Reading Classics in 2008?

I made a vow to read some classics this year and wondered if anyone else has some on their mental TBR list.

I'm thinking of:
Jane Eyre
Emma
Lord of the Flies
and The Incredible Journey

I do want to get to some classics this year also. Perhaps some rereads or some I've haven't read yet. I reread Jane Eyre two years ago, and have read Emma a few times in the last four or five years because I ran two Jane Austen book clubs and one Classics group at the store where I worked. Good luck, dihiba! Might I ask why you chose these classics in particular? Just curious.

I have my old copy of Jane Eyre that I received in the 1960's - I loved it as a child but realize it must be an abridged version. My daughter left a full version behind as she's moved on from University, so I have one to read.
I have also had a copy of Emma since university days but have not read it. As a full generation has gone by, I think it's about time!
I picked up second hand copies of the other two books recently and since I have not read them since the 60's/70's I think I will try them again. I think The Incredible Journey was read to me in school. The fact that she was (is?) Canadian also is a reason. I thoroughly enjoyed Lord of the Flies in grade 10 English and thought I would give it another go.

I think I would like to read some of the remaining works of George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell at some point. They seem to be the classics most calling me at the moment.

I would like to reread George Eliot as well. I have never read any Elizabeth Gaskell - can you tell me more about her work?

Gaskell, often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, is one of the best novelists of the mid-19th century. Her novels are very socially minded, dealing with the impact of industrialisation on workers, illegitimacy, etc. First and foremost though, they are great reads.

Her masterpiece is probably Wives and Daughters, although she didn't finish it (the last section was completed after her death according to notes) - if you can, see the BBC mini-series as well - it's one of the best costume dramas ever made.

A good place to start is Cranford, which the BBC has also recently adapted, which is a short comic novel about the inhabitants of the eponymous town.

Thanks for the information. I will check my library for the BBC productions.

Hey, look who's here! I second everything jargoneer says about Mrs. Gaskell's work and the BBC mini-series. Some have read her North and South first and enjoyed it.

I got a copy of The Awakening by Kate Chopin for Christmas and I'll probably read that pretty soon. I think of that as a classic. Would you? Also thinking about reading Little Dorrit. Maybe. Or maybe Silas Marner.

Oh yes, The Awakening is indeed a classic!

I have run through one of Eliot's novellas this afternoon as referred to in #4. Think I will wait on the others and see what mischief I can get into among the bookshelves this weekend before I am once again constricted with research.

My list is not even mental. If it were, I'd never remember what I was supposed to read, like before LT.

To the Lighthouse
Franny and Zooey
David Copperfield
Mrs. Dalloway
Henry and June
Pale Fire - Nabokov
Far from the Madding Crowd
Bleak House
The Prince - Machiavelli, not Harry Potter as the touchstone says.
Portrait of a Lady
Catch-22
Lord of the Flies
Middlemarch

We'll see.

ETA: And, oh yeah, I am currently torturing myself with Proust.

On my list (in addition to a big stack of Virago Modern Classics):

The Adventures of Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Evelina by Frances Burney
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope

Argh! Not sure if this is too controversial, but I'll pitch it anyway. In my view, lots of what people have suggested here constitute modern classics as opposed to classics per se. Not sure if a distinction was being drawn originally anyway but hum ho! What are people's opinions on the difference anyway? For me, Hardy and Gaskell, for example, fall very much into the classics bracket. The likes of Heller with Catch-22 and Golding with Lord of the Flies, I feel, should be considered modern classics instead. I realise that this is, perhaps, a case of symantics, of simple categorisation etc., but it's one that interests me. Debate's healthy after all isn't it?!

Three favourite classics of mine would therefore include:

1. Homer's 'Iliad'
2. Gogol's 'Diary of a Madman (and Selected Tales)'
3. Dosteyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'
Alternatively three cracking modern classics, in my opinion, would comprise:

1. M. Amis' 'Money'
2. Heller's 'Catch-22'
3. Waugh's 'Vile Bodies'

sahorsb

sahorsb, I suppose the definition of classic, simply put, is literature which has stood the test of time (now that was cliche!). How much time a piece of literature has withstood seems to be the factor in your division. Will Catch-22, for example, be as readable in another 50 years, who knows.

avaland; I suppose that I'd agree. I do recognise the arbitrariness of such an application but it does seem to be the way that classics are assigned in bookshops here in the UK, for example. It would seem that the test of time is a relatively fair indicator insofar as it is a constant, yet at the same time precludes the inclusion of certain titles on account of their 'youth'.

And as for Catch-22 in another 50 years? I don't doubt that it's treatment as a classic is assured! I bloody love that book!

I've got "Classics" as a category, but I've made it perhaps a little more broad, including some 20th century works by authors that might not actually qualify, depending on your opinion.

(1) Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady – Samuel Richardson (F)
(2) Howards End – E.M. Forster (F)
(3) The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins (F)
(4) TBD - accidentally picked a book multiple times & am out of overlaps!
(5) War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (F)
(6) Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys (F)
(7) Sanditon and Other Stories – Jane Austen (F-SF)
(8) Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger (F) (a re-read)

ETA: Oops, saved too soon. In other categories, I have some things that could also qualify as classics:

Villette – Charlotte Bronte (F), The Sleeper Awakes – H.G. Wells (F), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories – Robert Louis Stevenson (F).

I have used the tag 'classics' but I've been inconsistent about it. Thus, some of my classics are tagged 'classics' and some aren't.

Reading Frankenstein at lunch, plan to hit Dracula sometime soon. I'm thinking about Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov later in the year. Do the James Bond books count? 8^}

I joined the 888 challenge first, then decided if I could read 64 books I could read 75. The 888 challenge made me think of categories, so here was my first one:

Classics I should have Read by Now
1. Iliad by Homer
2. Beowulf
3. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne finished 2/19/08
4. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
5. Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain **started 3/1/08
6. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
7. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
8. The Sea Wolf by Jack London

I really enjoyed 20,000 Leagues and am happy as a clam reading Life on the Mississippi. I'd forgotten how much I love Mark Twain.

I think James Bond counts. I've read all of them, but have recently re-read the first 4.

Besides, you could consider them 'future classics'. That opens up a whole new realm!

Karenmarie - defining "classics" is an interesting exercise. I think any book that has stood the test of time for 25 years or more could be considered a classic (IMHO, of course).
The Bond books are certainly classics of their genre.
And classics can be national - I would consider some books to be classics of Canadian, American, or British Lit (or other), but they might not be classics for everyone. For example, as CanLit gets stronger and more widely read in Canada, American classics will probably fade - there are US classics that don't mean a whole lot to Canadian culture (e.g. To Kill a Mockingbird - though it is a great book).
I guess my point is that "classics" is open to interpretation (and enjoyment).

wow. i have to say i definitely need to start learning about classic literature. i've read a very few (jane eyre is one of my top three favorite books!) but i seem to have spent most of my time reading vintage mystery novels. plus, the last month or so has been spent trying a few fun series for younger readers that my friends have recommended to me. wow...i definitely need to get myself to read some classics pretty soon. i'm hoping for:
oliver twist
mansfield park
great expectations (re-read)
a room with a view
...and perhaps a few others i can't recall at the moment...

#1, I made the same vow. I have not read any of the classics in previous years. I have started this year and have become illuminated. Better late than never, no?

#20 dihiba - 25 years might be reasonable. And classics of a genre is a good way of putting it. I was struggling the other day trying to define why Bond might count, so that covers it.

Need your help here - My 888 challenge has a huge hole - Essays was a category but I nixed that two days ago - what about Canadian Literature? Do you have a few authors or books that you might suggest to this US citizen who wants to expand her horizons?

Yes!! Here are some I like - Richard B. Wright (particulary Clara Callan and Adultery) and I am reading Final Things right now - the last two are quicker reads - Callan is longer but excellent.
Anita Rau Badami - The Hero's Walk in particular
Carol Shields - have only read Larry's Party but really liked it - follows Larry's life from ca 1979-2001 from his youth to his middle age
Rohinton Mistry - best known for Such a Long Journey - also Family Matters
Margaret Atwood also very well regarded, M.G. Vassanji is good.
If you like murder mysteries set in England - Peter Robinson has an excellent series a la Ian Rankin but set in Yorkshire A couple of rising stars in the murder mystery genre, set in Canada - Giles Blunt and Louise Penny.

Other Cdn. writers, not necessarily my favourites, but well regarded - Timothy Findley, Ami MacKay, Jane Urquhart, Frances Itani, Douglas Coupland.

I recommend listening to classics on audio, too. I had never read Dante Alighieri, so I listened to The Inferno on tape several years ago. Listening to it really brought it alive for me!

Thanks dihiba!!! I'm going to check them out during my lunch hour and start filling in my "Canadian Literature" category.

Alcotteacre - I listen to books to and from work (40 minutes each way). I will add some classics to the mix. I'm inspired!

Speaking of classics -
I picked up Virginia Woolf's A Room of Her Own at the library secondhand bookstore (love that place!) yesterday and started reading it - wow!! I've been on Earth for all these years and haven't read any of her work - have read "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and seen 'The Hours' (which I loathed). I was just transfixed and would have finished it last night if fatigue hadn't set in (gone are the days when I can fight that). What a wonderful writing style she has!
Now I'm desperately trying to find my copy of Mrs. Dalloway - it is not in my "W" box of books - yikes.
There's also a family connection here - Woolf died very close to where my mother grew up and she probably took the name Dalloway from that area as a relative of mine married a Dalloway and the surname seems to be found mainly in that area. Not that it means anything - just an obscure personal connection!

You're welcome karenmarie - I will just add Wayne Johnston and, how could I forget her, Alice Munro.
For LitLite there's Joy Fielding who is Canadian, but her books are set in the US.

>27 dihiba: I love Mrs. Dalloway. You might appreciate The Hours a little more once you finish it--the book, not necessarily the movie. Cunningham very cleverly parallels the novel's unique structure but in an updated setting, with flashbacks and connections to Woolf's life.

Kidman's fake nose was such a distraction. And Woolf was such a beautiful woman in photos that I never saw her nose as such a "big" thing (in more ways than one).

#29 - I just found The Hours very depressing. Life can be sad, yes, but there is always a lightness somewhere.
I just checked a map - my mother lived about 4 miles from where Woolf drowned herself (my parents were married there a few years later towards the end of WWII). If she were still with us, I would be asking her if she remembers Woolf or her death. Her (mom's) family ran a dairy and who knows - even Woolf would have needed milk for her tea!

#27 dihiba: I loved A Room of One's Own when I read it! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

#26 karenmarie: Your local library is probably a good source for classics on tape. At least mine is, so you might check there. I can also highly recommend Recorded Books (www.recordedbooks.com). They have a great selection, plus some of the best narrators in the business. They offer 30 day rentals as well as the choice of purchasing the books.

There is an abundance of free classic audio from LibriVox at

www.librivox.org

Recordings are by volunteers and some readers are better than others. But there are some really nice ones there. I recently enjoyed listening to The Prisoner of Zenda and The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns from LibriVox. And I've downloaded The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth to listen to later.

Edited to add that what disappoints me with a lot of commercial classic audio books on tape or CD, is that they are abridged :(

#32 digifish_books: Edited to add that what disappoints me with a lot of commercial classic audio books on tape or CD, is that they are abridged . That is one of the things I appreciate about Recorded Books - they do not abridge books. Abridgments are one of my personal peeves - I will not buy an audiobook (or a book book for that matter) if it is abridged.

One of the few books I still have from childhood is a British edition (Collins) of Jane Eyre - Collins put out a whole series of light blue covered (with dust jackets as well) classics in the 1960's. I loved it and want to read it again - however - I think it is an abridged edition, although I can't see it stated anywhere. My daughter has another copy of JE which seems much longer. How can I tell? I would love to read my original again, but if it is abridged, I want to read the unabridged one!

Some classics currently in my TBR pile:
Romola by George Eliot
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise

I read Moll Flanders a year or so ago and loved it. DeFoe was a favorite of mine from my childhood but this one I;m glad I waited to read until I was older because I think I was able to gain so much more from it. Let me know what you think.

i have a (shamefully low) target of reading 2 per quarter:

- 1st Q: finished The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad and Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
- 2nd Q: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

not worrying myself yet on choice for the remainder of the year...i've already got too much on my TBR pile as it is...

Conservatively counting, I've read 22 "classics" so far this year.

I love reading classics, so I always have several to be read. This year I opted for at least ten I had never read before, and some modern classics and re-reads as well.

I've already read ten, but some of the ones left on the TBR pile include;

Classics:

Pride and Prejudice
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Maurice
Moby Dick
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Tom Jones
Island of Dr. Moreau
Lord Jim
Around the World in Eighty Days
Madam Bovary

Modern Classics:

Brideshead Revisited
The Bell Jar
The Jungle
Bridge of San Luis Rey ( re-read)
Orlando
Sons and Lovers

I note Tess of the D'Urbervilles on your tbr pile. I think Thomas Hardy's writing is very stilted and difficult to follow. However, Roman Polansky's award-winning movie Tess was an incredibly beautiful production.