a tip from a once homeschooled, college student, who read a lot of classics: read the annotated versions! read the ones with context! talk to people that are nerds about the historical context of the book! it makes it so much more fun to know WHY certain weird things happen in old books :)
Yes! The only reason I ever got into literature was because of my Hamlet textbook in high school. I actually understood it! If you think you'll really struggle with Shakespeare, or if you just want to make it extra easy, definitely try the textbook versions! King Lear, Othello, The Merchant of Venice etc. are all also available in textbook form.
@@estellehuang1475 I personally really love the penguin classics editions! The notes really help but don’t over explain anything really, so there’s still room for your own interpretations. Plus they include any extra things that might be important - for example in their editions of Dickens they include the notes he made while writing them :) theyre also the most accessible editions, and you can find them second hand for really cheap (try Abebooks). if you REALLY want an in depth look in to a classic, the Norton critical editions are good! They don’t contain notes in the text (afaik) but include critical essays and notes about context / possible interpretations. They’re definitely more geared towards an English student, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get anything out of them! For me it really helps me feel connected to a classic to study them in depth, and the Norton eds. can help for that outside of the classroom!
as a beginner to classics myself, i would absolutely recommend the picture of dorian gray to just about anyone. it’s short, quotable, but also uses such accessible language.
Yes, although I promptly had the handy google vocabulary by me at all times, it was easy to comprehend the lines overall. It was the first piece of classic literature after The Great Gatsby that I read as a non native English speaker and I loved it.
I feel like pride and prejudice by Jane Austen was the perfect introduction to classics for me because I was so familiar with the plot that the language wasn’t insanely difficult!
@@marshalinehamismother every book sucks when u have to read it in school haha. It's best as just a funny story, I can't imagine having to analyze the "deeper meaning" of "lol Gregor bug"
I was only able to get through this one with the help of an audiobook read by Benedict Cumberbatch on youtube... Not my cup of tea but it's still recommended for a reason so.
Oh my god finally, a booktuber who talks about the kinds of books that I like. Nothing wrong with YA or fantasy, i just don't like it but it feels like it's the vast majority of the online book community. Can anyone recommend me more booktube accounts like this one?
the first classic I read was Picture of Dorian Gray a while ago, since then I have fallen in love with so many classics such as 1984, Wuthering Heights, Pride & Prejudice, Great Gatsby etc. Cant wait to read some of these recs edit: after some recommendations in my reply, I read crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky and LOVED it, it’s soo good, it’s a lot to take in but regardless, amazing book!
@@marydarko3380 yes crime and punishment is amazing. One of the big 4(crime and punishment,the idiot,demons, and the brothers karamazov) Crime and punishment is a great start for dostoevsky but I also heard that notes from the underground is perfect introduction for him. Because notes from the underground is very short (only 200pages) and is made of short stories which is a great introduction on what kind of themes dostoevsky likes to tackle. So my recommendation is you can start with either crime punishment or notes from the underground.
Anne of Green Gables. It was my first classic and it’s such an easy read. I first read it when I was like 11 and I still re read it today. I’d say it’s very good for beginners
@@jendubay3782 but that's another story. If you're not okay with racism at all, you'd at least understand where, when, why and how the book was written.
2:00 alice in wonderland by lewis carroll 3:00 selected works of edgar allan poe 4:45 carmilla 5:45 the picture of dorian gray 6:30 the stranger/outsider 7:41 the death of ivan ilyich 8:53 john fowles the collector 10:02 1984 11:15 starlight and moonshine 13:02 frankenstein
I started reading again this year. I was probably only reading 2-3 books a year for several years straight. For a literature course, I had to read Persuasion by Jane Austen. I fell in love with it and finished it in a day. It's also very short compared to her other novels. It kick-started my reading again and I've read 20 books so far this year! Not a crazy number compared to other's, however that's a huge leap from only 2 books a year.
Cool, I've been reading Tropic of Cancer except I like to pretend the character Van Norden is like a Bailey Jay, mite write my own book think I'll call it "Beyond the Valley of Penises"
For people who want to try Shakespeare but are intimidated by the language, I always recommend the No Fear Shakespeare publications that have the original language on one page opposite a "translation" in more modern language. We used them in high school when we did theatre productions to look at different interpretations of the phrases
1984 is one of my favorite books ever, i could not stop reading!! i pictured everything so easily and it is just an amazing book people should read at least once in their life
I would also recommend The Phantom of the Opera, A Separate Peace, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the whole series if you want tbh), A Wrinkle in Time, the Chronicles of Narnia series, Peter Pan, and while a few of these are children’s books, it makes them more digestible. Honestly, I don’t trust anyone that knocks off children’s books. Just because it’s meant for a younger audience DOES NOT MEAN IT HAS TO BE BAD. The Oz series has tons of allegories about the facade that politicians fool their followers into believing, The Chronicles of Narnia has wonderful messages about integrity, Peter Pan is a whole discussion about the loss of innocence, etc.
Phantom might be daunting to some but it is fun. I think it was my first classic besides Peter Pan (which I would definitely recommend to beginners). Also Little Women is a good one to begin with.
Yes! I read A Wrinkle in Time for the first time when I was 17, and it destroyed me-although I can’t remember why, I only remember that I found something in it beautiful. The Goose Girl is another one I read around that time, which I would also recommend.
I loveeeedddd Frankenstein, Mary Shelley really went off. But another classic that I would say is also accessible, at least for me when I started classics, would be Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It’s so light hearted yet deep and soulful and you build such strong relationships with every single character. Obviously a lot of people have probably read it already or seen the movie, but to people who haven’t…. Read the book!
I’m a new reader can you suggest me few books to read? Actually i was reading a lot of books during my school years but later fell off from that habit but i came back to reading novels after Silent patient. Can you suggest me novels which is like a thriller,Twists and turn or you can call it suspense or Adventure type books. These 3 are my favourite genres
To go along "The Picture of Dorian Gray", I would also recommend "The Importance of Being Earnest". It's a really good way to get into plays. The language is a bit posh, but still easy to grasp onto. Some of the lines had me ☠️☠️ for days, and I still quote them from time to time.
Same! I actually discovered Oscar Wilde by going to see The Importance of Being Earnest in a local theatre in my town. He became one of my favorite poets since then.
I would recommend Dostoyevski for sure. His short stories are a great start for reading Russian classics and his black and white worldview and angst are perfect for a younger reader.
IMO dostoyevski is not as difficult as people say it is, i don't read much classics but i love him, so yeah... I think he should totally be read by young people and beginners when it comes to classics, he is no that heavy of a reading experience as people say he is :)
@@hwlsgrl I've been reading him as "Dostojevski" for my entire life because I'm serbian and that's how it's written in my language. In russian It's also spelled differently. In english it can be spelled as Dostoyevsky or Dostoevsky.
Some classics I've read that are pretty interesting and simple: The Invisible Man, The Great Gatsby, The Tempest (shakespeare play tho), Twelfth Night (shakespeare play again), anythingggg by Edgar Allan Poe. There are more but I can't think of anything lel
1. Alice in Wonderland : 1:57 2. Edgar Allen Poe (author) : 3:00 3. Carmilla - 4:44 4. Picture of Dorian Gray - 5:49 5. The stranger/ The outsider - 6:30 6. The death of Ivan Illych - 7:49 7. John Fowler's the collector - 8:50 8. 1984 - 10:07 9. Starlight and moonshine (poetry for kids) - 11:10 10. Frankenstein - 13:00
I recently read Slaughterhouse 5 for a class and it was fantastic. It’s a bit newer (1960s) and the language is very understandable but well-utilized. The tone is so fantastically sarcastic and it really gets you into the head of the main character, a WWII vet dealing with the mental fallout of war. Highly recommend it to anyone.
slaughterhouse 5 is easily one of my favorites books of all time, and does a great job of capturing the horror of war, the perils of getting older, the weirdness of alien abduction and just general awkwardness. Its amazing.
@@Oscar-ue5yc the main character was so unlikeable, the plot was all over the place, and I dunno man. You ever read a book so bad that it actually makes you angry? Cos that was slaughterhouse 5 for me
Solidly agree with Frankenstein! It was the first piece of adult classic literature I read when I was thirteen. I devoured it in a couple of hours and I attribute much of my love of classic novels to this book!
Really needed this because I have a weird relationship with classics. I haven’t even started Frankenstein for the book club because I’m genuinely scared lol.
Yeah I had to read Frankenstein for my Lit class. I was going to sparknotes the whole thing (because I didn't like the first 4 letters) but then I ended up actually reading it because I actually didn't hate it. We had to do annotations too and I actually found that fun because I found myself ranting on how much I hate Victor Frankenstein and I also thought I was such a genius for finding a lot of cool symbolism that, it turns out, everyone else found too haha
Frankenstein's actually a really good and really easy read! I was at my Aunt's home when I was 11, I think, that I stumbled upon it and decided to read it because I had nothing else to do. I kinda rushed through the whole thing, because I was, you know, 11, and therefore didn't really take enough time to appreciate the symbolism and all that. Anyway, the book terrified me lol. However, I re-read it over and over again because the fear that it inspired within me was just so delicious - I don't know how else to put it. Re-reading it as a teenager, now, made me appreciate the deeper meaning behind it. Still kinda scary, but not so much. Bottom line is, READ IT! You won't regret it :))))
@@kaitlyng7850 yes!!! I was so intimidated by the few letters at the beginning I was like oh lord this bout to be boring as hell but turns out it might be one of my favourite books!
i love how you talk about books! you are so passionate about them, but not in a loud way, more like in a captivating and really moved by them way. looking forward to reading some of your recommendations 🌟💕
I actually read The Stranger on my own and I found it to be interesting to say the least. I'm having thoughts about reading Dostoevsky but haven't pulled the trigger on that yet. Just wanted to say thank you for the upload. And you look great by the way.
The Stranger was my introduction to literature, and Dostoevsky is now my favorite author. I also found The Stranger to be extremely interesting, and when I read it I had never experienced anything quite like it. My first Dostoevsky novel, The Idiot, was also this way but was much more enjoyable than Camus. Maybe start with The Idiot, lots of people love that one.
ive been trying to get more into classic literature and its definitely difficult to navigate as a beginner, so i will be making a point to read every one of these books :) thank u
we have always lived in the castle is a great one for beginners: short, easier prose style with a lot to dig into if you want to go deeper, and very atmospheric
When you said, "we all love vampire fiction", pulled out Dracula, laughed, and then immediately pulled out Carmilla - I smiled so big! I have read both Dracula and Carmilla and I honestly think that Carmilla was leagues better.
I had to study dracula for my extension class and i read carmilla as a related text too. I fully agree with you there, I personally don't think Dracula is a particularly great novel imo (even tho I love Gothic lit) especially when compared to carmilla
Dracula is my fav! But a v lengthy book. I like the themes of friendship and trauma in the novel. I have such love for Carmilla too though. Sapphic and quick read. Anyone here read The Vampyre?
@@tayloranderson8922 I enjoyed both but what puts Dracula above Carmilla for me is that I thought the ending to Carmilla was really poorly done and felt oddly impersonal compared to the rest of the story
First of all thanks for the recommendations. I am from Germany and therefore I mostly read german classics in school which I (other than most of my colleagues) enjoyed. In English class we only read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Importance of being earnest", both of which I really like. Normally I just read fiction non-classic like whatever is popular on booktube, but I already thought a while ago I should get into English classics, so your video was the perfect motivation. After I read all the books on my to read pile (which aren't that many actually I think 5 or so) I think I read a few classics. Especially The Picture of Dorian Grey sounds very interesting to me. In return for your recommendation I want to recommend you some german classics that we read in german class and which (when I am recalling it right) I found very enjoyable: 1. Faust I - Goethe (Every german high school student has or has to read this, but I really loved it. Idk if it is internationally popular, probably so chances are high you already heard of it. Also speaking of Faust I have yet to read the second book) 2. Fontane - Unterm Birnbaum (We read this in nineth grade so I don't remember the whole story but somehow I really liked it) 3. Büchner - Woyzeck (It is about a man who is on the very bottom of society and more or less gets rejected by society) 4. Hauptmann - Bahnwärter Thiel (Has same vibes as Woyzeck, but way more tragic. It is about the anti hero Thiel. Thiel's wife died and he (had to) remarried. Hauptmann called this book a Novellistische Studie ("novellist study")) 5. E.T.A Hoffmann - Der Sandmann (This fucks with your head I am surprised that this is even allowed to read in class. But I was also fascinated by the story and the characters). I personally also want to read Das Parfum by Patrick Suesskind and some other german classics that we did not read in german class. You look like a really nice person, but I am a little bit afraid of you lol kind regards PS: I am too lazy to correct this comment so I am very sorry if some language mistakes or so slipped in
I fully agree with all of this. I am also German and I can really recommend Dürrenmatt - Die Physiker. We had to read it in school, but it's so wild, i love it. Also I don't know if it counts as a classic since it is more a children book but I really liked Momo by Michael Ende.
You have GREAT taste and GREAT suggestions! I have read all of those except Carmilla and The Collector and I agree with ALL of your suggestions for classics to start with.
I’m usually not one to reach for classics but after watching this video I’ve literally put all these books in my Amazon cart. You make these books sounds so wondrous
This almost exactly matches my early goth kid reading list a few decades back. These books make me want to throw on Joy Division and The Cure and read with some candles. Which is a good thing, to be clear.
May I also suggest the bell jar by Silvia Plath. There are a bunch of trigger warnings so I suggest you look those up, but the wording is fairly accessible and the books is pretty short, but hits you like a truck. Also, the joy luck club. Also, literally every trigger warning, but it was written in the 80s so it’s very easy to understand the language and it’s so dam poetic. Those are some of my all time favourites, definitely worth a try.
Obsessed with this, your beginner recs are so spot on! 1984, the picture of Dorian gray and Frankenstein were the first classic books I ever read as a teen and I never looked back, Frankenstein is still my favourite till this day. The only one I’d possibly add that’s worthwhile for beginners is Gatsby - it’s short, most people are familiar with the plot already and there’s some really pretty prose 😊
I'm not a beginner, but I was curious to see what you would recommend. I really enjoyed listening to the details you picked from each book, you really have a way of making people want to read them! Thank you for your video.
I would recommend David Copperfield. The finest coming of age story and like many classics touches on the social issues of the Victorian era. It's also apparently Dickens's favourite novel.
Fun fact: I am a huge Shakespeare nerd but I absolutely hate reading Shakespeare. This works because I basically grew up watching Shakespeare not reading it and developed a love for the stories even if I didn't understand exactly what was going on in the wording I understood the message of the scene, even as a 12 year old kid, and to this day I still don't like reading Shakespeare (although I have and its gotten a bit easier over time) but still I would recommend to anyone to watch over read instead every time.
I wouldn’t recommend Dorian Gray for absolute beginners, but obviously every reader is different. Personally it put me off all non required reading for a year and a half when I was in high school because it took me so long to process. Meanwhile, I was devouring Shakespeare both in and out of class like nobody’s business.
@@MissMoontree I can read, what would be considered, difficult and dense books; but I can never understand why people consider ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ to be an easy accessible book. To me the language used by Wilde was beautiful, but also hard to digest. The first half of the book also put me off.
Interesting! It’s one of the first classics I read, and it made me fall in love with classics because I found it so whimsical and accessible. Everyone is different :).
your books look so good you need to do a bookshelf tour!! and also something that helped me to understand classics' vocabulary more is reading the most modern first then start going back to the older ones
wow, such a good set of recommendations! poe was also my introduction to classic, gothic literature. i love your enthusiasm around literature; it's so refreshing!!
a tip : the book that got me into reading was the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde, and i read it at age 14 so i think that says a lot about how easy it is to read but it’s so incredible i cannot put into words how much i love this book i recommend it to everyone and anyone i meet
Don't forget Jules Verne. The language is so lively, and he imaginatively explores that which may have been the conspiracy theories of his time, many of which are still talked about to this day (Atlantis, Sea Monsters, Hollow Earth theories, and the implications of time travel).
omg, love your analyses, love your aesthetic, and love your hair!! overall so refreshing!! and you put out some classics id never even heard of! I'm so excited to tuck into Carmilla!
For future reference, Albert Camus is pronounced Cam-mou. A lot of people pronounce it Came-mis if they are not familiar with French pronunciation. Love your channel though and thank you for some of these recs! Some of them I have read and others I have not read. Looking forward to reading some of these :)
honestly i think a lot of people are daunted by shakespeare because they think that you are supposed to understand it the first time you read it like most modern fiction. as a shakespeare nerd myself i have to read everything twice before im able to start getting the meaning, and then admire the poetry! i also think that the experience of watching a great shakespeare production that does stuff visually and acting-wise that you can't get from reading the script really adds to the enjoyment of it. some of my favorite scenes are the ones where characters are exchanging single lines with each other, usually in an argument -- the things they're saying are often so modern it's staggering!
personally I would recommend Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier especially if you like gothic books it has really accessible language and the descriptions of Manderley alone are worth the read.
omg your so cute! when you quoted Shakespeare and then were so satisficed and laughed. i love when people get so excited about words and novels or stanzas
finally I see The Collector mentioned somewhere!! I read this book when I was 15ish and I'm still haunted (?) by it. I don't know if haunted is the right word - it was super creepy but at the same time so fascinating because it was so psychologically immersive. I lent it to a friend and they never returned it :(( But I'm constantly shocked by how few people have heard of it! Definitely needs more recognition!!
I've finished it recently and even though I already knew the basic plot before starting to read the book impressed me very much. Towards the end I felt scared as hell.
I love persuasion by Jane Austen, and Northanger Abbey, they’re much easier to get through than her longer books and much easier for beginners but War and Peace if you can get through it, I know the size puts so many people off and it does have a ridiculous amount of characters to try and remember but if you can power through, honestly it’s a masterpiece! ❤❤❤
omg the stranger? yes. the picture of dorian gray? not until that forsaken chapter with the jewelry and the freaking carpets gets banned, criminalized and forgotten from this world.
I tend to steer towards 20th century classics, so I'm happy you touched on The Collector, 1984, and The Stranger! As far as Russian literature goes, I find The Master and Margarita, while long, very engaging, especially for those who are unused to Russian literature and/or interested in the early Soviet Union. Other classics I recommend- the plays of Tennessee Williams, in particular Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Glass Menagerie, and A Streetcar Named Desire; Brideshead Revisited, Scoop, and A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh; The End of the Affair and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene; We Have Always Lived in the Castle and the Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West; and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
Picture of Dorian Gray was my first book of classic literature I read of my own volition when I was 15 or 16. It was so gripping and vivid. I can still smell the roses in Basil's studio and see the fog of the opium den. It's a good one for young people too because it's pretty didactic and young people like to hear about strong opinions and see novel conclusions drawn from stories
Jules Verne is also an amazing author to look out for and in my opinion a bit underrated. Around the World in Eighty Days for example is so cool *.* And I feel like its easy to grasp because the main plot is basically to travel around the World in 80 days. I love that book especially because you can literally feel the excitement about new technology which was a big factor at that time and that combined with traveling around the world is just 👌. Also I feel like Sherlock Holmes could also be something considerable for beginners. There are short stories, so you dont need to read too much at once. Or you can read the novels of course.
I only just discovered your channel and it really calmed me down, I felt oddly cared for when you smiled and decided to read us a poem :) Also, big recommendation: The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Its plot can be condensed into this single sentence: The devil is bored and comes to Moscow with his man-sized drunken cat to spread some chaos. It was censored at the time so there's probably some sharp satire of Stalin's regime in it as well, but you can easily read it as an adventure novel with some ludicrous protagonists. I am enamoured
I definitely read that 2021 edition of The Stranger in 2011 when I was in high school, but I am willing to bet that it was only available in certain countries at the time
A really interesting list. I'm 46 going on 47 and I only read the Alice books for the first time a year or two ago. Astounding things, I should've read them decades ago. I wish I liked Poe more than I do, cos I'm a big fan of HP Lovecraft for whom Poe was one of his gods of literature, but I've never really connected with him. Carmilla's good, though I don't think it's the best thing in the book (Through a Glass Darkly) it first appeared in. Dorian Gray's great. The later Victorian era produced some fascinating stuff in that vein (RL Stevenson, Arthur Machen, Richard Marsh, etc). Couldn't connect with that Camus book either. Then again, I've never really vibed with existentialism in general I probably need to reread Ivan Ilyich, I'm pretty uncertain how I feel about Tolstoy in general. Not my favourite of the Russians. Haven't read The Collector. Did Orwell at high school and I've seen him invoked so many times by political pundits (usually somewhere on the right) trying to score some point that I'm sick of hearing his name. I will commend the 1950s BBC TV version if you haven't seen it. Frankenstein = awesome. Lots of the misconceptions about it actually seem to stem from the 1930s films (and maybe some of the theatrical adaptations from the 19th century). Re-reading it, it's always kind of stunning to be reminded just how articulate the creature is. As for reading Shakespeare, I love him but I know he poses difficulties for people (though I think I may struggle more with prose than verse from that era). Mind you, at least now we usually get him with modernised spelling and punctuation; years ago I saw one of his plays in the original spelling and YEEEEEEEEEEE. I don't know how much of that I could've read... And I'm in Sydney, so I know what you mean about lockdown blues. We can't exactly look down on how Melbourne went last year any more given how things are going here now...
I will never forget how harrowing The Collector was, especially the ending. I’m so grateful I read it because it introduced me to a whole new genre of reading.
This video is a bit old, so I don't know if anyone is still reading the comments, but The Collector by John Fowles seems to have inspired a k-drama I watched a few months ago called Nevertheless. Needless to say, but I'm intrigued by this book now!
Thank you for this! I've always been intimidated by classics so I haven't picked one up yet. But same goes for fantasy but then I read one and now I'm all for it. so I'm gonna go pick one of these as my first one 😊
I read The Stranger and Frankenstein and some Poe, and I heartily agree with all of those absolutely perfect picks. So will definitely look to check out the others at some point!
I’m definitely in the camp of “this was such a great I to go classics” when it comes to Frankenstein. I read it for a history class my junior year of college, when I didn’t read unless I had to, and it completely blew my mind. It still stands as my favorite novel. So many layers and so many ways to interpret the book. It is my belief that if there is only one novel that will always be relevant it’s Frankenstein.
Thank you so much! I was an English major but haven’t read in a while, this will be perfect to get back into it. I have to know, how did you get your hair so white? I tried to do that and just failed terribly lol! It looks so good. Also I’m loving your room, I have the same aesthetic, room tour?
They answered this on tiktok! their hair is already naturally light so they don't have to do much but they do lighten it with bleach I think :). Tho coming from someone with bleached hair I just bleached it and then toned it and it came out white, it'll depend what developer you use and the darkness of your natural hair
I read 1984 last year and it quickly jumped to my all time favourite books. It was the first classic that I chose to read for myself and wasn't forced to read it by school, I impulse bought it and I'm so happy I did. It's so quiet compared to other pieces of dystopian media I've enjoyed. Dystopian games and literature tend to be very action packed but Orwell's characters in 1984 aren't fighting and running around throwing grenades at each other. They're normal people who's acts of rebellion seem small in comparison to the big unfair world they were thrust in to. I think it makes the whole story feel more real
I can attest to The Collector being a creepy book, it was so good I finished it overnight. Do you have any more recommendations for books like The Collector?
The Dumb House by John Burnside! I'd also recommend Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, but it's really not the best choice for someone just starting with classics. The language is absolutely gorgeous and also very inaccessible.
a tip from a once homeschooled, college student, who read a lot of classics: read the annotated versions! read the ones with context! talk to people that are nerds about the historical context of the book! it makes it so much more fun to know WHY certain weird things happen in old books :)
That's fantastic advice! It always helps me get more into the story when I research the author of a classic I am reading.
Yes! The only reason I ever got into literature was because of my Hamlet textbook in high school. I actually understood it! If you think you'll really struggle with Shakespeare, or if you just want to make it extra easy, definitely try the textbook versions! King Lear, Othello, The Merchant of Venice etc. are all also available in textbook form.
I hope you don’t mind me asking but how did you get homeschooled in college? How does it work? 😂
Hi! Great tip! What annotated versions/editions do you recommend? Penguin? Enriched Classics? Vintage? :)
@@estellehuang1475 I personally really love the penguin classics editions! The notes really help but don’t over explain anything really, so there’s still room for your own interpretations. Plus they include any extra things that might be important - for example in their editions of Dickens they include the notes he made while writing them :) theyre also the most accessible editions, and you can find them second hand for really cheap (try Abebooks). if you REALLY want an in depth look in to a classic, the Norton critical editions are good! They don’t contain notes in the text (afaik) but include critical essays and notes about context / possible interpretations. They’re definitely more geared towards an English student, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get anything out of them! For me it really helps me feel connected to a classic to study them in depth, and the Norton eds. can help for that outside of the classroom!
as a beginner to classics myself, i would absolutely recommend the picture of dorian gray to just about anyone. it’s short, quotable, but also uses such accessible language.
Thank you!!
My favourite, also Rebecca from daphne du mourier
i’m currently reading it right now and im having some difficulty with it, but compared to other classics it is much better and easier to understand
@@breadstickavenger i find the second half of the book to be much more engaging than the first, so keep reading and see what you think :)
Yes, although I promptly had the handy google vocabulary by me at all times, it was easy to comprehend the lines overall. It was the first piece of classic literature after The Great Gatsby that I read as a non native English speaker and I loved it.
I feel like pride and prejudice by Jane Austen was the perfect introduction to classics for me because I was so familiar with the plot that the language wasn’t insanely difficult!
i loved the language but a lot of my friends said they found it difficult to read
@@manasvi4404 I find if it hard to read, try the audiobook version, sometimes that’s helps people
@L/U nope, indian
It's very beautiful but i've been stuck reading it for about a year now, quite difficult for me.
I found that book absolutely boring
The metamorphosis by Kafka is super short, easily digestible and laugh out loud funny in an absurdist sense. 10/10 would recommend
I remember listening to this on a train ride to school and filling up 5 pages of my notebook in notes while I listened! Such a good book
Oh god lol I hated that book so so much. I think part of it was the teacher I had for it was bad but also I it was just so goddamn depressing
@@marshalinehamismother every book sucks when u have to read it in school haha. It's best as just a funny story, I can't imagine having to analyze the "deeper meaning" of "lol Gregor bug"
I was only able to get through this one with the help of an audiobook read by Benedict Cumberbatch on youtube... Not my cup of tea but it's still recommended for a reason so.
I agree, it's an absolute gem. Saw the ballet too, and it was weirdly entertaining,
Oh my god finally, a booktuber who talks about the kinds of books that I like. Nothing wrong with YA or fantasy, i just don't like it but it feels like it's the vast majority of the online book community. Can anyone recommend me more booktube accounts like this one?
Emmie!
Better Than Food is a great channel.
You should see sarcastic fish aka emma angeline. She is really great
@@RO-vr9qx I really like emmie she is great!
@@iconsonscreen7291 YESS
the first classic I read was Picture of Dorian Gray a while ago, since then I have fallen in love with so many classics such as 1984, Wuthering Heights, Pride & Prejudice, Great Gatsby etc. Cant wait to read some of these recs
edit: after some recommendations in my reply, I read crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky and LOVED it, it’s soo good, it’s a lot to take in but regardless, amazing book!
these are great works.
Try dostoevsky works next.
@@lordlopikong6940 ooh I really want to read dostoevsky, which book should I start with? I've heard crime and punishment is a good one to start with
@@marydarko3380 yes crime and punishment is amazing. One of the big 4(crime and punishment,the idiot,demons, and the brothers karamazov)
Crime and punishment is a great start for dostoevsky but I also heard that notes from the underground is perfect introduction for him. Because notes from the underground is very short (only 200pages) and is made of short stories which is a great introduction on what kind of themes dostoevsky likes to tackle. So my recommendation is you can start with either crime punishment or notes from the underground.
@@lordlopikong6940 okay, thank you for the recommendations, I’ll add them to my tbr cause I’ve been wanting to read his books for a while now
Anne of Green Gables. It was my first classic and it’s such an easy read. I first read it when I was like 11 and I still re read it today. I’d say it’s very good for beginners
If you’re okay with the tons of racism, yeah
@@jendubay3782 if you can't comprehend it in a historical context, yeah
@@doriannamjesnik3007 you can comprehend things in a historical context and still not want to consume something.
@@jendubay3782 but that's another story. If you're not okay with racism at all, you'd at least understand where, when, why and how the book was written.
@@jendubay3782 what racism?
2:00 alice in wonderland by lewis carroll
3:00 selected works of edgar allan poe
4:45 carmilla
5:45 the picture of dorian gray
6:30 the stranger/outsider
7:41 the death of ivan ilyich
8:53 john fowles the collector
10:02 1984
11:15 starlight and moonshine
13:02 frankenstein
thank you so much bae
Thanks for this 🙌
Love u
@Dorian Phoenix you sound like fun 😐
U are my savior thank you a looot ❤
I started reading again this year. I was probably only reading 2-3 books a year for several years straight. For a literature course, I had to read Persuasion by Jane Austen. I fell in love with it and finished it in a day. It's also very short compared to her other novels. It kick-started my reading again and I've read 20 books so far this year! Not a crazy number compared to other's, however that's a huge leap from only 2 books a year.
I love this for you!! I just started reading again this year too and ive read 19 books this year (go us!!!🥳🥳)
also I really want to read persuasion :o
Persuasion is sooo underrated!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's my favorite Jane Austen novel. Northanger Abbey is also accessible and I think it's pretty fun.
Cool, I've been reading Tropic of Cancer except I like to pretend the character Van Norden is like a Bailey Jay, mite write my own book think I'll call it "Beyond the Valley of Penises"
For people who want to try Shakespeare but are intimidated by the language, I always recommend the No Fear Shakespeare publications that have the original language on one page opposite a "translation" in more modern language. We used them in high school when we did theatre productions to look at different interpretations of the phrases
MyShakespeare is also really good! used it a lot in AP LIT!
They’re super good!
Or, tales from Shakespeare book by Charles and mary lamb. It summarizes almost all good tragedies and comedies of Shakespeare
this is really helpful since ive been wondering for a while on whether or not i should get a no fear shakespeare copy of much ado, thank you! ! !
1984 is one of my favorite books ever, i could not stop reading!! i pictured everything so easily and it is just an amazing book people should read at least once in their life
I would also recommend The Phantom of the Opera, A Separate Peace, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the whole series if you want tbh), A Wrinkle in Time, the Chronicles of Narnia series, Peter Pan, and while a few of these are children’s books, it makes them more digestible. Honestly, I don’t trust anyone that knocks off children’s books. Just because it’s meant for a younger audience DOES NOT MEAN IT HAS TO BE BAD. The Oz series has tons of allegories about the facade that politicians fool their followers into believing, The Chronicles of Narnia has wonderful messages about integrity, Peter Pan is a whole discussion about the loss of innocence, etc.
LOVE the Chronicles of Narnia series! I've probably read it 4-5 times since childhood. I even have a tattoo quote from it:)
Phantom might be daunting to some but it is fun. I think it was my first classic besides Peter Pan (which I would definitely recommend to beginners). Also Little Women is a good one to begin with.
Yes! I read A Wrinkle in Time for the first time when I was 17, and it destroyed me-although I can’t remember why, I only remember that I found something in it beautiful. The Goose Girl is another one I read around that time, which I would also recommend.
YEAHHH PHANTOM
Wow. Separate Peace. I love Knowles. Quite a bit subversive I think.
I loveeeedddd Frankenstein, Mary Shelley really went off. But another classic that I would say is also accessible, at least for me when I started classics, would be Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It’s so light hearted yet deep and soulful and you build such strong relationships with every single character. Obviously a lot of people have probably read it already or seen the movie, but to people who haven’t…. Read the book!
I’m a new reader can you suggest me few books to read? Actually i was reading a lot of books during my school years but later fell off from that habit but i came back to reading novels after Silent patient. Can you suggest me novels which is like a thriller,Twists and turn or you can call it suspense or Adventure type books. These 3 are my favourite genres
Poe really is a good place to start- his writing isn’t super difficult to understand and his stories are relatively fast paced!
To go along "The Picture of Dorian Gray", I would also recommend "The Importance of Being Earnest". It's a really good way to get into plays. The language is a bit posh, but still easy to grasp onto. Some of the lines had me ☠️☠️ for days, and I still quote them from time to time.
100% I read a lot of Oscar Wilde when I was first getting into the classics and it was easy and enjoyable.
Same! I actually discovered Oscar Wilde by going to see The Importance of Being Earnest in a local theatre in my town. He became one of my favorite poets since then.
Yes I read this last month and I thought it was very Clever and actually really funny!
I had so much fun reading that play!!
I would recommend Dostoyevski for sure. His short stories are a great start for reading Russian classics and his black and white worldview and angst are perfect for a younger reader.
IMO dostoyevski is not as difficult as people say it is, i don't read much classics but i love him, so yeah... I think he should totally be read by young people and beginners when it comes to classics, he is no that heavy of a reading experience as people say he is :)
why r yall spelling like that isn’t it dostoevsky 😭
@@hwlsgrl I've been reading him as "Dostojevski" for my entire life because I'm serbian and that's how it's written in my language. In russian It's also spelled differently. In english it can be spelled as Dostoyevsky or Dostoevsky.
In English I recommend the Larissa Volkonsky and Richard Pevear translations. Constance Garnett is enough to put you off for good.
@@hwlsgrl i`m latino and in my country every Edition says Dostoyevsky or dostoievski xd
This is such a good and realistic list... I was watching a different classics for beginners video and they recommended crime and punishment lol
to be fair that was the first classic i read :/ but only bc i wanted to read the actual thing after reading the graphic novel lmao ^^;
Honestly I don't find crime and punishment to be that advanced. It is just really long but the language is on high school level.
Dostoyevski loooved descriptions. It's a really good and interesting book but could've been an email
Jane Eyre is an amazing beginner book also. Loved that book.
Just be constant. You’re smashing it already. We (at least some of us) appreciate the work!
"covers don't matter it's what's on the inside that counts" ok I officially adore you 💕
Read Frankenstein earlier this year and was blown away. Easily one of my favorite books I've read this year.
Some classics I've read that are pretty interesting and simple: The Invisible Man, The Great Gatsby, The Tempest (shakespeare play tho), Twelfth Night (shakespeare play again), anythingggg by Edgar Allan Poe. There are more but I can't think of anything lel
Yeahhh the tempest is on my list
1. Alice in Wonderland : 1:57
2. Edgar Allen Poe (author) : 3:00
3. Carmilla - 4:44
4. Picture of Dorian Gray - 5:49
5. The stranger/ The outsider - 6:30
6. The death of Ivan Illych - 7:49
7. John Fowler's the collector - 8:50
8. 1984 - 10:07
9. Starlight and moonshine (poetry for kids) - 11:10
10. Frankenstein - 13:00
Thank you sm! :)
*Carmilla
@@YoursTrulyMcGouly corrected it
the taste, the aesthetic, the voice...and also, you give me strong gwen stacy vibes
Yes! I thought I was the only one thinking that she looks like Gwen Stacy
I recently read Slaughterhouse 5 for a class and it was fantastic. It’s a bit newer (1960s) and the language is very understandable but well-utilized. The tone is so fantastically sarcastic and it really gets you into the head of the main character, a WWII vet dealing with the mental fallout of war. Highly recommend it to anyone.
slaughterhouse 5 is easily one of my favorites books of all time, and does a great job of capturing the horror of war, the perils of getting older, the weirdness of alien abduction and just general awkwardness. Its amazing.
I hated that book sooooo much 😂
@@alioc3298 why lol
@@Oscar-ue5yc the main character was so unlikeable, the plot was all over the place, and I dunno man. You ever read a book so bad that it actually makes you angry? Cos that was slaughterhouse 5 for me
Solidly agree with Frankenstein! It was the first piece of adult classic literature I read when I was thirteen. I devoured it in a couple of hours and I attribute much of my love of classic novels to this book!
Really needed this because I have a weird relationship with classics. I haven’t even started Frankenstein for the book club because I’m genuinely scared lol.
Frankenstein is really good! Don’t be too hard on yourself the most important thing is to enjoy yourself when reading and it’s pretty short too
I just finished it and I very much enjoyed it. Its alright if you dont understand absolutely everything, just try to enjoy it!
Yeah I had to read Frankenstein for my Lit class. I was going to sparknotes the whole thing (because I didn't like the first 4 letters) but then I ended up actually reading it because I actually didn't hate it. We had to do annotations too and I actually found that fun because I found myself ranting on how much I hate Victor Frankenstein and I also thought I was such a genius for finding a lot of cool symbolism that, it turns out, everyone else found too haha
Frankenstein's actually a really good and really easy read! I was at my Aunt's home when I was 11, I think, that I stumbled upon it and decided to read it because I had nothing else to do. I kinda rushed through the whole thing, because I was, you know, 11, and therefore didn't really take enough time to appreciate the symbolism and all that. Anyway, the book terrified me lol. However, I re-read it over and over again because the fear that it inspired within me was just so delicious - I don't know how else to put it. Re-reading it as a teenager, now, made me appreciate the deeper meaning behind it. Still kinda scary, but not so much. Bottom line is, READ IT! You won't regret it :))))
@@kaitlyng7850 yes!!! I was so intimidated by the few letters at the beginning I was like oh lord this bout to be boring as hell but turns out it might be one of my favourite books!
i love your whole look. the background is actually perfect omg
i love how you talk about books! you are so passionate about them, but not in a loud way, more like in a captivating and really moved by them way. looking forward to reading some of your recommendations 🌟💕
I actually read The Stranger on my own and I found it to be interesting to say the least. I'm having thoughts about reading Dostoevsky but haven't pulled the trigger on that yet. Just wanted to say thank you for the upload. And you look great by the way.
U should definitely read Dostoevsky!!!
@@teghzz Thanks I will definitely look into it. He seems very interesting to read.
Check out camus's the Plague
The Stranger was my introduction to literature, and Dostoevsky is now my favorite author. I also found The Stranger to be extremely interesting, and when I read it I had never experienced anything quite like it. My first Dostoevsky novel, The Idiot, was also this way but was much more enjoyable than Camus. Maybe start with The Idiot, lots of people love that one.
"Most people love it, if you hate it you only have to read it once to say you have" my entire aesthetic tbh 🥰
ive been trying to get more into classic literature and its definitely difficult to navigate as a beginner, so i will be making a point to read every one of these books :) thank u
This is actually a great list 👍. Also, YOUR BEDROOM WALL... * chef's kiss *
Again this whole vibe is very alluring I love it 😍
we have always lived in the castle is a great one for beginners: short, easier prose style with a lot to dig into if you want to go deeper, and very atmospheric
When you said, "we all love vampire fiction", pulled out Dracula, laughed, and then immediately pulled out Carmilla - I smiled so big! I have read both Dracula and Carmilla and I honestly think that Carmilla was leagues better.
I had to study dracula for my extension class and i read carmilla as a related text too. I fully agree with you there, I personally don't think Dracula is a particularly great novel imo (even tho I love Gothic lit) especially when compared to carmilla
Dracula is my fav! But a v lengthy book. I like the themes of friendship and trauma in the novel. I have such love for Carmilla too though. Sapphic and quick read. Anyone here read The Vampyre?
@@britneyspears5727 do u rec that one?
@@britneyspears5727 I’ve read it! I’ve read all three and liked the Vampyre the best.
@@tayloranderson8922 I enjoyed both but what puts Dracula above Carmilla for me is that I thought the ending to Carmilla was really poorly done and felt oddly impersonal compared to the rest of the story
First of all thanks for the recommendations. I am from Germany and therefore I mostly read german classics in school which I (other than most of my colleagues) enjoyed. In English class we only read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Importance of being earnest", both of which I really like. Normally I just read fiction non-classic like whatever is popular on booktube, but I already thought a while ago I should get into English classics, so your video was the perfect motivation. After I read all the books on my to read pile (which aren't that many actually I think 5 or so) I think I read a few classics. Especially The Picture of Dorian Grey sounds very interesting to me.
In return for your recommendation I want to recommend you some german classics that we read in german class and which (when I am recalling it right) I found very enjoyable:
1. Faust I - Goethe (Every german high school student has or has to read this, but I really loved it. Idk if it is internationally popular, probably so chances are high you already heard of it. Also speaking of Faust I have yet to read the second book)
2. Fontane - Unterm Birnbaum (We read this in nineth grade so I don't remember the whole story but somehow I really liked it)
3. Büchner - Woyzeck (It is about a man who is on the very bottom of society and more or less gets rejected by society)
4. Hauptmann - Bahnwärter Thiel (Has same vibes as Woyzeck, but way more tragic. It is about the anti hero Thiel. Thiel's wife died and he (had to) remarried. Hauptmann called this book a Novellistische Studie ("novellist study"))
5. E.T.A Hoffmann - Der Sandmann (This fucks with your head I am surprised that this is even allowed to read in class. But I was also fascinated by the story and the characters).
I personally also want to read Das Parfum by Patrick Suesskind and some other german classics that we did not read in german class.
You look like a really nice person, but I am a little bit afraid of you lol
kind regards
PS: I am too lazy to correct this comment so I am very sorry if some language mistakes or so slipped in
I fully agree with all of this. I am also German and I can really recommend Dürrenmatt - Die Physiker. We had to read it in school, but it's so wild, i love it. Also I don't know if it counts as a classic since it is more a children book but I really liked Momo by Michael Ende.
Great expectations is one of my favorites. I also think catch 22, wuthering heights, and Fahrenheit 451 are good ones.
You have GREAT taste and GREAT suggestions! I have read all of those except Carmilla and The Collector and I agree with ALL of your suggestions for classics to start with.
Your aesthetic is STUNNING
I’m usually not one to reach for classics but after watching this video I’ve literally put all these books in my Amazon cart. You make these books sounds so wondrous
“I would never recommend Shakespeare to a beginner”
Public Schools: 👁👄👁
i read "the stranger" in french (it's original language) and really liked it!. And its not too hard to understand as a non-fluent reader
This almost exactly matches my early goth kid reading list a few decades back. These books make me want to throw on Joy Division and The Cure and read with some candles. Which is a good thing, to be clear.
I'm a beginner in books and really interested in classic literature thanks for ur recommendations 💕💕
Good luck on your journey and I envy you the wonders you are going to encounter for the first time which I would love to discover again! ❤😃
May I also suggest the bell jar by Silvia Plath. There are a bunch of trigger warnings so I suggest you look those up, but the wording is fairly accessible and the books is pretty short, but hits you like a truck. Also, the joy luck club. Also, literally every trigger warning, but it was written in the 80s so it’s very easy to understand the language and it’s so dam poetic. Those are some of my all time favourites, definitely worth a try.
Obsessed with this, your beginner recs are so spot on! 1984, the picture of Dorian gray and Frankenstein were the first classic books I ever read as a teen and I never looked back, Frankenstein is still my favourite till this day. The only one I’d possibly add that’s worthwhile for beginners is Gatsby - it’s short, most people are familiar with the plot already and there’s some really pretty prose 😊
Ι would love to see a bookself tour if you would like !
I'm not a beginner, but I was curious to see what you would recommend. I really enjoyed listening to the details you picked from each book, you really have a way of making people want to read them! Thank you for your video.
I would recommend David Copperfield. The finest coming of age story and like many classics touches on the social issues of the Victorian era. It's also apparently Dickens's favourite novel.
Semi-autobiographical too.
The opening sentence of "House of Usher" was just pure mastery.
you're literally 2021 version of Gwen Stacy
Fun fact: I am a huge Shakespeare nerd but I absolutely hate reading Shakespeare. This works because I basically grew up watching Shakespeare not reading it and developed a love for the stories even if I didn't understand exactly what was going on in the wording I understood the message of the scene, even as a 12 year old kid, and to this day I still don't like reading Shakespeare (although I have and its gotten a bit easier over time) but still I would recommend to anyone to watch over read instead every time.
I wouldn’t recommend Dorian Gray for absolute beginners, but obviously every reader is different. Personally it put me off all non required reading for a year and a half when I was in high school because it took me so long to process. Meanwhile, I was devouring Shakespeare both in and out of class like nobody’s business.
Probably intermediate. Not too hard or daunting, but might be harder with pacing for some.
@@MissMoontree I can read, what would be considered, difficult and dense books; but I can never understand why people consider ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ to be an easy accessible book. To me the language used by Wilde was beautiful, but also hard to digest. The first half of the book also put me off.
Interesting! It’s one of the first classics I read, and it made me fall in love with classics because I found it so whimsical and accessible. Everyone is different :).
your books look so good you need to do a bookshelf tour!! and also something that helped me to understand classics' vocabulary more is reading the most modern first then start going back to the older ones
wow, such a good set of recommendations! poe was also my introduction to classic, gothic literature. i love your enthusiasm around literature; it's so refreshing!!
a tip : the book that got me into reading was the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde, and i read it at age 14 so i think that says a lot about how easy it is to read but it’s so incredible i cannot put into words how much i love this book i recommend it to everyone and anyone i meet
Don't forget Jules Verne. The language is so lively, and he imaginatively explores that which may have been the conspiracy theories of his time, many of which are still talked about to this day (Atlantis, Sea Monsters, Hollow Earth theories, and the implications of time travel).
omg, love your analyses, love your aesthetic, and love your hair!! overall so refreshing!! and you put out some classics id never even heard of! I'm so excited to tuck into Carmilla!
You are so magical! I am now hooked on reading the classics!
For future reference, Albert Camus is pronounced Cam-mou. A lot of people pronounce it Came-mis if they are not familiar with French pronunciation.
Love your channel though and thank you for some of these recs! Some of them I have read and others I have not read. Looking forward to reading some of these :)
Actually, as a francophone I would say that the pronunciation is more like Ca-mew, but the ‘s’ is definitely silent in any case:-)
Kah-moo is how I've always pronounced it, with just a bit of stress on the second syllable.
honestly i think a lot of people are daunted by shakespeare because they think that you are supposed to understand it the first time you read it like most modern fiction. as a shakespeare nerd myself i have to read everything twice before im able to start getting the meaning, and then admire the poetry! i also think that the experience of watching a great shakespeare production that does stuff visually and acting-wise that you can't get from reading the script really adds to the enjoyment of it. some of my favorite scenes are the ones where characters are exchanging single lines with each other, usually in an argument -- the things they're saying are often so modern it's staggering!
personally I would recommend Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier especially if you like gothic books it has really accessible language and the descriptions of Manderley alone are worth the read.
My first ever classic was Anna Karerina by Leo Tolstoy. I mean... It was long, but I loved it
My favourite classic of all time, just loved it.
omg your so cute! when you quoted Shakespeare and then were so satisficed and laughed. i love when people get so excited about words and novels or stanzas
finally I see The Collector mentioned somewhere!! I read this book when I was 15ish and I'm still haunted (?) by it. I don't know if haunted is the right word - it was super creepy but at the same time so fascinating because it was so psychologically immersive. I lent it to a friend and they never returned it :(( But I'm constantly shocked by how few people have heard of it! Definitely needs more recognition!!
I've finished it recently and even though I already knew the basic plot before starting to read the book impressed me very much. Towards the end I felt scared as hell.
I love persuasion by Jane Austen, and Northanger Abbey, they’re much easier to get through than her longer books and much easier for beginners but War and Peace if you can get through it, I know the size puts so many people off and it does have a ridiculous amount of characters to try and remember but if you can power through, honestly it’s a masterpiece! ❤❤❤
omg the stranger? yes. the picture of dorian gray? not until that forsaken chapter with the jewelry and the freaking carpets gets banned, criminalized and forgotten from this world.
I tend to steer towards 20th century classics, so I'm happy you touched on The Collector, 1984, and The Stranger! As far as Russian literature goes, I find The Master and Margarita, while long, very engaging, especially for those who are unused to Russian literature and/or interested in the early Soviet Union.
Other classics I recommend- the plays of Tennessee Williams, in particular Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Glass Menagerie, and A Streetcar Named Desire; Brideshead Revisited, Scoop, and A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh; The End of the Affair and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene; We Have Always Lived in the Castle and the Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West; and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
I’m so awe-struck by you omg
Please keep doing what you love doing
finding your channel has been the nicest way this awful year could have ended
have you read rebecca by daphne du maurier? it’s one of my favourite classics! 🕯xx
Picture of Dorian Gray was my first book of classic literature I read of my own volition when I was 15 or 16. It was so gripping and vivid. I can still smell the roses in Basil's studio and see the fog of the opium den. It's a good one for young people too because it's pretty didactic and young people like to hear about strong opinions and see novel conclusions drawn from stories
the first classic I read was Bram Stoker’s Dracula when I was 14 and I became obsessed with reading this brought back so many memories
Jules Verne is also an amazing author to look out for and in my opinion a bit underrated. Around the World in Eighty Days for example is so cool *.* And I feel like its easy to grasp because the main plot is basically to travel around the World in 80 days. I love that book especially because you can literally feel the excitement about new technology which was a big factor at that time and that combined with traveling around the world is just 👌.
Also I feel like Sherlock Holmes could also be something considerable for beginners. There are short stories, so you dont need to read too much at once. Or you can read the novels of course.
all these covers are so pretty and neat. we have very few good editions of classics in Russia
1984 is gold
Note to self: talk to cousin DJY about maybe starting her career in literature. She has a lot of thoughts like Dakota
I only just discovered your channel and it really calmed me down, I felt oddly cared for when you smiled and decided to read us a poem :)
Also, big recommendation: The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Its plot can be condensed into this single sentence: The devil is bored and comes to Moscow with his man-sized drunken cat to spread some chaos. It was censored at the time so there's probably some sharp satire of Stalin's regime in it as well, but you can easily read it as an adventure novel with some ludicrous protagonists. I am enamoured
I definitely read that 2021 edition of The Stranger in 2011 when I was in high school, but I am willing to bet that it was only available in certain countries at the time
Or certain planets that may or may not have access to time machines.
i'm going to cry, your choices are so good
A really interesting list. I'm 46 going on 47 and I only read the Alice books for the first time a year or two ago. Astounding things, I should've read them decades ago.
I wish I liked Poe more than I do, cos I'm a big fan of HP Lovecraft for whom Poe was one of his gods of literature, but I've never really connected with him.
Carmilla's good, though I don't think it's the best thing in the book (Through a Glass Darkly) it first appeared in.
Dorian Gray's great. The later Victorian era produced some fascinating stuff in that vein (RL Stevenson, Arthur Machen, Richard Marsh, etc).
Couldn't connect with that Camus book either. Then again, I've never really vibed with existentialism in general
I probably need to reread Ivan Ilyich, I'm pretty uncertain how I feel about Tolstoy in general. Not my favourite of the Russians.
Haven't read The Collector.
Did Orwell at high school and I've seen him invoked so many times by political pundits (usually somewhere on the right) trying to score some point that I'm sick of hearing his name. I will commend the 1950s BBC TV version if you haven't seen it.
Frankenstein = awesome. Lots of the misconceptions about it actually seem to stem from the 1930s films (and maybe some of the theatrical adaptations from the 19th century). Re-reading it, it's always kind of stunning to be reminded just how articulate the creature is.
As for reading Shakespeare, I love him but I know he poses difficulties for people (though I think I may struggle more with prose than verse from that era). Mind you, at least now we usually get him with modernised spelling and punctuation; years ago I saw one of his plays in the original spelling and YEEEEEEEEEEE. I don't know how much of that I could've read...
And I'm in Sydney, so I know what you mean about lockdown blues. We can't exactly look down on how Melbourne went last year any more given how things are going here now...
you remind me so much of myself when i was younger ....i think it is so nice to see someone so excited about books!
great recs! i love gothic horror, frankenstein and edgar allen poe are some of my favorite classics
I will never forget how harrowing The Collector was, especially the ending. I’m so grateful I read it because it introduced me to a whole new genre of reading.
Same! The main character scared THE HELL out of me. This book made me want to read more of John Fowles
Ya fui a buscar tres libros, la forma en que los describes me dio ganas de leerlos, muchas gracias!! c:
donde los compraste?
This video is a bit old, so I don't know if anyone is still reading the comments, but The Collector by John Fowles seems to have inspired a k-drama I watched a few months ago called Nevertheless. Needless to say, but I'm intrigued by this book now!
the goddess has posted time to procrastinate schoolwork
I am a literature student myself. Loved your picks and your insights of each of them.
Wooo The Collector! I have watched the movie adaptation, and the casting of the male protagonist is perfect, truly mesmerising aesthetics.
This was such a wonderful video. I ordered carmilla before the video ended :D Thanks for your wonderful insight.
Thank you for this! I've always been intimidated by classics so I haven't picked one up yet. But same goes for fantasy but then I read one and now I'm all for it. so I'm gonna go pick one of these as my first one 😊
I read The Stranger and Frankenstein and some Poe, and I heartily agree with all of those absolutely perfect picks. So will definitely look to check out the others at some point!
A great selection, have read (not the anthology but certainly the extracts) and would recommend them all.
wuthering heights is also a great classic for beginners, one of my favorite books ever definitely
I’m definitely in the camp of “this was such a great I to go classics” when it comes to Frankenstein. I read it for a history class my junior year of college, when I didn’t read unless I had to, and it completely blew my mind. It still stands as my favorite novel. So many layers and so many ways to interpret the book. It is my belief that if there is only one novel that will always be relevant it’s Frankenstein.
Thank you so much! I was an English major but haven’t read in a while, this will be perfect to get back into it. I have to know, how did you get your hair so white? I tried to do that and just failed terribly lol! It looks so good. Also I’m loving your room, I have the same aesthetic, room tour?
They answered this on tiktok! their hair is already naturally light so they don't have to do much but they do lighten it with bleach I think :). Tho coming from someone with bleached hair I just bleached it and then toned it and it came out white, it'll depend what developer you use and the darkness of your natural hair
I read 1984 last year and it quickly jumped to my all time favourite books. It was the first classic that I chose to read for myself and wasn't forced to read it by school, I impulse bought it and I'm so happy I did. It's so quiet compared to other pieces of dystopian media I've enjoyed. Dystopian games and literature tend to be very action packed but Orwell's characters in 1984 aren't fighting and running around throwing grenades at each other. They're normal people who's acts of rebellion seem small in comparison to the big unfair world they were thrust in to. I think it makes the whole story feel more real
I can attest to The Collector being a creepy book, it was so good I finished it overnight. Do you have any more recommendations for books like The Collector?
The Dumb House by John Burnside! I'd also recommend Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, but it's really not the best choice for someone just starting with classics. The language is absolutely gorgeous and also very inaccessible.
I have an MA in English had hadn't read like half of these! Thank u for the recommendations, they sound awesome! :)
My first classic was Les Miserables!