Young Writers Society

We have to read classics this year for book reports!

So far I've got on my To Read list:

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
1984, by George Orwell
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brönte

And I was also going to get The Red Badge of Courage, but I forgot who wrote that. Any suggestions? (Please don't base them on the fact that I'm twelve. I read anything.)

Classics!! wow, i would recomend Charles Dickens to you, but i can't stand reading his books, so i wont recomend him. You can go for things like Wuthering Heights by one of the other Bronte's, or Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, i think anyway, is a classic. But on the other hand Peter Pan is a classic, just for a difference audience.

If it was published at least one hundred years ago, it qualifies as a classic.

darn it, Peter Pan was published in 1911, so if you wait 6 years you could do a report on it then, The Three Musketeers was first published in 1844.

Meh, my English teacher's really laid back...and I think 1984 was written in the thirties, am I correct?

Well, the way people define a classic changes from person to person. Some may say fifty and some may say seventy-five. But I was taught that it was one hundred years.

*shrugs* Know any good ones, then, Rei?

Not too fond of classic lit myself. Though A Christmas Carrol is all right.

A classic isn't necessarily defined by the number of years it's been around. There's no "set number" of years. Don't the Lord of the Rings count as classics oftentimes?

Red Badge of Courage I think was by Stephen Crane.

So... as for suggestions...

East of Eden, John Steinbeck (I think you'd like this one. Kind of reminds me of your style of writing.)
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas (Dry at times, but it only took me about a week to get through reading kind of slowly)
The Iliad, Homer (Okay, so I don't know if your teacher is counting epic poetry or whatever, but that's a good one.)

I'm brain dead. That's all I got right now, LOL.

I'll second East of Eden it was really good. I'll also second Pride and Prejudice it was actually really funny..

I didn't care for Jane Eyre, personally.. A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens was alright, though.

still need to read 1985.. been meaning to. Same with Red Badge of Courage (and yeah, its Stephen Crane), and apparently dad has a copy, so that gets read after Catch-22 (but I don't think that qualifies as a classic.. does it?)

I liked the Three Musketeers. And I dunno... Rudyard Kipling is awesome. Is he classic?

I read classics all the time but the one that i love "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. I think its called that, I just call it Dorian Gray. I've read it more then 10 times, I think its a great book.

I couldnt finish Jane Eyre - I knew the ending and I hated Jane...UGH! What a simpering ninny! But Wuthering Heights is great - really creepy in parts. So passionate. Also (I havent read all of these, but...): Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins, The Mill on the Floss, Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy, The Thornbirds (author ???)....I could think of more but you might be better googling it. Oh and I definitely recommend Pride & Prejudice - one of my faves! And A Room With a View, E. M. Forster. House of Mirth, Edith Wharton....

I've read Emma (Jane Austen) several times too...its great.

Alcina: The Picture of Dorian Gray, definitely, but it can get a little messy.

The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn would have to be my suggestion, especially for young readers.

Dickens, yeah... but the books are very long-winded, and not everyones favourite. I didn't really like them.