h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anyone interested in starting a discussion about classic novels (e.g. Dickens, Bronte, Austen, Hardy, etc. etc. etc...)? I've just finished reading "A Tale of Two Cities" and I think it's one of the best things I've ever read.

So, if you're interested, let's get the discussion going...

I love the Classics. Some of them quickly become old friends. My oldest and still favorite is Jane Eyre. I must have read that a dozen times, and still turn to it when I'm out of reading material. Dickens is an all time favorite around our house, and Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without A Christmas Carole. Another long time favorite is The Hobbit, which we now have on talking book as well. One from our son's childhood, which we all enjoyed as I read it to him was the original Jungle Book. It still ranks right up there with Dickens as his favorite read. As a child I loved Louisa May Alcott, and have all her books, some of which originally belonged to my mother. Being Canadian, of course, there's always Anne of Green Gables, and The Golden Road books.Read the books, and saw them on TV, and still love Anne! Has anyone ever heard of L.T. Meade? I have all these wonderful old English schoolgirl novels, and I'm the only one I know who knows about them.

Jane Eyre is definitely a favourite with me too. I wasn't expecting to like it, but then I had to study it which made me aware of how complex the imagery and symbolism is - it's really quite clever, in my view

Our Christmas tends to be a little less educated - my mum's favourite thing is the musical "Scrooge" with Albert Finney!

Who is L.T.Meade? Any suggested titles?

We bought the tape of Sir Alistair Sim as Scrooge in A Christmas Carole as a pre-Christmas gift for our son several years ago - and its a tradition to sit and watch it Christmas Eve. He watched it on TV for the very first time as a 3-year-old, sitting on his Grandpa's knee, and as Grandpa is now gone, it brings back very fond childhood memories for him.

L.T. Meade's books - let me see - Betty, A School Girl, Aylwyn's Friends, The Rebel of the School. Another one - Angela Brazil: The Princess of the School, St Catherine's College.

We've also read Two Years Before the Mast by Richard H. Dana Jr. High adventure - a recommended read.

After my Mum passed away and I brought her books home, my husband read The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott. When I commented that it was odd reading for him, he said it was refreshing to read properly written English - something you just don't always get in a modern novel.

And I'm one of those who reads and re-reads the Jane Austen novels, and enjoys them every time.

And another book that constantly amazes me is Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. The world's first surreal novel!

Lil

Never read "Tristram Shandy", but I keep meaning to, especially after reading David Lodge's essay about it in "The Art of Fiction".

I love Austen! There's something really refreshing about her, isn't there?

Glad you're feeling much better

You want to be drunk or something to really enjoy Shandy -- I suspect it may be because it was written in such a state!

And yet, as you read Shandy you feel as if you're watching foreigners acting out a barely comprehensible system of manners, however modern the tricks of plot. And that distance and foreign-ness is what is happily absent from Austen. I'm not watching or decoding Emma or Fanny or Whitford, I'm there with them.
Lil

I love Jane Austen too!! Especially Emma... And Jane Eyre is great!! But anyone read Les Misérables?? I adore it!!

It looks like I've arrived at this forum after it's died... but still, it may yet be resurrected...

I haven't read Les Miserables, but I went to see the musical version of it in London, which was wonderful...

I noticed somebody mentioned L. M. Alcott and Anne of Green Gables... Little Women and AOGG have to be two of my favourite books (and who cares if people think they're not guy-books... )

I love Sense and Sensibility - alright, it's a *little* silly, but great fun And Dickens is great, but I find I get depressed if I read too many of his books in a row...

Has anybody read "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne? I think it's a great book - even if the whole point of the story was missed by the recent film of the same name...

Abi is currently reading War and Peace which Sam and Crusader got her started on and which I helped to encourage, It's a bit sticky and sluggish for the first 100 pages but once it gets going it really hard to put down.

BTW I've also read all of Austin and the Bronte's.

I've started reading Anna Karenina, but it's rather difficult to get into. Hopefully it picks up a little later on...

I started reading Anna Karenina several years ago, but I never finished it. I was really into it, but I had to go in hospital and lost the book while I was there and just never got back to it.

Speaking of Russian literature, what about The Brothers Karamazov? I found that book rather long and tiresome, but my then-S.O. was highly into Russian lit at the time, so it was kind of a prerequisite to dating him.

One of my favorite books of all time is Jane Eyre. The first time I read it, I was only about 12, so it had a completely different meaning for me than when I read it later as an adult. Makes me wonder what my daughter will think of some of the things she's reading now when she looks back at them later.

I'm surprised so many have read Jane Eyre. I haven't had the courage to pick it up yet again in many years. I was reading it and chatting with my Mom (her copy) days before she passed away. My bookmark is still in it, in my own book case. now. Its still a favorite, though. I have all of L.M. Alcott's books, and they were all childhood favourites. I haven't read any classics lately, been envolved in Clive Cussler, but I feel the urge coming on.

I haven't actually been reading much of anything lately, to be honest, but the last few things I read couldn't be considered "classics." At least, not yet.

Classics are by far the most dominant species in my bookshelves and on my bedside table. Although every time I try, I just can't get "into" Dickens. It bothers me like the Dickens (tee hee) as I know I should, but I always end up putting the books down and never going back to finish.
I still have a copy of A Tale of Two Cities unread somewhere in the dark recesses of the shelves...
Apart from Austen, Bronte sisters and all those delicious tomes of yore, I could not live without my Lewis Carroll and his amazing psychadelic renditions of Alice's adventures. I even have several copies of each, some antique (1800s versions, given to a little girl called Alice), others anthologies of his works, others just great looking books I pick up here and there.
Anyone else read these and still get goosebumps?

BTW, I know it may not be a classic, but has anyone heard of "Drawn from Llife" by Stella Bowen. Apparantly she is an Australian writer who moved to London in the 20s (I think) and hung around with some amazing writers of her time. She wrote this book about her life and experiences. I saw an excerpt read on TV recently, and it sounds amazing.
Has anyone read it, or know of it? I am trying to get my hands on a copy (secondhand preferably)

Anyone read The Odessey? Its a tough read, and all the gods have at least 2 names, but its such a good book once you get everyone straightened out in your mind. When I read it, after awhile, I couldn't put it down.

I've just started... Trying to find time to read it...

Jane Eyre, my absolute favorite!

I'm an Aeneid fan, particularly Book IV, but I think it loses it's panache in the English.

I also like the new Pinsky translation of the Inferno--the only one in terza rima.

I adore Flannery O'Connor & Joyce Carol Oates, if you count them.

There are some others, but I can't think of them . . .

Kathy