The Classics

smallholder · The Classics

Had a hankering to read a classic this holiday as well as other lighter reads and so have just started Mansfield Park - Jane Austen. Anyone else doing the same?

tui

I love Jane Austin and reread them or parts of them each year. My favourite is Pride and Prejudice but i read Mansfield Park last year.
i was into Dickens for a while but haven't read any recently. Probably cause the print is so small in the copies I own!

whoa there pickle

I keep meaning to read more classics but when it comes down to it I always pick up something else.

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Yes her tone of voice is just so wonderful isn't it? I like it more now I am older - I don't think I really got her before.

I like Dickens too Tui.

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Love Wuthering Heights and the Brontes.

whoa there pickle

The first time I tried to read Wuthering Heights I hated it and gave up after a few chapters. The second time was a few years later and I loved it!

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I think its always worth giving some books another go. I didn't like To the Lighthouse -Virginia Woolfe when I first read it but now I'm older I do.

On the other hand, I have tried Portrait of a Lady -Henry James a couple of times and not managed to read it.

bevevans22

I read Wuthering Heights once every year. First read it when doing A level English back in the day and still love it.

Will be reading The Secret Garden and The Jungle Book over the hols - haven't read them for ages - loved them when I was young!

redredrobin

I found Henry James hard going and gave up. I've read and re-read lots of Jane Austen, especially Emma and Northanger Abbey (mainly because it is set in Bath). It's a long time since I read Wuthering Heights - I read it as an angsty teen so loved it! Can't be doing with Jane Eyre simply because it was an exam text! Surprised myself when I managed to read Les Liaisons Dangereuse (in English) and really got into it - it's about such horrible people!

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Glad to hear I'm not the only one who has struggled with Henry James! I love Jayne Eyre. One of my favourite books in my collection is an old bound copy of this where she is writing under the name of Currer Bell.

tui

i bought a Henry James book. I think it is called the golden bowl but i haven't started reading it. It has been on the shelf for at least 2 years.
I love Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights but haven't read them for a few years.

magpie nic

I really like Jane Eyre as well, don't really read the classics but know I should. Have a few on my bookshelves, but always choose something else.
I think of mice and men and to kill a mockingbird should count as classics- I read them often!

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Fantastic books those magpie - you have excellent taste!

wicked witch

I love reading Anthony Trollope in the summer holidays. I love his observations on the ways that people behave.

tui

After reading Mr Pip i was inspired to read Great Expectations but haven't yet. I don't own a copy though i have several other .Dickens. Other people must have had the same idea as there is never a copy in the old book shops i have looked in.

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Mr Pip was a good read I thought, though literally shocking in parts. Have you ever read Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys, based on the mad woman in the attic from Jane Eyre?

magpie nic

I will look out for that SH, sounds interesting. Read Mr Pip and it was certainly shocking!

catz240

Got Nintendo DS lite for birthday and purchased 100 Classic Books for it. Haven't had time to start reading any yet. Hopefully this holiday when I am sitting outside the caravan - hopefully in the sunshine!

greyengine

I love Jane Austen, but like others have never got on with Henry James. Not a big Dickens fan either, but have read quite a bit of Anthony Trollope and used to love Thomas Hardy when I was younger.
I also thought Mr Pip was a good read, and read Wide Sargasso Sea a few years ago - very poignant.

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Have finished Mansfield Park and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a bit moralising at the end though - I think Austen overdoes her 'message' there. No way could I be as passive as Fanny Price, the 'heroine' !

bscaca

i love Jane Austen and have struggled with Henry James too! Currently rereading Tess of the Durbevilles - its one of my daughters A level texts - so can help her if she needs it!!

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I love Tess, despite having to do it for A level.

cuckoo

Love Dickens, Hardy and Jane Austen. I studied English Lit at uni so have the opposite problem- I have read all the classics but have no knowledge of modern/contemporary fiction which I am trying to address now.

Emma is my favourite Jane Austen, Bleak House my favourite Dickens and I love Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Like others find Wuthering Heights hard going. My favourite book by one of the Bronte sisters is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. It is just brilliant and I would recommend it to you all!

cuckoo

Clearly should not have said I have read all the classics- that is impossible. I also love Zola- Terese Raquin is fab!

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I like Tenant of Wildfell Hall too Nichola - I have a nice old copy - but you have me on Zola I have not ready any.

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Have just begun Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen. It must be the autumn nights - they make me want to turn to the classics again.

Chilli Queen

I loved Hardy's Return of the Native.

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I have read most of Hardy's books I think. I like a good wallow sometimes!

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I have finished Northanger Abbey and enjoyed it. You can tell it is one of her earlier books though as it isn't as polished. I thought the ending was much too rushed. A well crafted ending is so important!

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As always at this time of year I am drawn towards the classics. Often it's Dickens, but this time I have gone for Lorne Doone. I've had it on my shelf for ages and never tackled it but yesterday it seemed to be calling to me.

Although the style is a little long winded at times and the dialogue is in Devonshire dialect I am already hooked. The 'romance' of the tale and the descriptions of Exmoor are great. Listen to this...

" Soon it was too dark to see...except the creases in the dusk, where prisoned light crept up the valleys."

Love it. Plus its an old copy from 1873 which always adds to the pleasure.

Chilli Queen

Lorne Doone was on the bookcase as I grew up. It was my mum's from when she was a child (probably 1950s). I remember being fascinated by all the books she'd had as a child. I can't remember whether I read it though! I do remember reading a beautiful copy of the water babies though which had lovely illustrated pages throughout it. I was terrified of Mrs Do-as-you-would-be-done-by and Mrs Be-done-by-as-you-did.

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Realised its Lorna not Lorne! The Lorne Family are part of the fueding. John Ridd has met the young Lorna by the waterfall now. Sighs with enjoyment!

redredrobin

Lorna Doone is hard to get into but it is a good tale. I read it when we visited Exmoor - very atmospheric!

tui

i won Lorna Doone when i was about 10 for an essay competition. I went looking for it when I saw your post SH but i can;t find it. I haven;t read it for many years. You have inpsired me to search out a copy. I am off to Wellington our capital city this week to see my daughter. there are several marvellous secondhand books shops which I will spend hours in rummaging for gems.

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Happy hunting Tui. Let us know what treasures you find!

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Still reading Lorna Doone!

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Phew - finally finished it!