Classic novels

[cibaman]

This is the list:

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I read Middlemarch recently and enjoyed it but I thought it needed an injection of sex. Or more accurately, passion. Its about troubled marriages and explores them in great depth, except that there is almost no reference to whether the characters are in any way physically attracted to each other.


Kane and Abel? Really?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Always loved anything by Charlie Dickens.

"Do you like Dickens?"
"I don't know. Never been to one."

Boom tish.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

I've been reading this romantic girlie novel.

'Josephine Cox?'

'No, but she gives a brilliant handjob.'

 

[west didsblue]

I've read an embarrassingly small number of them, less than 20. Surprised The Caine Mutiny wasn't on there and even more surprised that its author is still alive, aged 102.

 

[PragueBlue]

No To kill a mocking bird didn't make, nor lord of the flies.
I just can't see myself reading Princess diaries. Nor any Tolstoy. Fuck me!

I will read anything as long as it gets me in the first 30 pages. If not then well its just not good literature... I dont care who wrote it.

You may want to look at number 70.

 

[talkativesprout]

So glad to see Terry Pratchett feature quite well. Brilliantly funny

 

[Zin 'messiah' Zimmer]

I promised my self when I retired I would read the BBC top 100 classic books

Im now reading George Orwels classic....... 1984
Up to part 2 now, cant put it down, brilliant descriptive writing. (I cant stop relating it to North Korea)

My next one will be Catcher In The Rye probably.

Anybody else read these kind of classic books ?

It's a little disappointing Catcher in the Rye, found it dated and couldn't relate to the coming of age narrative for the time... I did read this in my teens though so it could be worth a revisit..

1984 remains a classic, Orwell one of the greats..

I read 'the master and margarita' last year, which for me is the greatest piece of literature ever written, it's a bonifide classic!

 

[domalino]

The idea of the thread really was to discuss classic literature, I didnt post the BBC list as I knew this would lead to disagreements, somebody posted it though and now the discussion is all about the list.
No list is perfect for everybody I suppose.

The list isnt important, lets for get the bloody list and talk about your favourite classics.

If you're liking 1984, you could do a lot worse than trying Homage to Catalonia after, also by Orwell about his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

I always recommend Gatsby to people wanting to read a classic as it's very short and almost universally liked.

The BBC list is obviously trying to appeal to everyone, so there's a lot of children's books and young adult stuff in there which you might not enjoy as much being of retirement age.

If you're not tied to the BBC, Le Monde have a list which is a bit more "Classic" here but with a heavy French bias - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monde's_100_Books_of_the_Century

And this is a great list if you fancy some non-fiction - http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-nonfiction/

 

[Armchair Supporter]

What definition are we using for "Classic"?

TLOTR is rightly at the top of that list. A magnificent and glorious piece of work

 

[greasedupdeafguy]

Russian classical literature is my favourite

crime and punishment is a truly beautiful book. Currently reading life and fate an epic set in Stalingrad during WW2