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message 51:
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Trelawn
(new)
Dec 16, 2014 12:12PM
Well I have a passage to india and howards end on my TBR so I don't mind which we do as a buddy read. I agree with Seraphina, we have generated quite a list :-)
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Emma wrote: "I'd suggest The Mill on the Floss for Elliot. However those who've read more of her may have some other suggestions."I really admire Middlemarch but it's a doorstopper of a book. If memory serves me correctly, it's somewhere around 900 pages....
So many good suggestions. I just realized I had only read to the end of the previous page...and then I saw all the suggestions about Austen, Tolstoy, Forster.
Cathleen wrote: "So many good suggestions. I just realized I had only read to the end of the previous page...and then I saw all the suggestions about Austen, Tolstoy, Forster."The other positive thing about all of these choices is that because they're all classics--everyone should have access to copies either used, borrowed, or free.
@ CPHE I read A Room With A View this year and Where Angel's Fear to Thread and really enjoyed both, that's why I want to read more Forster.
* Where Angels Fear to Tread. god I made an ass of spelling that.
I want to read Tolstoy (novellas).
I want to read CS Lewis and I want to read Tolstoy.
Mod
Many of the works suggested are very familiar to me especially those set in C19th England, except Dickens of course ;)
For Gaskell I'd suggest North and South. Her Wives and Daughters was unfinished but is nevertheless good as it's only missing a short chapter or two, so it doesn't spoil the read but would make for a good discussion on how the book could finish. For George Eliott I'm partial to the short Silas Marner or for the longer read Middlemarch has a broader range of characters and is more complex than her other novels. I'm also partial to Thomas Hardy but can quite see that he can be too bleak for some as in Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D'Urbervilles both of which I 'enjoy' - I reread most of his works last year. Like Cphe, Gissing's The Odd Women is a favourite read of mine but be warned it's as bleak as Hardy. Oscar Wilde's plays are very 'readable' in a way that drama often isn't - they don't take long to get through at all - and of course there are some fun film adaptations of I think An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Ernest, which would tie in nicely.
As I'm trying to get out of a classics 'rut' I'm unlikely to read with you but may pop in to see what you make of them.
For Gaskell I'd suggest North and South. Her Wives and Daughters was unfinished but is nevertheless good as it's only missing a short chapter or two, so it doesn't spoil the read but would make for a good discussion on how the book could finish. For George Eliott I'm partial to the short Silas Marner or for the longer read Middlemarch has a broader range of characters and is more complex than her other novels. I'm also partial to Thomas Hardy but can quite see that he can be too bleak for some as in Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D'Urbervilles both of which I 'enjoy' - I reread most of his works last year. Like Cphe, Gissing's The Odd Women is a favourite read of mine but be warned it's as bleak as Hardy. Oscar Wilde's plays are very 'readable' in a way that drama often isn't - they don't take long to get through at all - and of course there are some fun film adaptations of I think An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Ernest, which would tie in nicely.
As I'm trying to get out of a classics 'rut' I'm unlikely to read with you but may pop in to see what you make of them.
Getting closer to cut off point at 8
Mod
What do people want to do with the challenge, read one from each of the authors or all of the books listed above along with sara's suggestion? I would be ok with all
After having just browsed NYR's list of classics for the first time at Cphe's suggestion (see my 12/14 post above), I happened to pass Strand's outdoor spot outside Central Park today. Though they only had a few tables set up, there was a large selection of NYR originals, all at half price. I thought that was a pretty cool coincidence. I picked up Natsume Soseki's The Gate, though I'm not yet sure when I'll get around to reading it.
I agree that one book by each author is the best course for now. Might I hedge towards North and South for Gaskell, I think it is a great representative of her work. Also for Forster, some interest has been shown in A Passage to India so that might be the way to go if there are no objections?
I have not read the Chronicles of Narnia in its entirety so I think I shall be doing that. It works out at only about 700 pages which is very short for a series. Side note, is the Magician's Nephew the first in the series or The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe?
Kevin , The Maicians Nephew and The Horse and His Boy are chronologically the first two books but I always thought it better to start as published with the The Lion the Witch abd The Wardrobe. Its a better book and the two mentioned are more side stories than a sequence to the other 5 books
I don't have a preference regarding Eliot but you said Mill on the Floss sounded good in college Emma, so I'd be happy to give it a try.
I might start with Foster as I can nick it from Trelawns shelf. I think I have Silas Mariner If its picked. The only CS Lewis I have to hand is When We Had Faces based on the Eros and Psyche myth.
Cool, well if everyone else is happy that's Dickens, Gaskell, Eliot and Forster sorted with Lewis to be finalised?
Regarding Dickens, I don't mind which book is chosen :)
With CS Lewis I'd say start with Narnia and maybe branch out with the series or the other books as buddy reads. Narnia is the reason most chose him I'd assume and is his 'Classic'. I'll definitely look at the other book as well as it sounds like an early Gaiman style book.
Paul ...... I've read all the Narnia chronicals from the first to the last one. While I agree with you about the Horse and his boy being a bit of a side story I think the Magicians nephew gives an insight about how the whole thing starts. I'm looking forward to this reading of some classics. I found the screw tape letters quite interesting.
I've heard that the space trilogy by Lewis is quite good also.
I want to read The Lion The witch and The Wardrobe
Frank wrote: "After having just browsed NYR's list of classics for the first time at Cphe's suggestion (see my 12/14 post above), I happened to pass Strand's outdoor spot outside Central Park today. Though they..."Lucky you, Frank. The NYRB classics is a really interesting series. They showcase them at my local bookstore, and I'd like to gradually read my way through most of them.
Mod
I want to read The Lion the witch and the wardrobe
I want to read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It will be better for discussion.
That's a good list, looking forward to it
I have to pick up a copy of millon the floss and a passage to india but just to be on the safe side I'll wait til after Christmas.
Has anyone read The Kellys and the O'Kellys? I saw it in s secondhand bookstore and I had never heard of it before then.
A Passage to India is a good choice. I read it in college and then reread it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it just as much as the first time. My favorite by Forster, though, was always A Room with a View.
I have read three of the books on the list but am really looking forward to reading them again. I haven't read either The Mill on the Floss or North and South so it will be good to read them with you all.
@ Emma I felt pretty much the same. The Italian setting and the attitudes towards Edwardian social mores are developed further, and to be better effect, in A Room With A View but it's interesting to see where his ideas came from and how they evolved.
Mod
I look forward to discussing it with you when you're finished Sara. I'll be interested to hear what parts are troubling you.
Ok well I look forward to reading it to see that. My copy hasn't arrived yet but that will possibly be my next classics read as I have read GE last week and it's not long since I read North and South.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Charles Dickens (other topics)The Invisible Woman (other topics)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (other topics)
The Chronicles of Narnia (other topics)
The Kellys and the O'Kellys (other topics)
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