Classics
Classics can be intimidating. They sit in their section in the bookshop/library/charity shop and you don't know if you're wise enough to approach them. However, over the last few years, I have endeavoured to tame these wordy monsters and make my way through them. Being brought up in a house full of books and BBC adaptations, it was inevitable I was going to pick up a classic one day, although it can be daunting choosing where to start. Hopefully, by sharing my adventures in the land of classics and a couple of tips, you might be able to give them a go too.
Classics Journey
My journey into classics started when I was around 14 years old. For an English class, I had to read a book, preferably a classic and give a presentation on my book of choice. I went for "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, being familiar with the story from a young age having watched the BBC adaptation. I didn't touch a classic again until I was 17, I was too busy with YA to give the classics a go again. Then, in Upper Sixth, for my coursework, we looked at gothic novels, including "Frankenstein" as our main text. I must have been somewhat inspired to pick up a gothic book as I picked up "Jane Eyre". Again, I was familiar with the story from a young age, having watched the BBC adaptation with my Mum. I was obsessed with the novel after I finished it, I read it again straight away. To this day it is probably my most favourite book, very few books have come close.
After "Jane Eyre", I read classics sporadically, "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens and "Dracula" by Bram Stoker were the only two that I could remember reading in 2015. I didn't pick up another classic until 2016. If you've read my reading slumps post, then you'll know I experienced a large reading slump in late 2015/early 2016. It was after watching, you guessed it, another BBC adaptation that I gave "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy a go. A veritable brick of a book, it was no quick read and there was a lot to keep track of with a huge cast of characters. Later on that year, I went on to read "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy, it was good, although I much preferred "War and Peace".
I didn't pick up many classics again until late 2018 when I discovered lucythereaders's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/bumblingbibliophile) and her love for Thomas Hardy and the Bronte's. This led me to pick up "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte and "Far from the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy and I loved them both. For the past few months, I have read several more classics, from Bronte to Fitzgerald to Hardy to Austen. Poetry has been playing a larger role in my reading, I read the book of poems published by the Bronte sisters and "The Complete Poems" by Emily Bronte. I've amassed many more classics in my book collection and I hope to get to them all one day, or at least most of them. I finally got to Dostoyevsky this year, I've been meaning to read his book since A-Level and I'm so glad I did.
Tips for classics
My main tips for classics would be:
-Start off small then work your way up: "don't run before you can walk" was the case with me for classics. Starting off with the shorter classics, such as "The Great Gatsby" can help build your reading strength and stamina so that you can eventually tackle the larger works.
- Watching adaptations when you can: this might be a controversial one if you prefer to read a book before the movie. For me, I find with some classics that I need to watch an adaptation first, particularly with larger casts of characters. Some classics I have managed to read without watching an adaptation first, other like "War and Peace" and "The Wretched" I think I would have struggled to read without watching adaptations first. Sometimes an adaptation can inspire you to pick up a classic you never thought of trying before, I would never have read "The Wretched" if I hadn't watched it first.
-Shop around: charity shops, libraries and Amazon are your new best friends. Classics can be fairly cheap to pick up, indeed some are even free on the Amazon store, and the library is also a great resource for picking up classics too, with many to peruse and they're free too! Charity shops are also a good place to hunt for classics, they often have them quite cheap, I once picked up "The Idiot" by Dostoyevsky for 10 pence in one. You can drop on some really nice older copies of classics for fairly cheap and the money you spend is going to a good cause as well.
Classics recommendations
If I was going to recommend classics to start with, these would be my some of my top picks:
- "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte: obviously this one was going to feature in this list. One of the easier classics to read with very few wordy passages to trawl through. It is one of those books that you can really sink your teeth into and the literary theory surrounding the novels is also very interesting if you're into that. If you enjoy this one, then I'd recommend trying the works of the other two Bronte sisters. "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Bronte are outstanding books and "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, whilst it can be confusing at first, is worth persevering through.
- "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald: one of the shorter classics and is written in a way that makes it very easy to understand. In the same way as "Jane Eyre", there is a lot to unpack with this novel, the deeper you want to go with the text, the more rewarding it becomes.
- "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare: Shakespeare is probably more daunting to me than some of the Russian doorstoppers that I have on my shelves. The language feels so unfamiliar and yet we can understand the beauty behind the words. "Romeo and Juliet" is probably the best starting point with Shakespeare as the story is one of the easier to follow.
-"Animal Farm" by George Orwell: Again, another shorter classic that is well worth a read. A political allegory, it is a good story regardless of how deep you want to go with the hidden meanings of the text. If you like the political undertones of "Animal Farm" then you'll love Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
-"Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy: A longer classic than the previous few, it is my favourite Thomas Hardy novel so far. Not the happiest of reads but one you'll find hard to put down, you want Tess to be happy so badly. Her life is ruined by society's standards of the time, you watch Tess try to come to terms with it and the ending is satisfying but bittersweet.
-"The Wretched" by Victor Hugo: this perhaps not the first classic recommend starting with, but once you feel confident enough, this probably one of the better longer classics to start with. The cast of characters is fairly easy to keep up with, as is the plot. Another bigger classic that you could try instead would be "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, albeit harder to keep track of the characters but will keep you just as entertained.
The End
Overall, I would say don't be scared of classics, they may not seem the easiest books to get into, but they are worth pushing through with. I want to diversify the classics I read now that I've gotten going with them. I'm looking to read classics from cultures that are different from my own and read more poetry and novels from these cultures, so any recommendations are welcome! There's a lot to learn from classics, from a historical point of view and as a reader as many of these great texts have inspired many of the works we read today. Give Dostoyevsky a chance, you won't regret it.
Classics Journey
My journey into classics started when I was around 14 years old. For an English class, I had to read a book, preferably a classic and give a presentation on my book of choice. I went for "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, being familiar with the story from a young age having watched the BBC adaptation. I didn't touch a classic again until I was 17, I was too busy with YA to give the classics a go again. Then, in Upper Sixth, for my coursework, we looked at gothic novels, including "Frankenstein" as our main text. I must have been somewhat inspired to pick up a gothic book as I picked up "Jane Eyre". Again, I was familiar with the story from a young age, having watched the BBC adaptation with my Mum. I was obsessed with the novel after I finished it, I read it again straight away. To this day it is probably my most favourite book, very few books have come close.
After "Jane Eyre", I read classics sporadically, "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens and "Dracula" by Bram Stoker were the only two that I could remember reading in 2015. I didn't pick up another classic until 2016. If you've read my reading slumps post, then you'll know I experienced a large reading slump in late 2015/early 2016. It was after watching, you guessed it, another BBC adaptation that I gave "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy a go. A veritable brick of a book, it was no quick read and there was a lot to keep track of with a huge cast of characters. Later on that year, I went on to read "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy, it was good, although I much preferred "War and Peace".
I didn't pick up many classics again until late 2018 when I discovered lucythereaders's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/bumblingbibliophile) and her love for Thomas Hardy and the Bronte's. This led me to pick up "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte and "Far from the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy and I loved them both. For the past few months, I have read several more classics, from Bronte to Fitzgerald to Hardy to Austen. Poetry has been playing a larger role in my reading, I read the book of poems published by the Bronte sisters and "The Complete Poems" by Emily Bronte. I've amassed many more classics in my book collection and I hope to get to them all one day, or at least most of them. I finally got to Dostoyevsky this year, I've been meaning to read his book since A-Level and I'm so glad I did.
Tips for classics
My main tips for classics would be:
-Start off small then work your way up: "don't run before you can walk" was the case with me for classics. Starting off with the shorter classics, such as "The Great Gatsby" can help build your reading strength and stamina so that you can eventually tackle the larger works.
- Watching adaptations when you can: this might be a controversial one if you prefer to read a book before the movie. For me, I find with some classics that I need to watch an adaptation first, particularly with larger casts of characters. Some classics I have managed to read without watching an adaptation first, other like "War and Peace" and "The Wretched" I think I would have struggled to read without watching adaptations first. Sometimes an adaptation can inspire you to pick up a classic you never thought of trying before, I would never have read "The Wretched" if I hadn't watched it first.
-Shop around: charity shops, libraries and Amazon are your new best friends. Classics can be fairly cheap to pick up, indeed some are even free on the Amazon store, and the library is also a great resource for picking up classics too, with many to peruse and they're free too! Charity shops are also a good place to hunt for classics, they often have them quite cheap, I once picked up "The Idiot" by Dostoyevsky for 10 pence in one. You can drop on some really nice older copies of classics for fairly cheap and the money you spend is going to a good cause as well.
Classics recommendations
If I was going to recommend classics to start with, these would be my some of my top picks:
- "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte: obviously this one was going to feature in this list. One of the easier classics to read with very few wordy passages to trawl through. It is one of those books that you can really sink your teeth into and the literary theory surrounding the novels is also very interesting if you're into that. If you enjoy this one, then I'd recommend trying the works of the other two Bronte sisters. "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Bronte are outstanding books and "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, whilst it can be confusing at first, is worth persevering through.
- "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald: one of the shorter classics and is written in a way that makes it very easy to understand. In the same way as "Jane Eyre", there is a lot to unpack with this novel, the deeper you want to go with the text, the more rewarding it becomes.
- "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare: Shakespeare is probably more daunting to me than some of the Russian doorstoppers that I have on my shelves. The language feels so unfamiliar and yet we can understand the beauty behind the words. "Romeo and Juliet" is probably the best starting point with Shakespeare as the story is one of the easier to follow.
-"Animal Farm" by George Orwell: Again, another shorter classic that is well worth a read. A political allegory, it is a good story regardless of how deep you want to go with the hidden meanings of the text. If you like the political undertones of "Animal Farm" then you'll love Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
-"Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy: A longer classic than the previous few, it is my favourite Thomas Hardy novel so far. Not the happiest of reads but one you'll find hard to put down, you want Tess to be happy so badly. Her life is ruined by society's standards of the time, you watch Tess try to come to terms with it and the ending is satisfying but bittersweet.
-"The Wretched" by Victor Hugo: this perhaps not the first classic recommend starting with, but once you feel confident enough, this probably one of the better longer classics to start with. The cast of characters is fairly easy to keep up with, as is the plot. Another bigger classic that you could try instead would be "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, albeit harder to keep track of the characters but will keep you just as entertained.
The End
Overall, I would say don't be scared of classics, they may not seem the easiest books to get into, but they are worth pushing through with. I want to diversify the classics I read now that I've gotten going with them. I'm looking to read classics from cultures that are different from my own and read more poetry and novels from these cultures, so any recommendations are welcome! There's a lot to learn from classics, from a historical point of view and as a reader as many of these great texts have inspired many of the works we read today. Give Dostoyevsky a chance, you won't regret it.
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