Favorites in Classic Literature...

I don't know if age is necessarily as important as the impact it has on both literature and society. I consider many of Kurt Vonnegut's books classics. They may only have been written thirty years ago, but their impact is so huge, and they are so well-known, that they are verifiable classics.

Ooooh, classics!

I loved:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Lord of the Rings (since we are considering it a classic) by Tolkien
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Sea Wolf by Jack London (er, I don't know if it's a classic, but might be)
Men of Iron by Howard Pyle (*drools*)
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
Wulf the Saxon by GA Henty

The classics I really want to read are Les Miserables and Hunchback of Notre Dame, but alas, I have not yet.

I luv classics! Has anyone mentioned watership down or the sectret garden, or the jungle book?

I have stacks upon stacks of classics - I collect them - and occasionally when I'm feeling scholarly (or I run out of modern novels) I pull one out at random and read it. So far my faves have to be:

1984 by George Orwell
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (my favourite book ever)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Alexander Trilogy by Mary Renault (written in the '60s, I believe, but still classics)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (and not the bloody abridged version **scowl**)
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
A Room With a View by E. M. Forster
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (naturally)
Emma by Jane Austen (of course)
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (yes, I'm an Austen fan)
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

To me, a classic is generally non-contemporary fiction (written, say, more than 20-30 years ago) which is one of those that people still read and enjoy despite the differences in culture/time/etc. It may or may not have had a large impact when it was produced, etc. No doubt I will think up some more examples of classics the moment I post this, but that will have to do for now, coz I gtg!

Oh well...some classics are brilliant; and some I can't fathom...that would mostly be among those labeled a bit more recently. But then, classic can be terribly subjective...

The Brothers Karamozov Dostoyevsky

The Idiot Dostoyevsky

Peter Pan Barrie

Three Musketeers by Dumas

David Copperfield by Dickens

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


There are more, always more...and I never can recall them all at once. Shakespeare goes without saying; as does Tolkien.

Dante, Snoink? The Inferno or the DC?

The Inferno does rock, I must say; when I get my cat, I'm calling him Dante.

Ha ha, that rocks, Bob.

I love the whole Divine Comedy. I was scared at parts during Inferno, and some of Paradise was boring beyond reason, but I think Purgatory was my favourite.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde -- Robert Louis Stevenson
Peter Pan -- J.M. Barrie
Children of the New Forest -- ?? (Is that a classic?)
I for got to mention Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian is my favourite.

i read Ivanhoe recentley, it was cool but it was the crappy simplified version so i didnt get much out of it...

I have a fetish for anything classic, I think- I have a hard time trusting the quality of a book if it hasn't been read and re-read for at least half a century. Some of my favorites are:

Mansfeild Park by Jane Austen
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë....actually anything by the Brontë sisters is a favorite.

Shakespere
Jane Austen
BARTLEBY THE SCIVINER! (every time the teacher announces a test, we now chorus: "I prefer not to")
Beowulf, at times
Grimms fairy tales
Secret Garden
Jungle Book
Becket, at times
Crucible, at times

my "at times" books are those where I read certain scenes over and over again (like in Crucible, "Just leave me my name!") but don't always like the rest of the book/play/what have you.

Oh boy, I have to add more to my list!

Canterbury Tales
Hamlet
(not sure if it counts) Rosincrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Macbeth
Beowulf (well, sometimes. I had to read it twice for two different English classes in one semestre)
East of Eden
and I love Much Ado About Nothing to death, and used that for a Shakespeare project this year in English, too!

This year in English has been good to me, I have to say.

My top two favorite classical writers are:

1.) William Shakespeare
2.) Jane Austen

I love both these writers, there's a fluidity in their writing that just flows off the page, and circles around me.

As for what makes them classical writers, I believe it comes back to the way the write, the way the words just... ah, there really is no way to explain it. There is just an essence in there words that reeks of... There really is not way to explain it.

bubblewrapped described classic literature perfectly.

bubblewrapped wrote:To me, a classic is generally non-contemporary fiction (written, say, more than 20-30 years ago) which is one of those that people still read and enjoy despite the differences in culture/time/etc. It may or may not have had a large impact when it was produced, etc.

So far, what I can think of, these are a few of my favorites.

On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
The Mayor Of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Alice in Wonderland/ Through the looking glass
The Chronicles of Narnia
Peter Pan
Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Three men in a boat (Anybody read it?)
Pride and Prejudice
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Lord of the Rings (Does that count?)

I'm sure there are more, but I cannot think of them.