Young Writers Society

What are you favorite pieces of classic literature? - discuss. Also, what makes a classic; the age of the text, the era it comes from, the impact on the time period or the times after?

I'll start, to try and get the ball rolling. My favorites are The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and The Illiad by Homer.

eugh.. classics. I have no idea what constitutes a classic.

Old books I like, however! Pride and Prejudice is a favourite, and has been since I read it in eighth grade. Some Dickens.. Les Miserables, I'm currently working my way, slowly, through the nonabridged version, I read the abridged in english last year.

Also.. I like most Shakespeare I've read/seen/been in... anyone up for discussing that with someone who just loves it?

On classics.. I've been thinking. For me, a classic is a book I not only read again and again, but keeps me reading and writing. The impact the book has on me, and the impact it had when it came and still has today is a factor, I think, as well. A classic has to stand the test of time.. like the Illiad is still a favourite (kudos for that example, CL), while other books are only popular for a short time and then fade into a abyss of works in existance.

Yea, I could also use some help defining a classic. But if we can count Pride and Prejudice, I love that book. Oddly enough, I enjoyed The Scarlett Letter. I say oddly because I read it for school (like every other junior I know) and most of my friends either disliked it or were so pressed for time that they used SparkNotes instead. I didn't really expect to like it, but it's a wonderful book.

Shakespeare, yes, yes!

I liked Les Mis, the musical was by far more satifying, not that I didn't enjoy the book. Maybe some day I'll read it in french.

As for Dickins, the more obscure he is the more I like him. Thus I could care less for Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, or A Christmas Carol. The ones that I really like are Little Dorrit, Hard Times, Our Mutual Friend is a particular favorite, Edwin Drood, and my favorite of them all The Old Curiosity Shop.

Another favorite that I didn't mention is Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, it is not as well known as her other works Silas Marner, Middlemarch or Adam Beede, but it is my favorite. BBC made it into a rather good mini-series recently.

Wow, meaningfull discussion about a meaningful subject, i dont really read much classics but i do love Pride and Prejudice, Oliver twist and Christmas Carol. Seeing the musical of a Christmas Carol and Les Mis which one of my friends was in was so cool, made the books seem, well, not as good. And does Little Women count because that would definatly rate with me!

Pride & Prejudice definitely. I also like "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. It was written by a guy named Sun Tzu. Even though it was written a couple thousand years ago, it is still studied in military schools to this day.

Pride and Prejudice

The Odyssey

Arms and the Man

Dante!

A Pilgrim's Progress

The Bible

Letters from the Earth

Yes... you can like the bible and "Letters from the Earth" at the same time. XD

Pride and Prejudice (quite a favourite of everyones!)

The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Bible

Yay! The Scarlet Pimpernel
Alice in Wonderland
Wuthering Heights
Oliver
Nicholas Nickleby
The Three Musketeers
The Family at One End Street (are they classics?)

Theres other buts I can't name them all. I hate Jane Austen(sp?) books.

Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson (if you can handle the phrasing and have a good imagination you'll enjoy)
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baronnes Orczy (very good book, in my opinion, its like a 1792 mystery thriller)

Anna Karenina
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Pride and Prejudice
The Lord of the Rings (classic enough?)
Hamlet
The Scarlet Letter

Anything I like is a classic to me. But I liked 'Jane Eyre' specially. It was writtn by one of the Brontes, maybe Charlotte but I'm not too sure. Also, LOTR and Oliver Twist( That's the first book I read by myself when I was 8 years old. Before that my mother used to read to me.)

Journey to the Centre of the eart was good... if that was a classic.
It all depends I suppose... But obviously I don't think I've read enough to know what classic is

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Iliad, Homer
The Aeneid, Virgil
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Song of Roland
Macbeth, Shakespeare
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Beowulf
Theban Plays, Sophocles
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
The Bible
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

The sad part is that I still have so much to read... We were supposed to read To Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby my eighth grade year at my old school, but I switched schools after seventh grade... and so I still haven't. *cries* OR the Red Badge of Courage, or Anne of Green Gables, or all kinds of other stuff I should have read... *sniffle*

Some more...

Romaunt of the Rose, Chaucer
Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
The Art of War, Sun Tzu (...and in goverment classes... it was required reading along with The Prince)
The Prince, Machiavelli
Northanger Abbey, Austen
The Dubliners, Joyce
The Forsyte Saga, Galsworthy
Lorna Doone, R.D Blackmore
Othello, Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare
Sons and Lovers, Lawrence