08-18-2013, 09:48 AM | #16 |
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For a classic horror story you can't beat "Frankenstein" and Well's "The Time Machine" is also a classic book. His description of 'space-time' even predates Einstein's theory by several years.
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08-18-2013, 01:43 PM | #17 |
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There are a number of guides to Shakespeare. The one I have is by Asimov.
Shakespeare is theater, so it's made to be listened to. Watching a good version of the play before reading can clear up a lot. I would guess that you can understand the vast majority of the English. There is a bit of slang from the time, plus, like many modern movies, there are various references that would be well understood by audiences of the time, but for the most part, once you get in the mindset, it's easy enough to understand. |
08-18-2013, 04:00 PM | #18 |
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Nt
You might also try Goethe, his Faust in translation is very accessible, and of course there is a whole pile of French writers with modern translations. Personally I would avoid Camus and Sartre unless you want to feel suicidal, though.
Someone already said Dickens, try The Signalman as a taster, then try something longer if you like that. Then there are easy reads like Tess of the d'Urbevilles, ( Thomas Hardy) pretty much anything by Trollope, The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer). A Journal of the Plague year (Defoe), Gulliver's Travels (Swift) You can enjoy all of these on several levels, and the language isn't too daunting. You might want to try the Chaucer in a modern english version, though. Have fun! |
08-18-2013, 04:06 PM | #19 |
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Admittedly, I find many of the classics to be efficiently sleep-inducing and painfully archaic, but I'll nevertheless share three recommendations (looking at this thread, you already have plenty of reading material as is!):
Dracula is a must read, partly because it's simply entertaining, and chiefly because of how the author managed the viewpoints. There are very few writers who took this approach and actually made it work. It's excellent for studying purposes. H.G. Wells wrote a large number of short stories, covering a wide variety of genres, and although they are lesser known (everyone remembers him for The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Doctor Moreau, all of which are solid recommendations), they are among those classic short stories that actually engaged and captivated me. The Magic Shop is one of my favorites. There's a ~900 pages collection of all of his short stories, though many can also be found in smaller collections or as individual texts. On the literary fiction side, there are the short stories by Guy de Maupassant. As far as non-genre fiction goes, he's perhaps my most appreciated classic short story writer. The individual pieces are a little hit and miss, but quite a few of them have made a lasting impression on me (Boule de Suif being the most notable example). All of them are in the public domain and there are several "complete collection" e-books. |
08-18-2013, 07:02 PM | #20 | |||||
Nameless Being
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I'll be adding Dracula to my list. It strikes me as peculiar that I haven't read it on my own watch yet, since it's such a well-renowned classic. I haven't even managed to have it spoiled for me - I have no idea how it ends! Despite my misgivings about HG Wells earlier in this thread, based on the sheer number of recommendations for his works, I may well just bite the bullet and approach him with the expectation of his works being alright after all, heh. In any case, reading his works would be an introduction to the realm of short stories as well. I've never read one of those, either! I've never heard of Guy de Maupassant, but I do enjoy literary fiction, so I'll be glad to tackle his works - I'll begin with Boule de Suif, as that's what you've named as one that made a better impression upon yourself. |
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08-18-2013, 07:41 PM | #21 |
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Wherever you decide to start, be sure to check our own MobileRead Patricia Clark Memorial Library (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ebo...&sort=dateline) first for a free copy. Many classics in the public domain have been formatted and uploaded by MR members for all to enjoy.
Those books uploaded by HarryT are particularly well done - with extra careful proofreading and formatting. Last edited by poohbear_nc; 08-18-2013 at 07:46 PM. |
08-18-2013, 07:57 PM | #22 |
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I've been reading nothing but classics for the past few months and I started with things that matched my interests i.e. I like science fiction so I started with Wells and Verne. Those branched me out to things like Dracula and Frankenstein, which then lead me to Sherlock Holmes. Enjoying Arthur Conan Doyle lead me to read The Lost World which gave the interest to read authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs, whom I'm currently fixated on. I already like Lovecraft so it wasn't much of a stretch to check out his inspirations and peers like Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, or William Hope Hodgson.
I love the movie Apocalypse Now which inspired me to read its inspiration Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and now I am a fan of Conrad. So for me it was pretty much just following a trail of things I already enjoyed and branching out, I really didn't go in thinking ''Hmmm I want to read x,y, and z''. It just happened lol. |
08-18-2013, 09:13 PM | #23 | |
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08-18-2013, 09:20 PM | #24 | |
Nameless Being
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08-18-2013, 10:03 PM | #25 |
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don't forget poetry, dude. Shakespeare's sonnets are awesome. Then, there's Milton's epic Paradise Lost, and Byron, Percy Shelley, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, Longfellow, Keats... well, you get it. and that's only poets in english.
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08-18-2013, 11:43 PM | #26 |
Nameless Being
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Hi Namekuseijin. I've been discussing Shakespeare earlier in this thread, and I'm still not very sure that I'd like to proceed with reading his works at all. I've wanted to try Paradise Lost for some time. I'll look into the other poets you've mentioned as well. Thank you.
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08-19-2013, 03:15 AM | #27 | |
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08-21-2013, 05:17 AM | #28 |
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Well, I've jumped right in and am currently reading Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. At 1,707 pages, it's considerably longer than Stephen King's IT, to date the longest book I've read at 1,376 pages. Though I haven't yet made any significant progress with the book (I only opened it this evening!), I'm quite enjoying it thus far.
I've had a few exciting deliveries from Book Depository come in, so after War and Peace, I'll be reading a few new releases ... But then I'll jump right back into things; hopefully with Anna Karenina or Don Quixote. Thank you all so much for your kind suggestions! You've truly set me on a literary adventure. |
08-21-2013, 09:35 AM | #29 |
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First, good for you for wanting to improve your mind by reading classical literature!
Some that I would recommend: - Victor Hugo, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Honore de Balzac, Pere Goriot - Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo - Charles Dickens, virtually anything but especially A Tale of Two Cities and Nicholas Nickelby - Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Illyich - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamozov - Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard - Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls - Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy - Anything by Ernest Hemingway - Anything by John Steinbeck (probably my favorite author) - William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury - James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans It goes without saying that these should all be unabridged. Just a few off the top of my head. |
08-21-2013, 09:36 AM | #30 | |
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