Classics-I-Have-Not-Read - A Challenge Continued in 2021, by fuzzi
Conversazioni75 Books Challenge for 2021
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1fuzzi
Back in 2018 I decided that I wanted to read "classics" (mostly 19th Century and prior) that I had skipped over in my youth.
I've been working on reading classics since, with limited success. Last year, in 2020, I only read two, The Oregon Trail and The Song of Hiawatha.
But I'm determined to get a few more "off the shelves".
From the last two year's list of books garnered from my own "TBR" list, and suggestions by other LT'ers as "classics", here is my go-to list for 2021:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia by Philip Sidney
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
Nicholas Nickerby by Charles Dickens (note: I'm having a difficult time finding this in easy-to-read print, and I don't like reading ebooks)
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
*****
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Read in 2020
*****
Not originally written in English (for those who want a BIG challenge, thanks to harrygbutler for these)
Daphnis and Chloe by Longus
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Boiardo
Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso
Care to join me as I give it another try in 2021?
Have some suggestions?
Let's GO!!!!
3kac522
I'm here for 2021.
I found this "Classics Challenge" on Birgit's thread, who copied it from Leslie's thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/326386
I'm all in for this challenge!! There are no specific time limitations, but since there are 12 challenges, it will fit nicely for once-a-month.
All books MUST have been published at least 50 years ago to qualify (so for this year, published in 1971 or earlier). The only exception is books written at least 50 years ago, but published later, such as posthumous publications.
1. A 19th century classic - any book published between 1800 and 1899.
2. A 20th century classic - any book published between 1900 and 1971.
3. A classic by a woman author.
4. A classic in translation. Any book originally written published in a language other than your native language. Feel free to read the book in your language or the original language. (You can also read books in translation for any of the other categories). Modern translations are acceptable as long as the original work fits the guidelines for publications as explained in the challenge rules.
5. A children's classic. Indulge your inner child and read that classic that you somehow missed years ago. Short stories are fine, but it must be a complete volume. Young adult and picture books don't count!
6. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction. This can be a true crime story, mystery, detective novel, spy novel, etc., as long as a crime is an integral part of the story and it was published at least 50 years ago. Examples include The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, In Cold Blood, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, etc. The Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones list is an excellent source for suggestions.
7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction. The journey itself must be the major plot point -- not just the destination. Good examples include The Hobbit, Around the World in 80 Days, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Kon-Tiki, Travels with Charley, etc.
8. A classic with a single-word title. No articles please! Proper names are fine -- Emma, Germinal, Middlemarch, Kidnapped, etc.
9. A classic with a color in the title. The Woman in White; Anne of Green Gables; The Red and the Black, and so on. (Silver, gold, etc. are acceptable. Basically, if it's a color in a Crayola box of crayons, it's fine!)
10. A classic by an author that's new to you. Choose an author you've never read before.
11. A classic that scares you. Is there a classic you've been putting off forever? A really long book which intimidates you because of its sheer length? Now's the time to read it, and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised!
12. Re-read a favorite classic.
I have all kinds of ideas for this Challenge, considering that probably 90% of my TBR shelf is from before 1950. It will be a great motivator for me to read more classics.
I found this "Classics Challenge" on Birgit's thread, who copied it from Leslie's thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/326386
I'm all in for this challenge!! There are no specific time limitations, but since there are 12 challenges, it will fit nicely for once-a-month.
All books MUST have been published at least 50 years ago to qualify (so for this year, published in 1971 or earlier). The only exception is books written at least 50 years ago, but published later, such as posthumous publications.
1. A 19th century classic - any book published between 1800 and 1899.
2. A 20th century classic - any book published between 1900 and 1971.
3. A classic by a woman author.
4. A classic in translation. Any book originally written published in a language other than your native language. Feel free to read the book in your language or the original language. (You can also read books in translation for any of the other categories). Modern translations are acceptable as long as the original work fits the guidelines for publications as explained in the challenge rules.
5. A children's classic. Indulge your inner child and read that classic that you somehow missed years ago. Short stories are fine, but it must be a complete volume. Young adult and picture books don't count!
6. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction. This can be a true crime story, mystery, detective novel, spy novel, etc., as long as a crime is an integral part of the story and it was published at least 50 years ago. Examples include The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, In Cold Blood, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, etc. The Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones list is an excellent source for suggestions.
7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction. The journey itself must be the major plot point -- not just the destination. Good examples include The Hobbit, Around the World in 80 Days, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Kon-Tiki, Travels with Charley, etc.
8. A classic with a single-word title. No articles please! Proper names are fine -- Emma, Germinal, Middlemarch, Kidnapped, etc.
9. A classic with a color in the title. The Woman in White; Anne of Green Gables; The Red and the Black, and so on. (Silver, gold, etc. are acceptable. Basically, if it's a color in a Crayola box of crayons, it's fine!)
10. A classic by an author that's new to you. Choose an author you've never read before.
11. A classic that scares you. Is there a classic you've been putting off forever? A really long book which intimidates you because of its sheer length? Now's the time to read it, and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised!
12. Re-read a favorite classic.
I have all kinds of ideas for this Challenge, considering that probably 90% of my TBR shelf is from before 1950. It will be a great motivator for me to read more classics.
4fuzzi
>3 kac522: I might borrow some of those...
5fuzzi
>2 drneutron: I keep meaning to read it, haven't even found a copy yet.
6scaifea
>2 drneutron: >5 fuzzi: Oh, Don Quixote is an absolute blast! I was really surprised at how funny it was. I recommend, if you have get your hands on one, an edition with Gustave Doré's illustrations.
Also, I have to tell you: I used to be part of a group that met weekly to translate Orlando Furioso aloud to each other. We'd go round the room taking turns and helping each other out with the grammar; the host would provide tea and I brought cookies. This was when I was at Kenyon College and it was a group of faculty members from various departments, all of us dear friends and the meetings were very low-key and all for fun. The host was a retired member of my own department, and - wait for it - he published a definitive book on Longus's Daphnis and Chloe!
Also, I have to tell you: I used to be part of a group that met weekly to translate Orlando Furioso aloud to each other. We'd go round the room taking turns and helping each other out with the grammar; the host would provide tea and I brought cookies. This was when I was at Kenyon College and it was a group of faculty members from various departments, all of us dear friends and the meetings were very low-key and all for fun. The host was a retired member of my own department, and - wait for it - he published a definitive book on Longus's Daphnis and Chloe!
7thornton37814
Enjoy those classics!
8EllaTim
>3 kac522: I like that. Might try it, or a few of them.
9madhatter22
I'm determined to get to The Forsyte Saga this year. Although I think I've said that every January 1st for at least the last 5 years.
I'd also like to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, either David Copperfield or Bleak House, Jude the Obscure or Far From the Madding Crowd and Gulliver's Travels. (I actually read the first 2 parts of Gulliver's Travels years ago and loved it, but since that was enough to write the paper I needed to write, I got lazy and skipped the last two parts. :D )
I'd also like to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, either David Copperfield or Bleak House, Jude the Obscure or Far From the Madding Crowd and Gulliver's Travels. (I actually read the first 2 parts of Gulliver's Travels years ago and loved it, but since that was enough to write the paper I needed to write, I got lazy and skipped the last two parts. :D )
10fuzzi
>9 madhatter22: if I can find a paper copy of either The Tenant of Wildfell Hall or Gulliver's Travels then I'd be interested in a shared read with you. Or anyone.
I just don't like ebooks.
I just don't like ebooks.
11madhatter22
>10 fuzzi: I don't do ebooks either. I'll do audio if I'm driving, but otherwise I find paper books more satisfying in so many ways.
I have no schedule for reading any of the classics I hope to read this year so just let me know if you find copies and want to fit them in. :)
I have no schedule for reading any of the classics I hope to read this year so just let me know if you find copies and want to fit them in. :)
12justchris
Pulling from my TBR box are a collection of Dickens books from friends who moved away years ago and wanted to lighten their load literally: Bleak House, Martin Chuzzlewit, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, and The Pickwick Papers. I also got Great Expectations, but since I read that in school, it's not in my TBR box.
Other classics in the box: The Picture of Dorian Gray by the inimitable Oscar Wilde, Pudd'nhead Wilson by the iconic Mark Twain, and The Age of Innocence by the illustrious Edith Wharton.
My goal is to read at least one of these this year. Hopefully more.
Other classics in the box: The Picture of Dorian Gray by the inimitable Oscar Wilde, Pudd'nhead Wilson by the iconic Mark Twain, and The Age of Innocence by the illustrious Edith Wharton.
My goal is to read at least one of these this year. Hopefully more.
13fuzzi
>12 justchris: how nice!
I've also read Great Expectations. I have been unable to find a decent "large enough" print paper copy of Nicholas Nickleby. Once I do, I plan to read it.
I've also read Great Expectations. I have been unable to find a decent "large enough" print paper copy of Nicholas Nickleby. Once I do, I plan to read it.
14kac522
So far this month I've read:
--Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett; OK, but not as good as The Secret Garden
--Lanterns & Lances, essays by James Thurber (1961); classic humor and the last collection published before Thurber's death.
Currently listening to: Little Dorrit, Dickens, read by Simon Vance, which will take me at least into February, maybe March.
--Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett; OK, but not as good as The Secret Garden
--Lanterns & Lances, essays by James Thurber (1961); classic humor and the last collection published before Thurber's death.
Currently listening to: Little Dorrit, Dickens, read by Simon Vance, which will take me at least into February, maybe March.
16kac522
Finished two more:
--Tales from Shakespeare, Charles & Mary Lamb (1807). A "children's" classic of simple synopses of the plays. I did not find these re-tellings engaging at all or that they would be enjoyed by children; I forced myself to finish the book.
followed by:
--Shakespeare's The Tempest (1610). This was a re-read, but I barely remembered any of it, except the "Harpy." I did enjoy this reading and also appreciated the afterword essay in my Folger paperback edition, which drew parallels between the play and the beginnings of European colonizations of distant lands and peoples happening in Shakespeare's time.
Both of these books are in preparation for my next read, Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (2016), which is part of the Hogarth series of Shakespeare re-tellings. I'm curious to see what Atwood does with The Tempest story, and I hope to start her book tomorrow.
--Tales from Shakespeare, Charles & Mary Lamb (1807). A "children's" classic of simple synopses of the plays. I did not find these re-tellings engaging at all or that they would be enjoyed by children; I forced myself to finish the book.
followed by:
--Shakespeare's The Tempest (1610). This was a re-read, but I barely remembered any of it, except the "Harpy." I did enjoy this reading and also appreciated the afterword essay in my Folger paperback edition, which drew parallels between the play and the beginnings of European colonizations of distant lands and peoples happening in Shakespeare's time.
Both of these books are in preparation for my next read, Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (2016), which is part of the Hogarth series of Shakespeare re-tellings. I'm curious to see what Atwood does with The Tempest story, and I hope to start her book tomorrow.
17fuzzi
>16 kac522: if you can find a copy, I'd recommend Tad Williams' retelling of The Tempest: Caliban's Hour.
18kac522
>17 fuzzi: OK, thanks.
19kac522
Been a bit quiet around here, so I thought I would update the classics I've read since January. They are a combination of traditional classics and modern classics:
February:
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith (1948); classic coming-of-age story
Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie (1934); one of her best
Where Angels Fear to Tread, E. M Forster (1905); set in Italy, one of Forster's earliest novels
The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan (1915); one of the earliest spy novels
March:
Olive, Dinah Mulock Craik (1850); one of the first novels to portray a heroine with a disability
Begin Again, Ursula Orange (1936); twenty-somethings find themselves in 1920's England
The Way Things Are, E. M. Delafield (1927); an early novel by the author of Diary of a Provincial Lady
Tom Tiddler's Ground, Ursula Orange (1941); London evacuees come to a small village
April:
Miss Mackenzie, Anthony Trollope (1865); a thirty-something spinster suddenly has 3 suitors
My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin (1901); coming of age in 1890s Australian outback
My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier (1951); classic thriller
May:
The Touchstone, Edith Wharton (1900); novella concerning a moral decision
Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, Elizabeth von Arnim (1907); a one-sided love story through letters
A Room with a View, E. M. Forster (1908); social comedy of English travelers in Italy
Jenny, Sigrid Undset (1911); translated from Norwegian; a young Norwegian artist goes to Italy, but struggles to practice her art and live an independent life as a woman
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson (1919); life in small-town middle America in the 1890s
The Crowded Street, Winifred Holtby (1927); coming of age in a small Yorkshire village circa 1900-1920
William, E. H. Young (1925); family dynamics in pre-WWI Bristol, England
Death in the Air, Agatha Christie (1935); murder on an early passenger airplane
June:
The Belton Estate, Anthony Trollope (1866); a young woman is left homeless and penniless due to an entail
The Romance of a Shop, Amy Levy (1888); four sisters open a photography shop in London after the death of their father leaves them nearly destitute
Shirley, Charlotte Bronte (1849); classic Yorkshire tale of the clash between classes and gender
Classics I've re-read this year include:
Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857)
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813)
Adam Bede, George Eliot (1859)
Silas Marner, George Eliot (1861)
Currently reading:
Salem Chapel, Margaret Oliphant (1863); a new minister comes to the small village of Carlingford
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens (1865), re-read on audiobook
February:
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith (1948); classic coming-of-age story
Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie (1934); one of her best
Where Angels Fear to Tread, E. M Forster (1905); set in Italy, one of Forster's earliest novels
The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan (1915); one of the earliest spy novels
March:
Olive, Dinah Mulock Craik (1850); one of the first novels to portray a heroine with a disability
Begin Again, Ursula Orange (1936); twenty-somethings find themselves in 1920's England
The Way Things Are, E. M. Delafield (1927); an early novel by the author of Diary of a Provincial Lady
Tom Tiddler's Ground, Ursula Orange (1941); London evacuees come to a small village
April:
Miss Mackenzie, Anthony Trollope (1865); a thirty-something spinster suddenly has 3 suitors
My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin (1901); coming of age in 1890s Australian outback
My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier (1951); classic thriller
May:
The Touchstone, Edith Wharton (1900); novella concerning a moral decision
Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, Elizabeth von Arnim (1907); a one-sided love story through letters
A Room with a View, E. M. Forster (1908); social comedy of English travelers in Italy
Jenny, Sigrid Undset (1911); translated from Norwegian; a young Norwegian artist goes to Italy, but struggles to practice her art and live an independent life as a woman
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson (1919); life in small-town middle America in the 1890s
The Crowded Street, Winifred Holtby (1927); coming of age in a small Yorkshire village circa 1900-1920
William, E. H. Young (1925); family dynamics in pre-WWI Bristol, England
Death in the Air, Agatha Christie (1935); murder on an early passenger airplane
June:
The Belton Estate, Anthony Trollope (1866); a young woman is left homeless and penniless due to an entail
The Romance of a Shop, Amy Levy (1888); four sisters open a photography shop in London after the death of their father leaves them nearly destitute
Shirley, Charlotte Bronte (1849); classic Yorkshire tale of the clash between classes and gender
Classics I've re-read this year include:
Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857)
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813)
Adam Bede, George Eliot (1859)
Silas Marner, George Eliot (1861)
Currently reading:
Salem Chapel, Margaret Oliphant (1863); a new minister comes to the small village of Carlingford
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens (1865), re-read on audiobook
20fuzzi
>19 kac522: wow, you have been busy!
Adam Bede is on my radar, and The Thirty-nine Steps is on my "recommended to me" list. Real Life has seriously curtailed my reading this year. 🙁
Adam Bede is on my radar, and The Thirty-nine Steps is on my "recommended to me" list. Real Life has seriously curtailed my reading this year. 🙁
21kac522
>20 fuzzi: Yep, been reading a lot. One thing that sparked my reading was a Challenge in May which I found on booktube (people who upload videos on youtube about their reading). It was a 1900-1950 Challenge--read a book from each decade, plus 5 other challenges (author from your country, author not from your country, classic in its genre, genre other than novel, book about WWI or WWII). I think I read 13 books for that challenge, so that helped a lot. And this month in the 75ers British Author Challenge is Victorian era, my favorite era, so am reading a lot for that, too.
The 39 steps was for my RL book club, and it is really good--and not long--very different from the Hitchcock movie, by the way--Hitchcock took a lot of liberties with the story.
Adam Bede was OK; I liked Silas Marner better--shorter and more like a fable or fairy tale. I am trying to read (or re-read) all of Eliot's works this year, so next of is The Mill on the Floss.
The 39 steps was for my RL book club, and it is really good--and not long--very different from the Hitchcock movie, by the way--Hitchcock took a lot of liberties with the story.
Adam Bede was OK; I liked Silas Marner better--shorter and more like a fable or fairy tale. I am trying to read (or re-read) all of Eliot's works this year, so next of is The Mill on the Floss.
22fuzzi
>21 kac522: I've read Silas Marner, twice. And I loved Middlemarch. Those are the only two books by Eliot that I've read.
23kac522
>22 fuzzi: If you like those two, you would like Daniel Deronda. It's a favorite, along with Silas Marner and Middlemarch.
I have 2 Eliot novels left to read that I haven't read: Romola and Felix Holt, the Radical. I'm a little apprehensive about both, but hope to get them done this year. I did read but don't remember much about The Mill on the Floss, which is not a good sign, but plan to re-read it next month or possibly August.
I have 2 Eliot novels left to read that I haven't read: Romola and Felix Holt, the Radical. I'm a little apprehensive about both, but hope to get them done this year. I did read but don't remember much about The Mill on the Floss, which is not a good sign, but plan to re-read it next month or possibly August.
24fuzzi
>23 kac522: thanks for the recommendation. I hope to get "on track" soon.
