Today, the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish have asked us to list ten classics that rock. Considering I am part of the Classics Club reading challenge, this week’s top ten is a walk in the park for me. I can think of so many books to list faster than it takes me to type this sentence.
Since classics are quite a huge bucket, I divided my favorites list into informal categories – Children’s classics, translated classics, British classics, and modern classics.
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B.White is an adorable book about the friendship between a spider and a pig. I recently reread this book with my daughter and was still (as an adult) utterly charmed by this book.
- Another children’s classic that I loved and re-read recently is Winnie the Pooh by A.A.Milne. Such an idyllic life, I want to live with these wonderful characters in the 100-acre wood, and in fact was seriously considering naming my house Pooh Corner, only I got outvoted by everyone at home 😟 .
- I loved, loved, loved One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (bless his soul) when I read it last year. I started off this book with a lot of trepidation. What if I disliked it as much as Love in the Time of Cholera? I didn’t want to hate on his books too much. But I needn’t have feared, I savored every bit of 100 years.
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is another translated favorite. Maybe it was the translation, but this book has to be one of the more accessible Russian novels. It’s long, but it had a soap-opera style feel to it, plus a lot of philosophy added on. I can’t say this is a book I will be hopping to read again and again, but I loved it very much at the time I did read it.
- I have disliked most of the George Eliot books I’ve read – Adam Bede and Silas Marner were just too dour for me, The Mill on the Floss was lovely, but why did they have to die? Sob. But Middlemarch was just perfect. It’s mature in style but not prosy, and most important of all, there is no unnecessary tragedy or melodrama.
- Bleak House to me is the best of Charles Dickens. Don’t get taken in by the book title, this book is laugh out loud funny in places, the story moves along at a quick pace, and before I knew it, I was done with the book. Highly recommend!
- I don’t know if I can call Beloved by Toni Morrison a modern classic. It was published in 1987 but it is set in the times after the American Civil war. But I don’t want to quibble over definitions here. I loved this book, it’s a provocative book and is written in a manner to get a strong reaction from the reader. Love it or hate it, I think it’s a book that should be read, not just for the theme, but also the literary techniques used by the author.
- A classic dystopia for me is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Unlike most other dystopian novels, at the end of this novel you are not entirely sure whose point of view is the more valid – the establishment or the rebels. It’s also one of those dystopian novels where if you sit back and think about the book, you feel that we are actually living in this world that Huxley has created.
- I love a strong female protagonist and a story with a strong feminist slant, so how can I not love The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwwod? Hands down, one of the best novels I have ever read.
- I also love good spy fiction and there’s no era better than the Cold War when it comes to spy novels, and no book better than Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré.
Note the complete absence of some generally favorite British classics (by the Bronte sisters, Austen, and Hardy). I am not trying to be contrary or interesting by omitting them. It’s just that Hardy’s tormented heroines have never been my thing, and while Austen and the Brontes wrote a lot of great books, I can’t honestly pick any one of their books out and say this one, this is my favorite. They are all good.
So this makes up my top ten list people. Which classic books are your faves? Oh! and if you are Canadian, Happy Canadian Day!!! Have a great holiday!
What a wonderful post, where every title you mentioned had me gasping in remembered joy. (Except for Beloved, which I disliked.) But, back to the first two, especially E. B. White. Charlotte’s Web remains one of my favorite books ever, and if you haven’t read The Trumpet of the Swan you would enjoy that too.
@bellezza:disqusThank you. I love Trumpet of the Swan too, it’s another favorite! Beloved is a very polarizing book – you either love it or hate it. I think it was the first book of its kind I read, and I was blown away. Now, I’ve read a lot more Toni Morrison, and I am now starting to find her style a little repetitive.
Stopping by from #spreadthelove and I am doing the Classics Club challenge too. I love Charlottes Web and I read Handmaid’s Tale but didn’t love it. You’ve given me more books to add to my list. We are reading through the Harry Potter series now and I called them my modern classics 🙂
@disqus_jZnKAatlbx:disqus The Handmaid’s Tale is quite polarizing, you either love it or hate it, I think.
I think it’s safe to consider Harry Potter a children’s classic now, I think 🙂
(Stopping by from Steadfast Reader) I haven’t read many classics (which is why I didn’t participate in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday!) but Charlotte’s Web is not only one of my favorite children’s books, it’s one of my very favorite books that I’ve ever read. I recently read “The Story Of Charlotte’s Web” by Michael Sims which is a book about E.B White and how he came to write Charlotte–really interesting book for Charlotte lovers!
@bookmammal:disqus Oh, the story of Charlotte’s Web sounds like a great read! Thanks for the recco 🙂
You have a lot of my favorites on here. I recently tried to read The Girl Winnie the Pooh and it’s surprisingly hard to read aloud! Also – I think it’s safe to say that Beloved is a classic. 🙂
I desperately want to read The Brothers Karamazov, but it’s a hard read! I’ve had to walk away several times. But I’m going to get to it one day.
My favourite le Carre is still The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, probably because it was my introduction to Smiley. Great list! I wanted to participate in this, but was sadly out of town. Love your children’s classics, but I still have to read some of the others. I love both Dickens and Dostoevsky, but must read these!
@priyatabularasa:disqus I’ve heard a lot about The Spy who came in…and I want to read it so very badly. I am pacing myself for a little LeCarre at a time. I also want to read The Constant Gardener by him, because the movie was so very lovely.
Hope you had a good trip!
I think Beloved totally counts as a classic! I’ve seen it on several people’s lists today, and it never occurred to me to question it.
Also: Have you read The Trumpet of the Swan? It’s by EB White as well, and I love it maybe slightly better than Charlotte’s Web (crazy, I know, but it’s honestly just a really good book). If not, you should try to get hold of a copy! It is about a trumpeter swan called Louis who’s born mute, and his father steals a trumpet for him so he can use that to speak, and then Louis feels so guilty about the trumpet that he goes out to earn enough money to pay the music store back for the cost of the trumpet. Seriously it’s THE BEST. I don’t know why it’s not as famous as Charlotte’s Web.
@readingtheend:disqus Oh, yes! Yes! The Trumpet of the Swan is awesome too. It’s a great book, and yeah for some reason not as famous as Charlotte’s Web, no idea why.
Charlotte’s Web was fresh in my mind because Snubnose and I have been reading it together. Thanks for jogging my memory about Trumpet, that’s another book I need to suggest to Snubnose. With that excuse, I”ll reread it myself 🙂
My list will definitely have the first two books on your list. They are the cutest books I have read. #8 I did not like the book. I would add 1984 to my list instead.
@Avada@ashscerebrations.com It’s been ages since I read 1984 so my memory is a little fuzzy on the details. I remember liking that too, but for some reason BNW is the book that sticks with me 🙂
I love your list of modern classics! The Handmaid’s Tale is definitely one of my favorite moderns. I’d be curious in knowing who the translator was for your edition of Brothers Karamazov? I know that a lot can be fuddled in translation!
I love this list! I loved both children’s classics, as well as Bleak House and the Handmaid’s Tale. And several others are ones I really want to read.