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Feel free to recommend a classic book in this discussion for other group members.

I would like to recommend The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

Hi, this is a great idea! Another classic I found deeply moving and un-put-downable was The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, in fact anything by McCullers has her trademark stamp of piercing authenticity mixed with pathos and empathy. My favourite American writer, highly recommended. Since joining the group I have been trying to decide which classic I will choose for the closing of 2012 and I'm glad to get ideas from here - thinking of your Hemingway recommendation but also have The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy on my Kindle, unread as yet so maybe start with that. Happy reading :)

If anyone wants to follow along with my AP class, we're reading (in this order): Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Oedipus Rex, Othello, The Importance of Being Earnest, Henry IV Part 1, English Romantic Poetry an Anthology, Robert Frost Collected Poems, Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Great American Short Stories.

After just finishing The Last Man by Mary Shelley, I remembered that I had recently read The Scarlet Plague by Jack London. It paints a bleak picture of a segregated society, but at 57 pages it is far more interesting and accessible than The Last Man.

Beowulf, the first epic in english language is worth a read.

The Count of Monte Cristo. A long epic dramatic book on love, betrayal, and revenge.

Kunal, Beowulf is my favorite book of all time (good suggestion). I enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo as well.

I'm a huge fan of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment ranks among my all time favorites.

I would like to suggest...

I, too, love Dostoyevski. Good choice!

If you like reading nothing but SF (tempting sometimes!!), this is a cool site dedicated to the SF Masterworks series:



The covers are beautiful, but I read 'em for the text!

After reading Landmarks In Russian Literature 1910 and noting how extensively the author recommended Dostoevsky.. seemingly anything by Dostoevsky and having it recommended again here, I suppose I'll have to check him out. As for my recommendation, I'd recommend The Sound and the Fury. Some people I've talked to have been ambivalent about it, at best, but I really liked it. It's worth a read if only for the really unique structure and style.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens is one of my favorite books ... probably in my top 5.

Martha wrote: "Bleak House by Charles Dickens is one of my favorite books ... probably in my top 5."

<3 One of my favourites as well!

Everyone should try Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. it is not an easy read, but well worth it. The greatest American novel, ever. Yes I actually said that.

Papaphilly wrote: "Everyone should try Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. it is not an easy read, but well worth it. The greatest American novel, ever. Yes I actually said that."

Moby Dick is my favorite book of all time ... I agree. It's like people are insulting my religion when they describe how much they hate it. :-)

I have to recommend Dracula by Bram Stoker. Vampire stories are the bottom of the barrel, for me, so I was very, very surprised at the symmetry of the symbolism of blood and atonement in the book. And since it is an epistolary novel, the Victorian raptures didn't irritate me as much as I imagined they would - I could just accept them on the character's own terms, and enjoy them as such.

Just finished 'My Name is Red'


Frighteningly true (though I found some instances silly), that age-old debate between choosing modernity or sticking with tradition or taking each along for the ride gets an Islamic re-tuning where miniaturists find a murderer in their midst and everyone is confused between religion's place in the world of art and art's place in the world of religion. Intricate descriptive work by Orhan Pamuk (nobel recipient). Depicts sad, nostalgic decline. My favorite characters in the whole book were the master miniaturist (Enishte Effendi, the guy who wants to do one last great book imbibing the values of European and Islamic art for the sake of achieving a new art form) and Esther (the Jewish clothier/ gossip monger / mail woman).

Not one to be missed / skipped.

Noorilhuda wrote: "Just finished 'My Name is Red'
... Not one to be missed / skipped. "

I loved this book! After I read it, I bought all other volumes by Orhan Pamuk my Borders bookshop carried.

Have you read Northanger Abbey? July 18 2017 marks the bicentennial of Jane Austen's Death.

I would recommend. the Great Gatsby. It is a classic with a very important theme. Its about a fake illusion that is depicted by wealth, but it does not stand a chance against relationships.