Top Ten Classics
“Classics” can be tough to get through. The writing can be weird and hard to understand and the behavior can feel irrational when the society is so foreign. Once you get a taste for them, there’s nothing quite like them. This is a list of mostly English Classics. I’m slowly getting more classics form other countries and backgrounds and will probably have other lists devoted to those. There is no real ranking but these are the ones that make me feel the hardest.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Quote
“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
Summary
‘There is no harm in a man’s cub.’ Best known for the ‘Mowgli’ stories, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book expertly interweaves myth, morals, adventure and powerful story-telling. Set in Central India, Mowgli is raised by a pack of wolves. Along the way he encounters memorable characters such as the foreboding tiger Shere Kahn, Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear. Including other stories such as that of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a heroic mongoose and Toomai, a young elephant handler, Kipling’s fables remain as popular today as they ever were.
Why I like It
I grew up with the Disney version as one of my favorite movies but I didn’t read the book until I was in my twenties. It was more of a collection of stories than the movie led on and they served as fables to teach moral lessons. It was a quick read and Kipling has a magical way with storytelling.
Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
Quote
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
Summary
Four sisters, tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War. Based on her own life, Alcott shows explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.
Why I like It
At the risk of sounding like a broken record I grew up with a cartoon version of Tales of Little Women animated by Nippon Studios in 1987. I’d watched other versions but only just read the book as an adult. It was charming and dramatic, and Jo was refreshing. We are surrounded by the “strong female protagonist” nowadays, it’s hard to appreciate what they represented to a different era. Jo was a hero of mine from childhood.
The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
Quote
“In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop… There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white”
Summary
The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright’s eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his ‘charming’ friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.
Why I like It
This one I probably would have never picked this up on my own but, luckily I took a class that was looking at the history of the novel and this one was one of the first. A mystery that deserves more appreciation, it’s one of the first novels to cause the “reading sensation” that survives to this day.
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Quote
“Alice thought to herself “I don’t see how he can ever finish, if he doesn’t begin.”
Summary
After a tumble down the rabbit hole, Alice finds herself far away from home in the absurd world of Wonderland. As mind-bending as it is delightful, Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel is pure magic for young and old alike.
Why I like It
Disney once again was my first experience, but lord knows I couldn’t avoid it growing up. Alice is just one of those stories people love reimagining. Carroll has a way with word play that gives the tale a whimsical surreal twist. Definitely worth the hype.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Quote
“A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.”
Summary
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.
Why I like It
This one showed up later in my timeline and it is probably more Netflix’s fault that anything, that and Richard Armitage. The mini series was awesome and the book was just as good. It blends social issues with personal and the characters sell the whole bit.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Quote
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
Summary
Frankenstein tells the story of gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein who succeeds in giving life to a being of his own creation. However, this is not the perfect specimen he imagines that it will be, but rather a hideous creature who is rejected by Victor and mankind in general.
Why i like it
High school required reading but one of those I didn’t think I would like as much as I did. The gothic horror was more nuanced and tragic than Hollywood lends you to believe. To be fair the only real exposure I had to Frankenstein was the movie Young Frankenstein so you know.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Quote
“Then you compared a woman’s love to Hell,
To barren land where water will not dwell,
And you compared it to a quenchless fire,
The more it burns the more is its desire
To burn up everything that burnt can be.
You say that just as worms destroy a tree
A wife destroys her husband and contrives,
As husbands know, the ruin of their lives. ”
Summary
A group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury Cathedral compete in a storytelling contest. This overarching plot, or frame, provides a reason for the pilgrims to tell their stories, which reflect the concerns sparked by the social upheavals of late medieval England.
Why I like it
I’m a sucker for anything with a big cast of characters and a mix of stories and the poetry of the prose was just downright delightful. High school again had a bit of influence since we had a fun creative writing project around it. Also A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger is just magical.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Quote
“Despair has its own calms.”
Summary
In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the ‘Master’ and his imminent arrival.
Why i like it
Dracula is probably one of my favorite books of all time. I had a pop culture section to a high school class and I was lucky enough to be in high school when Twilight came out. I chose Dracula to “understand the source material.” Mostly it was on my TBR and I was in the mood. Talk about underestimating though. I didn’t think it would be worth all the hype but thankfully, I was completely wrong. The imagery described can go from bland to skin-crawling in a matter of moments.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Quote
“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
Summary
Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.
But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?
Why i like it
One of the best classes I ever took was all focused on Jane Eyre. I didn’t know what to expect because classics could go one of two ways for me then, the best or the worst. Jane Eyre went the way of the best. The writing is accessible and descriptive. Jane herself is one the best female leads even to this day. Throw in the gothic mystery and you have yourself a masterpiece.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Quote
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
Summary
Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
Why I like it
Shock. Surprise. Pride and Prejudice is mentioned often for a reason. It’s clever and funny, dramatic and romantic. All the different adaptations have their own charms and you can always feel the love and care behind the making. It still is one of the few books I feel compelled to reread on a regular basis.
