Classics of literature: what are your favourites?

Read The Grapes of Wrath recently. Absolutely amazing book about a period of fairly modern history that never really seems to be mentioned.

It's not perfect (some of the dialogue is pretty stilted), but my god does it leave an impact.
 
Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

'Oliver Twist' By Dickens (Can't go wrong with any Dickens really)

Conan Doyles' Sherlock Holmes Stories are something you have to read

'Dracula' by Bram Stoker is also a brilliant read
 
Father Ted said:
Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

'Oliver Twist' By Dickens (Can't go wrong with any Dickens really)

Conan Doyles' Sherlock Holmes Stories are something you have to read

'Dracula' by Bram Stoker is also a brilliant read
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I like your list but can I add 'The Lord of the Rings' by JRR Tolkein and take off anything by Dickens.
 
Hmm that I have read that sort of could be classic I guess

Crime and Punishment - good, gripping in parts but long and I doubt I will read again but I do recommend it! Sort of a psychological crime thriller?

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists - I don't see this book mentioned a lot but I think it is an important book. It can get a bit of a slog to get through towards the end but you will take a lot away from it if you can get through it I feel. A lot call it the Socialists handbook so I guess it is about social issues but gives you an idea what life was like for workers in Britain in the past.

I've read a few by George Orwell as well, 1984 and Animal Farm - again I don't think he is a writer of incredible prose but these are books about themes in the world that are becoming more and more prominent in modern times some might say - authoritarianism and state control, invasion of privacy, rhetoric and propaganda. They are shorter than the other books above so quick and easy to read for a nice starter :)

That's all I can remember that I have read off the top of my head.
 
Vampyre said:
I like your list but can I add 'The Lord of the Rings' by JRR Tolkein and take off anything by Dickens.
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In answer to your question - no, you can't, sacrilege!! ;)

Seriously, how can you not appreciate Dickens. Great social commentary of his time, comic and bleak in equal measure, some fantastically grotesque characters, great stories - what's not to love?
 
davestar_delux said:
Hmm that I have read that sort of could be classic I guess

...
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists - I don't see this book mentioned a lot but I think it is an important book. It can get a bit of a slog to get through towards the end but you will take a lot away from it if you can get through it I feel. A lot call it the Socialists handbook so I guess it is about social issues but gives you an idea what life was like for workers in Britain in the past...
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Read it, found it exceptionally slow going and incredibly dull.
 
Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margerita"

"What would your good do if evil didn't exist?"
"There are no evil people in the world. Only good and stupid."
 
Not sure if you'd class it as a calssic, But Alices Adventures in Wonderland, and also Throught the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, both by Lewis Caroll (Rev. Charles Dodgson)
 
The Idiot, a lot of the ruski's do it for me, I hate Anna Karenina though. Its well written and paints the picture just fine, I just by the end realised so little happened, Anna Karenina's story is irksome because basically she's a selfish **** :p

There are a few likeable characters but, I just found it lacking a strong enough character doing something interesting enough to hold the story together.

Never got through War and Peace for various reasons, end up putting it down, losing where I was completely, starting again, I've probably read the first 50 pages several times but always seem to pick it up right before I get busy with work of some kind.

Modern classics, am a bit of a Bukowski fan, less the poetry, more his stories.
 
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