I love so many of the classics; 1984, Pride and Prejudice and all the other stories by Jane Austen, Wuthering Heights, Day of the Triffids. There are so many great classics for children, that I loved and I am encouraging my kids to read too – like A Wrinkle in Time, the Narnia series, Little Women and The Lord of the Rings.
There is actually some debate about what a classic book is. It is generally held to be a literary work that is held in high esteem and has themes with a ‘freshness’ that endures in some way. What about age – should they be published before 1960? If a book has endured thirty years, should it then become a classic? Mark Twain noted that a classic book was “something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read”.
My current favourite author of the ‘classics’ is Daphne du Maurier. I started with a creepy tour round Manderley in the novel Rebecca, then I sampled the delicious temptations of time travel in The House on the Strand. Now, I have just finished My Cousin Rachel.
I think Du Maurier should be mandatory reading for writers, since the books do a great job at subverting the expectations of the reader – I find myself shocked at the ending every time. They are strangely timeless as well. For books written in the 1930’s, the psychological themes are still relevant although the class structure and gender roles have changed dramatically.
Some classics I have not yet read include The Wind in the Willows, War and Peace and Frankenstein, although I have got Frankenstein sitting on my bookshelf!
Summer Blog Hop
Below are the answers from the other book bloggers.
Views She Writes https://viewsshewrites.wordpress.com
If Christie and Doyle novels are classics, then yes. Else, not so much.
Leslie Conzatti www.upstreamwriter.blogspot.com
Absolutely! I was homeschooled, so I grew up reading ALL the classics, from Shakespeare and H. G. Wells to Louisa May Alcott and G. A. Henty! My favorite “classic” is kind of more contemporary–The Princess Bride by William Goldman! Though probably I could list some others, like Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels, or Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Becki Svare – A Book Lover’s Adventures https://abookloversadventures.com
I don’t read a lot of classics, but I do love Jane Austen! I’ve read most of her books. But now I’m really enjoying reading some of the modern retellings of her books. Those are fun to read and compare to the originals. One of the most recent retellings I enjoyed was Jane of Austin by Hillary Manton Lodge. It’s a modern (Texas) retelling of Sense and Sensibility!
Jo Linsdell www.JoLinsdell.com
I love classics! Amongst my favourites would definitely have to be; The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and pretty much anything by Jane Austen.
Brandy Potter www.brandypotterbooks.com
Read them, re-read them and collect them. I have several classic books that are rare antiques. Not that they are worth anything, but… I love Austen, Christie, Doyle, The Brontes, Kipling. Need I go on?
Fee Kelly http://ebookaddicts.net
I don’t read the classics, in fact the only ones I have read have been Dracula, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Charles Dickens (only because it was at High School) I really want to read them though, I just never get round to it!
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