What's your favorite classic?

[applepie]

What is your favorite classic work or author (if one book is too hard to narrow down to)? My favorite would have to be either The Republic or the Odyssey.

[Mortis Anarchy]

The Iliad, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Fharenheit 451...1984. I never have a single favorite anything...:D

But the first three were my first loves.

[Dark Star]

Author? Goethe

Can't narrow it down to one work.

[Cicilin]

Of course The Dream of Red Chamber

[Abgail]

A Selection of Classical Chinese Essays(GuWenGuanZhi).

[Moon Angel]

Hi, I'm fairly new to this forum. This is actually the second time I have posted. This thread caught my eye because, outside of reading the general classics they have us read in Eng/Lit in high school, I am not well read when it comes to the Authors I see you wrting about. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start or what author to start with? Thank you for your suggestions. Btw, My favorite classic is The Secret Garden.

[applepie]

Hi, I'm fairly new to this forum. This is actually the second time I have posted. This thread caught my eye because, outside of reading the general classics they have us read in Eng/Lit in high school, I am not well read when it comes to the Authors I see you wrting about. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start or what author to start with? Thank you for your suggestions. Btw, My favorite classic is The Secret Garden.

I normally tell people to start with something kind of easy to read. Try some H.G. Wells (I don't really call him a classic, but he is a favorite), or Animal Farm is also always a good one to start with. My general rule of thumb is that you start reading authors who have books on subjects you may be interested in. If you like SciFi, start with the classics there or if it is love stories that get you then read that. Let us know what you are interested in, and I'm sure everyone can suggest titles and authors to get you started. You may also want to try participating in the book club. This is a good way to get exposed to new books and still be able to discuss them with others. It doesn't leave you entirely on your own.

Take Care,
Meg

[aabbcc]

Ah... I cannot choose only one book, not even narrow it down to one author; the so-called "classical literature" is technically what my repertoire consists of in 80% of what I read, so there are quite a few things I love, and then again, different books suit me in different periods of my life, so there is definitely not one (or two, or five) "all-time favourite" for me.

At the moment I would probably go with La Divina Commedia or Paradise Lost or Hamlet as my current favourites and the things which I have been returning to lately.

[Quark]

Of course The Dream of Red Chamber

Really? What did you like about it? I was having problems just keeping the 500+ characters separate.

[Pensive]

Perhaps Mill on the Floss.

[JBI]

Hi, I'm fairly new to this forum. This is actually the second time I have posted. This thread caught my eye because, outside of reading the general classics they have us read in Eng/Lit in high school, I am not well read when it comes to the Authors I see you wrting about. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start or what author to start with? Thank you for your suggestions. Btw, My favorite classic is The Secret Garden.

Just out of curiosity, how old are you? You picked an interesting choice for favorite book, though I must admit to having a soft spot for it myself.

[Moon Angel]

I normally tell people to start with something kind of easy to read. Try some H.G. Wells (I don't really call him a classic, but he is a favorite), or Animal Farm is also always a good one to start with. My general rule of thumb is that you start reading authors who have books on subjects you may be interested in. If you like SciFi, start with the classics there or if it is love stories that get you then read that. Let us know what you are interested in, and I'm sure everyone can suggest titles and authors to get you started. You may also want to try participating in the book club. This is a good way to get exposed to new books and still be able to discuss them with others. It doesn't leave you entirely on your own.

Take Care,
Meg

Thank you Meg! I do like SciFi! I also enjoy mysteries, psychological thrillers, and fantasy. I will check out the book club forum, if I can find it :) This site is new to me and it took me 15 minutes to find my own post to see if I had any replies. LOL! Thank you for all your sugesstions again and have a good day!

[Moon Angel]

Just out of curiosity, how old are you? You picked an interesting choice for favorite book, though I must admit to having a soft spot for it myself.

Curiosity killed the cat, correct? LOL! j/k JBI. I am 46. My mother used to read it to me when I was very young. I also worked in early childhood education for over twenty years and had novel reading as part of our daily schedule, so yes, I have a very soft spot for it as well. I quit my job to become my mothers caregiver and have time to read now. I haven't had a formal college education, outside of community college and training for my job and just want to expand my knowledge of literature. So if you have any suggestions.......;)

[NickAdams]

Samuel Beckett's Molloy.

[ReynardtheFox]

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

[syiah]

Woohoo! Thumbs up for Goethe!

My favourite would have to be Goethe's Faust.
That or Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. Or Dostoevsky's The Idiot.

So many excellent books...so hard to choose... :D

[KidTruth]

Classics... The Dubliners by James Joyce - I love the description of the dismal paralysis that can be the way most people live their lives. It's an honest reflection of the state of mankind that basically becomes more true as time marches on. Main characters are not heroes, but rather character studies that may turn out for the best or worse.

Later Joyce is kinda drowned in his genius (see: Finnegan's Wake) when he had no interest in writing good books, but rather changing the way books were written.

[littlelit]

The Mill On The Floss -- I kind of found it boring when i began to read it but now i just can't put it down once i pick it up .
my other favourites will be Hard Times and David Copperfield by Dickens.
And Thomas Hardy's depressingly beautiful works 'Tess of The D'Urbervilles' and ' Jude the Obscure' . They are quite melancholy but exceptionallly touching books.

[amalia1985]

Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights". I have been in love with it, since I was 14.

[chasestalling]

john milton's paradise lost

[Dori]

Les Miserables or Notre-Dame de Paris, both by Victor Hugo. I haven't read much in the way of the classics. I also like Fathers and Sons by Turgenev, The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, and various other classics.

[StayGolden]

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

[LadyWentworth]

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I read it when I was 13, and I have been obsessed ever since!

[bibliophile190]

Oh, where to begin?
The Counte of Monte Cristo
To Kill a Mockingbird
Bleak House
Jane Eyre


Just to name a few.

[balehead]

You ask too much!
Saying I had but one favourite would be a blatant lie, but amongst my favourites list is Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

[blazeofglory]

Jame Joyce is a fascinating writer for me and his books, particularly Ulysses is such a book that has snapped me, absorbed me and completely engaged me when I read it. I was snared, and got lost in a a world of art. I take him as a writer of magnanimity and matchless.

I do not understand him, and I know why I cannot understand him. I revere him and take him as a Master who can always teach me, may be throughout my life. If any word to describe him, I choose un-hypocritical. He is so open, honest in his writing that nowhere I feel the air of arrogance. I know he is using too many difficult words even a good dictionary is not enough. Wordsmith he is no doubt. But unlike the rest of writers he used bunches of words amazingly appropriately.

As a writer no one can inspire me more than his books, and as a matter of fact he was all the time new and inventive as I have gone through his books several time.

If any book can improve my writings, and build my vocabulary and help to structure my writing it is always Joyce.

He was a great artist and I am tireless to describe him.

He is a reservoir for writers, insuperable indeed.

[Pollopicu]

Don Quixote
Jane Eyre



I recently purchased "The Idiot", which I'm happy to see on this thread. I'm looking forward to reading it.

[Moriarty]

The Count of Monte Cristo, though if I'm talking about the entire oeuvre of an author, then Hermann Hesse is my favorite.

[My name is red]

Oblomov i guess

[mal4mac]

... I am not well read when it comes to the Authors I see you wrting about. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start or what author to start with? Thank you for your suggestions. Btw, My favorite classic is The Secret Garden.

Given your signature, you should like "Midsummer Nights Dream" by Shakespeare. Try the RSC version - nice pictures, useful notes (but not too many). You might like Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, it also has kids having a hard time in Yorskshire :D