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Your very favorite classic novel…
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LOL, I once had a college class called “Women and Literature” and it was taught by a feminist nun who insisted that Frankenstein was about “womb envy”
Love Jane Eyre, liked Wuthering Heights OK but it was a bit creepy, read Les Mis–unabridged—-in FRENCH. Long, long ago, and it was a tough, tough pull!!!
Ohh, another I like is The Woman in White by Willkie Collins.
I think I may be the only woman on the planet who doesn’t like Jane Eyre OR Wuthering Heights. I read Les Mis–unabridged–in ENGLISH and that was good enough for me. My husband actually made his own abridged version by marking on the side of the book the stuff that didn’t deal with the plot. That way he could still read the unabridged “story” if he wanted or read all of it when the mood suited him. Then he loaned it out and never got it back.
Still haven’t read Frankenstein. It seems so weird and freaky to me. Maybe I’ll have to pull it out though….after David Copperfield.
Oh, Linda, I read War and Peace but felt like I needed a cheat sheet so I could remember who was who. They all had the same names and were all related or married or next-door neighbors or something.
I just read Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It was an awesome read with a thick plot that unfolded beautifully. The author wasn’t afraid to add some in some shocking twists…and the countryside setting is just beautiful.
WOMB ENVY! Good Grief! BTW, a feminist nun is a contradiction in terms, in my not-so-humble-opinion!
Frankenstein is a fascinating and insightful glimpse into the arrogance of man playing G-d; and what happens as a result. Shelley was ahead of her time as we have a lot of that arrogance and lack of ethics in science today-she saw it coming!
Okay, since we seem to all add more than just one :-)…here are some Inspirational Classics available on Kindle (mostly free to $1, I don’t have time to link to Amazon):
Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan
Ben Hur By Lewis Wallace
Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss
In His Steps by Charles Sheldon
Thanks ladies…that’s ought to keep me going for awhile. =) Appreciate the suggestions. Yes…Anne of Green Gables has been read, and read, and read many times too. I actually did read David Copperfield a couple years ago and REALLY enjoyed it. I had sort of avoided Dickens for many years after a bad experience of an exerpt from one of his novels (can’t even remember which now) in high school English….but my sister is a big Dickens fan and that was her recommendation was to start with also.
Thanks again!
Jen
Yup, I’ve read the Emily books by LM Montgomery too. I think I may have read just about everything that she’s written, actually. Definetely among my favorites. =)
Jen
And just in case anyone else is looking for something, the best novel I’ve read in a long time is North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Some of the basic plot elements are similar to Pride and Predjudice…but there’s a lot more to it than that. The BBC movie adaptation is pretty good too. Wives and Daughters is another good one of hers (both book and BBC movie adaptation.)
Jen
We love Gaskell here too although I confess to liking Wives and Daughters more than North and South. Perhaps because I got to “write” my own ending.
I had trouble with War and Peace too–and with most of the Russian novels I’ve read. I always have to make a cheat sheet for all those names that all sound alike to me, sigh. Maybe that’s why I like Dickens. You can’t mistake his characters’ names at least! Once you meet the Artful Dodger, Uriah Heep or Miss Havisham, you know them forever!
I might have to try Far From the Madding Crowd. Some of the Hardy I’ve read has seemed depressing to me–if this one wasn’t I might have to check it out. He was an amazing writer but I didn’t much like the tone of Tess of the D’Urbervilles or Jude the Obscure. Maybe he wasn’t so depressing when he was younger??
The critics of Hardy like Far From the Madding Crowd least…and I think because it is not as tragic as the others. lol There is some tragedy in it…but it lends itself well to learning and growing. It is truly a story about loyalty unlike anything most of us have witnessed before. And a frivulous, vane young woman who grows immensely as her life unfolds before her…
And I have to add Crime and Punishment if it isn’t already in this list. That book…a story of true redemption…it gets slow in the middle, but I loved that book…
Thanks for all the great suggestions. I’ve downloaded several of them to my Kindle. I LOVE anything Gaskell. And I LOVE the BBC movies….all were fantastic but for a true laugh/cry girl-fest Cranford wins the day. For reading, I prefer North and South or Wives and Daughters.
Another ‘classic’ that’s a bit more modern and more male-oriented is Horation Hornblower. The first 4 or so books were fantastic and then Hornblower starts to lose his moral compass and I ended up wanting to throw the book across the room and was yelling at him on several occassions. Yes, yelling at imaginary characters. I also enjoyed Ivanhoe. Is that a classic?
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