of Oliver Twist from our school library... it was my first true adult book and Dickens was my favourite author from then on. At school (Australia) we had to read a Dickens every year, as well as George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen etc - I loved them all. My grandmother had a large collection of Australian classics (NONE of which were on our school lists!), and I loved most of those as well. Now I am trying to catch up on European classics.