For you "warrior" readers out there, or anyone really, what novel would you choose as your favorite from what are considered "World's Great Books" or "Old Classics?" They can also be children's books or stories if you wish.
I've read regularly most of my life, but fall short when it comes to the classics. The Iliad, The Odyssey, Don Quixote of La Mancha, and Gulliver's Travels are part of my list, but a short list it is.
I would like to know your favorites and why because I'd like to read more of these great books. Your choices could help me decide.
beyondtheveil posted on Aug 23, 2007
| views: 1058
Comments
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uniquely-ironic said on Aug 23, 2007....
The Old Man and the Sea -
polarheart said on Aug 23, 2007....
Great Expectations -
bloc said on Aug 23, 2007....
Walden by Henry David Thoreau -
gingersoul said on Aug 23, 2007....
BeyBey......i think anybody here will be able to give a list of classic in English. I want give you some titles of books that are considered classic for my country and i really enjoyed reading. I think each country has its own "classic" .
Alessandro Manzoni "I Promessi Sposi" (The promised spouses). A book that keeps you chained since the beginning. The story of Renzo and Lucia is told like a modern Romeo and Juliet and placed in the farmers society of Lake Como's country side in the '800. Manzoni was an artisan like Dumas. Great plot, adventures, forbidden love, deaths.......you got it all.
From Wikipedia: The Promessi Sposi is the work that has made him immortal. No doubt the idea of the historical novel came to him from Sir Walter Scott, but Manzoni succeeded in something more than an historical novel in the narrow meaning of that word; he created an eminently realistic work of art. The reader's attention is entirely fixed on the powerful objective creation of the characters. From the greatest to the least they have a wonderful verisimilitude. Manzoni is able to unfold a character in all particulars and to follow it through its different phases. Don Abbondio and Renzo are as perfect as Azzeccagarbugli and Il Sarto. Manzoni dives down into the innermost recesses of the human heart, and draws from it the most subtle psychological reality. In this his greatness lies, which was recognized first by his companion in genius, Goethe
Another Italian writer i love is Italo Calvino. Again.... from Wikipedia: Calvino. Choose any of his books, its great reading.
I bet you already know Umberto Eco, if not... "The name of The Rose" is simply superb.
I will be back with other books....:-)
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Expendable said on Aug 23, 2007....
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
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mobil said on Aug 23, 2007....
Old YellerThe YearlingWhere The Red Fern Grows -
sweet_cookie01 said on Aug 23, 2007....
tragic romance.... WUTHERING HIEGHTS -
the_infernal_optimist said on Aug 23, 2007....
The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas is far and away my favorite of the "greats" I've read. It's all of humanity in the circular journey of a very memorable soul.
ginger: Surprise! ;-) I went with a Frenchman. Your list sounds fascinating, and I think I might have to check some of those out!
~Infernal
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pickersplock said on Aug 23, 2007....
East of EdenJane Eyre -
bloc said on Aug 23, 2007....
@pickersI read your comment and thought, "um East of Eden is by steinbeck not jane eyre". Then I realized I was being retarded ;) -
pickersplock said on Aug 23, 2007....
You silly bloc!I loveIn Cold Blood and the Executioner's Song as well, but I don't really know if they're old enough to be considered classics. -
secretlife said on Aug 23, 2007....
Brave New World - HuxleyThe Grapes of Wrath - J. SteinbeckHenderson The Rain King - Saul BellowTo Kill A Mockingbird - Harper LeeMoby Dick - MelvilleSlaughterhouse Five - VonnegutAnimal Farm - OrwellThe Catcher In The Rye - SalingerSomething Wicked This Way Comes - Ray BradburyInvisible Man - EllisonCall of The Wild (for mobil) - Jack LondonOn The Road - Jack KerouacShane - Jack ShaeferLord of The Flies - GoldingAtlas Shrugged - Ayn RandOf Mice and Men - SteinbeckA Farewell to Arms - Hemmingwayok, plus every book on here.......i was an english major beyond........my list could go on forever. -
pickersplock said on Aug 23, 2007....
Has anyone read Dracula?That book is amazing, I had to read it for my pop-culture class in college.I couldn't put it down. -
bloc said on Aug 23, 2007....
@secretI LOVE orwell. I found 1984 more challenging than animal farm. While we're on the subject, I love his essay Politics and The English Language -
silverwhisper said on Aug 23, 2007....
while like infernal i'm a fan of dumas, i would instead recommend the three musketeers rather than the count of monte cristo. among american writers, i refuse to believe i'm the first to recommend mark twain's seminal the adventures of huckleberry finn and i second the recommendation of salinger's the catcher in the rye; among british writers not already suggested, milton's paradise lost certainly leaps to mind, as well as the collected works of shakespeare but i daresay that goes without saying. for german writers, perhaps herman hesse's siddhartha.
ed -
wombat said on Aug 23, 2007....
I was going to say "Lord of The Flies" which we read in college, and "The Grapes of Wrath" which I read just cause it was good. I can't think of another right now, except Shakespear's "All's Well, That Ends Well." I read that when I was young, and liked it for some reason. -
Zayda said on Aug 23, 2007....
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ~~ Twain
Red Harvest ~~ Dashell Hammet
The Master and Margarita ~~ Mikhail Bulgakov
Faust ~~ Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe
The Sorrows of Young Werther ~~ Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe
The New Sufferings of Young W ~~ Ulrich Plenzdorf
Wide Sargasso Sea ~~ Jean Rhyss
I am the Cheese ~~ Robert Cormier
The Count of Monte Cristo ~~ Alexandre Dumas
The Quiet American ~~ Graham Greene
Wuthering Heights ~~ Emily Bronte
Dracula ~~ Bram Stoker
Frankenstein ~~ Mary Shelley
Madame Bovary ~~ Gustave Flaubert
Night ~~ Elie Wiesel
Collected Works of Poetry ~~ H.D.
War and Peace ~~ Tolstoy
Elective Affinities ~~ ~~ Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe
The Scarlet Pimpernel ~~ Baroness Orcczy
The Last of the Mohicans ~~ James Fenimore Copper
Zadig ~~ Voltaire
L'Ingenu ~~ Voltaire
Sons and Lovers ~~ D.H. Lawrence
Lady Chatterly's Lover ~~ D.H. Lawrence
The Plumed Serpent ~~ D.H. Lawrence
The Torrents of Spring ~~ Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises ~~Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms ~~ Hemingway
To Have and Have Not ~~Hemingway
The Green Hills of Africa (Non-fiction) ~~ Hemingway
Almost any of the books already listed here. My list could go on for a long time. I was an English major and I have graduate degrees in English.
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ninjapirate said on Aug 23, 2007....
Oh I love classics, here are my favoritesCatcher in the Rye is my all time favoriteCatch 22 is hilariousEast of Eden is very interestingI'm not sure if Siddhartha would be considered a classic, but its good too.Candide by Voltaire has some interesting witty parts to it and the story is thoughtful.1984 is coolI love Don Quixote, know the story, but never read the whole thing yetBeowulf was interesting tooThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is funny and controversialCrime and Punishment is excellent, but very detailedThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras CountyA Discourse on Method by Des Cartes is pretty complicated, but can be pretty interestingScarlet Letter is alright tooThe Canterberry Tales is funny tooDracula and Frankenstein are great too.I'm sure I'll think of more later! -
ninjapirate said on Aug 23, 2007....
Oh I just remembered Fahrenheit 451 by Bradley, very fun to read. -
pickersplock said on Aug 23, 2007....
How could I forget Anna Karenina? -
moonriver said on Aug 23, 2007....
beyond, you asked for favorites from the classics. since i 'd probably spend a whole day writing a long list, i'll just keep it short and sweet by (a) listing only a few of my authors and (b) listing just one of their works that i read from cover to cover, and found memorable enough to keep a personal copy of and to re-read a few times more... :-)
* my all-time fav, victor hugo (les miserables)
* charles dickens (the prince and the pauper, a christmas carol)
* leo tolstoy (anna karenina... i'm actually re-reading it right now)
the ff. might not be considered "old classics" but here goes anyway:
* steinbeck (grapes of wrath)
* maxim gorky (mother)
* lu xun (the story of ah q)
i would have liked to mention rabindranath tagore, but i've read only a few of his short stories, not his major works.
and, of course, tomes of non-western classic novels -- in spanish and in two of my native languages -- that i can't mention here for reasons that some of you who're familiar with my blogs will readily understand.
oh, i can mention one, although it isn't really a novel but a historical chronicle -- Comentarios reales de los incas by garcilaso de la vega. my copy smells like a musty archival tome.
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LadyGamer said on Aug 23, 2007....
Grendel
John Gardner
A story from the monster's perspective. Dark, twisted, perfect. -
Eilan said on Aug 23, 2007....
Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe
Tom Jones, Hentry Fielding
Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne
Yeah, I enjoyed my 18-century novel class!
Orlando and Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
McTeague, Frank Norris
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe -
Zayda said on Aug 23, 2007....
Oh, how could I forget Virginia Woolf. My favorite was To the Lighthouse. -
gingersoul said on Aug 23, 2007....
I have no idea if somebody else already mentioned these ones but i tell you the same:
Decamerone - Boccaccio
Orlando Furioso - Torquato Tasso
Divina Commedia - Dante Alighieri
One Hundreds Years of Loneliness - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Le Liason Dangerous - M. De Laclos
My Memories - Giacomo Casanova
A room for one's own - Virgina Woolf
Siddharta - Herman Hesse
The sorrows of young Werther - Goethe (and Elective Affinities)
Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
A la recherche du temps perdu - Marcel Proust
The metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
The Second Sex - Simone De Beauvoir
The garden of forking paths - Louis Borges
and i can go on and on and on ......:-0
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PassionTraveler said on Aug 23, 2007....
- Anything by Edgar Allen Poe, especially The Raven
(Gee, I wonder why? Maybe I'm NAMED after that poem?) - Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
(Trivia: Did you know that more CEOs report having read Atlas Shrugged than any other novel, and said that it contributed to their success?) - The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
- Also LOVE Hawthorne
PT
- Anything by Edgar Allen Poe, especially The Raven
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rightwingwizard said on Aug 24, 2007....
I actually have little to offer here. Most if anot all my favorites have been mentioned already. I have jumping around in my mind several titles w/o authors and authors w/o titles. Wouldnt help much I suppose.I cannot believe that no one has mentioned Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are certainly classics and much loved. Also the very stuff of all modern RPG'sAlso I am rather surprised that The Tale of Two Cities by C. Dickens has not already been mentioned. Perhaps because it was required reading for so many of us.How about The Albatross, by I Can't for the Life of Me Remember*, but I loved it.Homer's the Ilyad and The Odessyrww* This particular author seems to have been quite prolific, perhaps almost as much so as anonymous.ps: I don't know how many would consider this a classic, but The Stand, by Steven King is certainly his best work and if it is not now considered classic, it most certainly shall be. -
lfbno7 said on Aug 24, 2007....
I bought a book called The Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman of the Book of the Month Club and Encyclopedia Brittanica. I read all of the novels he featured in that book. I didn't read all of the poetry or philosophy.
I have so many favorites. The first that comes to mind is one that didn't make Fadiman's book. Lord of the Rings by Tolkein. I like that one so much that I have a collection of figures done by Royal Doulton, and other figures I found while strolling Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I read the books a number of times, sometimes to my family. Though it's relatively recent, and though it has elements of the action story and a fantasy story, I'd place it most definitely among the classics of all time, up there with War And Peace and the rest. Perhaps a snob wouldn't but I think it belongs up there.
The fact is, there are weaknesses in even the most respected books. If you analyze them, you will find parts that strike you as unrealistic. For example, Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Why did Hester Prynne return to New England, abandoning her beloved daughter and grandchild in England? It is a very poor ending. Sorry, but it does not compute, and I'm not a fan of Natty Hawthorne. I don't like his short stories either. They are predictable and silly, to my mind. Often something magical going on, with a lot of repetition from one silly short story to the next.
Up there with LOTR is Don Quixote. I really loved that book. I wasn't inclined to like it as much as I did, since I had the impression that it was all about a dopy old man jousting with windmills, and that part of the story is like a comic book. But if you read the book, you find that the "jousting with windmills" part takes up only one page. It's a comic interlude. The rest of the book is so rich.
My favorite part of Don Quixote is the relationship between the title character and his faithful squire Sancho Panza. In a way it is a love story about the two of them, in the most beautiful and yet most comic sense.
The funniest scene for me in the whole book is when Don Quixote is convinced by a sarcastic noble that he will never find his beloved Dulcinea until after he has spanked Sancho Panza a certain very large number of times, and he goes for Sancho, and Sancho decks him. It's hysterical.
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moonriver said on Aug 24, 2007....
bwahaha, what a funny mistake i made. the prince and the pauper was by mark twain. i don't know why i remembered the wrong author... twas so long ago, i guess ;-)
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silverphoenix said on Aug 24, 2007....
Zayda, Secretlife : yey, kindred spirits! I studied English Literature (and later Modern Literature) for years. Literature is the best :)
Right beyondtheveil, choose carefully because the right books will stay in your heart and keep you company on dark nights long after you've finished reading them ;)
Great books / plays that require reading include:
Wuthering Heights (gothic romance that became a benchmark in love and loss)
Pride & Prejudice (seriously great book that is really funny! Honest!)
Shakespeare (any but definitely Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth)
To Kill A Mockingbird (beautiful, anti-smallmindedness childhood song)
East of Eden (great rolling saga with sex, love, betrayal and beauty: Timshel! and any other Steinbeck)
Arthur Miller (esp. The Crucible and A View from the Bridge - great)
Tennessee Williams (esp. Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
Little House on the Prarie children's books (do not confuse with tv series!!)
Graham Greene (my favourite is The End of the Affair)
and so many more...
Modern Thrills include:
House of Sand and Fog (actually raised my pulse rate at end!)
Chuck Palaniuk (off the wall but touches of genius)
Jeffrey Eugenides (amazing - made me believe he was young american boy in The Virgin Suicides and a greek girl in Middlesex!)
Annie Proulx (wrote Brokeback Mountain which is beautiful: see Wyoming Stories)
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje (gorgeous)
Beloved, Toni Morrison (creepy, beautiful)
Great stuff that will disturb you if you're a deep thinker, but has to be done:
1984, George Orwell (genius. 2+2=? needed for so much cultural reference)
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (black, bleak, eerie)
Catcher In The Rye (love it! so much more than meets the eye)
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (genius ending)
The Trial, Franz Kafka (stays with you. horrific. good)
Good grief, sorry, that's a bit too much info. I know I'm forgetting others, but I stick to my guns that this is a really interesting list! And more than a good start.
P.S. rightwingwizard - are you thinking of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge?
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rightwingwizard said on Aug 24, 2007....
silverphoenix: That's the one, thanks. Its been a long time, maybe 40 years since I read it last.rww -
destinydiva said on Aug 24, 2007....
does it have to be a classic?? or can it just be my favourite??
illusions... richard bach!!! I love it... its a classic for me :-)
destiny xx
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lioneljay said on Aug 24, 2007....
I'm going to define "favorite" as a book that I actually read over and over again. That eliminates well over 95% of all the books that I've ever read and as a reformed English major, that's a depressingly long list.
So, a few that I have and do reread from time to time:
Hamlet, by that bearded guy from Avon
Appointment in Samarra, by John O'Hara
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
The Little Prince, by Antoine de St. Exupéry
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
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Machiavelli4110 said on Aug 24, 2007....
Catcher in the Rye is my favor if I to pick one. -
skymir said on Aug 24, 2007....
I’m notoriously indesive at picking favorites like this but I will give it a try:
Walden and civil disobedience
The collective works of Poe
The divine comedy
(Resists urge to add 15 more)
OK that list is painfully short, But I will leave it at that.
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JLLnLLH said on Aug 24, 2007....
Native Son- not sure on the author. Read it 5 years ago, still think about it all the time! I have it on my book shelf at home!Journey to the center of the earth- also very good! One you don't want to put down. And way better than the movie.Gullivers Travels- One of the best ever hands down. I also have it on my book shelf at home! -
gingersoul said on Aug 24, 2007....
LJ....how did i forget The Little Prince by Saint Exupery?
Now ..this is super classic....a jewel within the jewels..so small, unpretentious yet so deep....
Phoenix.....i agree on Margaret Atwood and Graham Greene...i forgot to put them in my list....:-).
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secretlife said on Aug 24, 2007....
John Barth - Lost in The Funhouseand ginger reminded me of Borges---Labyrinths - wonderful stories. -
biglove said on Aug 24, 2007....
Some of my favorites are, Watership Down ~ George Adams, A Wrinkle in Time ~ Madeleine L'Engle, The Hobbit ~ John Tolkien, The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart ~ Edgar allen Poe (anything by Poe), The Taming of the Shrew ~ Shakespear, The Time Machine ~ H.G Wells. -
beyondtheveil said on Aug 24, 2007....
I am over whelmed. It has been said that scer's will always help when asked and this proves it to me. I want to thank all of you very much for this response. This will not only help me immeasurably, but with the tag of books could help others in search of the same thing I was.
I have read twenty three of the books listed, but I believe you will agree it is a small part of what you have provided me with. My reading has primarily centered around history, bios, science, etc., so you can see how I felt left out from my reading of great novels.
It was my belief that the best way to know where to begin was to obtain lifelong favorites from readers and you gave me just that. So once again, thank you, I have a starter list and am going to concentrate my reading on these great works.
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rmuxagirl said on Aug 24, 2007....
I would always always go for Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. I read in college several years ago and simply fell in love with it. -
secretlife said on Aug 24, 2007....
couple more--- can't help myself
The Sound and The Fury--Faulkner
The Day of The Locust - Nat West
The Moviegoer - Walker Percy
All The Kings Men - Robert Penn Warren
Robinson Crusoe - Defoe (read this with my son this summer)
Tom Jones (woohoo) Fielding
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Carroll
Great Expectations - Dickens
The Trial - Kafka
The World According to Garp- Irving
Ulysses - James Joyce
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PassionTraveler said on Aug 24, 2007....
RWW, I agree about Steven King's "The Stand", it's excellent work, as is "ShawShank Redemption."
Another one I found very good, surprisingly, was a college read, Emile Zola's "Germinal" and Carson McCuller's "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter".
PT
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destinydiva said on Aug 24, 2007....
i love shawshank redemption.... classic!!!
aaawwww beyond, such an appreciative response... it makes me wanna post like 10 zillion books for you to choose from cus you appreciated it :-)
but i dont know of ten zillion....so i will stick with my first suggestion...illusions ....
(ya been tempted since i first got here and mentioned it :-) I think it should reach the top of your list :-) (i'm really curious to here your thoughts on it too :-)
so what you waiting for??? go buy it !!! :-)
other favourites.... the BFG ~mr dahl :-) well its a classic :-) ...
Destiny xx :-)
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Moelt said on Sep 11, 2007....
I've always liked Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea.I'll mention Beowulf, too. (did I spell that right? I don't have a copy)Now I'm going to leave it at that because all of you havelisted my other favorites. :)
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