Favorite Classic Novels!

I recently read All Quiet on the Western Front. Damn.

Oliver Twist is a lot of fun

"1984" by George Orwell.
I can not explain how deeply is expressed the thought of an author in this novel. Not only the plot and characters are well set. The writer incorporates his own philosophy into the thoughts of Protagonist, while all things against which author stands or afraid of are depicted as anouter world around the Protagonist. But it gets even further, far beyond the authors fantasy. George Orwell lets us understand that he read K. Marx's "Capital" and many other related works but depicts the problems of class struggle through the plot, full of emotions, which is to us, human beings is way easier to conprehend, sympathise with and finally to remember, than dry theory or history of academic textbooks.
I believe that this noval, although a fiction, is a must read for all law, political science, economics and sociology undergraduate courses, as it has a potential to explain the reader so much more than theoretical materials.

Grapes of Wrath.

And, while it may not be the most original choice, Gatsby has the rep it has for a reason.

The Count of Monte Cristo. Frankenstein. Bleak House. A Tale of Two Cities.

Don't ask me to pick just one, please!

Odile_Blud said:

What's your favorite classic novel?

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More writers than specific novels - Edgar Allen Poe, Robert E Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Agatha Christie, some of the Dashiell Hammett/Mickey Spillane/Raymond Chandler stuff... I'm sensing a pattern here.

Jeff

Off the top of my head,

Steppenwolf / Hermann Hesse
The Double / Dostoyevski
Hunger / Knut Hamsun
Wide Sargasso Sea / Jean Rhys
The Little Prince / Antoine de Saint-Exupery (if 1943 it is not too late)
ETA: The Trial / Franz Kafka (saw it on another thread!)

The Wind In The Willows
Not enough people read it and now Mr. Toad is in the Oval Office. We were warned.

Pride and Prejudice

Madame Bovary. I am fascinated by the way Flaubert "slows down" the narrative when Emma is suffering ennui and feeling bored/dejected: the way Flaubert changes the language and pacing in these scenes forces the reader to experience Emma's boredom and dejection. The narrative "voice" stops focusing on events in these passages and rambles about little objects or the details in a room, just as one does when feeling as Emma feels in these scenes. It really goes far beyond "showing": it forces the reader to actually experience Emma Bovary's feelings.

And I love the idea of a beautiful woman whose early exposure to novels has wrecked her chances for achieving what she wants (what she saw in her books) in real life. Being beautiful, if one is a character in a romantic novel, guarantees the best things in life, and the happy ending, as one's due. Emma is halfway through her life's own plot before she realizes--tragically, and later than non-bookish girls--that things are not going to turn out the way she expected because the world is not what she had thought it was.

And, as Flaubert also asserted, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi." Me, too. Sigh.

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Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy for me. Although I also love Dracula, and A Tale of Two Cities, and Wuthering Heights, and...and...and...I could go on for a while

Second Madame Bovary. Also War and Peace, which college made me read but genuinely rekindled my enthusiasm for fiction. It's amazing how well his characterizations (Natasha dancing, Nikolai gambling) hold up through the years. Dostoevsky on the other hand (who college also made me read) seems to lose quite a bit-- a lot of his religious/moral concern falls flat, for me at least.

Wuthering Heights.
Great Expectations
The House of the Dead

Another here who loves 'Vanity Fair.' No one could draw a character so well with so few strokes as Thackeray. I would put 'Kim' high on my list, if only for the beauty of Kipling's prose.

Not quite old enough for 'classic' but 'The Lord of the Rings' would be up there too. Dang, three old white British guys...

I could fire off an endless list which is only going to get longer as long as I'm still able to absorb words here and maybe beyond. Moby Dick and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are two more I can most vigorously recommend everybody experiences. Treasure Island certainly seems full of treasure from what I've read so far but the copy I had has gone to crap with mildew so will have to search a replacement!

autumnleaf said:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is an obvious one, but for good reason. So many great moments and lines.

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LOVED LOVED LOVED - my fav for sure!!!

but also -- > 3 musketeers, count of monte cristo, Les Miz, High winds for Jamaica, and...does Winnie the Pooh count? The Goops? the Secret of Pooduck Island, Heidi, several du maurier books (Frenchman's Creek, The King's General, Rebecca)

If I had to pick just one, it would be Wuthering Heights. I'm gripped by a lot of things: the savage landscape, the fact that none of the characters are really likeable and yet all are compelling, the way that Bronte handles narrative voice and wraps a story within a story.

I may have mentioned this before in the thread, but for all Hugo lovers who enjoy Les Mis and Hunchback, I highly recommend the less-known The Man Who Laughs. A greatly neglected masterpiece.

caw

Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
The Odd Women - George Gissing
Narcissus and Goldmund - Herman Hesse

Theodor M. said:

"1984" by George Orwell.
I can not explain how deeply is expressed the thought of an author in this novel. Not only the plot and characters are well set. The writer incorporates his own philosophy into the thoughts of Protagonist, while all things against which author stands or afraid of are depicted as anouter world around the Protagonist. But it gets even further, far beyond the authors fantasy. George Orwell lets us understand that he read K. Marx's "Capital" and many other related works but depicts the problems of class struggle through the plot, full of emotions, which is to us, human beings is way easier to conprehend, sympathise with and finally to remember, than dry theory or history of academic textbooks.
I believe that this noval, although a fiction, is a must read for all law, political science, economics and sociology undergraduate courses, as it has a potential to explain the reader so much more than theoretical materials.

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1984 is a very accessible classic, although I think DH Lawrence was ahead of Orwell in characters using sex as a rebellion against society: a defiant triumph of the individual over the collective.

So much good stuff- my favourite Hardy novels are Tess of The D'Urbervilles, Far From The Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native and The Mayor of Casterbridge. His commentary on society and the sensuality that you wouldn't associate with Victorian literature is very relevant to today's society. It's particularly interesting to see how he deals with female characters; though they are very much through a man's eye, a recurring theme throughout Hardy's novels is how his male characters continually fail women.

Other classics are:
Jane Eyre (it's just a good accessible read- as well as romance and sensuality, ypu have a strong heroine)
Vilette (very underrated- if you though Jane Eyre was lonely and found love hard, Lucy Snowe is heartbreakingly alone)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Wuthering Heights (I love the wildness and unrestrained quality of the novel and the way in which the problems of the first generation of characters continue on until the seconds)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy creates interesting flawed characters that are still sympathetic. Whilst there are strong social and moral messages, they are enjoyable for the drama alone)
The Rainbow (my favourite DH Lawrence novel- a saga of sexual awakening that spans several generations. Hard to believe it is over a century old)
Vanity Fair (love the satire and despite the fact that it's the size of a brick, it's a fun read)

There's probably lots of others that I've forgotten.

My favourite is Call of the Wild, Only book i have ever read more than once (and now many times actually),

Notable mention to Moby Dick although i never finished it - they took far too long to get on the boat.

I actively hated Dracula, just couldnt get my teeth into it, pardon the pun.

War and Peace

Jane Eyre

Tale of Two Cities

Gone with the Wind

Dracula

The Scarlet Pimpernel

The one I don't love is Jane Austen. I used to WANT very badly to like her books, but I realized over time that I just don't -- her characters tend to grate on my nerves somehow. Lizzie and Darcy especially. He's a jerk, and she's the sort of spunky that I want to slap. Took me a while, well into my 20s, to give myself permission to say, hey, this isn't my thing. Reading and enjoying War and Peace helped me give that permission, I think.

Lady Ice said:

So much good stuff- my favourite Hardy novels are Tess of The D'Urbervilles, Far From The Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native and The Mayor of Casterbridge. His commentary on society and the sensuality that you wouldn't associate with Victorian literature is very relevant to today's society. It's particularly interesting to see how he deals with female characters; though they are very much through a man's eye, a recurring theme throughout Hardy's novels is how his male characters continually fail women.

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I had commented on this in the 'What Classic Novel Do You Want to Read Thread', I also utterly enthralled by Hardy, and totally agree with what you're saying here. Hardy certainly had an eye on how men fail women, and how everyone fails everyone for that matter.

Ever read any of his poetry?

Is it too juvenile to say both Frances Hodgson Burnett's Secret Garden and A Little Princess? I still really connect with the settings, characters, and themes of both books.

I don't read as much as a probably should, so most of my proper classic reading was done in High School for assignments, and my classes often assigned the novels I did not look forward to reading. However, of what we did read, I loved Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby.