Oh, Twain is a good one. Has anybody read "The $30,000 Bequest"? Great novella.
As for why I want to read the classics, as I said in my original post, I am a little bored with a lot of the completely forgettable contemporary stuff I've been reading. I want something a little more memorable and interesting. I want the feeling of being transported into a world not like my own. And given how error-filled so many of my recent purchases have been, a hundred years to have been proof-read is a nice bonus
Anyway, I did some exploring today and while I enjoyed the little chronology and quite sampler at the front of the B&N books, I found the essays a little dry so am skipping them for now. And I have found a few typos
I may use their list (and pretty cover art) as the basis and just find my own editions.
Also, I gave up on Beowulf. There is too much I don't know about that time period right now, and I was lost on a lot of the apparently self-evident references in the intro essay. It feels like school to dig all of this up, and I am just not sure it would behoove me to do that at this point. I want novels! Even if that does mean reading them out of chronological order
I also started the first chapter of Emma, found two typos in the first chapter and am of to download the version posted here in hopes of happier trails