What We Are Reading: Classics

Using a very loose definition of 'classics' here - namely, any book written before 1960. If you like the 'oldies but goodies', this is the place to let us know!

I started reading Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day this morning and am already 2/3 of the way through it. A wonderful book!

>2 amanda4242: - I have that one STILL sitting on my TBR shelves - I'm saving it for sometime when I'm a bit miserable or not feeling well, because I've heard it such a feel-good novel!

Speaking of feel-good novels, I'm starting my New Year off with a reread of one of my favourite books of all time, Jane Eyre. Mum gave me her copy to read when I was only about six, and even though I didn't understand it all at the time (and got totally freaked out by the whole Grace/Bertha thing, eek) I fell completely in love. I've read it once or twice since then, I think, and I still adore it. Mr Rochester's definitely one of my favourite brooding classic heroes!

Anna Karenina, I joined the group read.

For January I will attempt:
Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger - 1951
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien - 1937
Villette - Charlotte Bronte - 1853
A View of the Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor - 1947

I finished Othello and now I'm doing the group read for Lolita.

Coming up: The Red Badge of Courage!

I've just read and reviewed my first book of 2013 and the next in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, Pot Luck, a story of sexual and financial intrigue and hypocrisy in a Parisian apartment building.

I'm starting a re-read of Lolita today for the group read.

Have been reading Moll Flanders for some time. I'm slowly working my way through her five marriages and ups and downs. hmmm....

Today I plan to start Catcher in the Rye

I just started reading The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric- he is a Bosnian writer who won the Nobel prize in 1961. It's a story that I had read when he was awarded the Nobel prize (I read it in Spanish then); but I've always wanted to read it again.
The title says it all- it's a story of the bridge and historical events that occur around it in its 400-odd year history.

I'm a big fan of The Bridge on the Drina.

Finished The Red Badge of Courage, it was okay. You can find my review by clicking on the Touchstone! :)

I just finished The Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola.

Just finished (and loved) Candide by Voltaire. Why haven't I read this until now? Don't know, but I'm sure I'll read it again.

I've got Great Expectations by Charles Dickens loaded on my new Christmas Nook.

Karen O.

#16: I read Candide at the end of last month and thought exactly the same thing!

I recall reading Candide in high school literature class.

I love Candide. One of the best books I've ever been forced to read. So much fun.

I've started Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a palate cleanser. Kind of a re-read, but I don't really remember much about it from when i was a kid.

I loved "Alice" when I read it a few months ago. I read the Annotated Alice and learned a lot! I love what you said about it being a palate cleanser. It's really true, isn't it?!

Karen O.

Yes, it is Karen. It's certainly different (and better) than my last read - a faux Austen/sequel to Sense and Sensibility.

I've finished and reviewed The Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo, the tale of an epic struggle of man against the ocean and a lot more.

Finished Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Short review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/4053418/reviews/92675513 (3.5 stars)

I just read and reviewed Kornél Esti by Dezsõ Kosztolányi, an episodic novel of stories, both "true" and "imagined," about a writer in early 20th century Hungary.

Just finished the Iliad. Ugh. Sooo boring. I blame the translator, though. I didn't care for Butler's translation at all (especially since he couldn't decide between the Latin and Greek names and kept flip-flopping. It's a GREEK book. Use the GREEK names)!

Just started up the Odyssey. I'm enjoying the story much more than the Iliad, but the use of Latin names is still annoying the hell out of me.

That is a prose translation, isn't it? You should read the Odyssey in verse, even in blank verse. Then you'll get more out of it. The latest version of both Iliad and Odyssey I read are modern translations by Robert Fitzgerald and they are pretty good. He uses Greek names so that should please you (me too).

Yep, it's prose. Blah.
I love the Fitzgerald version of the Odyssey - it's the one we used in high school. Only problem though is, since I read so many books (I'm working on a goal of 300 for this year), anything that is out of copyright I "read" as an audiobook through Librivox (to make use of my car rides), and the translator Librivox went with was Butler.
Butler's Odyssey seems to be significantly closer to blank verse than his Iliad was, though. And I know the story so much better that it's easier for me to "get into it" - even if he's pissing me off with the "Jove," "Minerva," and "Juno" crap.

What do any of you think of the newish Fagles translation and how does it compare to earlier ones? I am hoping to read both the Iliad and the Odyssey sometime in the next several years and would welcome thoughts on the best translations.

I've been wanting to read that translation but every time I think of It I look at the books I also want to read, so I put it out of my mind.

Read one chapter of Agnes Grey, and am unsure if I want to read another...

Began reading Theresa Raquin, a novel by the 19th century French writer Emile Zola.

Loved Therese Raquin when I read it last year. It was my favorite read for the year.

I've finished and reviewed another Zola, The Ladies' Paradise, a fascinating look at the beginning of department stores but not his best from a story-telling perspective.

xieouyang and Fourpaws2, I've got Therese Raquin waiting at the library for me. I'd never heard of the book, so thanks for your "heads up" and recommendation!

Karen O.

I'm now reading My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

I've read and reviewed Old Man Goriot by Balzac, a portrait of life in post-revolutionary Paris as well as of a man who sacrifices himself for his ungrateful daughters.

Started Their Eyes Were Watching God a couple of days ago. It's early days, but I'm really liking it.

Oh, only just found this!

Read this year so far: The Lord of the Rings (well, audio actually) and The tree Musketeers by Dumas

Just finished and reviewed Jonathan Wild, a satirical and semi-historical look at the notorious 18th century London thief.

Was charmed by Kipling's Just-So Stories - well, ok, I hated Taffy, but how can you not?

And my last one for Fantasy February - Meister Floh by ETA Hoffmann

Carrying on with reading To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hobbit

As well as joining in a group read of Doctor Thorne, a reread for me, I am also just starting to read another Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?, the first in his Palliser series of novels, which I have been wanting to read for ages.

I've just finished and reviewed Balzac's sweeping Lost Illusions.

And now its sequel, A Harlot High and Low.

Märchen-Almanach auf das Jahr 1826 by Wilhelm Hauff Most notable is Die Geschichte von dem Gespensterschiff... considering all that Pirates-of-the-Carribbean hullaboo *grins*

Just started Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. This has been on my shelf FOREVER and it's high time I read it. Thoroughly enjoying it thus far.

klarusu, you have your work cut out for you! But it is well worth the read. Have fun!

Karen O.

In the midst of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I seem to remember reading some of the Sherlock Holmes series as a teenager, but I can't for the life of me remember if I've read this before or not.

I'm reading Jane Eyre, for the first time. :)

xieouyang - How are you liking "The Bridge on the Drina"? I acquired a copy a couple of months ago, but hadn't decided whether to start reading it now or wait until summer.

Just finished Eldorado and The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. Two excellent books about one of my favorite characters.

Starting The Hobbit and "Jeeves & the Tie That Binds" by P.G. Wodehouse.

I have finished Jane Eyre. *Sigh* Lovely. My review can be found here.

I'm in the middle of Moby Dick...and trying not to fall into a coma during the many digressions.

finished To Kill a Mockingbird this month. Review to follow

I've just finished and reviewed The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz, a poetic coming-of-age story and much more.

I'm participating in a group read for The Sound and the Fury over in the 2013 Category Challenge:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/152293

I just finished and reviewed The Necklace and Other Tales, my first encounter with Maupassant's wonderfully descriptive and psychologically astute short stories.

And now I've finished and reviewed the moderately humorous Three Men in a Boat, which i enjoyed mostly for its digressions and sly insight into human nature.

I've just finished The Shackle by Colette.

I've been considering cleaning up my "to be read bookcase" by starting with the classics withering on it: Ethan Frome, Vanity Fair, Bleak House. The second volume of Sherlock Holmes has also been glaring at me but I haven't been feeling motivated.

Good idea, minacee! Ethan Frome would be a fairly quick read; the others you listed, not so much (!)

Karen O.

Lol! I didn't notice that I have a penchant for lengthy classics! Perhaps there should be another thread:What we are reading: Short(er) Classics.

Just went to review Bang the Drum Slowly which I finished at the end of March, and decided that it best fits here in this thread since it was written in 1956.
not my favourite book
review is here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/171824

here is my review of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
http://www.librarything.com/work/3092/reviews/84378114

I've just finished and reviewed the delightfully satirical Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.

And now the somewhat tedious, but thought-provoking, The Sin of Father Mouret, by Zola.

Rebecca, I find your pursuing of Zola admirable. What number in the sequence is this one?

Because of work I have not been assiduously reading threads- I just check a few from time to time.

Manuel, with some exceptions, I am reading them in the reading order recommended this Wikipedia page and am only reading ones that are in recent (unbowdlerized) English translation. This is the fifth in publication date, the ninth in recommended reading order, and the ninth that I've read (with three out of sequence).

Having fun with The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer

I finished Alien Hearts by Guy de Maupassant, which I found dragged on and on.

I just finished reading The Stranger by Albert Camus which I found interesting but a little frustrating by the main character's detachment.

I'm (very slowly) reading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.

I've finished another Zola, A Priest in the House (The Conquest of Plassans), somewhat melodramatic but a great picture of the pettiness and cattiness of French provincial life.

Started Virginia by Ellen Glasgow yesterday. Have been wanting to read this one for a long, long time.

I read and reviewed a puzzling book of short stories by Aleksander Wat, Lucifer Unemployed.

I'm currently reading On the Beach by Nevil Shute and so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

I've read and reviewed Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, which I found challenging, and not because the story was as bleak as the landscape.

Now I've read and reviewed my latest Zola, The Belly of Paris which depicts bourgeois excesses through descriptions of the foods and operations of Les Halles.

I have started reading Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. I just purchased a copy at B&N last week, one of its library of classics that are very reasonably priced and come in handy editions. They are well edited, have a number of footnotes and an introduction that is written typically by a literature professor, often a retired one.

Incidentally, this book attracted my attention after reading the comments from a group of LTers who were reading it last year (or was it two years ago?)

I just finished The Decameron. The framing story is kind of dry, but I liked the tales a lot more than I thought I would.

I've just finished Twelve Angry Men. Still relevant as the issues of class, upbringing and race still come up in trial.

I'm about halfway through Dead Souls by Gogol. My husband has been begging me to read it for years and I finally caved. The novel is truly hilarious.

Also still reading the second volume of Sherlock Holmes.

I'm listening to War and Peace - my first foray into this so I have no idea about how it unfolds. But it is surprisingly accessible so far (into book 3).

I loved both Dead Souls and especially War and Peace, one of my favorite books of all time.

I just finished the wonderful medieval trilogy, Kristin Lavransdatter.

#88 Which translation did you read? I remember researching which version was considered the best, then forgetting the answer. I obtained a copy of what I fear is the more old-fashioned translation, but haven't yet started reading it.

Started Jane Eyre yesterday. Today I took her to a cardiology appointment she was a nice companion while I waited.

I started reading sections from The Iliad for an online course taught by "Coursera"

For those of you who don't know, Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) is a non-profit outfit that teaches a number of classes online. The classes cover a number of subjects (science, history, etc.) and are taught by full professors at well known universities (MIT, Princeton, etc.). The courses follow typically the same syllabus, readings, lectures, as they are in the university- the only difference is that the student does not get any credit (I believe there is an option for that but I am not interested on it). The lectures are recorded, so you can revisit them anytime. You can take quizzes and there is a final exam.

This is my second course, I finished last month one on an aspect of Chinese history.

Very wortwhile- I recommend them very highly if you want to learn something.

Started Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cahther the other day. Hasn't taken off for me yet. And I, too, am taking that same Coursera class and have read the Iliad chapters, but haven't started The Odyssey ones yet. I think I'm being lazy about it because I know that I read the whole thing in high school and am not anxious to jump into it. Better get over that soon...

Interesting to know you are taking the course. I've read both of them over the years at least 2 or 3 times. But never for a class where one has to pay more attention and try to get "something" out of the books, rather than just enjoying them.
I'll keep my eyes open to see if you make any comments or observations on the course.

I just read and reviewed The Laughing Man by Victor Hugo, which I found compelling and horrifying, although I didn't love it as much as I loved Toilers of the Sea.

I finished and reviewed Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin, which was a strange but wonderful book about dreams and ghosts and time, from 1924.

I recently finished and reviewed Red Spectres: Russian Gothic Tales from the Twentieth Century, which was mildly interesting but basically not my cup of tea.

I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to the adventurous and intrigue-filled world of Alexandre Dumas with La Reine Margot, and have reviewed it on my thread and on the book page.

I started reading the first volume of Miklos Banffy's The Transylvanian Trilogy, called They Were Counted. The trilogy narrates the fall of the Hungarian aristocracy in the two decades before the First World War.
It looks very promising from the few pages I've read so far. But its length and depth suggests I won't progress much towards the 75 books read fort his year.

I loved The Transylvanian Trilogy -- I thought Banffy was a marvelous story-teller.

Except that keeping track of the multitude of characters is going to prove difficult. I'll resort to my technique of writing all the names down with a brief description of each and page numbers where they are mentioned- so I can refer to them.