1. Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 2. Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility 3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4. C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity 5. Oscar Wilde - The Selfish Giant I am not crazy about Hemingway, but The Old Man and the Sea lives rent free in my head.
Thomas Hardy. 1. The Mayor of Casterbridge: Hardy does not tell you who to like and who to dislike. He gives you full characterizations and lets the reader decide. 2. Return of the Native: Do you want to feel as if you are living in mid-nineteenth century England? This book will transport you there. 3. Tess of the D'Urbervilles; Angel is portrayed as the good guy and Alex is portrayed as the bad guy. But wait. Is that really so? Hardy is a genius.
1. Tolstoy is great and illustrates human nature including the heights (e.g. Andrei's spiritual flowering in W &P). 2. Somerset Maugham equally well illustrates human nature but usually the darker sides. Start with Razor's Edge. 3. Steinbeck's way with words is amazing: "Cannery Row...is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit a nostalgia, a dream".
My top five favorite classic authors are Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird), Betty Smith (A Tree Grows In Brooklyn), Anne Frank (The Diary Of A Young Girl), Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Complete Sherlock Holmes). I just started War & Peace this week. I'm 400 pages in and really enjoying it so far.
You are my inspiration for reading classics in English. As I am Japanese native, it’s sometimes very difficult but reading the original text is very worthy
I read Anna Karenina last month ! My first Tolstoy book , and it did not disappoint!! It took me 2 months to read it ( w my job n everything ) but I enjoyed every word of it . Definitely gonna reread it !
It literally took me six months to read. But I do work 10 to 12 hours a day. My reading schedule was all over the place. Somedays I will read for 30 minutes but when I had the chance I would read for 4 to 5 hours. There was a time when I couldn’t read for about three weeks. But the story was so good that I was always able to pick up right were I left off and dive back into the story. In the end it became my all time favorite book. And I can’t wait to reread it again when I have a more balanced schedule.
I literally clicked on this thinking, "yay, I can't wait to hear Carolyn talk about Anna Karenina again". 😄 I always love to hear you talk about something you're passionate about, your joy just shines through so much, and I could listen to you gush about Anna Karenina all day, it's one of my favourites as well. ❤ One of my favourite classics authors would definitely be Thomas Hardy, I’ve read five of his novels and some of his poetry by now. Three of those novels have become all-time favourites (Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure). I might need to go on another Hardy spree soon hahaha.
1. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Brothers Karamazov and the Idiot in particular. 2. Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Death of Ivan Iljitsj, Childhood Boyhood Youth. 3. John Steinbeck - East of Eden, Cannery Row, Grapes of Wrath, Travels with Charley. 4. Alexander Pushkin - Jevgeni Onegin, short stories. 5. Oscar Wilde - Picture of Dorian Gray.
1. Victor Hugo (Les Misérables/The Last Day of a Condemned Man) 2. Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot/C&P/The Brothers Karamazov) 3. Alexander Pushkin (Eugene Onegin) 4. Leo Tolstoy (The Death of Ivan Ilyich) 5. Markus Zusak (The Book Thief) I feel like my list is always changing, except my top 2 will always be my top 2!
“fiction is truth retold” is such an amazing way to put it! i love steinbeck but haven’t read hemingway since highschool, i definitely need to give him another shot.
I haven’t read that many classic books but my favorites of all time are 1.) Mary Shelley (Frankenstein was my first classic I read for fun and I recently read her other book Matilda and both of those books are just life changing for me) 2.) Oscar Wilde (the picture of Dorian gray is just too good) 3.)Bram Stoker (I read Dracula for the first time last year and it was so much fun) 4.) Gaston Leroux (the phantom of the opera my beloved) 5.) William Shakespeare (I need to get more into Shakespeare but midsummer’s night dream was so good)
Yes to a Part 2. I love seeing everyone's favorites. Carolyn, your voice is so relaxing. I went through a very hard time in my life and you helped bring me through everything just by listening to you. Thank you so so much. ❤
I agree with you about Carolyn's soothing voice and peaceful approach to talking about books. It really can be an antidote to this crazy world. I'm so happy that she helped you, @kjgerdes1111. 🥰
How incredible and how inspirational this video was, Carolyn…I couldn’t save it to my Books list fast enough! I will eagerly await part 2! I, myself, might add Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott, LM Montgomery, and Anthony Trollope to this already stellar list.📚❤️
I think I started reading Hemingway after watching one of your videos, and I was just like HOW HAVE I BEEN CASUALLY MISSING OUT ON THIS MY WHOLE LIFE UGHHHHH. My friends hate me now because I keep talking about Hemingway. I have no regrets. Thank you :)
Of course I agree with you about all of those authors! I recently finished that very edition of A Moveable Feast and I'm 100% certain I bought it based on your recommendation. I very much enjoyed it as well. When I think of Hemingway, I think of two things; he was the definition of a man's man, and alcohol. I would love to watch a Part 2 to this video.
Love! My top 5 1. Jane Austen - All of them 2. Lm Montgomery read Blue castle it is amazing! I love Anne too! 3. Dostoyevsky- Every book I have loved so far 4. Tolstoy- love Anna Karenina, but not as much War and Peace. 5. Emily Bronte-Wuthering Heights is just so good. I do love Hemingway too! A Farewell to Arms is just beautiful
I agree with most of these, though I haven't yet read any Hemingway. IDK about my top 5 but my top 3: 3. Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) 2. Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov) 1. C.S. Lewis (Till We Have Faces)
I absolutely love Till We Have Faces too! I haven't seen many people talk about it as one of their favourites though. I'm slowly reading my way through CS Lewis's entire collection of books he has published.
You've mentioned some great books and a part 2 would be great as well. An author whose works I love is Pat Conroy. His works aren't classics yet, but I hope someday they will be. The first book of his I read was The Prince of Tides. You can read the prologue from google search. Put book after the title because it's also a movie now. I beg you to just read the prologue and let me know your thoughts. If it doesn't feel like a book you'd like, that's okay. I'd just like to hear your thoughts. 💚🦀💫
I love that you got me to read "Childhood" "Boyhood" and "Anna Karenina" so THANK YOU. Two authors have only one based on my series criteria, but I put them there anyway, for as a child under ten years old reading these two stories there is nothing to compare to them in my early childhood. Also two of them have very good stories about them. 103) "Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life" by Alex Christofi 130) "Mark Twain: A Life" by Ron Powers Mark Twain will have you rolling in laughter and crying. As to Dostoevsky saying out loud two stories every day to who would be his future wife that were his most vulnerable and who he is as a man with "The Gambler" and "The Idiot" while she writes them for him, so he can get them done on time, I can't imagine it, nor the life she lives with him afterwards. I know one thing, she probably loved "The Idiot" and when she found a book by him years before called "The Insulted and Humiliated" it had to be her favorite book of all time. FAVORITE AUTHORS 1st) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Insulted and Humiliated) 1) “The Insulted and Humiliated” by Fyodor Dostoevsky 4) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 19) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 30) "Demons" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 65) "My Uncle's Dream" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 80) "The Heavenly Christmas Tree" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 113) "Poor Folk" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 130) "The Gentle Spirit" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 141) "The Gambler" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 149) "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 173) "Netochka Nezvanova" (nameless nobody) by Fyodor Dostoevsky 2nd) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection) 3) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy 9) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy 17) “Childhood, Boyhood” by Leo Tolstoy 62) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy 91) "A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy 3rd) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons) 5) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev 11) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev 23) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev 41) "Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev 64) "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev 101) "Acia" by Ivan Turgenev 107) "The Watch" by Ivan Turgenev 132) "Rudin" by Ivan Turgenev 141) "On the Eve" by Ivan Turgenev 152) "Home of the Gentry" by Ivan Turgenev 172) "Clara Militch" by Ivan Turgenev 177) "The Inn" by Ivan Turgenev 4th) James A. Michener (Chesapeake) 12) "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener 13) "Poland" by James A. Michener 36) "Caribbean" by James A. Michener 37) "Hawaii" by James A. Michener 197) “Mexico” by James A. Michener 5th) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) 10) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 28) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 44) "In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 78) "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: an Experiment in Literary Investigation" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 6th) C. S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew) 7) The Chronicles of Narnia - series by C. S. Lewis 42) "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis 184) "Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life" by C.S. Lewis 7th) Charlotte Brontë (Vilette) 8) "Vilette" by Charlotte Brontë -- Highest ranked book by a female author 74) "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë 146) "The Professor” by Charlotte Brontë 171) "Shirley" by Charlotte Brontë 8th) J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit) 15) The Silmarillion - The Hobbit, or there and back again - The Lord of the Rings - Middle Earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien 9th) Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire) 18) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov 10th) Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) 24) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen 43) "Emma" by Jane Austen 68) “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen 80) “Persuasion” by Jane Austen 11th) Anne Brontë (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) 22) "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Brontë 32) "The Complete Poems of Anne Bronte" by Anne Brontë 104) "Agnes Grey" by Anne Brontë 12th) Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) 25) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain 58) "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain 111) "Pudd'n Head Wilson" by Mark Twain 137) "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain 179) "The Innocents Abroad" by Mark Twain 13th) Anthony Trollope (He Knew He Was Right) 59) "He Knew He Was Right" by Anthony Trollope 71) "The Warden" by Anthony Trollope 86) "The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope 101) "Can you forgive her?" by Anthony Trollope 14th) Dr. Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner (Verbal Behavior) 2) "Verbal Behavior" by Dr. B. F. Skinner 78) “Science and Human Behavior” by Dr. B. F. Skinner 15th) George Eliot (Silas Marner) 54) "Silas Marner" by George Eliot 87) "Middlemarch" by George Eliot 16th) Charles Dickens (Hard Times) 69) "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens 93) "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens 17th) Thomas Hardy (Jude the Obscure) 83) "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy 110) "A Pair of Blue Eyes" by Thomas Hardy
I love reading classics and my top Author to get me into that was Jane Austen absolutely love her novels my two favourites would be Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion although I do actually love them all. Next author would be Charlotte Bronte with Jane Eyre Ann and Emily Bronte are ok my TBR list. Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, then Elizabeth Gaskell North and South and Louisa May Alcott with Little Women. I need to read more Classics but it's so difficult to pick which ones as they are all good ❤
Five of my most favorite classic writers would have to include in the conversation: Tolstoy - War & Peace Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady Virginia Woolf - The Waves Jane Austen - Persuasion Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time
I read ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ last year and loved it! ❤ Henry James’s writing is so good. It’s beautiful, but at the same time, it feels very current.
My Top 5 is : 1. Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov 2. Tolstoy - War and Peace 3. Alexander Dumas - The count of Monte Cristo 4. George Orwell - 1984 5. John Steinbeck - East of Eden
My top 3 are Interchangeable because I can’t be forced to choose between them but they’re Virginia Woolf: Orlando: A Biography, To the Lighthouse Herman Melville: Moby Dick William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury I don’t know if I can say who my other two favorites are yet, my other favorites are Jane Eyre and The Trial (Franz Kafka) but they’re just barely below my all time favorites and I’m not sure I can say I would love everything else by them. There’s so many writers I still need to read, so I also feel it’s fair to leave the other 2 spots open for the time being.
Oh my God ! You just gave me a mini heart attack rn. As the video was progressing towards the end, I thought, how is this possible that Anna Karenina could not make it to the list (the way you keep ranting about it). But finally 😭😭 Btw my favorite classic authors are : Bronte sisters, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Dumas, Virginia Woolf, Arthur Miller and Leo Tolstoy (obviously) loved your list 😊
Great list! I think another video on this topic would be better if you followed it up my your Top 5 Underated Classic Authors, everybody knows most of the well-known ones, it's great to shine a light on some of the lesser-known ones. Personally, I've been really getting into Wilkie Collins recently. I can only speak for myself but I had never heard of him until this year and his books are terrific reading.
1. Thomas Hardy (Jude the Obscure, Life's Little Ironies) 2. George Eliot (Silas Marner, Adam Bede) 3. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence) 4. Edith Wharton (Ethan Frome, Ghost Stories of EW) 5 . Willa Cather (Death Comes for the Archbishop, My Antonia) 💚 *Do you ever include the ancient classic authors like Homer, Euripides, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, etc? That would be a fun video -- you could give a little info on the ancients, and recommend something.
My Mom has begun her true Austen journey with Northanger Abbey, which ended up being a really good starting point for her. She just finished Lady Susan, and is headed into Sense & Sensibility. She’s even made small noises about maybe reconsidering giving Emma (which is what made her unwilling to read Austen in the first place) another chance. Our Jane Austen/Anne of Green Gables reading challenge for each other has been a great success for us, as I’ve finished not only Anne of Greeb Gables (which I’ve long loved), but also Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island. I’m just waiting for Anne of Windy Poplars to come in. Great choices of the classics! ❤
I am currently reading War and Peace. So far it is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I agree with you about Tolstoy as an author. Anna Karenina changed my life as well.
I have been dying to read A Room with a View, and hearing you talk about E.M Forster with such love and passion makes me want to read it even more ! My favourite author of all times has to be Jane Austen, and just like you, my favourite novels from her are P&P and S&S ♥Like you said her work has had a huge impact on literature, and her prose is wonderful ! She manages to capture the complexity of both platonic and romantic relationships with so much humour and tenderness :) The rest of my top five would be something like : -Emile Zola (The Beast Within, Germinal) -Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre, Villette) -Virginia Woolf (Between the Acts, To the Lighthouse) -Fyodor Dostoevksy (Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov)
Wonderful video for anyone wanting to start on classics. I've read all of these and loved them! I do believe the Brontes are many, many steps above Henry and Hoover. Jane Eyre is surely one of the best!
Definitely agree with you on watching a jane austen adaptation first, she was my introduction to classics and having watched the p&p movie first made it so much easier
Part 2 please 🤞👏 I enjoyed Part 1 🎉 Have you ever read any Thomas Hardy or DH Lawrence? Just wondering. I always find they are forgotten when it comes to classics. I love John Steinbeck and George Orwell and Daphne du Maurier. 😊
My favorite authors - the ones I've read multiple of their books: (I can put them in no order) Anthony Doerr Jonathan Safran Foerr Markus Zusak (I just finished Bridge of Clay today, and I feel empty inside. I love those characters so much) Amor Towles (Carolyn, if you love Tolstoy, PLEASE read A Gentleman in Moscow) Ruta Sepetys
Well done! An erudite, passionate declaration of your faves, all of whom are great authors! I hope you have a chance to see the fine Merchant/Ivory movie adaptations of E.M. Forster's books, A Room With A View, Maurice, and Howards End. All are beautiful and worth watching. My own list of classic fiction authors (3 or more books) is impossible to keep to 5. Shakespeare (admittedly a dramatist rather than fiction writer), Dostoyevsky. Austen, Chekhov, Dickens, Faulkner, Joyce (not being Irish, audiobooks helped me absorb Ulysses), Virginia Woolf (who disliked Joyce's writing), maybe Balzac or Stendhal, Mishima, Calvino, Kundera, etc. My guilty pleasure is a lifelong affection for the books of JRR Tolkien.
I've just started reading Anna Karenina and 117 pages in I'm pretty certain this is the best book I will ever read. Each sentence is something to savour. So excited to read it is it's definitely a bucket list book for me.
I tried but couldn't pick just two books from each author! Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, & Far From the Madding Crowd Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice & Sense and Sensibility Edith Wharton - The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, & Summer Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Sundial, The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, & The Haunting of Hill House George Eliot - Middlemarch & The Mill on the Floss
Carolyn, I hope you get the time to read EM Forsters A Passage To India. The relationship between Dr Aziz and Mr Fielding is truly touching,I think you would love it.
1. George Eliot - Middlemarch. 2. Anthony Trollope - Phineas Finn and Phineas Redux (I sort of see them as one book because they are both about the same main character). 3. Jane Austen - Mansfield Park. 4. Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace. 5. Henry James - Washington Square. As an aside, I really like Shirley by Charlotte Brontë!
Jane Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice, is what got me into reading classics.I Love Her! 📚Another one of my favorite authors: Leon Tolstoi; he is just stunning. And I couldn’t agree with you more, Carolyn: it is a difficult decision to make. It’s something to really give to some serious thinking to. 😅
I would love a Part 2 since I love classics as well. I don’t know many people who love classic literature (sadly) so I love to watch your videos! I love Jane Austen and the Brontes and would love a whole video dedicated to Jane Austen if you have time!
I’ve managed to pick up some Australian classic literature. Henry Lawson and banjo Patterson are two very famous authors that you should check out if you can :-) My fav authors are dickens. Love a Christmas carol I love the Brontes. I like Jane Eyre. I love Jane Austen. I love pride and prejudice. :-)
When I think of you and classics, authors don't come to mind as much as the list of short classics you opened my world to. Ethan From and Turn of the Screw to mention two. Can't thank you enough. Thanks for the video and happy writing!!!
If you haven't already, you should definitely check out The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery! It's a fantastic book and definitely shares many of the charming elements of the Green Gables series ❤
Thanks to the booksclub I came across a farewell to arms, I absolutely adore the book! I want to have this specific edition but I can't find it anywhere in bookstores :') I wanted to E.M Foster for so long now!! Maybe this is my sign to start with him.👀
@@CarolynMarieReads also I too love collecting different editions of my favorite books, so I’m glad I’m not the only one 🤓 Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite as well 🥰
Alcott, Burnett, Austen, Tolkien. Those are my fav. Im reading for the first time a Thomas Hardy novel and Im loving his writing but I would need to read more by him to say he is my fav writer too.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, first and favorite classic. The story and its heartbreaking ending lives in my heart and soul. The Count of Monte Cristo, absolutely amazing!!!!!! Crime and Punishment, about to finish it soon. Not five but my top three. Hoping to read more from each author as I love there different works very much. I’m looking forward to a part two of this!!!
Have you done a video about how you annotate with post-it notes? I’d love to do more of that for my book club, and I love hearing about the process others use. ❤
I think a video that might be helpful for readers is a breakdown of names, money and cultural references in Russian and French classics, particularly Russian! I have kinda got a grasp on it now after reading some Dostoevsky and Tolstoy but boy was it intimidating to get started!
P.G. Wodehouse. Widely considered one of the greatest humourist writers, but his work is light tales of the british aristocracy, Hollywood studio serfs and the occasional criminal in what are essentially romantic comedies. They aren't serious and deep enough to be considered 'penguin classic' material, but the quality of the writing is on par with the best literature: his incredible dialogue, his genius with similes, and just being laugh out loud funny - which is astonishing for work that is roughly a century old (humour usually dates badly and fades). 'Blandings Castle' is a good introduction to his work, or any of the Jeeves series.
I am surprised that no one listed Dante’s Divine Comedy! I would love to do 100 days of it. My all time favorite. Next, in no particular order: #2. Orwell’s 1984. #3. Plato’s, The Republic ( I studied this in school) #4. Homer’s, The Odyssey. #5. Woolf’s, A Room of One’s Own. If I can pick a bonus book it would be Wiesel’s, The Night Trilogy.
Great list! I totally agree with everything you said about Tolstoy 😄🖤. He's my favourite, along with Jane Austen 🙌. If we're talking about authors that you've read multiple books from, I'd also add Virginia Woolf, Dostoevsky, and (I'm going to cheat a bit here because I can't decide between James Baldwin or Juan Rulfo).
I also absolutely adore Jane Austen and E. M. Forster! My top 2 Austens would be Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, and my favourite Forster is A Passage to India. I also really like Charles Dickens, especially A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations.
I think mine would be: 1. Agatha Christie 2. P. G. Wodehouse 3. Oscar Wilde 4. Charles Dickens 5. J. R. R. Tolkien Also picked authors from whom I've read multiple books 😊 Loads of authors I've only read one of that would be up there though!!
1. Jack London (Martin Eden, The Star Rover, The Kempton-Wace Letters, The Scarlet Plague, short stories) 2. Anton Chekhov (A Dreary Story, Ward No. 6, In the Ravine, The Seagull, short stories) 3. Franz Kafka (The Castle, The Trial, The Metamorphosis) 4. Herbert Wells (The Door in the Wall, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds) 5. Stefan Zweig (Chess, Amok, Fear, Compulsion, Downfall of the Heart)
Thank you so much for being so inspiring. I am starting with Jane Eyre. Big books can be intimidating, I got stuck around page 300 of the Brothers Karamazov so dreading to start another large volume…
Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, Homer and Ibsen I think 🤔 So hard to pick just five! Honorable mention to Melville. I read Moby Dick last year and I can’t stop thinking about it. I was immidiately ready to read it again even though I had a lot on my plate so I haven’t quite yet. Otherwise it’s been good what I have read of him, but it’s really Moby Dick that stands out so honorable mention.
I don't really have an ordered list, but in no particular order: Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Virginia Woolf, Cormac McCarthy, and Raymond Carver. Maybe I'd replace Carver with Steinbeck or Borges on some days. Great list here! I still need to get around to reading Wuthering Heights.
If you haven't read LM Montgomery's The Blue Castle yet, I recommend picking it up! It's her only adult novel and has more of her beautiful nature descriptions
I love this question!! Here are my top faves… I’m including poets, because their work saved me. I return to each of these authors’ works when I’m struggling or am in a slump! ❤️ 1) Jane Austen (fun fact, we were born on the same day!) 2) Agatha Christie 3) Mary Shelley 4) Elizabeth Barrett Browning 5) Louisa May Alcott My honorable mentions that would definitely be in my top 10 list: John Keats, William Wordsworth, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Virginia Woolf!
I have at least one book on my shelf from all of these authors including two-thirds of your honorable mention. I’ve read Maurice and was saddened by it. I know we were supposed to read Hemingway in high school but I don’t remember if it was A Farewell to Arms or The Old Man and the Sea because I detested being forced to read and write papers on what I read. I have always liked reading for pleasure. Jane Eyre is on my fall TBR.
Ahhhh so much in common! I have the same works from Austen left! 1. Jane Austen 2. E.M. Forster 3. Leo Tolstoy 4. L.M. Montgomery 5. tentatively Virginia Woolf (I'd like to have her there but I have only read 2 of her works) - I've loved 2 Charles Dickens novels (but he has sooo many I feel like I'd have to read more to know), have so many Elizabeth Gaskell on my list (only read 1), read 2 James Baldwin... so I guess this spot is up for grabs once I read more
We have the same two favorite Hemingway books. I just picked up a copy of Howards End. I haven't read it yet, but I am very much looking forward to it. I have read Aspects of the Novel, though; every writer has to. I've read most of Austen and I think Emma is my favorite. There's a lot I admire about Northanger Abbey, but the character of Emma just feels so real in this bizarre, comical way. I find it hard to imagine who on earth could read all of War & Peace and not declare it to be the monument that it is. Is there a better book? It's as good as a book gets. It's The Great Novel for a reason, the very reason that Moby-Dick is the Great American Novel.
I adore Jane Austen! I find that as I age, my favorite book changes. Now, in my 50s, Persuasion is the book that I adore the most. My daughter is named Emma because in my 30s that was my favorite. Pride and Prejudice was my teens. 20s was Sence and Sensibility. 40s was Mansfield Park. We'll see what my 60s bring. ❤
This video was such a thoughtful take on classic literature! I liked how you managed to make complex literary themes feel approachable without losing any depth. I'm really excited to see the part 2 of this series! By the way, have you ever read Proust’s In Search of Lost Time? It's a bit of a commitment, but I can't recommend it enough for anyone who loves diving deep into introspective narratives. I'm currently trying to get into Dostoyevsky, starting out with White Nights. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it if you've read it!
Leo Tolstoy is also my favourite author and I didn’t find his novel War and Peace hard to read at all it is just long but I was able to read it for 3-5 hours straight multiple times because it isn’t a mere story but it has a lot of life lessons. I related to no one in the novel but I related to them all at the same time, this is how Leo Tolstoy wrote and also I find that with Dostoevsky. Other books describe the scene as you can see it for Tolstoy you are in it!
Hi. Thank you for the list and also other recommendations (the honorary mention, the movie). Could you please share a link for the Montgomery collection? I’ve been trying to find the perfect collection for my daughter and seeing you hold one just seems right!
Some of my favourite classics are Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of A Justified Sinner by James Hogg, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark and Nils Holgersson by Selma Lagerloeff.
Hello Carolyn!! Totally unrelated but yesterday, I picked up Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro because of your recommendation and I’m so excited to start reading it! ❤️❤️❤️
My favorites list would start with Steinbeck, Dickens, and Dostoevsky, but then it is sort of a tie between CS Lewis, Gene Stratton Porter, Alexandre Dumas, Louisa May Alcott, Victor Hugo, and George Eliot. Little Women or Silas Marner are probably the books I would introduce to a first time classics reader. Aside from authors, a few favorite individual books would include Ivanhoe, Ben-Hur, Kristen Lavransdatter, and Man's Search for Meaning.
Great video! Here are my 5 in no order: Tolstoy - Anna Karenina : Poe - all but love Annabel Lee the most : Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - her version of Frankenstein: Bram Stoker: Dracula and Louisa May Alcott - Little Women! honorable mention a modern classic Daphne Du Maurier - The Birds ( and of course Rebecca!)
1. Cervantes - Don Quijote, Exemplary Novels, and his short plays are all works of genius. 2. Dostoevsky- Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, White Nights 3. The Arabian Nights- probably my favorite collection of stories ever. 4. Franz Kafka - all of his short stories should be required reading. 5. George Orwell - 1984, Down and Out in Paris and London
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Flowers bloom from the pages of every classic that was ever written. They would have long withered and died otherwise.
1. Dostoevsky, 2. Tolstoy, 3. Thomas Hardy, et al (Shakespeare, Trollope, Collins, Dickens, Austen, Steinbeck - so hard to narrow down to a top 5)
1. Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
2. Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity
5. Oscar Wilde - The Selfish Giant
I am not crazy about Hemingway, but The Old Man and the Sea lives rent free in my head.
Really? A Moveable Feast and A Farewell to Arms are both so much better than the Old Man and the Sea.
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
The Brontë sisters, yessss! The tenant of the wildfell hall is underrated, but omg that book is a hidden gem and deserves more recognition!!!
Thomas Hardy.
1. The Mayor of Casterbridge: Hardy does not tell you who to like and who to dislike. He gives you full characterizations and lets the reader decide.
2. Return of the Native: Do you want to feel as if you are living in mid-nineteenth century England? This book will transport you there.
3. Tess of the D'Urbervilles; Angel is portrayed as the good guy and Alex is portrayed as the bad guy. But wait. Is that really so? Hardy is a genius.
1. Tolstoy is great and illustrates human nature including the heights (e.g. Andrei's spiritual flowering in W &P). 2. Somerset Maugham equally well illustrates human nature but usually the darker sides. Start with Razor's Edge. 3. Steinbeck's way with words is amazing: "Cannery Row...is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit a nostalgia, a dream".
That story about the gopher in Cannery Row is too relatable 😢
My top five favorite classic authors are Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird), Betty Smith (A Tree Grows In Brooklyn), Anne Frank (The Diary Of A Young Girl), Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Complete Sherlock Holmes). I just started War & Peace this week. I'm 400 pages in and really enjoying it so far.
You are my inspiration for reading classics in English. As I am Japanese native, it’s sometimes very difficult but reading the original text is very worthy
I read Anna Karenina last month ! My first Tolstoy book , and it did not disappoint!! It took me 2 months to read it ( w my job n everything ) but I enjoyed every word of it . Definitely gonna reread it !
Well done, you. I really must pick it up again.
It literally took me six months to read. But I do work 10 to 12 hours a day. My reading schedule was all over the place. Somedays I will read for 30 minutes but when I had the chance I would read for 4 to 5 hours. There was a time when I couldn’t read for about three weeks. But the story was so good that I was always able to pick up right were I left off and dive back into the story. In the end it became my all time favorite book. And I can’t wait to reread it again when I have a more balanced schedule.
I literally clicked on this thinking, "yay, I can't wait to hear Carolyn talk about Anna Karenina again". 😄 I always love to hear you talk about something you're passionate about, your joy just shines through so much, and I could listen to you gush about Anna Karenina all day, it's one of my favourites as well. ❤
One of my favourite classics authors would definitely be Thomas Hardy, I’ve read five of his novels and some of his poetry by now. Three of those novels have become all-time favourites (Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure). I might need to go on another Hardy spree soon hahaha.
1. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Brothers Karamazov and the Idiot in particular.
2. Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Death of Ivan Iljitsj, Childhood Boyhood Youth.
3. John Steinbeck - East of Eden, Cannery Row, Grapes of Wrath, Travels with Charley.
4. Alexander Pushkin - Jevgeni Onegin, short stories.
5. Oscar Wilde - Picture of Dorian Gray.
1. Victor Hugo (Les Misérables/The Last Day of a Condemned Man)
2. Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot/C&P/The Brothers Karamazov)
3. Alexander Pushkin (Eugene Onegin)
4. Leo Tolstoy (The Death of Ivan Ilyich)
5. Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
I feel like my list is always changing, except my top 2 will always be my top 2!
@@Whoever_is_here you should!! I’ve been saving The Hunchback of Notre Dame but I can’t keep putting it off
“fiction is truth retold” is such an amazing way to put it! i love steinbeck but haven’t read hemingway since highschool, i definitely need to give him another shot.
I haven’t read that many classic books but my favorites of all time are
1.) Mary Shelley (Frankenstein was my first classic I read for fun and I recently read her other book Matilda and both of those books are just life changing for me)
2.) Oscar Wilde (the picture of Dorian gray is just too good)
3.)Bram Stoker (I read Dracula for the first time last year and it was so much fun)
4.) Gaston Leroux (the phantom of the opera my beloved)
5.) William Shakespeare (I need to get more into Shakespeare but midsummer’s night dream was so good)
Yes to a Part 2. I love seeing everyone's favorites.
Carolyn, your voice is so relaxing. I went through a very hard time in my life and you helped bring me through everything just by listening to you. Thank you so so much. ❤
I agree with you about Carolyn's soothing voice and peaceful approach to talking about books. It really can be an antidote to this crazy world. I'm so happy that she helped you, @kjgerdes1111. 🥰
How incredible and how inspirational this video was, Carolyn…I couldn’t save it to my Books list fast enough! I will eagerly await part 2! I, myself, might add Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott, LM Montgomery, and Anthony Trollope to this already stellar list.📚❤️
your love for literature is contagious
I think I started reading Hemingway after watching one of your videos, and I was just like HOW HAVE I BEEN CASUALLY MISSING OUT ON THIS MY WHOLE LIFE UGHHHHH. My friends hate me now because I keep talking about Hemingway. I have no regrets. Thank you :)
Of course I agree with you about all of those authors! I recently finished that very edition of A Moveable Feast and I'm 100% certain I bought it based on your recommendation. I very much enjoyed it as well. When I think of Hemingway, I think of two things; he was the definition of a man's man, and alcohol. I would love to watch a Part 2 to this video.
Love! My top 5
1. Jane Austen - All of them
2. Lm Montgomery read Blue castle it is amazing! I love Anne too!
3. Dostoyevsky- Every book I have loved so far
4. Tolstoy- love Anna Karenina, but not as much War and Peace.
5. Emily Bronte-Wuthering Heights is just so good.
I do love Hemingway too! A Farewell to Arms is just beautiful
Loved your Top 5, Carolyn! Here's mine: 1. Marcel Proust, 2. Anton Chekhov, 3. Brontë sisters, 4. Virginia Woolf, 5. Jane Austen.
I agree with most of these, though I haven't yet read any Hemingway. IDK about my top 5 but my top 3:
3. Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
2. Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov)
1. C.S. Lewis (Till We Have Faces)
I absolutely love Till We Have Faces too! I haven't seen many people talk about it as one of their favourites though. I'm slowly reading my way through CS Lewis's entire collection of books he has published.
Yes to part 2! I will watch all the classics book lists.
You've mentioned some great books and a part 2 would be great as well. An author whose works I love is Pat Conroy. His works aren't classics yet, but I hope someday they will be. The first book of his I read was The Prince of Tides. You can read the prologue from google search. Put book after the title because it's also a movie now. I beg you to just read the prologue and let me know your thoughts. If it doesn't feel like a book you'd like, that's okay. I'd just like to hear your thoughts. 💚🦀💫
yes it was a great book :)
I love that you got me to read "Childhood" "Boyhood" and "Anna Karenina" so THANK YOU.
Two authors have only one based on my series criteria, but I put them there anyway, for as a child under ten years old reading these two stories there is nothing to compare to them in my early childhood.
Also two of them have very good stories about them.
103) "Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life" by Alex Christofi
130) "Mark Twain: A Life" by Ron Powers
Mark Twain will have you rolling in laughter and crying. As to Dostoevsky saying out loud two stories every day to who would be his future wife that were his most vulnerable and who he is as a man with "The Gambler" and "The Idiot" while she writes them for him, so he can get them done on time, I can't imagine it, nor the life she lives with him afterwards. I know one thing, she probably loved "The Idiot" and when she found a book by him years before called "The Insulted and Humiliated" it had to be her favorite book of all time.
FAVORITE AUTHORS
1st) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Insulted and Humiliated)
1) “The Insulted and Humiliated” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
19) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
30) "Demons" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
65) "My Uncle's Dream" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
80) "The Heavenly Christmas Tree" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
113) "Poor Folk" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
130) "The Gentle Spirit" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
141) "The Gambler" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
149) "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
173) "Netochka Nezvanova" (nameless nobody) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2nd) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection)
3) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy
9) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
17) “Childhood, Boyhood” by Leo Tolstoy
62) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy
91) "A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy
3rd) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons)
5) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev
11) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev
23) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev
41) "Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev
64) "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev
101) "Acia" by Ivan Turgenev
107) "The Watch" by Ivan Turgenev
132) "Rudin" by Ivan Turgenev
141) "On the Eve" by Ivan Turgenev
152) "Home of the Gentry" by Ivan Turgenev
172) "Clara Militch" by Ivan Turgenev
177) "The Inn" by Ivan Turgenev
4th) James A. Michener (Chesapeake)
12) "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener
13) "Poland" by James A. Michener
36) "Caribbean" by James A. Michener
37) "Hawaii" by James A. Michener
197) “Mexico” by James A. Michener
5th) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich)
10) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
28) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
44) "In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
78) "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: an Experiment in Literary Investigation" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
6th) C. S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew)
7) The Chronicles of Narnia - series by C. S. Lewis
42) "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis
184) "Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life" by C.S. Lewis
7th) Charlotte Brontë (Vilette)
8) "Vilette" by Charlotte Brontë -- Highest ranked book by a female author
74) "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
146) "The Professor” by Charlotte Brontë
171) "Shirley" by Charlotte Brontë
8th) J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit)
15) The Silmarillion - The Hobbit, or there and back again - The Lord of the Rings - Middle Earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien
9th) Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire)
18) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
10th) Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
24) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
43) "Emma" by Jane Austen
68) “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen
80) “Persuasion” by Jane Austen
11th) Anne Brontë (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)
22) "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Brontë
32) "The Complete Poems of Anne Bronte" by Anne Brontë
104) "Agnes Grey" by Anne Brontë
12th) Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
25) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain
58) "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain
111) "Pudd'n Head Wilson" by Mark Twain
137) "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain
179) "The Innocents Abroad" by Mark Twain
13th) Anthony Trollope (He Knew He Was Right)
59) "He Knew He Was Right" by Anthony Trollope
71) "The Warden" by Anthony Trollope
86) "The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope
101) "Can you forgive her?" by Anthony Trollope
14th) Dr. Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner (Verbal Behavior)
2) "Verbal Behavior" by Dr. B. F. Skinner
78) “Science and Human Behavior” by Dr. B. F. Skinner
15th) George Eliot (Silas Marner)
54) "Silas Marner" by George Eliot
87) "Middlemarch" by George Eliot
16th) Charles Dickens (Hard Times)
69) "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens
93) "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
17th) Thomas Hardy (Jude the Obscure)
83) "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy
110) "A Pair of Blue Eyes" by Thomas Hardy
I loved that you started the video with the Brontë Sisters, they're so special to me
I love reading classics and my top Author to get me into that was Jane Austen absolutely love her novels my two favourites would be Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion although I do actually love them all. Next author would be Charlotte Bronte with Jane Eyre Ann and Emily Bronte are ok my TBR list. Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, then Elizabeth Gaskell North and South and Louisa May Alcott with Little Women. I need to read more Classics but it's so difficult to pick which ones as they are all good ❤
Five of my most favorite classic writers would have to include in the conversation:
Tolstoy - War & Peace
Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady
Virginia Woolf - The Waves
Jane Austen - Persuasion
Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time
The Waves is my favourite VW and my favourite book of all time. Nice to see The Portrait of a Lady get a mention too!
I read ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ last year and loved it! ❤ Henry James’s writing is so good. It’s beautiful, but at the same time, it feels very current.
My Top 5 is :
1. Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
2. Tolstoy - War and Peace
3. Alexander Dumas - The count of Monte Cristo
4. George Orwell - 1984
5. John Steinbeck - East of Eden
My top 3 are Interchangeable because I can’t be forced to choose between them but they’re
Virginia Woolf: Orlando: A Biography, To the Lighthouse
Herman Melville: Moby Dick
William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury
I don’t know if I can say who my other two favorites are yet, my other favorites are Jane Eyre and The Trial (Franz Kafka) but they’re just barely below my all time favorites and I’m not sure I can say I would love everything else by them. There’s so many writers I still need to read, so I also feel it’s fair to leave the other 2 spots open for the time being.
I absolutely love Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Always a cozy read for the autumn 🍂
Oh my God ! You just gave me a mini heart attack rn. As the video was progressing towards the end, I thought, how is this possible that Anna Karenina could not make it to the list (the way you keep ranting about it). But finally 😭😭 Btw my favorite classic authors are : Bronte sisters, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Dumas, Virginia Woolf, Arthur Miller and Leo Tolstoy (obviously) loved your list 😊
I loved listening to this video. You feel about your favorite books the way I do. Beautiful work!
Great list! I think another video on this topic would be better if you followed it up my your Top 5 Underated Classic Authors, everybody knows most of the well-known ones, it's great to shine a light on some of the lesser-known ones. Personally, I've been really getting into Wilkie Collins recently. I can only speak for myself but I had never heard of him until this year and his books are terrific reading.
1. Thomas Hardy (Jude the Obscure, Life's Little Ironies)
2. George Eliot (Silas Marner, Adam Bede)
3. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence)
4. Edith Wharton (Ethan Frome, Ghost Stories of EW)
5 . Willa Cather (Death Comes for the Archbishop, My Antonia) 💚
*Do you ever include the ancient classic authors like Homer, Euripides, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, etc? That would be a fun video -- you could give a little info on the ancients, and recommend something.
My Mom has begun her true Austen journey with Northanger Abbey, which ended up being a really good starting point for her. She just finished Lady Susan, and is headed into Sense & Sensibility. She’s even made small noises about maybe reconsidering giving Emma (which is what made her unwilling to read Austen in the first place) another chance. Our Jane Austen/Anne of Green Gables reading challenge for each other has been a great success for us, as I’ve finished not only Anne of Greeb Gables (which I’ve long loved), but also Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island. I’m just waiting for Anne of Windy Poplars to come in.
Great choices of the classics! ❤
I am currently reading War and Peace. So far it is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I agree with you about Tolstoy as an author. Anna Karenina changed my life as well.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us❤ your love for Tolstoy is so inspiring ❤
I have been dying to read A Room with a View, and hearing you talk about E.M Forster with such love and passion makes me want to read it even more !
My favourite author of all times has to be Jane Austen, and just like you, my favourite novels from her are P&P and S&S ♥Like you said her work has had a huge impact on literature, and her prose is wonderful ! She manages to capture the complexity of both platonic and romantic relationships with so much humour and tenderness :)
The rest of my top five would be something like :
-Emile Zola (The Beast Within, Germinal)
-Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre, Villette)
-Virginia Woolf (Between the Acts, To the Lighthouse)
-Fyodor Dostoevksy (Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov)
Wonderful video for anyone wanting to start on classics. I've read all of these and loved them!
I do believe the Brontes are many, many steps above Henry and Hoover. Jane Eyre is surely one of the best!
Definitely agree with you on watching a jane austen adaptation first, she was my introduction to classics and having watched the p&p movie first made it so much easier
Part 2 please 🤞👏 I enjoyed Part 1 🎉
Have you ever read any Thomas Hardy or DH Lawrence? Just wondering. I always find they are forgotten when it comes to classics. I love John Steinbeck and George Orwell and Daphne du Maurier. 😊
I read Karenina, but seeing you so passionate about War and Peace Im gonna read that as well !
My favorite authors - the ones I've read multiple of their books: (I can put them in no order)
Anthony Doerr
Jonathan Safran Foerr
Markus Zusak (I just finished Bridge of Clay today, and I feel empty inside. I love those characters so much)
Amor Towles (Carolyn, if you love Tolstoy, PLEASE read A Gentleman in Moscow)
Ruta Sepetys
Well done! An erudite, passionate declaration of your faves, all of whom are great authors!
I hope you have a chance to see the fine Merchant/Ivory movie adaptations of E.M. Forster's books, A Room With A View, Maurice, and Howards End. All are beautiful and worth watching.
My own list of classic fiction authors (3 or more books) is impossible to keep to 5. Shakespeare (admittedly a dramatist rather than fiction writer), Dostoyevsky. Austen, Chekhov, Dickens, Faulkner, Joyce (not being Irish, audiobooks helped me absorb Ulysses), Virginia Woolf (who disliked Joyce's writing), maybe Balzac or Stendhal, Mishima, Calvino, Kundera, etc. My guilty pleasure is a lifelong affection for the books of JRR Tolkien.
Would definitely love a part 2!
I've just started reading Anna Karenina and 117 pages in I'm pretty certain this is the best book I will ever read. Each sentence is something to savour. So excited to read it is it's definitely a bucket list book for me.
I tried but couldn't pick just two books from each author!
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, & Far From the Madding Crowd
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice & Sense and Sensibility
Edith Wharton - The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, & Summer
Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Sundial, The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, & The Haunting of Hill House
George Eliot - Middlemarch & The Mill on the Floss
Carolyn, I hope you get the time to read EM Forsters A Passage To India. The relationship between Dr Aziz and Mr Fielding is truly touching,I think you would love it.
1. George Eliot - Middlemarch. 2. Anthony Trollope - Phineas Finn and Phineas Redux (I sort of see them as one book because they are both about the same main character). 3. Jane Austen - Mansfield Park. 4. Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace. 5. Henry James - Washington Square. As an aside, I really like Shirley by Charlotte Brontë!
I also have a beautiful box set of Jane Austen and so glad you included her. The Anne books, too, we like so many of the same books. 💜
Jane Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice, is what got me into reading classics.I Love Her! 📚Another one of my favorite authors: Leon Tolstoi; he is just stunning. And I couldn’t agree with you more, Carolyn: it is a difficult decision to make. It’s something to really give to some serious thinking to. 😅
Love, love LOVE this video. You're making me bump up Anna Karenina on my TBR to this month because your love is contagious. Thanks!
I really like Jane Austin books. I have just started Anna Karenina as my first book by Leo Tolstoy and loving it so far. I can see why you love it 😊
War and peace next
@yannick8372 I heard such good things about it. I might make it a goal for next year to read it
@@sunshinelorena You should! It's a long book but so so worth it.
I would love a Part 2 since I love classics as well. I don’t know many people who love classic literature (sadly) so I love to watch your videos! I love Jane Austen and the Brontes and would love a whole video dedicated to Jane Austen if you have time!
I’ve managed to pick up some Australian classic literature. Henry Lawson and banjo Patterson are two very famous authors that you should check out if you can :-)
My fav authors are dickens. Love a Christmas carol
I love the Brontes. I like Jane Eyre.
I love Jane Austen. I love pride and prejudice. :-)
When I think of you and classics, authors don't come to mind as much as the list of short classics you opened my world to.
Ethan From and Turn of the Screw to mention two. Can't thank you enough. Thanks for the video and happy writing!!!
If you haven't already, you should definitely check out The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery! It's a fantastic book and definitely shares many of the charming elements of the Green Gables series ❤
I’d throw in The Brothers Karamazov, Moby Dick and Don Quixote. And Middlemarch!
Thanks to the booksclub I came across a farewell to arms, I absolutely adore the book! I want to have this specific edition but I can't find it anywhere in bookstores :') I wanted to E.M Foster for so long now!! Maybe this is my sign to start with him.👀
I just love watching your videos. You inspire me to get back to serious reading. So thank you 💖
Aw I’m very glad!! My pleasure ☺️
@@CarolynMarieReads also I too love collecting different editions of my favorite books, so I’m glad I’m not the only one 🤓 Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite as well 🥰
1. Charlotte Brontë, 2. Louisa May Alcott, 3. L.M. Montgomery, 4. Tolstoy, 5. Dickens
Alcott, Burnett, Austen, Tolkien. Those are my fav. Im reading for the first time a Thomas Hardy novel and Im loving his writing but I would need to read more by him to say he is my fav writer too.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, first and favorite classic. The story and its heartbreaking ending lives in my heart and soul.
The Count of Monte Cristo, absolutely amazing!!!!!!
Crime and Punishment, about to finish it soon.
Not five but my top three. Hoping to read more from each author as I love there different works very much. I’m looking forward to a part two of this!!!
I'm currently reading crime and punishment and it's a struggle 😭
He was a MASTER of the classical tragedy.
Have you done a video about how you annotate with post-it notes? I’d love to do more of that for my book club, and I love hearing about the process others use. ❤
I think a video that might be helpful for readers is a breakdown of names, money and cultural references in Russian and French classics, particularly Russian! I have kinda got a grasp on it now after reading some Dostoevsky and Tolstoy but boy was it intimidating to get started!
P.G. Wodehouse. Widely considered one of the greatest humourist writers, but his work is light tales of the british aristocracy, Hollywood studio serfs and the occasional criminal in what are essentially romantic comedies. They aren't serious and deep enough to be considered 'penguin classic' material, but the quality of the writing is on par with the best literature: his incredible dialogue, his genius with similes, and just being laugh out loud funny - which is astonishing for work that is roughly a century old (humour usually dates badly and fades). 'Blandings Castle' is a good introduction to his work, or any of the Jeeves series.
I completely agree! Wodehouse is phenomenal
I am surprised that no one listed Dante’s Divine Comedy! I would love to do 100 days of it. My all time favorite. Next, in no particular order:
#2. Orwell’s 1984.
#3. Plato’s, The Republic ( I studied this in school)
#4. Homer’s, The Odyssey.
#5. Woolf’s, A Room of One’s Own.
If I can pick a bonus book it would be Wiesel’s, The Night Trilogy.
I’d love to see a part two!
Great list! I totally agree with everything you said about Tolstoy 😄🖤. He's my favourite, along with Jane Austen 🙌. If we're talking about authors that you've read multiple books from, I'd also add Virginia Woolf, Dostoevsky, and (I'm going to cheat a bit here because I can't decide between James Baldwin or Juan Rulfo).
Rulfo's such a great pick! Everything I've read from him is completely enthralling.
Juan Rulfo!!!!! Yesssssss
I also absolutely adore Jane Austen and E. M. Forster! My top 2 Austens would be Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, and my favourite Forster is A Passage to India. I also really like Charles Dickens, especially A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations.
I think mine would be:
1. Agatha Christie
2. P. G. Wodehouse
3. Oscar Wilde
4. Charles Dickens
5. J. R. R. Tolkien
Also picked authors from whom I've read multiple books 😊 Loads of authors I've only read one of that would be up there though!!
1. Jack London (Martin Eden, The Star Rover, The Kempton-Wace Letters, The Scarlet Plague, short stories)
2. Anton Chekhov (A Dreary Story, Ward No. 6, In the Ravine, The Seagull, short stories)
3. Franz Kafka (The Castle, The Trial, The Metamorphosis)
4. Herbert Wells (The Door in the Wall, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds)
5. Stefan Zweig (Chess, Amok, Fear, Compulsion, Downfall of the Heart)
Finally Kafka ❤😊
I would love a part 2!!! See you soon! Cheers from Brazil!
Thank you so much for being so inspiring. I am starting with Jane Eyre. Big books can be intimidating, I got stuck around page 300 of the Brothers Karamazov so dreading to start another large volume…
Bros K is tough reading. Characters represent philosophic entities--not my cup of tea!
Thank you for an inspiring video! I also love Tolstoy, but I have only read the Death of Ivan Ilyich. As for my own favorite, James Joyce.
Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, Homer and Ibsen I think 🤔 So hard to pick just five!
Honorable mention to Melville. I read Moby Dick last year and I can’t stop thinking about it. I was immidiately ready to read it again even though I had a lot on my plate so I haven’t quite yet. Otherwise it’s been good what I have read of him, but it’s really Moby Dick that stands out so honorable mention.
I don't really have an ordered list, but in no particular order: Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Virginia Woolf, Cormac McCarthy, and Raymond Carver. Maybe I'd replace Carver with Steinbeck or Borges on some days. Great list here! I still need to get around to reading Wuthering Heights.
My favorite classic authors are George Eliot and Anne Brontë 😊. I also enjoy reading Edith Wharton 😀
I love Dickens too!
If you haven't read LM Montgomery's The Blue Castle yet, I recommend picking it up! It's her only adult novel and has more of her beautiful nature descriptions
I love this question!! Here are my top faves… I’m including poets, because their work saved me. I return to each of these authors’ works when I’m struggling or am in a slump! ❤️
1) Jane Austen (fun fact, we were born on the same day!)
2) Agatha Christie
3) Mary Shelley
4) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
5) Louisa May Alcott
My honorable mentions that would definitely be in my top 10 list: John Keats, William Wordsworth, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Virginia Woolf!
I have at least one book on my shelf from all of these authors including two-thirds of your honorable mention. I’ve read Maurice and was saddened by it. I know we were supposed to read Hemingway in high school but I don’t remember if it was A Farewell to Arms or The Old Man and the Sea because I detested being forced to read and write papers on what I read. I have always liked reading for pleasure. Jane Eyre is on my fall TBR.
My top 5 classic authors would be Proust, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Joyce and Woolf. Though I do love the Brontes, Hemingway and E M Forster too.
Ahhhh so much in common! I have the same works from Austen left!
1. Jane Austen
2. E.M. Forster
3. Leo Tolstoy
4. L.M. Montgomery
5. tentatively Virginia Woolf (I'd like to have her there but I have only read 2 of her works) - I've loved 2 Charles Dickens novels (but he has sooo many I feel like I'd have to read more to know), have so many Elizabeth Gaskell on my list (only read 1), read 2 James Baldwin... so I guess this spot is up for grabs once I read more
We have the same two favorite Hemingway books. I just picked up a copy of Howards End. I haven't read it yet, but I am very much looking forward to it. I have read Aspects of the Novel, though; every writer has to.
I've read most of Austen and I think Emma is my favorite. There's a lot I admire about Northanger Abbey, but the character of Emma just feels so real in this bizarre, comical way.
I find it hard to imagine who on earth could read all of War & Peace and not declare it to be the monument that it is. Is there a better book? It's as good as a book gets. It's The Great Novel for a reason, the very reason that Moby-Dick is the Great American Novel.
I adore Jane Austen! I find that as I age, my favorite book changes. Now, in my 50s, Persuasion is the book that I adore the most. My daughter is named Emma because in my 30s that was my favorite. Pride and Prejudice was my teens. 20s was Sence and Sensibility. 40s was Mansfield Park. We'll see what my 60s bring. ❤
1. Anna Karenina
2. Dracula (yes, seriously)😅
3. Crime and Punishment.
This video was such a thoughtful take on classic literature! I liked how you managed to make complex literary themes feel approachable without losing any depth. I'm really excited to see the part 2 of this series!
By the way, have you ever read Proust’s In Search of Lost Time? It's a bit of a commitment, but I can't recommend it enough for anyone who loves diving deep into introspective narratives. I'm currently trying to get into Dostoyevsky, starting out with White Nights. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it if you've read it!
Love your videos and i agree with lots of this selection❤❤❤❤ Greetings from Argentina!
Very nice list of classic to read!
Leo Tolstoy is also my favourite author and I didn’t find his novel War and Peace hard to read at all it is just long but I was able to read it for 3-5 hours straight multiple times because it isn’t a mere story but it has a lot of life lessons. I related to no one in the novel but I related to them all at the same time, this is how Leo Tolstoy wrote and also I find that with Dostoevsky. Other books describe the scene as you can see it for Tolstoy you are in it!
Hi. Thank you for the list and also other recommendations (the honorary mention, the movie). Could you please share a link for the Montgomery collection? I’ve been trying to find the perfect collection for my daughter and seeing you hold one just seems right!
Some of my favourite classics are Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of A Justified Sinner by James Hogg, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark and Nils Holgersson by Selma Lagerloeff.
Lovely stuff, Carolyn, here are my Top 5:
Honore De Balzak
Leo Tolstoy
Henry James
Jane Austin
Ivan Turgenev
Hello Carolyn!! Totally unrelated but yesterday, I picked up Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro because of your recommendation and I’m so excited to start reading it! ❤️❤️❤️
My favorites list would start with Steinbeck, Dickens, and Dostoevsky, but then it is sort of a tie between CS Lewis, Gene Stratton Porter, Alexandre Dumas, Louisa May Alcott, Victor Hugo, and George Eliot.
Little Women or Silas Marner are probably the books I would introduce to a first time classics reader.
Aside from authors, a few favorite individual books would include Ivanhoe, Ben-Hur, Kristen Lavransdatter, and Man's Search for Meaning.
Very interesting list, I not agree with some but ok.
I would include Madame Bovarie, Brothers Karamasov, master and margarita, and much more 😆
Great video! Here are my 5 in no order: Tolstoy - Anna Karenina : Poe - all but love Annabel Lee the most : Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - her version of Frankenstein: Bram Stoker: Dracula and Louisa May Alcott - Little Women! honorable mention a modern classic Daphne Du Maurier - The Birds ( and of course Rebecca!)
1. Cervantes - Don Quijote, Exemplary Novels, and his short plays are all works of genius.
2. Dostoevsky- Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, White Nights
3. The Arabian Nights- probably my favorite collection of stories ever.
4. Franz Kafka - all of his short stories should be required reading.
5. George Orwell - 1984, Down and Out in Paris and London