The Next Best Book Club discussion

I am trying to get into the classics. I have three at my disposal right now.

The Count of Monte Criisto (just started)
Jane Eyre
Rebecca

I will say more after I read those three. By the way, are all classics incredibly huge, or did I just pick the biggest ones first?

AK Erin wrote: "I just started Don Quixote (pg 52) and am really surprised! I don't know what I expected...maybe a serious, gripping novel about romance, dueling, and travel I guess. But it's really humorous! I'm ..."

Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits said that it was a humerous book. That's what peaked my interest and moved this book up the TBR list. I didn't know it was meant to be funny, either, until I read this.

Catamorandi, most Classics seem large but they are so well written and interesting that they don't read like huge books. Wilkie Collins writes some good and fairly thin books (although The Woman in White, one of his best, is another huge one).

I loved loved loved Jane Eyre. It is such a passionate romance, that you don't mind the 700 page length. Mr Rochester grrrrrrrrr.

It would be interesting if Cardenio (1613) had survived, as Shakespeare is reputed to have had at least a hand involved in it, and it would (from the title) have been based on Don Quixote, which I think was first published in English the previous year.

I have been downloading classics like crazy onto my kindle. They are all free so I might as well get caught up. Here's what I have so far:

Little Women
Pride and Prejudice
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Scarlet Letter
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Count of Monte Cristo
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
White Fang
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
The Call of the Wild
The Wonderful Wizard of OZ

Am I missing any other must-reads?

Have you read Dickens?

Susanna wrote: "Have you read Dickens?"

Thanks for reminding me! Here's what I added this morning that were free:

A Christmas Carol
Oliver Twist
Great Expectations
Nicholas Nickleby
The Pickwick Papers
The Old Curiosity Shop

If you can find Dombey and Son or Bleak House, I'd go for them, too - my two favorite Dickens. Dombey and Son is probably "more approachable" than Bleak House.

Bleak House was too dreary for me. (pun intended)

Susanna wrote: "If you can find Dombey and Son or Bleak House, I'd go for them, too - my two favorite Dickens. Dombey and Son is probably "more approachable" than Bleak House."

Thanks I found both of those for free too!

Are there any other recommendations for must-have classics?

Go for the other Bronte sister, Anne. With either Angus Gray or Tenet of Whitefield Hall. And maybe some George Elliot with "Middle March'. And then you can start on the french Madame Bovary and Nana, and the Russians. Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment.

Gulliver's Travels
Sam'l Pepys Diaries. Try reading them along - side "Diary of Mrs. Pepys" Susan George - a good chuckle on how Sam's wife might have viewed the same events & her view of life with Sam.

Catamorandi wrote: "I am trying to get into the classics. I have three at my disposal right now.

The Count of Monte Criisto (just started)
Jane Eyre
Rebecca

I will say more after I read those three. By the w..."
Define incredibly huge...
I wouldn't say they all are, but I try not to pick up book based on length.

Diane U wrote: "Are there any other recommendations for must-have classics?"

Do you like plays?

Not really but I have not read anything like that since Shakespear in high school.

Monsignor Quixote
by Graham Greene
For those who liked Cervantes' tale or those who didn't or were not willing to try the immense origional work. Greene gets to the heart of the story in a modern setting & style.

I've never read anything by Jane Austen even though I have a book that contains four of her novels.

I love Miss Austen.

I just ordered Woman In White-Wilkie Collins. I have been meaning to read this for a long time. Ordered all the Stieg Larsson Trilogy also and The Man In The Iron Mask. and In The Woods I got for $.88 cents. Then I can't buy any more until I read these and Wolf Hall. Ha! as if that will really happen.