Favorite Classic Book?

My short list:

The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
David Copperfield (my favorite by Dickens)
Pretty much any of Shakespeare's tragedies and historical plays.

The books I find I read over at least once a year though are Seven Japanese Tales by Tanizaki and some of Kafka's short to medium length stories, including The Metamorphosis.

Originally Posted by elemenoP

For my one classic, I guess I will say To Kill a Mockingbird, which I loved as a young adult and I would like to re-read it. But now I'm afraid to, for fear I won't like it!

eP

I just read To Kill a Mockingbird once more a few months ago and it was still excellent.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by catsknit

I finally read Les Miserables a few months ago b/c I'd always wanted to. My less than thrilling reaction to Hugo's other most famous book The Hunchback of Notre Dame should have forewarned me. I finished the entire, unabridged book, just so I could say I'd done it (and b/c I wondered what all the hype was from all the people who raved over the musical). The long, boring acct of Waterloo was on the first of MANY such side trips, none of which need to be in the book. An especially memorable one is the 100 pages detailing the history of the Parisian sewer system, when the only thing you need to know is that Valjean walked through the sewers to escape. I'd begun the book as an audiobook but quickly switched to e-book so I could at least skim those sections and know where to start focusing again. This is the only book I've ever read that I can totally and wholeheartedly recommend reading an abridged version!

However, the preface is short, sweet, and gets right to the point!! My favorite preface!

[BenBanned]

Alice's Adventures
The Time Machine
Notes from the Underground
Metamorphosis
Lilith
The Pearl
....... just to name a few.

+ Anything by Poe or Lovecraft.

[tubemonkey]

A Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

My favorite book and author of all time,

[jrlewis]

Three Musketeers

[Todd Young]

I really like Anna Karenina, but I don't think I could go past Jane Austen, probably Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice or Mansfield Park.

[sun surfer]

War and Peace.

If I could add a few others, I'd also include Wuthering Heights, Portrait of a Lady and Robinson Crusoe. It's an eclectic four, but these classics have impacted me the most so far.

[techmobby]

Think and grow rich
How to win friends and influence people
The Science of getting rich
Does The Bible count?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by techmobby

Think and grow rich
How to win friends and influence people
The Science of getting rich
Does The Bible count?

I'd think the Bible would count. From what I understand even those not of the faith are known to read it for its stories. And it certainly is old enough to count as a Classic I'd think being as it's over 2000 yrs old. Whether it counts as fiction or non-fiction is another topic for another thread (and I imagine there have been a number of such threads here and elsewhere)

[crich70]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

A Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

My favorite book and author of all time,

Verne did get a good number of things right, though not all of course. I don't think that takes anything away from the appeal of his writings though.

[catsknit]

Originally Posted by BenBanned

Alice's Adventures
The Time Machine
Notes from the Underground
Metamorphosis
Lilith
The Pearl
....... just to name a few.

+ Anything by Poe or Lovecraft.

Oh, I love Lilith, as well as many other of MacDonald's writings but this one is my favorite. I just happened to download it the other day to put on my reader. I originally listened to it from Librivox, very good reading there.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by cearbhallain

I wish I could read in French. I know from experience that a good translation of Dumas makes *all* *the* *difference*. Now if I could only remember which translation of CoMC I read in high school...The best Three Musketeers was the one my mom had from college (back in the early 60's). My daughter has run off with it, so I can't tell anyone which one it was now. I'll give everyone this tip though: If you're not laughing by the third page, get a different one. The Three Musketeers is hilarious, which fact serves to offset the tragedy of the story.

Hm... maybe I should give this book another chance. A specific translation you, or anyone else can recommend? Preferably available here on MobileRead or from another free host?

[Condillac]

Hard to pick one

The Castle, Kafka
The Idiot, Dostoyevsky
Don Quixote, Cervantes

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cearbhallain

I wish I could read in French. I know from experience that a good translation of Dumas makes *all* *the* *difference*. Now if I could only remember which translation of CoMC I read in high school...The best Three Musketeers was the one my mom had from college (back in the early 60's). My daughter has run off with it, so I can't tell anyone which one it was now. I'll give everyone this tip though: If you're not laughing by the third page, get a different one. The Three Musketeers is hilarious, which fact serves to offset the tragedy of the story.

But why only read "The Three Musketeers"? It's only a small part of the much, MUCH larger "D'Artagnan Romances", the whole of which you'll find here at MR.

To quote from my own description of the books:

Everyone is familiar with The Three Musketeers, thanks to the many movies which have been made of this book, some of them sharing little more than the name in common with the actual book

What some people may be unaware of is that The Three Musketeers is merely the first (small) part of a set of three books called, as a whole, the D'Artagnan Romances, which collectively tell the life story of D'Artagnan, who appears as a young man in The Three Musketeers. The book is, like its main protagonist, of truly heroic proportions. If you think that War and Peace or The Lord of the Rings would be quite good if only they were longer, this is the series for you .

This gets a bit complicated, so pay attention (there will be a test at the end)...

The D'Artagnan Romances consists of three books:

1. The Three Musketeers.
2. Twenty Years After (set 20 years after The Three Musketeers).
3. The Vicomte de Bragelonne (set 10 years after part 2 - ie 30 years after The Three Musketeers).

OK, so far, so good. Where it gets complicated is that the final book in the series is a truly gargantuan work, and is generally published split into either 3, 4, or 5 separate volumes. This edition uses the four volume version, and these four volumes are called, respectively:

3a. The Vicomte de Bragelonne.
3b. Ten Years Later.
3c. Louise de la Valliere.
3d. The Man in the Iron Mask.

Where things get complicated is that The Vicomte de Bragelonne can refer to either the whole of this third book, or just to the first volume of it. Moreover, it is subtitled Ten Years Later, so once again this title can refer to the whole book or just the second volume of it. Finally, just to confuse matters, The Man in the Iron Mask is often printed as a "self-contained" novel, and can be split up in quite a different manner from the 4-part split described above.

Phew...

Hope that's clear to everyone .

[Stitchawl]

Thanks for that, Harry. I never realized that this was all of a set. And thanks for all the work you've done getting here for us in such good shape. A lot of work on your part, and I just wanted to say 'thanks!'


Stitchawl