Don your snooty glasses, everyone, we're talking classical literature!

[Minibit]

What classical books and authors do you like? (I'm using "Classic" to refer to non-modern works. For this discussion, I don't care how "classic" you think Ender's Game is; it's not the kind of work we're talking about)

So bring out your Lit-Snob cred with your Dickens and Twain and Shakespeare and Austen and Orwell!

I've been reading "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I can't help thinking though, that it would be a pretty good movie if it were told in the style of a film like The Corpse Bride; with the animation and Burton-y themes.

I've also read and enjoyed Treasure Island, various Shakespeare plays, Tom Sawyer, The Jungle Book, and of course classic children's books like Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Hobbit.

 

[ze_kraken]

I'm pretty partial to Mark Twain on the whole, including pretty much everything he wrote that wasn't a novel. But after that, I cease to like authors more than individual books. Great Expectations was the only Dickens book I really enjoyed, Catcher in the Rye the only J. D. Salinger book, and so on. When it comes to Shakespeare, I prefer his historicals and comedies as opposed to his dramas (King Lear and Caesar as opposed to the Tempest).

 

[Razilin]

Count of Monte Cristo, full stop.

The reason?

Its freaking Victorian Batman.

 

[Absinthe]

I love Pride and Prejudice, but I couldn't really get into any of Austen's other works. I only read it because I found a copy in a bookshop from the 1900's that has the most beautiful hand writing on it. Well worth the few euro I paid for it. :)
Also I love the Bronte sisters, I went to visit the parsonage last summer and it was pretty darned awesome. I really enjoyed Wuthering Heights, but the mass appeal of it escapes me a little bit, because the characters are all so unappealing; miserable, bitter and downright horrid in Heathcliff's case.
I adore Jane Eyre; it has to be one of my favorite books.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

Frankenstein. It's the shit. A lot of people moan about how classic literature is hard to read/get into, and whilst that may be the case for some older books it sure as hell isn't with this one. It's an easy book to get sucked into, and the story is just fucking fantastic.

I don't normally do Dickens, largely because his stories can be a bit... verbose. That's not his fault, to be fair: the way in which his stories are written are all to do with the times he was writing them in (most of his books were serialised in papers and magazines, so he had to crank the word count up a bit). That being said, A Tale Of Two Cities is a great exception to this rule. Great story, powerful central message, memorable cast and a really moving conclusion. Great stuff.

Oh, and also everything by Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis is the obvious shout-out, but In The Penal Colony is my personal favourite.

 

[Rainjay]

I never really liked reading Frankenstein (another book I gave up reading and read Sparknotes instead). I thought Pride and Prejudice was okay (read part of it.....). But I really really loved a Tale of Two Cities. Bestest book ever. You spend the entire time thinking "Okay so what is actually the god damned plot here?" and you get TO THE VERY END, AND EVERYTHING CLICKS, AND IT'S LIKE, WOOOAAAHHHHH!

Although it's kind of easy to miss out on if you're not paying attention while you read. There's only a few places that the hints are really dropped, so it's like, if you're doing some hardcore skimming, you miss the good juicy stuff. As boring as some of the book is, it was totally worth reading every word of it (and answering like 20 questions per chapter and doing a huge project on it at the end 'cause we read it in school...).

 

[LunaValentine]

Canterbury Tales anyone? Some of it was funny, some was just interesting. I loved trying to read the prologue in it's traditional English. I think it's called Mid-English?

 

[Razilin]

canterbury tales is hilariously raunchy

 

[Sepdemonium]

I really like Hamlet and Macbeth :] though I greatly prefer Hamlet because I really love the sillouques within it, and the line 'I will capture the countance of the king' for some reason that stuck in my mind.. plus I like Hamet himself :]

I love Catcher in the Rye! I think Holden's a very believeable character in how he intteracts with the world around him, and I like the rather uncertan ending. it makes you wonder what excally did happen to him in the end of the narration?

I also like 1984 and animal farm, they're well crafted books. though I do prefer animal farm out of the two of them :]

I could waffle on about these books and others (lord of the flies *coughs) but I won't because I'll just be rambling and gushing waffle out :] ..now I really want to read them again.. it's like Holden says.. 'don't go telling anybody or you'll start missing everybody' ..sorry for my rather senseless ramble *coughs in embarrisement*