Recomendations

[DeadAsDreams]

I've always been a very heavy reader, however for most of my life I mostly just read fantasy and science fiction books, with the past two years shifted to horror. Now I've begun to get interested in more literary books. Recently I've read As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Journey To The End Of The Night by Louis Ferdinand Celine and Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre. I really love all of those books, but I want more and im not really sure where to start. I plan on Reading Notes From The Underground and The Brothers Karamazov.
by Fydor Dostoevsky.

Could Somebody reccomend classic literature to modern Literature that are must reads and considered serious literature of the highest quality? I would like more books like the ones listed but im quite willing to try anything. Any help would be appreciated.

[John Goodman]

Some personal favourites of mine are A Clockwork Orange, Lolita, Pale Fire, Catch-22, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, The Grapes of Wrath, War & Peace, Crime & Punishment, among others.

[Dark Muse]

I have to agree with A Clockwork, Catch-22, and The Sun Also Rises. I really enjoyed those books as well.

In addition, I would recomend

Catcher in the Rye
A Passage to India
The Stranger
The Magus
Sons and Lovers
Anna Karenine
The Name of the Rose

[Etienne]

Berlin Alexanderplarz by Döblin and Petersburg by Bely are two books I'm sure you will enjoy based on what you said, I have nominated both for the forum book club for the two next months, so you might want to check that.

As for Dostoevsky, of course you cannot go wrong with him, I suggest you start with Crime and Punishment though, I think it is the best starting point for Dostoevsky. I've also read The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, the Gambler, and short stories, and I recommend them all.

Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
Pedro Paramo - Rulfo
Petersburg Tales - Gogol
Lolita - Nabokov
The Stranger - Camus
Oblomov - Gontcharov
A Hundred Years of Solitude - Garcia Marquez
etc. are all books you might want to check out, they're definitely books that you can't go wrong with, those that don't like them are quite the exception...

[armenian]

if you liked nausea, the characters from Notes from Underground and nausea are very similar, and 'notes' basically influenced that whole existentialist theme

[armenian]

i just noticed you had a darkthone avatar, so id also recomend you steppenwolfe by hesse (esp. since you said you used to read fantasy), the fall by camus, and metamorophis by kafka.

[johann cruyff]

Could Somebody reccomend classic literature to modern Literature that are must reads and considered serious literature of the highest quality? I would like more books like the ones listed but im quite willing to try anything. Any help would be appreciated.

I strongly recommend The Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, and the big romantic six (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats) for starters.

As for prose... Here are a few recommendations:

Dostoevsky - C&P, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Notes from the Underground
Tolstoy - Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Haji Murad, The Death of Ivan Ilych, The Kreutzer Sonata, How Much Land Does a Man Need?
Flaubert - Madame Bovary
Kafka - The Trial, Amerika, The Castle, Collected Short Stories
Hesse - Demian, Steppenwolf, The Glass Bead Game (and Siddhartha and Narcisuss and Goldmund if you're into bildungsroman in general)
Proust - Remembrance of Things Past
Mann - Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain, Dr Faustus
Rilke - The Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge
Borges - El Aleph
Eco - The Name of the Rose, Foucalt's Pendulum
Nabokov - Lolita, Pale Fire, Invitation to a Beheading, Ada
Bulgakov - Master and Margarita, Heart of a Dog
Camus - The Fall, The Plague, The Stranger
Bellow - Dangling Man
Orwell - Animal Farm, 1984

[hhc]

Oh, yes, I do understand what it feels to discover real litterature. When it happened to me, it was a true Apocalypse!!! :)

When it comes to books, start by reading some Umberto Eco.

Then read the books that are mentioned in his books.

It really is a good strategy for spotting great litterature.
I have tried it myself!!! ;)

[DeadAsDreams]

i just noticed you had a darkthone avatar, so id also recomend you steppenwolfe by hesse (esp. since you said you used to read fantasy), the fall by camus, and metamorophis by kafka.

My avatar is actually the cover of Weakling's one and only album Dead as Dreams. Since you are helping me out, if you like black metal and havent heard that album, do it. Its by far the best album I have ever heard.