CLASSICS I WANT TO READ IN 2021 | Classics TBR!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2024
- Hello!
"You better call Ben with the stupid hair" here.
I wanted to create a Classics TBR for myself for the coming year and see how I do!
Books and authors mentioned:
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
Charles Dickens
Middlemarch, George Eliot
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Elizabeth Gaskell
Thomas Hardy (briefly)
The Tenant of WIldfell Hall, Anne Bronte
Villette, Charlotte Bronte (briefly)
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
What are some classics books you'd like to get to next year?
Booktubers mentioned:
Leo @ A Little Book Life
/ @leoslittlebooklife
Simon @ SavidgeReads
/ savidgereads
Steve @ Steve Donohue
/ saintdonoghue
Thanks for watching!
x
Thanks for inspiring us with your reading scheme.
I love your list. Realizing I’m commenting a year later, but in any case, I did not find The Tenant of Wildfell Hall depressing, loved Vanity Fair, and Middlemarch I only got through because I read the Norton Critical Edition (heavy on the explanatory notes). Wherever you’re currently at, the best of luck to you!
If you want to read a book that in my opinion is better than War and Peace and often is considered the “20th century War and Peace”, I highly highly recommend Life and Fate by Grossman. And Stalingrad is his prequel to it so you can read that as well.
Ooo thats interesting, I hadn't heard of that before, will check it out :)
I want to finish all my Dickens and austen over the next 2 to 3 years
You can’t go wrong in following Leo! And he is a gem. This is a great list, Ben.
Thanks Sarah! Hopefully I can get to them all ha
Six Dickens planned for 2021! I'm impressed. My own Dickens project, that I started in 2019, looks like that I'm reading one book a year by him and in the order of publishing. So next year it will be David Copperfield, I think.
Clarissa is def worth it. And it won't take as long as you think. Cranford is also a good choice. Middle March is basically about marriages that were ill-considered. There is some boring stuff, but when you get to know the characters you will find a lot of interest in what huge mistakes they've made in choosing a spouse.
Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend are my favourite Dickens.
You are HILL-LARRY-US! So far you are the fun-knee-st bktuber I have seen yet. Luv it! ❤️ I just subscribed.
My Mother, bless her, ended up hating an Aunt who gifted her David Copperfield. I haven't read it yet. But IN my BOOK BUCKET LIST 🪣. I am writing as I am listening to you. Hahaha 👍 😆
Middlemarch and War and Peace made me surprisingly....emotional haha, but in a good way! Two truly standout classics for good reason and deserve all the hype!!!!! Cozy Christmas-y reads to me as well 😉
I'm definitely gonna prioritise Middlemarch then. Might make it my big book of the month for January!
And I love a good emotional surprise 😄
The Count of Monte Cristo is a really good book. I think you'll like it. My birthday is also in October, the 17th!
Crime and punishment is great, you should give it a go!
“The Count of Monte Christo” adds some nice French flavor to your list of mostly British tomes. It’s a chunkster however the plot is fast paced and easy to read.
I like the idea of A Year of Dickens. I think I've only read Great Expectations. Maybe I'll also do this.
Hopefully I won't be sick of him after a few but spread out over the year it should be doable!
North and South!!!
☺☺
I love a good list as well. Leo is great, I love the calm intelligent way he talks :)
Me too, he's fab :)
Quite late to this little party, but Monte Cristo is a ripping good read, moves very fast.
Cranford is light, short, and fun.
Middlemarch is hugely long but repays every minute of reading.
Best of luck on your goals for this year.
Thank you!
Read Far from the Madding Crowd the least depressing Hardy, it is a truly beautiful story. Best place to start
Ooo thanks! I'll try and fit it near the beginning of the year I think
I love War and Peace and The Count of Monte Cristo! They're super long, but they are classics for a reason. I read Vanity Fair this year, and I was a bit disappointed, but the narrator's comments were amazing!
Reading Vanity Fair now and enjoying it. Good to hear about the other two. Looking forward to them!
Decided decades ago I was done with Dickens, and have also decided to stick a toe back in. Have Great Expectations (I know, never read this one and people say it’s really good.), Tale of Two Cities, and Bleak House on the TBR pile.
Now I’m seeing all the characters of Middlemarch, which I read in 2020, singing and dancing YMCA!
Our TBR's are so similar! I'm also planning to read War and Peace, Middlemarch, Count of Monte Cristo, and Vanity Fair, so I can't wait to see your videos about them! The BBC War and Peace is excellent, and I hope that having seen it before reading the novel will help me keep all the characters straight. I need to reread Cranford to give it a fair chance, as I had to read it in university, but really disliked it. I also had to read Tale of Two Cities in school, and thought I'd hate it but I loved it! Happy reading in 2021!
Thank you so much! Yeah I've heard about the bbc w&p being good. Hopefully we can get to all of them this year!
After Austen there’s Brontë! Then Dickens, then Elliot, Gaskell and Hardy.
I loved both "Middlemarch' and 'War and Peace'. I was actually pondering rereading 'War and Peace' soon but then I get sidetracked by my already large TBR list.
I try and keep the tbr down but it just doesn't work 😄
@@doomantidote They feature two of the greatest heroines in literature. In fact Natasha makes the men in her life appear a bit wishy-washy.
*The Count of Monte Cristo* is surprisingly easy to read. Definitely give it a go. *Wives and Daughters* and *North & South* are both great. I'm also planning to read *Middlemarch* . I wanted to read it this year, but ... it didn't happen. I've read too little older classics. So I also want to read maybe *Bleak House* and *Far from the Madding Crowd* . Hope the year will be a bit more relaxed so I can actually concentrate on other things than Sue Grafton books.
Excited for Count of Monte Cristo then if its an easy read! I'm the same with middlemarch, really wanted to get to it this year but just didn't happen. Also intrigued by Gaskell so we shall see!
@@doomantidote Also important to read the uncensored translation, so that the lesbian relationship and the drugs are left in. (I think the Penguin edition is uncensored, most others suck). And really fascinating: Dumas's father's real life story is also a very fun read - born a slave, sold by his father and later repurchased, came to France and entered the military, eventually rose to being Napoleon's right hand man and general, found a legendary treasure, ship-wrecked on an island, imprisoned by the enemy and poisoned, freed,... People who say Count of Monte Cristo is unrealistic obviously don't know the real life relatives Dumas was taking as inspiration!
@@Maren617 I didn't know that, thank you!
Great list! War and Peace!🙌I was totally intimidated but I took the plunge earlier this year and loved it. (I think the translation may make a big difference; I read the Maudes translation). I too am planning Middlemarch in the new year, and hoping to be as pleasantly surprised as I was with W&P.
Yeah, I keep forgetting the translation is what is important not the fancy cover haha, excited for middlemarch!
Oh my word i saw in the background...The Donekeys Janet!! 😂 whenever i randomly blurt that out nobody knows what it means!!
Middlemarch is the one I tackled early this year, got a slow start in it, then MUCH TO MY DISMAY got completely wrapped up in bc it’s just. A LOT. so glad that happened
That's so motivating! I'm like 40 pages in and it's going so slow, but I want to get in deep asap
I was looking for some classics recommendations and found your channel so, hello! I love the way you talk about books.
The satisfaction of making a good list is one of the best pleasures in life. I liked yours! Haven't read the books you mentioned, so I'm interested in hearing what you think about them.
The year of Dickens! Yes! That sounds amazing. Every book I read by him so far is one of my favorites.
Thanks so much! Started my year of dickens with Martin Chuzzlewit last month and might give Hard Times a go next :)
What a great list! You know I'm excited about anyone reading Gaskell because she is just supreme.
I hope that you love Middlemarch! It's the 150th anniversary of its publication next year so it sounds meant to be.
All signs point to me enjoying middlemarch so im hoping for the best! And looking forward to Gaskell too of course 😊 Thanks for watching!
I loved Middlemarch and Vanity Fair! I think you will love the brilliant writing of both books. I did not think I would like Vanity Fair, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. In 2021, I would like to read at least one more book in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time cycle. I can’t overstate how much I enjoyed the first one.
The Proust books are definitely ones I've been keeping my eye on for a bit... Good to know about Middlemarch and Vanity Fair I'm very excited haha
You should read Far from the Madding Crowd from Hardy. It is wonderful. I am on a similar reading path with a focus on Dickens. Other reviewers highly recommend Our Mutual Friend from Dickens. I am interested in your upcoming reviews. Good luck.
Thank you! I think Under the Greenwood Tree is gonna be in the household soon so when its free I'll probs pick that up. Judging by what people say about it I think im gonna enjoy Our Mutual Friend too :)
I just found your channel and I'm addicted. Not me going to watch all of your uploads. I've been saying i'm going to read war and peace for THREE years now and then I get to december and say next year
Thanks so much! 😊😊😊 I am hoping putting it on camera that I will get to war and peace next year will be the big impetus for me!
2021 is my year of Wilde :D
Nice! 😀
@@doomantidote not as ambitious as dickens though :D
Gaskell is easy and enjoyable to read - great stories with social history. If you want to read Dickens follow Katie from Books and Things. I read all of Hardy's books in my teens - teenage angst phase, no desire to reread. I enjoyed Middlemarch, but if I was looking at reading something again from this period I would read Trollope's Barcestshire Chronicles - great plots and enjoyably funny and gossipy. In 2021 I want to read some Welsh classics. Honno Press have published some neglected books by Welsh women writers and I would like to read some of those.
Ooo they sound great! Maybe at some point I'd give Trollope a go, he kind of intimidates me with the amount of novels he wrote. But I'm definitely excited to start Middlemarch!
I've not read any of Thomas Hardy's novels either but I *adore* his poetry so I think he will be on my list for next year too. Count of Monte Thingy is a great book and not difficult. It's been an age since I've read it. Perhaps time for a reread 🙂
Ooo might check out his poetry too then! I don't read enough poetry.
Oh no! I said on your last video that my copy of Vanity Fair would probably also be languishing on my tbr cart forevermore.... and now I might actually have to read it in 2021 😂 I LOVE the BBC adaptation of north & south... but the book has also been on my shelf for an embarrassingly long time! I bought the Count of Monte Cristo from Shakespeare & Co when it was pleading for support going into their second lockdown in Paris (where better to buy a French epic novel from?!) and I've just got the dispatch notification for that! Maybe 2021 is the year of the big book! 😏
Year of the big book, we can do this!! Looking forward to Gaskell and Count of Monte Bread bread. As for Vanity Fair we shall see how we go 😄
What an ambitious list, but I hope you complete at least your 60%. You have some awesome books on your list. If you decide to read a Hardy, try Far From the Madding Crowd which is not depressing like his others.
I read Tenant in January this year and it was awesome and not depressing, at least to me. Probably my favorite book I read this year.
I'll give Far From Madding a go then I think, and you've made Tenant sound a lot more appealing! Thanks for watching!
I didn't do the Anti-TBR tag because I knew as soon as I did, I'd want to rebel & read that book. Good luck with Dickens. I'm reading War & Peace right now & enjoying it so much. I'm 41 & I understand it, lol. I think it may surprise anyone who reads it. I hope to read The Count of Monte Cristo for March of the Mammoths. I just can't read abridged books. I just ordered Clarissa. I'm thinking it might be a whole year read.
Good luck with Clarissa! I think I will order it soon and see what happens. And yeah I may as well have called my anti tbr tag "books I really want to read after thinking about it" tag cause most of them I plan on reading now haha Glad to hear you're enjoying War and Peace!
The BBC adaptations of North and South and Wives and Daughters are great.
Thanks! I'll look out for them :)
Leo is 🤩🤩🤩
So looking forward to reading Vanity Fair with you in December. Or the Becky (Sharp) Brick as I’m now calling it. I would quite like a 12 page edition of War and Peace. Cranford is meant to be very good. Tenant of Wildefell Hall is meant to be brill. I’ve only read Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre from those Bronte gals.
The Becky Brick! 😄 It's gonna be fun :D
Ben, you're a classic in your own right. Have you thought about a career in acting? You are very watchable. I LOVE lists too BTW.
Thank you! I'm a very occasional actor when I can be haha
I read like 4 Dickens novels and then noticed that he kinda always writes about the same characters/same kind of story, so I decided 4 Dickens were enough for me lol (Bleak House is my favorite). Also, since you like reading classics, you might enjoy The Artisan Geek booktube channel - she talks a lot about classics but also specifically includes classics from around the world (to keep your TBR growing lol).
Yeah I worry I might get Dickens fatigue so I think sticking to 6 might be the best. I really enjoy the artisan geek! There's a couple books she's recommended which I've had my eye on since posting this, Iola Leroy sounded particularly interesting.
ooh I did something similar recently, in particular I want to read more by Arthur Conan Doyle. I read a book of short stories recently and absolutely adored his writing style, also Ian Rankin (however marginally less 'classic')
Hello Ben. Good to meet a fellow list maker. I found you via Leo of course. So we are to hold you to your plans? If only I could stick to my own.
Bleak House was my "new" Dickens in 2020. I've got another two decades on you and still clocking them up gradually.
Feel free to hold me to my list by whatever means necessary! I hope to get to Bleak House early next year but its a beast! Thanks for subscribing!
@@doomantidote and thank you likewise.
You may need a few buddy reads to hold you to some of these monsters.
Planning a year of Dostoevsky. Finished Notes from Underground, started Crime and Punishment, hope to finish the Idiot by the end of summer, and move in to the Devils after that. Interested in War and Peace and Middlemarch. But not Dickens.
That sounds awesome. I'd love to get to The Idiot next in my Dostoevsky list
Fyodor on!
I plan on reading my first Dickens next month- starting with Great Expectations. So many good options here. I also really want to get to Middlemarch and after reading Anna Karenina earlier this year, War and Peace is looking more and more intriguing.
Great Expectations is fab! Its not very long and a really great story. Really excited for Middlemarch too :D
North and South is a wonderful book and not too big
I'm looking forward to it!
Vanity Fair is also on my TBR for 2021.
I’ve come here from Simon’s page. My favourite classics are Middlemarch and The Woman in White.
Really looking forward to Middlemarch. I've only read Moonstone by Collins but keen to read Woman in White too!
As I've said in the comments of many videos The Count of Monte Cristo is a great birthday pick...it has everything- false imprisonment, lost love, escape, false identities, greed, class war, and suspense...which makes you want to pick it up...it's fantabulous and I read the Tenant of Wildfield Hall this year.. I was shocked at the feminist message...really good.
I'm very excited for it! And looking forward to Tenant too
NOT W&P!! OHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Only thing longer is Samuel Pepys Diary (unabridged). I stand corrected. Robert Shield's Diary is much longer.
Went to drama school. Reads the classics. Handsome.
I wasn’t prepared when I clicked this video.
Read Anne. Charlotte is a monster.
Have you read One Hundred Years of Solitude?
Thank you! Yes 100 years is one of my favourites :) excited for Tenant of WH!
I've had count of monte "thingie...bread bread" on my book shelf for months now. It's a big undertaking but hopefully I'll accomplish it in 2021. I'm trying to finish Moby Dick and Middlemarch by the end of this year.
penguin has an excellent edition of the count of monte bread bread translated by Robin Buss. the unabridged version is better.
Yes Count of Monte bread bread! 😄😄 Moby Dick is... interesting, very different. We will conquer Middlemarch!
DO NOT read an abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo! Read the Penguin Classics full version edited by Robin Buss. It’s incredible- very long but amazing.
Just short books, easy breezy kkkkk. Love your list, I'm up to read Vanity Fair and more Gaskell too. I've just finished North and South and loved it, I think that you'll enjoy it too, since u like Dickens and Austen. About Samuel Richardson: I did read Pamela this year (idk if I can stand Clarissa) and, surprise surprise, I don't hated! It's a long and sexist way through XVIII century, but was worth it, I'm proud of that. I was exploring the "novel's fathers" and read Daniel Defoe too, this one I enjoyed much more. I really recommend Moll Flanders, from him.
I know I never make things simple for myself haha Good to know I'll probs enjoy Gaskell. Yeah, I'd be more keen to read some pre 19th c fiction... maybe I'll add Defoe to the list too :)
Count of Monte Crisco aka Colonel Sanders.🤭
Gaaah... You're so much fun! Binge watching your channel starting now. I'm also getting fellow thespian vibes from you which is extra fun 😍 I'm currently halfway through both David Copperfield (my first ever Dickens, actually) and Middlemarch. I'll probably find out as I watch your vids, but do you listen much to Audiobooks? I'm actually alternating physical book with the Audiobooks for these 2. David Copperfield is narrated by Richard Armitage and Middlemarch by Juliet Stevenson... And they are SOOOO GOOD! Anyway, so glad to have found you and thanks for the sub! Cheers! ❤️
Thank you!! I'm really looking forward to Middlemarch. David Copperfield was fab, couple things I didn't like but enjoyed it overall. I dont listen to audiobooks but you can't go wrong with a bit of Juliet Stevenson so I will definitely think about it for MM... and yeah as soon as I saw your sense of humour I subbed straight away haha
Have you read Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary'?
On Clarissa: Boy, I’m the slowest reader ever-I’ve been slowly digesting (and struggling to comprehend at times) a staggering tome on the history of the Marshall Plan (4 months on). 1500 pages seems Herculean to me. You know yourself thought. Just know what you might be getting into. Same for War and Peace.
Also, on a different note: “Time for a Hardy.” Is that what they’re calling it these days? 😏
Stay strong, Bennie 💪
😄 after this year its definitely time for a Hardy. I think Clarissa would be a very slow process to get through but I feel up to it for some god forsaken reason haha
August Wilson August!
Good shout!
Im telling you he is like a charactor out of dickens....i mean if dickens created another charactor
Clarissa is definitely worthwhile. I think that it’s best read in small chunks over maybe 3-4 months. I say it is worth it simply because it’s so influential. You’ll see some of Loveless in Wickham, and Willoughby, for example. It’s an interesting novel, as well, because Richardson had specific ideas on how Clarissa should be read, but of course readers didn’t always agree with him. As result, Richardson got into a bit of a tiff with the critics and wound up writing quite a bit of apologia for the novel, which in some ways is just as interesting as the novel itself. I would read the novel first, then go back and read Richardson’s introductions and notes.
At some point you should read Tristram Shandy. For my money, it is the absolute best 18th century novel. There are penis jokes and a mysterious war wound in a delicate area. Ahem. It’s so, so good.
I'm definitely interested in pre 19th century fiction so will have a go at Tristam Shandy definitely, thanks! And yeah... I think Clarissa will take me at least 4 months but I'm up for it! Thanks for watching!
Late last night I made my classics list, too :D
Its the best time to do it! 😄
@@doomantidote Yeah, right? The count of Monte Cristo's a quite easy read btw.
Ooo thats good to know, thanks!
I know this vid was uploaded ages ago, but if you haven't already done it maybe try Pamela instead of Clarissa, it's considerably shorter.
What a list! Your brain is going to explode with all the brilliant literature! 🤯
Count of Monte thingy is so good, Steve Donoghue is wrong, read the unabridged; probably the best book ever written. Middlemarch is superb, not boring if you like nice words all out together in a rather pleasing way. War and Peace, Thomas Hardy, I wish I could delete these books from my brain, so I could have the pleasure of reading them for the first time again. Brain explosion!
Oh wow! I shall very much look forward to the full whack Count of Monte bread bread then haha. Really looking forward to Middlemarch too I think by the sounds of things I'm gonna really enjoy it. Thanks for watching!
I am 24 and I have never read any of Leo Tolstoy books but I keep hiring about them and I want to read them at some point in the future but there are three authors that I want to read right now and the are Herman Hesse and Thomas Mann and franz Kafka and you have read siddhartha by Herman Hesse Ben what did you think of it did you like it and also you are as beautiful and gorgeous and handsome as ever Ben and that is all
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy is actually really accessible and a fun easy read which you would def enjoy now so don't listen to that 30s rubbish I said haha. Its been aaaages since I read Siddhartha I need to reread it soon. (And thank you! 😄😊)
Oh my god, you are too cute
😄☺
Wtf.