10-03-2010, 11:36 PM | #1 |
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The Best CLASSIC novel of ALL TIME!
I thought this might be fun!
I am talking about CLASSIC novels only. Which is the best of ALL TIME? In your opinion. I am going to say my all-time favorite in terms of story, writing quality and substance is Dune I just think Frank Herbert was an absolute genius. |
10-03-2010, 11:47 PM | #2 |
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Classic novel?
Any of the three Lord of the Rings trilogy books. |
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10-03-2010, 11:50 PM | #3 |
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I need to read Catch-22 again.
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10-04-2010, 12:06 AM | #4 |
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The Hound of the Baskerville's is a good one. I think it was one of the 1st I read as a kid. I got it through one of those book order forms they handed out in grade school.
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10-04-2010, 12:09 AM | #5 |
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I particularly liked The Count of Monte Cristo, available as a free ebook from Project Gutenburg...
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184 |
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10-04-2010, 12:49 AM | #6 | |
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10-04-2010, 02:13 AM | #7 |
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10-04-2010, 03:23 AM | #8 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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I'm amused to find that people count Dune, The Lord of the Rings and Catch-22 as "Classic" novels.
I think that for any novel to be judged as the best of "all time", it would have to demonstrate that it had appeal to several generations of readers. And the only way to do that is for the novel to be in print and being read for many, many years. At least 50, and more likely 100. Which is why, if asked for the best "Classic" novel, I'd tend to only consider pre-WWII novels, or perhaps even only pre-20th Century novels. But which to choose? My choice rather depends on which one I've read most receently So if I had to choose just one, at the moment I'd go for Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. |
10-04-2010, 03:40 AM | #9 |
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It is a shame you find other members choice of what they consider a "classic" amusing. Surely a purely subjective choice to be made by those respondents? I may not necessarily agree but I never find such choices amusing as that would be disrespectful to those respondents choices.
It is interesting to see what respondents consider a "classic". I consider "Mr Midshipman easy" by Captain Marryat (1836) as an important book too, but it is less of a classic to me than, say, Fellowship of the Ring". |
10-04-2010, 04:05 AM | #10 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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It was their selection as "classics" that amused me. Perhaps this is a US/UK difference in meaning. When referring to literature, I consider classic to have the meaning "of lasting significance or worth; enduring". While it's possible that the best book of all time was written last year, history shows us that it's almost impossible to judge the "lasting significance or worth" of books near the publication date. What is a wildly popular book now can fade into obscurity as quickly as it rose. Will Dan Bown's "The DaVinci Code" remain popular? Will Steig Larsson's "The Girl Who..." books remain popular? No one knows. Which is why I found the three selections rather surprising for "classic" books. But I guess I'm showing my age a bit. Having checked the publication dates (1954, 1961 and 1965), I can see how people born after (say) 1980 might well consider them classics. Last edited by pdurrant; 10-04-2010 at 04:07 AM. |
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10-04-2010, 04:09 AM | #11 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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And (sorry to comment on my own post), perhaps everyone thinks of "classics" as "something published a decade or more before I was born".
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10-04-2010, 04:29 AM | #12 | |
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If this is an amusing classic, I wonder what's a real classic. Remember that probably 20 or more years passed since you've learned what a classic is. Last edited by Over; 10-04-2010 at 04:31 AM. Reason: Ipad likes to replacement words on it's own. Edit 2: <-- did it again :) |
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10-04-2010, 04:31 AM | #13 |
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I'm a George Orwell fan myself, and fortunately, most of his works (including essays) are available at Gutenburg.
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10-04-2010, 04:46 AM | #14 |
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In my views, a classic is a book that has stand the test of time. A book that was published last year, or even the last 5 years simply didn't have the time yet. But...
Dune and Tolkien's books, I'd say have stand the test of time and thus, in my eyes, can be called a classic. |
10-04-2010, 04:47 AM | #15 |
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We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
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classic novels, enjoyable reading |
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