Okay, so this summer I have a goal to read a lot of classics. What are some good ones for people my age that aren't too gory or have too many sex scenes...? (sorry guys...my mom )
Sorrow lasts through this night I'll take this piece of you, and hold for all eternity For just one second I felt whole... as you flew right through me. ~Sorrow by Flyleaf
Let's see...Classics... And you're 14? Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Peter Pan (Don't knock it. Its a classic!), The Phantom of the Opera?, Gone With the Wind (I'm not to fond of it and its really long but its still a classic), Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles are horror/gothic classics but they can be a little sexual - not bad though - , Anything by Shakespeare especially Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer's Night Dream, I know there has to be more but its one a clock in the morning right now and I just can't think... Google it though. There are some pretty good lists of stuff... Oh! My favorite is The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde but it can be a little mature. I cant think of anything in it thats overly sexual but its got themes, you know?
I'm going to echo that recommendation of Pride and Prejudice. It's a really good book, and I actually read it when I was 14 XD
-A Little Princess/A Secret Garden. Technically for children, but still good. -Crime & Punishment. REALLY good, but a bit gory. The main character does murder someone. -The Secret Life of Bees. Technically a classic. I was never a fan, but some people really like it.
But whether James really did take off Snape's pants, Harry never found out.
I've also been tentative about classics for a while, and I understand your feeling of wanting to get into reading them. They can be harder to get through than modern books, not because they're "boring" (some are, but so are some books published today!), but because the language is old English, and with every generation language evolves. It can be hard to understand not only the actual words, but the phrases, expressions and cultural references.
I'm not trying to turn you off classics -- just saying that finding them harder to read doesn't mean you're "uneducated" or anything.
My advice about classics is to start with a genre you like. In my case, that was science fiction. As a kid I read older fantasy books by Enid Blyton. I'm not sure if those are really classics.
The first classic I read voluntarily was Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's a good science fiction book, although there are a lot of explicit references and some gore, and also some psychological stuff, but most of it is not overly "twisted", if you know what I mean. I would say it is okay for a fourteen year old to read. It's also really interesting to read the second edition, which includes a lot of notes on Huxley's research writing the book.
Jane Eyre is good if you like romance and character development. To Kill a Mockingbird looks into social issues, and is neither explicit nor hard to read (disturbing things do happen, but they're "off-screen" and not described in detail).
Narnia is also good; it's usually said to be for children but it is definitely interesting to read. Each individual book isn't too long, either.
My final advice about reading classics is to get larger print editions if you can. For some reason even modern editions of classics are often printed in this tiny, lines-super-close-together text that goes right to the margins, making them physically more difficult to read.
"You are altogether a human being, Jane? You are certain of that?" "I conscientiously believe so, Mr Rochester." ~ Jane Eyre
Well, I had to read classic novels in my English class and here are a few titles from the list:
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer Tarzan of the Apes: A Tale of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Catch-22 : a novel by Joseph Heller The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling White Fang by Jack London The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien and of course... The Hobbit by the same author
So, hope these are interesting. I can't really say much about all of them because I haven't read them all, but I've heard that the Hunchback is a little slow (nothing like Disney and I expect the same from the Jungle Book. Who knows?) Personally I love the Lord of the Rings. The Odyssey is interesting if you find a good version in my opinion. Hope this helps!
A man can change his stars. William Thatcher ~ "A Knight's Tale"
Just because I'm losing, doesn't mean I'm lost ~ Lost! by Coldplay
"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. The characters (especially the main character and one of my heroes, Howard Roark) are the true selling point of it, and they have been since it was first released, in 1943. A true classic, and a glorious read.
"I'm fearless in my heart They will always see that in my eyes I am the passion, I am the warfare I will never stop Always constant, Accurate, Intense" "The Audience is Listening", by Steve Vai
Oh! I love Ayn Rand! Her books are more than just stories, they're filled with philosophy that gets you thinking even while being entertained. Though... The Fountainhead does have some sex in it... kinda odd sex. But it's not, like, overly detailed in those scenes. I'd check it out and don't let the size intimidate you or the first few pages trick you into thinking that its boring or all about architecture. It's not either.
)
