Classics for Beginners discussion

Read classics (alphabetically by author):
List last updated on 31/03/14

Watership Down - Richard Adams (5*)
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (5*)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (1*)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum (5*)
*Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë (5*)
*Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë (5*)
*A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (5*)
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote (4*)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There - Lewis Carroll (5*)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres (5*)
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings - Charles Dickens (4*)
*Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (5*)
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (2*)
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (4*)
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle (4*)
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1*)
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (5*)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding (4*)
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (4*)
The Iliad - Homer (3*)
The Odyssey- Homer (4*)
*Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (5*)
*Notre-Dame of Paris- Victor Hugo (5*)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (4*)
*We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (5*)
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson (5*)
The Lottery and Other Stories - Shirley Jackson (2*)
The Turn of the Screw - Henry James (3*)
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes (5*)
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (5*)
The Birds & Other Stories - Daphne du Maurier (3*)
My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier (4*)
*Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier (5*)
Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier (5*)
The Scapegoat - Daphne du Maurier (4*)
A View from the Bridge - Arthur Miller (5*)
The Crucible - Arthur Miller (4*)
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller (3*)
Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery (4*)
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (3*)
The Railway Children - E. Nesbit (4*)
Animal Farm - George Orwell (4*)
*1984 - George Orwell (5*)
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (3*)
Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare (3*)
A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare (4*)
Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare (4*)
The Tempest - William Shakespeare (4*)
Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare (3*)
Carmilla - J. Sheridan le Fanu (4*)
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith (4*)
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (5*)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (4*)
Dracula - Bram Stoker (4*)
*The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (5*)
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (5*)
The Once and Future King - T.H. White (4*)
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (3*)
The Chrysalids - John Wyndham (3*)
The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham (1*)

* denotes an absolute favourite.

Planned classics for 2014:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
Villette - Charlotte Bronte
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Frenchman's Creek - Daphne du Maurier
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Complete Poems - Emily Bronte

Any suggestions for more classics I might enjoy would be greatly appreciated! :)

I don't see any Anthony Trollope. The best books to start with are Barchester Towers or The Eustace Diamonds. Elizabeth Gaskell is another great author. Two of her books that I can recommend are North and South and Mary Barton.

Thanks for you recommendations, I will definately check them out :)

I finished Carmilla last night. It was very good; creepy and really well written with wonderful descriptions. It's the first vampire novel (yes, it even predates the more famous Dracula!) and you can certainly see how heavily it influences more modern vampire works. I would definately recommend it :)

Classics read since I last updated:
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Mrs. Dalloway by Virgina Woolf
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Loved Dead and Other Revisionsby H.P. Lovecraft and C.M. Eddy Jr.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
The Once and Future Kingby T.H. White
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I've written reviews of a lot of these on my blog: http://yellowhairedreviewer.blogspot....

Color me impressed. You've read a lot of classics

I see Flowers for Algernon on your list. I didn't know that was a classic. I loved the book.

Finished Watership Down by Richard Adams.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is fantastic. I might have missed this on your list, but didn't see Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier.

Sorry--just saw Rebecca!

Barbara wrote: "Sorry--just saw Rebecca!"

Yes I love Rebecca - one of my favourites! I have owned Frankenstein for a long time - I must get round to it soon.

Just finished re-reading Wuthering Heights.

Jessica wrote: "Finished Watership Down by Richard Adams.

"

One of the most impressive books I have ever read. Absolutely brilliant, but be prepared to be chilled to the heart. Don't want to spoil it for you but I cried buckets at the end. One of those books which you wished every politician and "important" person was made to read and reflect on. Enjoy

Don't miss out on Vanity Fair by Thackeray. If you enjoy "Gone with the Wind" you need to read VAnity Fair. Becky and Scarlet could be sisters.

I agree Gisela, Watership Down is a profoundly moving and important novel - I loved it.

I have heard several times that Becky and Scarlett are similar characters. I have Vanity Fair on my 2015 to-read list (I have far too many lists...!)

Finished Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.

I gave it 4*. The other stories in the book weren't as good as Breakfast at Tiffany's, but Capote's writing is brilliant.

Jessica wrote: "Finished Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.

I gave it 4*. The other stories in the book weren't as good as Breakfast at Tiffany's, but Capote's writing is brilliant.

[bookcover:..."

I havent even seen the movie. Is it a short story?

Yes it is. I haven't seen the movie either but I'd like to.