Veronica asked J. Leigh Bralick:

Of the classics you've read, which are the best in your opinion? Which do you recommend the most?

J. Leigh Bralick Ooooh, great question!

Okay, so, I'm a total fangirl of Dostoevsky — he has an insight into human psychology and...the psychology of societies, if you will, that I've rarely seen in any other writer (possibly with the exception of Dickens, who I honestly find to be a bit more of a chore to read...LOL). I always say if I could achieve a tenth of the insight he has into human nature, I will die a happy J. Leigh.

For people who are just starting to read Russian novels, Brothers Karamazov or Crime and Punishment are probably the easiest to get into, but one of my personal favorites is The Devils. It's not an easy book to get through, though, and even I rarely reread the whole thing...I'm more likely to just reread my favorite scenes (which I NEVER do with any other book!). It's just like a perfectly done steak...thick and juicy! LOL! There are so many things going on in that novel that I find absolutely fascinating.

Besides Dostoevsky, I'm a fan of Russian literature in general — Gogol, Solzhenitsyn (who I guess is old enough now to be considered a classic...???), Turgenev. I'm a little less fond of Tolstoy. My favorite non-Russian books are probably the ones that go way back — Middle Ages and ancient. So, Dante's Divine Comedy, Chaucer in general, Beowulf, the Aeneid, The Iliad (and, to a slightly lesser degree, The Odyssey).

I have a fondness for Evelyn Waugh, too, and there's a special place in my heart for Faulkner, if only because I had an amazing literature professor — an older gentleman with the most beautiful Southern accent, who would read passages of Faulkner out loud to the class. I confess I didn't understand Faulkner before hearing it read like that.

The thing I love about the classics in general is that they are about something, beyond just the plot and the characters. Sometimes I feel like modern literature has a lot of great stories (including some AMAZING stories!), but sometimes there's very little of substance undergirding them. And those novels that make a point of having deep and impactful thematic elements often fall short in the story-telling. That's not universally true, of course...it's just harder to sniff them out. (And not all classics are beacons of literary brilliance or deep philosophical inquiry into the nature of the cosmos either...LOL)

So, to end an already novel-length answer, here are my top 10 recommended classics!

1. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky (or, The Devils for more seasoned Dostoevsky readers...LOL)
2. Beowulf
3. The Sword of Honour trilogy - Evelyn Waugh
4. The First Circle - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
5. The Iliad - Homer
6. Anything by Edgar Allan Poe (forgot to mention him earlier!)
7. A Light in August or The Unvanquished - William Faulkner
8. The Earthsea Cycle - Ursula Le Guin (forgot to mention her too, for some classic fantasy!...I guess we can call her a classic?)
9. The Divine Comedy - Dante
10. One of the following, depending on your personal tastes (LOL):
a) Persuasion - Jane Austen
b) Little Dorritt - Charles Dickens
c) Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
d) Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

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