Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

100 classics

Ash
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2475
Joined: August 2008
Location: Arizona, USA

Post by Ash » Sat September 5th, 2009, 2:40 am

Those are all classic? While I agree that Time Travler's Wife is a good book, I'd hardly rate it as a book which stands the test of time, my definition of classic. Also, how can you put all of Shakespeare as one read? Not all of his work is that worthy. Very strange list. Many of these seem like most popular reads, rather than exemplary literature. Who out it together? (FWIW I read 70 - didn't include Shakespeare, if I did, probably add 10)

Sharz
Reader
Posts: 249
Joined: October 2009
Location: Chicago

Post by Sharz » Fri January 15th, 2010, 7:12 pm

I'm with those who say not all of these belong in the classics category. While I'm reluctant to draw a hard line on exactly how old a book must be to be considered classic, anything less than 20 years is absurd.

User avatar
Kveto from Prague
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 921
Joined: September 2008
Location: Prague, Bohemia

Post by Kveto from Prague » Fri January 15th, 2010, 9:31 pm

I dont know whomade the list. maybe calling it 100 classics was a mistake.

ok books i'd add to the list (some ive read and some i havent)

"the Joke" milan Kundera

"Orlando Furioso" Aristo

"blood wedding" Federico Garcia Lorca

"the sorrows of young werther" Goethe

"Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka

"Tropic of Cancer" Henry Miller

"Persepolis" Marjane satrapi

"Beowulf"

"The song of El Cid"

"The Nibelungenlied"

"the song of Roland" Pulci

"the red badge of courage" Stephen crane

the castle of Otranto" Horace Walpole

"Communist Manifesto" Karl Marx

""the overcoat" Nikolai Gogol

"Demian" herman Hesse

"war of the worlds" H G Wells

"lolita" Nabakov

"39 steps" John Buchan



not saying these are books i liked (the castle of Otranto was particularly disappointing). these just feel like ones I feel I "should" read for whatever reason.

User avatar
red805
Avid Reader
Posts: 303
Joined: August 2008
Preferred HF: I like a series the best - more to look forward to after one book ends. Masters of Rome, The Century Trilogy, & the Outlander series are some of my favorites.
Location: Southern California

Post by red805 » Sat January 16th, 2010, 12:15 am

Boy, I have a long way to go with this list. Have only read 17 of these, with 5 on my TBR towering stack. Interestingly, 13 of the 17 I read for fun. Only read 4 in school - Charlotte's Web in 5th grade & the 2 Orwells & The Great Gatsby in high school. If I didn't feel behind in my reading before, I sure do now ;)

User avatar
Nefret
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2994
Joined: February 2009
Favourite HF book: Welsh Princes trilogy
Preferred HF: The Middle Ages (England), New Kingdom Egypt, Medieval France
Location: Temple of Isis

Post by Nefret » Sat January 16th, 2010, 3:52 am

Colour key:

Blue- have read
Purple- Want to read/ MT. TBR
Green- Will read someday (from library)
Red- Likely won't read
Black- not sure


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma-Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (X)
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Last edited by Nefret on Thu July 26th, 2012, 11:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Leo62
Bibliophile
Posts: 1027
Joined: December 2008
Location: London
Contact:

Post by Leo62 » Sat January 16th, 2010, 7:35 pm

I was surprised to find I'd read a good sixty-odd of the hundred. I agree some of the recent inclusions (and omissions) are questionable, not to say plain weird...but I guess these lists are always going to be subjective.

These are the ones I haven't read:

6 The Bible - Nope, none of it.

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - Not all the plays, but then who has?

Will get round to sometime:
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X

Got halfway through and gave up:
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (X)
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (X)

Tried and just didn't do it for me:
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov X

Way too late for me to bother :D :
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X

Not interested - would have to be heavily persuaded to try:
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
listen:there's a hell
of a good universe next door;let's go
ee cummings

User avatar
Madeleine
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 5859
Joined: August 2008
Currently reading: "The Whitstable Pearl Mystery" by Julie Wassmer
Preferred HF: Plantagenets, Victorian, crime, dual time-frame
Location: Essex/London

Post by Madeleine » Sun January 17th, 2010, 9:02 pm

I suppose they have to include more up to date ie trendy books, but couldn't they have picked something better than Da Vinci Code and Bridget Jones' Diary???
Currently reading "The Whitstable Pearl Mystery" by Julie Wassmer

User avatar
Nefret
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2994
Joined: February 2009
Favourite HF book: Welsh Princes trilogy
Preferred HF: The Middle Ages (England), New Kingdom Egypt, Medieval France
Location: Temple of Isis

Post by Nefret » Wed April 21st, 2010, 1:36 am

Updated list...

Colour key:

Blue- have read
Purple- Want to read/ MT. TBR
Green- Going to read... eventually
Red- Likely won't read
Black- not sure


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma-Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (X)
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Into battle we ride with Gods by our side
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}

chuck
Bibliophile
Posts: 1073
Joined: August 2008
Location: Ciinaminson NJ

Post by chuck » Wed April 21st, 2010, 4:06 am

Read a few of the Classics...but not by choice....Mostly College English Literature classes.....much to arbitrary for my taste......but their are definitely some of them I agree with and read them with pleasure i.e. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", LOTR...Catcher In The Rye" "Catch 22", "On The Road".....

dee
Scribbler
Posts: 9
Joined: March 2010
Location: Pretoria, South Africa

Post by dee » Wed April 21st, 2010, 8:25 am

How on earth did Bridget Jones' Diary get on this list? It was an entertaining movie, but far from a must-read book.

(It is actually surprising they didn't include the Twilight series, seeing as they focused on more modern books as well. :) )

Post Reply

Return to “Classics”