Five Underrated Classic Novels (that you should know about!)

Welcome to Isabella Athena! With this channel I hope to provide a space for all things literary including LGBTQ+ literature, classic novels, literary fiction, nonfiction and more! I hope you'll find feel right at home here :)
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[@exquisitescenery]

First omg!!! ily ❤️

[@tirarosaurioreads]

I just discovered your channel through this video. It was lovely! I think we have similar tastes. 3 of these books are already in my TBR: Carol, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[@circleofleaves2676]

Of those 5 books:
- I've read Oranges are Not the Only Fruit several times (Jeanette Winterson is one of my favourite writers)
- I've read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- I have Brideshead Revisited on my shelf but haven't read it yet
- I've seen the movie Carol but haven't read The Price of Salt yet
- I have The Well of Loneliness on my shelf but haven't read it yet. The copy I have is a true first edition that came out just a few weeks before it was banned, and is worth a few grand, and I managed to grab it from a community bookshop for about $5!

[@radiantchristina]

Oranges are not the only Fruit is a favorite of mine. Its one of the few books I reread immediately after finishing the book the first time.

[@nadineebada6557]

this list of recommendations is phenomenal !

[@_isabellaathena]

Thank you so much!

[@virginiayuuka]

This list is a really interesting one! :) I'm still reading The Price of Salt. I found it sweet and a slow reading. Give me some calm vibes. I'm not reading fast, I give some time to finish it. Thanks to your book club I heard about that book! By the way, the May book is absolutely a comfort story of mine. When I first noticed 'The Color Purple' I didn't look into it what's really about.

[@_isabellaathena]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

[@CharlotteIssyvoo]

The Color Purple is brutal in parts, a very painful read. But it moves towards joy in a very satisfying way.

[@spinstercatlady]

Excellent recs! Jeanette Winterson is such a wonderful writer, I enjoy many of her short stories. I've had The Well of Loneliness in my thriftbooks cart for some time, and I do believe you just convinced me to make the purchase haha.

[@_isabellaathena]

I absolutely agree with your sentiments on Jeanette Winterson! I really want to read more of her work. I really hope you’ll enjoy the well of loneliness too!

[@circleofleaves2676]

@@_isabellaathena With Jeanette Winterson, I recommend going back to her older works and reading your way through from there :)

[@circleofleaves2676]

Another queer classic I'd highly recommend is Orlando by Virginia Woolf. It's a mock-biography of her fellow author, friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. It's called the longest love letter in history and Virginia immortalised Knole for Vita in those pages.

[@taraodonnell6054]

I want to read The Well of Loneliness so badly! Moving it to the top of my TBR this summer 🥲

[@_isabellaathena]

Ahhh yay! I really want to read it again soon

[@CharlotteIssyvoo]

I honestly can't say it was my favourite, but, from a queer, literary history perspective, it's an important read.

[@anamorales3722]

Loved all the books! I think the reason you don’t hear about them is because young people are reading contemporary fiction. I read all the books you mentioned in my 20s. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of favorites! ❤ your channel!

[@CharlotteIssyvoo]

I've only read two of these five. I feel old hearing you call Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit a "classic" novel. I read it when it was brand new. It was assigned reading for a course I was taking. I remember thinking it was pretty wild and new in style, and enjoying it a lot. I cannot say I enjoyed The Well of Loneliness. I felt it was quite poorly written, with a clunking preponderance of passive grammar, but that I can forgive. I also found it very classist, and racist, and, worst of all, extremely unfair to Mary and to feminine lesbians in general. Hall's reliance on the theories of homosexuality put forth by Magnus Hirschfeld leaves little to no room for the existence of masculine gay men, and feminine lesbians. That was a bitter pill to swallow. Now, Virginia Woolf's sly references to the novel and its ensuing obscenity trial in A Room of One's Own? Delightful.
Some books I'd recommend? Maurice, obviously, which I know you've read. Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Goodbye to Berlin, by Christopher Isherwood. The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, by Ann Bannon. The Journey, by Anne Cameron (for a much more grassroots, working class perspective), The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe, a play by Jane Wagner. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a play by Tennessee Williams. And many more. (I note that all but one of these writers is white, which is a problem.) When I was teaching college English, I tried to propose a Queer Literature course or two, but was immediately shot down by my chair. That was fun.