Recommendation...

[Aurora Ariel]

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[PeterL]

Does that mean that you read all of Shakespeare's history plays?

[Pensive]

I will recommend:

Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Vanity Fair by William Thackeray

King Lear by Shakespeare

Although I have not read The Scarlet Letter, The Woman in White and Middlemarch, these are in my to read list, I will ask you to try them-they looks pretty good.

[mono]

Wow, you have quite a list, Aurora Ariel! :nod:
Where to begin, where to begin! One can never go wrong reading work by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, or Jane Austen, in my opinion. I highly recommend Middlemarch by George Eliot, but reading her Silas Marner may first give you a taste of Eliot's different style. The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James, which you listed, reads with a fair amount of difficulty, requiring some very careful reading (after of which, I would love to hear your thoughts). Lastly, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, to me, seems a timeless classic that, according to your favorite styles in literature, you will probably love.

*I need a recommendation with one of the following Virginia Woolf novels-if you have actually read one?As I probably will not be able to read them all this year.I have only read Mrs Dalloway, The Waves and Orlando so far...

Virginia Woolf:

Between the Acts

Flush-A Biography

Jacob's Room

Night and Day

To the Lighthouse

The Voyage Out

The Years
Unfortunately, I have not read as much Virginia Woolf as I would like, besides Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, Jacob's Room, and, one that you have missed, A Room Of One's Own, all of which I loved.
Happy reading!

[Mark F.]

Out of the two Dostoevsky novels on your list (I've read both) I'd go for Crime and Punishment, it's more coherent and the characters are slightly more interesting.

I want to read Titus Andronicus myself as I've been told it's his most violent play.

[mickeymack]

Hi Aurora Ariel, I am submitting my purely subjective recommended reading list culled from your possible choices. I have read all of Woolf's fiction and can thoroughly recommend To The Lighthouse.There is little action in the novel but It draws powerfully on Woolf's recollections of family hols as a child and her parents provided the inspiration for Mr and Mrs Ramsey.You will either love or loathe the stream of consciousness technique. I would guess you are in the former camp.

As regards Shakespeare you really must read King Lear and Titus Andronicus after that.King Lear is a tragic masterpiece and should really be seen on stage. Get thee to a theatre! I've never seen a production of Titus but would love to.

I am not sure why you posted this recommendations request as I have seen from your previous posts you are an intelligent person with a mind of your own. Any hoo here are my very subjective suggestions in suggested reading order:
1. Northanger Abbey- it's witty and wonderful,plus it contains Austen's famous defence of the novel.
2. The Pickwick Papers - a great place to start in Dickens, a well tempered book, funny and kind hearted.
3.The Mill on the Floss - a great introduction to Eliot,her writing still moves one 145 years later. An amazingly limpid prose stylist.
4. Crime and Punishment - the best introduction to Dosteyevsky, it fairly races along, a metaphysical crime novel. Still stunning. Once encountered Raskolnikov is difficult to forget.
5. Nicholas Nickleby - occasionally melodramic and sentimental but it is largely suffused with the joyful energy that characterises Dickens's early works. Wonderfully named characters and locations.
6.The Scarlet Letter - to give you a bit of a breather after that first 5 and to prepare you for my remaining 4! The ending is little prissy and hard to take (speaking personally) but it's a great mid 19th century American novel.
7.Middlemarch - For me this is Eliot's apotheosis, the best she ever did. In which she sharply examines the "web of society" in multiple narratives. My penguin classics edition fell apart I read it so much! At college I hated even the idea of Middlemarch but fell resolutely head over heels in love with it 14 years ago and my feelings haven't changed.A high water mark in the English novel by anyone's standards.
8. A Portrait of the Artist - After Dubliners probably the best introduction to Joyce.
9.The Brothers Karamazov - for me this is Dosteyevsky's best novel unlike anything I had ever read before or since.
10. The Great Gatsby - I would love to be you coming to this book for the first time!

my apologies for the very short lines on books 8,9 and 10 but I am very tired and have to be up in 6 hours! If you read one of these a week plus your Woolf and Shakespeare you should get them read by Christmas! And then you'll have to decide what books to read next year! Happy Reading!

[subterranean]

What an ambitious list you have there ;) (I call it ambitious since you set deadline by the end of the year)..
Mark's recommendation on Crime and Punishment is a fine one.

I'll add 2 more by Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure b. Harsh critics on this book was one of the main reason that Hardy decided to stop writing prose and turn to verse. The second one is The Return of The Native , recognized as the most reprensentative novel of Hardy's wessex novels.

[Nightshade]

LAdy susanna I would say, nice simple also her first novel although its in epistolery form. Have you read love and freindship( original spelling) by J Austen
I havent actually read any of the shakespear but Id go for Titus simply because it appears to have one of the better villians in it like Iago and Richard III at least I think its this play?
Crime and punishment is also good but I havent read any of the othershttp://www.websmileys.com/sm/sad/533.gif
hope that helps:nod:

[Natalie]

I like these two quite a bit, especially "The Brothers Karamazov:"

Crime and Punishment-Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Karamazou-Dostoyevsky

Also I'd say that King Lear is the best out of those that you named of Shakespeare's although I have not read all of the others.

Good luck!

[mono]

I want to read Titus Andronicus myself as I've been told it's his most violent play.
I definitely consider Titus Andronicus one of my favorite tragedies of Shakespeare, but not quite for its gruesome content; for this, yes, one could surely call this play Shakespeare's most violent. Besides offering much for challenging the stronger stomach of a reader, it has an amazing plot! :nod:

[A Hard Rain]

Make sure to read Don Quixote. This year.

[Aurora Ariel]

Hi again,
I just want to send my thanks to everyone who replied.:)This has made my final selection much easier, bye!

[A Hard Rain]

Don Quixote. Whoops i already posted here... i'm drunk.

[subterranean]

:D...You never won with alcohol


Don Quixote. Whoops i already posted here... i'm drunk.

[Psycheinaboat]

You have a good list. Some of those are on my "to read" list, too.

I would begind my reading of Woolf with To the Lighthouse... it's my favorite.

I would also add Bleak House by Dickens. It is less famous, but in my opinion is his best novel.

[starrwriter]

Here's my recommendations from your list:

Portrait of the Artist
Crime and Punishment
The Great Gatsby

I hate Eliot, Dickens, Austen and Woolf and the only Shakespeare I ever read were some sonnets. I know, I'm a literary heathen.

If I were making a list of great fiction books for you to read, it would include:

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell

[subterranean]

I also have only read Shakespeare's sonnets...well until last week when I suddenly decided to give the plays a chance..Currently reading Measure for Measure and 'tis ok so far..:nod:

[Pantelej]

i'd suggest you read Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
is absolutly great