Favorite Classics

Hey guys,
Sorry if this was already discussed, but I ran a search and didn't find it.
I was curious as to everybody's favorite classic novel. I know that I liked Jane Eyre the best. Absolutely one of the best books out there.
So how about you?

Mine is probably "Lord Jim" by Joseph Conrad. Though I don't read it all that often, as it is sad. :sad:

By 'classic' do you mean written at least a hundred years ago?
Probably 'the tenant of wildfell hall' by Anne Bronte. In my opinion that's the best book out of all the Bronte works

I absolutely love 'pride and prejudice' and 'Emma' by Jane Austen. Didn't like 'sense and sensibility', though, it really depends on the book.

I enjoyed Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. We had to read it at school and I liked it.

I really like Dracula, Robinson Crusoe, Lord of the Flies and Nineteen Eighty-Four. I know that the last two aren't really that old but they're brilliant and i think they're classics.

i dont really have a favorite classic:no:

It depends on how you define "classic", I guess... it's really hard to choose!! Some of my favorites are actually plays, like Hamlet and Dr. Faustus. Novels are even harder to consider... Most anything by Asimov, I suppose :lol: I also like The Alchemist, The Great Gatsby, Siddhartha, Brave New World and Slaughterhouse Five. Good thread -- makes me want to read!!!!!!!!

Wuthering Heights, definitely, closely followed by Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Nearly everyhting I read these days is a classic, and I love almost all of it, so I can't choose. :love:

Hey guys,
Sorry if this was already discussed, but I ran a search and didn't find it.
I was curious as to everybody's favorite classic novel. I know that I liked Jane Eyre the best. Absolutely one of the best books out there.
So how about you?

You know, I never got to read that novel. But I've seen a movie, and from the looks of it, I bet the novel is excellent. :) I should get my hands on that novel some time..

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre are my favourite classics. I also love some of Charles Dickens' books too.

I looooved Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables, Sense and Sensability. I cant think of anymore that have impacted me like these. But I have to say, Harry Potter is my all time favorite.

Duh! I forgot Romeo and Juliet! Oh, I loved it!

i loved romeo and juliet and cyrano de bergerac.
and if of mice and men and lord of the flies are classics, then those as well.

basically my 9th grade english curriculum was the best, other than frankenstein.

Wuthering Heights,Gone With the Wind, East of Eden and Anna Karenina would be my all time favourites.

A Tale of Two Cities is my favorite Dickens (if my screen name wasn't already a blatant hint)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Anything Jane Austen, though I suggest Persuasion, though Pride and Prejudice is always a good start
I could really go on forever, but if anyone is looking for a highly underrated and frankly difficult series to get through, I suggest C.S. Lewis's space trilogy, which you unfortunately have to make it through the first two books in order to get to the crux of the plot in the third which brings everything to a whole new level. But you need a lot of time and patience, and really strong glasses! The trilogy really shows his talent as a masterful writer. The Screwtape Letters are a quicker clever read.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The non abridged is tiring but well worth reading.
Lord of The Flies
Dune by Frank Herbert

I tried to like Heart of Darkness but it disappointed me in the end. Maybe if I just read it again it would all come together.

Oh, I love Anna Karenina. I haven't finished it yet, though, so I can't pass too much judgement yet.

I have to agree with Iggy on this one, rarely do I ever read a book that is not a classic.

But my favorite favorites thus far? I loved The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. He pretty much set the standard for the classic mystery, and his character were the model for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

And I was fond of Lord of the Flies and The Great Gatsby. Both amazing books. Pretty much anything by C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters being one of my absolute favorites! Rarely do I enjoy a book that is 'preachy', in the sense that the book, through fiction, is trying to tell you how to live your life. But in this one is an exception, while you can tell that it is trying to tell you how to live, it is written in such a way that one doesn't get bombarded with it.

Can't list just a single "Classic" as a favorite, so here's a list of books I really like that could be considered "classic":

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn--Mark Twain
Little Women--Louisa May Alcott (really like the whole March family series, but this is my favorite of them)
Catcher in the Rye--JD Salinger
The Great Gatsby--F Scott Fitzgerald
Pride and Prejudice--Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights--Emily Bronte
Gulliver's Travels--Johnathan Swift
Gone With the Wind--Margaret Mitchell
Rebecca--Daphne du Maurier
Anne of Green Gables--LM Montgomery

If plays are also allowed, I would like to add:
A Midsummer's Night's Dream
Romeo & Juliet
Much Ado about Nothing
(all by Shakespeare, of course)
Pygmalion--George Bernard Shaw
The Little Foxes--Lillian Hellman
A Man for All Seasons--(eek, don't recall the author)
The Lion in Winter --(eek, same thing)

Well, I really LOVE Pride and Prejudice. But other ones like Tom Sawyer, The Odyssey, and To Kill a Mockingbird are really good. I don't know. I can never remember books I've read when I need to.

I love Little Women and Anne of Green Gables! I also My Antonia and My Brother Sam is Dead. I don't know if you can count Caddie Woodlawn and The Little House on the Prairie series as classics but I loved them

Little Women, I love that book.

I've read Pride and Prejudice ages ago... don't remember much, but I remember I liked it.

I really like Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights.

I haven't read that many classics yet, but there have been a few that I liked. I had to read Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, The Odyssey, The Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet for school this year. Out of those, Jane Eyre was the best hands-down...I also liked Frankenstein and Romeo and Juliet (to my great surprise :p). The Odyssey and Taming of the Shrew were okay...but Ivanhoe was a different story. :rolleyes: I liked the plot and story, but I didn't like the way it was written. Took forever to read.

I also read Animal Farm and Anthem last summer...I don't know if they would really be considered classics, but I did think they were pretty good.

I haven't read too many "classics" either, though I will have to for school, I know. So far, the classics I've read that I've liked are Animal Farm, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie and In the Big Woods, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I was surprised to see that no one mentioned A Tale of Two Cities. I thought I wouldn't like it at all, but I ended up really enjoying it. Oh also, is the Phantom Tollbooth a classic?? Because I absolutely loved that book.

There have been some classics though that I've hated. My least favorite book of all time, so far, is Johnny Tremain. I could not stand that book. The Odyssey was ok, but not my favorite thing ever, especially since I had to act out one of the chapters as a project for english class. And now, I'm going to make sooooooo many people angry with this next statement, but I hated Romeo and Juliet. I found it incredibly stupid. I know, I'm crazy, but I cannot stand that play. My favorite part was making fun of it.

Dune by Frank Herbert, LOTR by J.R.R Tolkien (they're Fantasy/Sci-Fi classics, the genres havent been around as long as the others) Frankenstein was very good, Lord of the Flies, uhhhh I dunno, I haven't read many classics.

Depending on what you define as a classic? :hmm: I don't know when To Kill A Mocking Bird was written but if that's a classic then that's definately my favourite!
I probably have to read Of Mice And Men next year and I'm saying it now because I've heard about the book and think I can safely say I'll really like that so I'll just save time later lol

From the Shakespeare area, I'd have to say Much Ado About Nothing- I studied it for my SATs and that's the only Shakespeare play I know the plot inside out and understand it all etc etc.. really good book :)

Probably White Fang

Depending on what you define as a classic? :hmm: I don't know when To Kill A Mocking Bird was written but if that's a classic then that's definately my favourite!
I probably have to read Of Mice And Men next year and I'm saying it now because I've heard about the book and think I can safely say I'll really like that so I'll just save time later lol

From the Shakespeare area, I'd have to say Much Ado About Nothing- I studied it for my SATs and that's the only Shakespeare play I know the plot inside out and understand it all etc etc.. really good book :)

Of Mice and Men is an interesting book, but you really have to go in depth and think about it, or it's kinda boring.

I like most of the books set around the Regency era or just before it. Jane Austen, the Bronte's etc fall into this category.

Jane Eyre. It's not just my favourite classic, it's my favourite book. I adore that novel, although I also really loved Dracula!

My favorite classic (and one of my favorite books) is The Count of Monte Cristo. That is an awesome book.

My favorite classic (and one of my favorite books) is The Count of Monte Cristo. That is an awesome book.

I began reading the abridged version of this one but then quit two thirds into the novel when I realized it simply cut too much from the original, unabridged one. I would like to read the original but it's just too darned long. Perhaps 40 years from now, when I'm retired and have retreated peacefully into a nice little bungalow by the beach... :lol:

but anywho, I love these types of threads. :D

My favorite 'classics' would have to be:

Wuthering Heights--the only book that has managed to grip, captivate, and shake me so thoroughly and completely. It changed my view on everything from love to life and spirituality at the tender age of 17. Although I don't think I'll ever be able to read it again. It really does tug at the heartstrings too much. :upset: Oh yea, and unlike the vast majority, I actually like and sympathize with Heathcliff. :whistle:

Jane Eyre--a tie with WH and will probably surpass it someday due to the simple fact that I can actually reread this one--cause you know, it has a clear happy ending. :p

and further down, Crime and Punishment--another of the myriad of classics I decided to read my senior year of high school. I liked this one simply because of the beautiful climax and message at the end. The main character is one of the few fictional characters I feel ambivalent towards. I struggle between symphathizing with him and abhorring him for his actions.

Another P&P fan here - I love Jane Austen & P&P is my favourite by far

I adore Letters from Earth by Twain, Catcher in the Rye, Slaughterhouse-Five, Pride and Prejudice, Tale of Two Cities, Animal Farm, 1984, the Oz books, the Once and Future King, Utopia… too many to think of at the moment!

I love all the Jane Austen and Bronte novels! They're my ultra-favourtite lol. I'd love to live in that era, but there are loads of books that I've started liking as classics, like Animal Farm, which I only read last year. It's really cool.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy

It would probably be a tie between 1984 and Animal Farm.

For me, it has to be Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Although, if we're aloud modern classics, Lolita and A Clockwork Orange would be very high on my list. I think people are often put off by their reputations but they're great books.

I couldn't possibly choose, mind if I list?

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel hawthorne - Nathaniel Hawthorne and I have a special bond, we're actually soulmates I'm convinced
Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - Sydney Carton, you broke my heart
The Inferno, Dante Alighieri - As epic poems go, this one is darn exciting
A Clockwork Orange - a marvel of modern linguistics
Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde had a way with words unpossessed by an man since

I have a few favorites.

I love Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I saw the movie first (the one with Laurence Olivier), thought it was fantastic, and went out to buy the book. I thought the book was a lot better than the movie, but I do like Cathy's story better than Catherine's, probably because Catherine can annoy the snot out of me sometimes.

One of my other favorites is Sense and Sensbility. My decision to read this came about in an odd way, which involved me taking a quiz to see what literary heroine I was, getting my result of Marianne Dashwood, and having my sister laugh and say that was absolutely true. So, of couse, I now had to read the book to figure out why my sister was laughing at me, and why I was so similar to Marianne.

Funnily enough, on the same quiz, my sister scored as Elinor. She's also two year older than I am. I thought this was a very funny coincidence, since we really are a lot like Elinor and Marianne, with our relationship and our personalities.

Probably Pride and Prejudice.
Also enjoyed Madame Bouvary and Ethan Frome when I had to read them back in the day. All Quiet on the Western Front was good also.

SO FAR:
Carrie By Stephen King

Definetely, my favorite classic is Dracula. I love it! :)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Sorry I couldnt pick between them!

To Kill a Mockingbird. Absolute quality.

The Count of Monte Cristo. EPIC.

Pride & Prejudice. If one must read a romance story it should be this one.

To Kill a Mockingbird. Fantastic insight into society.

Sherlock Holmes. Wish I could have a conversation with the author...abit too late for that.

Lord of the Rings. What a world.

Don't kill me .... but I can't get into classics :(

I wish I could, but they kind of ... bore me :eeep:

I love classics, especially Jane Eyre - which is my favourite book. These are the classics I have read(from what I remember):
Wuthering Heights
Far From the Madding Crowd - love it
Tess of the D'Ubervilles - reading at the moment
War and Peace
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
The Brothers Karamazov - in the middle of at the moment
The Picture of Dorian Grey
Dracula
Lord of the Rings
Madame Bovary - found it disappointing

Hmmmm... lot of stuff that has already been mentioned.

But I have a few favourites that haven't been mentioned, and that are TRULY classical! :D


My all-time favourite book is the Odyssey.

Obviously, I also rather like the Iliad.
Other favourtie ancient books include the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon's Hellenica and Anabasis, Arrian's History of Alexander, Plutarch's Lives and everything by Lucian.

To this add my all-time favourite play, which is Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus.
Other favourites include: Sophocles, Antigone, Euripides Trojan Women, Aeschylos, Persians, Eumenides


Another favourite is the most ancient story of them all, the Gilgamesh Epic.


Erm. Ok. I like very ancient books. :D



otherwise - i am just going to list what comes to mind - and it will include quite a bit that's originally in German....

Thomas Mann, especially his Joseph and his Brothers series.
Robert Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (Man without Qualities)
Jane Austen (obviously), especially Pride and Prejudice.
Mark Twain - the travel accounts in particular, but of course also Tom Sawyer * Huckleberry Finn. Genius!!!

If this isn't too recent, I'd have to say Orwell's 1984.



I'd also like to add two 'factual' books -

J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890)
E. Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776ff)


Plays:
Shakespeare, various plays. Favourites definitely include Hamlet, Henry IV (1), Henry IV (2), Henry V, Richard III, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night... but basically, any play by Shakespeare is wonderful! :)

Lessing, Nathan der Weise
Goethe, Iphigenia
Berthold Brecht, basically everything - particularly The Resistable Rise of Arturo UI, The Good Man of Sezuan

Nestroy - pretty much the whole work.
Anything by Oscar Wilde.

Watership Down by Richard Adams.

To Kill a Mockingbird, then Wuthering Heights, then Pride and Prejudice.

I don't know what would be considered a "classic," but I would have to pick To Kill A Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men and The Catcher in the Rye :) All are fantastic books.

I couldn't pick just one, so here are a few of my favorites: Fahrenheit 451, The Catcher in the Rye, Slaughterhouse-Five, And Then There Were None.
I read all of those for school this year! 4 great books. Catcher in the Rye is my all-time favorite though. I love Holden! :p

I couldn't pick just one, so here are a few of my favorites: Fahrenheit 451, The Catcher in the Rye, Slaughterhouse-Five, And Then There Were None.

I forgot about Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians, right?) I would have to add that to my list too :p Classic mystery :)

Count of Monte Cristo and The Island of Dr. Moreau are my two favorite classics.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorites. It was just so good. I'm also really liking Wuthering Heights. I'm reading it at the moment and so far, it's really good.
Read Catcher in the Rye a few years back, and I really liked it, but it's the type of book I wouldn't read again.

I'm not really into the classics as much as I could be, but I adore Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare. Really quite genius minds for the times they lived in, and very courageous I might add to publish the kind of risque material that they did.

My favs:
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Dracula
Crime & Punishment
Pride & Prejudice
Sense & Sensibility
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion
Emma
Little Women

My favs:
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Dracula
Crime & Punishment
Pride & Prejudice
Sense & Sensibility
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion
Emma
Little Women

i really love all those books too !!! i also can add "Uncle Silas", Charles Dickens' novels, Frankenstein, Ann Radcliffe, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson etc. etc.