Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 In the classics in school thread the question came up of if we are expecting a level of performance from today's teens that never existed in the past. Have we exagerated the number of classics that were taught in schools in the past? I tried to make a list of the works I'd call classics that I covered in my school days. These are works that were assigned, not books I read for my own enjoyement. I went as far back as 8th grade, because that class included Chaucer, Shakespeare, etc. (I didn't include other works that I read as a high schooler that weren't assigned.) It would be interesting to see what other people remember reading for school. I used this list to jog my memory, but I think there are many other works that could also be listed. (Here is the Modern Library list, which has some more recent titles.) Here's what I came up with: Chaucer (Knight’s Tale) Greek mythology Romeo and Juliet (read in class) Great Expectations Macbeth (read in class) Gulliver’s Travels (all of it, not just Lilliput) The Crucible The Scarlet Letter Short stories by O. Henry, Poe, London, Hemingway, Swift, etc The Red Badge of Courage Pride and Prejudice The Brothers Karamozov (my selection for a senior paper. Everyone read a different work and wrote a long paper on it.) Murder in the Cathedral (read in class) Rime of the Ancient Mariner (read aloud) Beowulf (first section, in translation) 1984 Lots of poetry by Frost, Browning, Shakespeare, the Romantics Sherlock Holmes Frankenstein The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Great Gatsby The Lord of the Flies A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Huckleberry Finn Tom Sawyer Pygmalion Walden Spoon River Anthology Animal Farm This was for a suburban/semi-rural school in SW Washington in the mid 1980s. Good solid school but not rich or famous for its academics. And then senior year in a suburban/semi-rural school on the eastern edge of Dallas County, Texas. Smaller, poorer community than the first school. Both of these districts were not particularly affluent. Solid middle class. Not a farming community per se, but the highlight of many summers was working in strawberry fields or plum orchards or on alfalfa/soybean farms for extra money. The schools offered both solid vocational (shop, automotive, typing) and academic offerings. AP classes were a new concept and there were none offered at my first school and only one (US History) at the second. But my honors (not AP) US History class was good enough that I got a 4 on the AP exam that year. One other thing I recall is that many of these works (Shakespeare, Murder in the Cathedral, Great Expectations, the poetry, the section of Beowulf, the short stories) were included in the literature books we were using. I'd love to see what classics other people remember reading, along with a rough time and geographic context. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugs Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) Here's my ptitful list - 8th grade parochial school - The Red Pony, Red Badge of Courage 9th grade Molokai High School - can't remember any books, maybe excerpts. 10 - 11th (first semester) - high school in Allentown, PA - Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, and Old Man and the Sea. 11th - 12th - high school in Fayetteville, NC - Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, probably one other. graduated high school in 1980. Edited May 16, 2011 by bugs added one - woo hoo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Classic or not, here's what I remember of the assigned reading, though it's been a long while. This was in Canada, so you see CanLit selections rather than American Lit. Never Cry Wolf Who has Seen the Wind To Kill a Mockingbird Lord of the Flies Hamlet Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar Macbeth The Tempest As for Me and My House The Stone Angel Fifth Business Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man L'Étranger The Plague Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Waiting for Godot The Wars (Findley) Surfacing Death of a Salesman Heart of Darkness The Catcher in the Rye Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town Brave New World (I think... I seem to remember discussing this) We read a lots of short stories and some poetry (including several poems by T.S. Eliot and Shakespeare) as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoforjoy Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I went to a public high school in suburban NJ. Trying to remember... Ninth grade was really intensive grammar and American lit. I think we read The Scarlet Letter The Crucible Spoon River Anthology To Kill a Mockingbird Walden a lot of Poe a lot of Dickinson Pygmalian Romeo and Juliet (they just threw that one in there) Tenth grade was British lit, and we read Wuthering Heights A Tale of Two Cities Dracula MacBeth Canterbury Tales Northanger Abbey (at least, I think so... I know we read a gothic-like novel) I must have blocked out my eleventh grade year, because I cannot remember who my English teacher was, much less a single thing we read. Twelfth grade was world lit. Some of the readings the whole class did, and then we also had a long reading list of mostly-20th century lit that we had to choose two books off of each semester. I know we read Beowulf and Hamlet as a full class, but I forget the other books we read together. Off of the reading list I read The Handmaid's Tale, Slaughterhouse-Five, Catch-22, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Fountainhead, Things Fall Apart, Beloved, and something else I can't remember. I was an English major in college, so I think maybe what I read in 10th and 11th grade gets all jumbled in with what I read in college. My two favorite college lit courses were a seminar on Keats and Austen (I hadn't been a fan of either before we started, but I loved both after the class) and another seminar called Slavery and the African-American Literary Imagination, where we spent about 1/3 of the term reading slave narratives and then the last 2/3 reading contemporary novels about slavery. It was a fantastic class. Oh, and I took a Chaucer course where we spent the entire semester reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, and I enjoyed it so much more and got so much more out of it than I did reading a modern translation in a couple of weeks in tenth grade. The only bad part of that class was that we had to, at some point during the term, recite the first 34 lines of the prologue in Middle English from memory in front of the entire class, which was incredibly nerve-wracking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirch Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) I'm sure I'll miss things, but here's what I remember (from middle school on): To Kill a Mockingbird Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar Of Mice and Men A Farewell to Arms The Scarlet Letter The Crucible Crime and Punishment Wuthering Heights Death of a Salesman Hamlet Walden (excerpts) Various poems Lots of short stories--Kafka, Faulkner, Poe,and others ETA: Oedipus Rex and Antigone I know there were more, but I can't remember what they all were for sure. I was in a large school (graduating class of around 500) in a town of about 25,000 in PA in the early 1990's--graduated in1995. Edited May 16, 2011 by Kirch Memory was spurred by someone else's list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 You guys have a great memory! I remember... Les Miserable Lord of the Flies (three times) The Old Man and the Sea Cry the Beloved Country Oliver Twist The Scarlet Letter The Great Gatsby The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Hamlet Macbeth That's all I can remember from 8th through 12th grade. There was lots of excerpts and short stories from anthologies but I don't remember what. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 My kids and I were just talking about this the other day. It's hard to remember what was assigned and what I read on my own, but I know I wrote papers on the following: Oedipus Rex A Midsummer Night's Dream Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Julius Caesar Beowulf Wuthering Heights The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Deerslayer The Scarlet Letter Catcher in the Rye Of Mice and Men Lord of the Flies We also read the usual short stories and poems. I attended an Alaskan high school in the early nineties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 My kids and I were just talking about this the other day. It's hard to remember what was assigned and what I read on my own, but I know I wrote papers on the following: Oedipus Rex A Midsummer Night's Dream Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Julius Caesar Beowulf Wuthering Heights The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Deerslayer The Scarlet Letter Catcher in the Rye Of Mice and Men Lord of the Flies We also read the usual short stories and poems. I attended an Alaskan high school in the early nineties. I forgot Oedipus Rex and Antigone. I'm pretty sure I read both of these in high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelotmom Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Books I remember reading: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (read-aloud in 4th grade) Romeo and Juliet (original language, but abridged in 4th, and I believe we read the full play at a later point) Julius Caesar Macbeth The Pearl Lord of the Flies A Separate Peace All Quiet On The Western Front To Kill A Mockingbird Parts of Canterbury Tales (memorized the introduction in old English, and read modern translations of a few of the tales) I was supposed to read a book by one of the Bronte's, but didn't. The Scarlet Letter We were supposed to read "a classic" and do a group presentation on it in 8th grade. I chose Oliver Twist and didn't actually read it. The Great Gatsby I read The Crucible out of personal interest, but I believe other classes had it assigned The Stranger 1984 Can't remember if I read Brave New World on my own, or in conjunction with 1984 The House On Mango Street Beloved The Handmaid's Tale I want to say The Once and Future King, but I'm not sure if I'm confusing it with another Arthurian adaptation Various poems and short stories I'm sure there were others that I don't remember. I had kind of a mixed-up, independent study high school career. If I'd done normal courses I'd have read more classics. I had a reading list for several of the years that contained a lot of books that were very good, but not typical "classics" or "modern classics" read in school. This was at a well-respected high school (unless otherwise noted) in Southern California in the mid-90s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Here's what I recall. I'm sure I won't remember everything. The Phantom Tollbooth Julius Caesar The Merchant of Venice Hamlet Macbeth Othello The Taming of the Shrew Oedipus Rex Electra Canterbury Tales (can't remember which ones) A Separate Peace 1984 The Old Man and the Sea Grendel Lord of the Flies To Kill a Mockingbird Madame Bovary A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Animal Farm I also recall covering Shakespeare sonnets and The Lottery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 In no particular order: The Pearl Great Expectations To Kill a Mockingbird Romeo and Juliet Macbeth Les Miserables A Brave New World Animal Farm 1984 Our Town The Great Gatsby The Catcher in the Rye The Jungle Earth Abides The Scarlet Letter Jude the Obscure Metamorphosis No Exit The Stranger Demian Absalom, Absalom! The Sun Also Rises Crime and Punishment A Doll's House Death of a Salesman Wuthering Heights Jane Eyre The Tell-Tale Heart (and others by Poe) Plus poetry and short stories. I'm sure there were others, but this is what I remember. This was the honors track in a semi-rural school with few kids going on to elite colleges. I think it was probably ~4 larger works per year, but a lot more senior year in the World Lit AP class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I read a number of the classics that others have already mentioned. What I did not see that I recall reading was Aeschylus (The House of Atreus) and excerpts from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. (Looking up the spelling of the latter, I had a revelation. This work is quoted by Eliot in The Wasteland. No wonder why the nun who taught my 11th grade literature class felt compelled to include it!) Also, I read Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico and parts of the Aeneid--in Latin. I think that I had a decent high school education in my Midwestern childhood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 classics on my own during childhood. I took AP English as a senior and several classics where required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 all of them :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2jjka Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn To Kill a Mockingbird Animal Farm Grapes of Wrath Of Mice and Men The Good Earth The Pearl Beowulf Romeo & Juliet Hamlet MacBeth Julius Caesar Canterbury Tales Grapes of Wrath Great Expectations Billy Budd Catcher in the Rye Silas Marner To Sir With Love Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl The Hiding Place Flowers for Algernon One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Gone With the Wind The Color Purple Many short stories and sonnets And in our Lit. class we watched videos of : Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Rebecca I know there was more - I just can't remember. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gailmegan Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) Private high school in suburban Phila. Late 1980s (I included 8th grade too) : Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Macbeth Othello Midsummer Night's Dream Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights Pride and Prejudice A Tale of Two Cities Oliver Twist Things Fall Apart The King Must Die Canterbury Tales The Odyssey The Mayor of Casterbridge A Room With a View The Bell Jar A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Cannery Row Oedipus Rex All Quiet on the Western Front The Catcher in the Rye The Stranger Waiting for Godot No Exit Death of a Salesman Hedda Gabler Night Candide Candida The Color Purple I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Beckett Manchild in the Promised Land Heart of Darkness The Awakening Death Be Not Proud To Kill a Mockingbird Beowulf The Count of Monte Cristo Antigone The Unvanquished Most of The Norton Anthology of Poetry Edited May 16, 2011 by Gailmegan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) Too many to name here probably, but I'll try... Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Macbeth Twelfth Night Midsummer Night's Dream Merchant of Venice Julius Caesar Beowulf The Epic of Gilgamesh Le Morte D'Arthur Animal Farm Anthem The Scarlett Letter The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Billy Budd Lord of the Flies The Odyssey Jane Eyre Pride and Prejudice The Crucible Twice Told Tales Heart of Darkness Les Jeux Sont Fait Le Petit Prince Huis Clos Madame Bovary Cry, the Beloved Country Things Fall Apart A Doll's House Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Dubliners Frankenstein Murder in a Cathedral I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Anna Karenina The Canterbury Tales Equus Siddhartha All Quiet on the Western Front The Sound and the Fury The Trial Slaughterhouse Five 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea The Time Machine Candide Oedipus Rex Antigone A Separate Piece Flowers for Algernon A Modest Proposal Gulliver's Travels (excerpts) Paradise Lost (excerpts) I added more, but I still know that's not everything... I'm forgetting a lot of books. And I know we also did significant excerpts from a number of things, including The Wealth of Nations, and all the Enlightenment thinkers - Locke, Rousseau, etc. Plus, there was certainly a lot of poetry. I remember we had to read what felt like every poem from the Romantics in our fat Norton Anthologies. Oh, and lots of short stories - Poe, Guy de Maupassant, Garcia Marquez, and so forth. And we did a whole thing reading mythology as well as bible excerpts for literature at one point. I could go on... I feel like my high school education was pretty good, actually. I was all set to be an English major in college until I realized that all the required courses would make me reread stuff I had already done for two straight years. Forget that, I thought and I did history instead. My school was pretty influenced by the Paideia model of classical education. Edited May 16, 2011 by farrarwilliams seeing other people's lists! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I went to a large suburban hs - graduated in '99. I think the AP classes were pretty solid (good number of us got 4s & 5s), though whether APs are the end-all, be-all of education, well...;). No idea what regular classes were like. Our lit selections (what I can remember): 9th: Great Expectations (summer reading) Uncle Remus Tales (summer reading) Bible stories, for cultural literacy (summer reading) The Old Man and the Sea (summer reading) Jane Eyre The Odyssey Assorted short stories from lit book Romeo & Juliet Tale of Two Cities Watership Down The Chalk Garden To Kill a Mockingbird Turn of the Screw Plus four classics for indep. reading (I did Pride & Prejudice, My Antonia, Wuthering Heights, and Brave New World). Antigone 10th: Of Mice & Men (summer reading) Anthem (summer reading) Things Fall Apart (summer reading) Lord of the Flies (summer reading) Julius Caesar Merchant of Venice A Separate Peace Les Miserables The Awakening Metamorphosis Vanity Fair (indep reading) 11th Common Sense (summer reading) On Walden Pond (summer reading) Lots of plays: Raisin in the Sun, The Crucible, Our Town, Children's Hour, some Lillian Hellman plays, plus others Moby Dick (selections) Billy Budd Transcendentalists: Emerson, Thoreau, maybe others The Scarlet Letter Short stories: Poe, Chopin, others Huckleberry Finn Grapes of Wrath 12th: Cry, the Beloved Country (summer reading) David Copperfield (summer reading) Hamlet Wuthering Heights Lots of poetry: Milton, Donne, et al. Invisible Man Heart of Darkness Oedipus Rex Beowulf Canterbury Tales (selected stories) Paradise Lost (parts) A Modest Proposal The Stranger Candide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romeacademy Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 My list is pathetic. This was at a small-medium sized high school (just under 200 in my graduating class) in central Iowa in the early '80's. There were no AP or Honors classes available. The only "advanced" track available was taking Algebra in 8th grade (9th was standard), which allowed you to take one more year of math. It was a farming/railroad town. English Lit (elective senior year) - Romeo and Juliet (I think we just read sections) - Beowulf (again just sections) - Canterbury Tales (once again, just selections) - Pride and Prejudice - Sense and Sensibility (both my choice because we all had to research an author, and I chose Jane Austen. The really pitiful thing is that I reread both a couple years ago and had absolutely NO recollection of even the basic plot. I got an A on the paper though.) American History (sophomore year, I think) - The Jungle (yuck! Almost quit drinking milk as a result) - The Grapes of Wrath American Lit (sophomore or junior year) - Of Mice and Men - Flowers for Algernon - The Scarlet Letter - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - The Tell-Tale Heart - The Raven I ended up with a definite opinion that American literature is dark and depressing. As a result, when I think of classics I tend to not put American authors on my list. Overall, I think the school did a much better job at math and science than English and Literature. I didn't even hear of Homer or Virgil until much later, but I had some great math and science teachers and had no trouble with college calculus, chemistry, or physics. It's disappointing reading other posts and realizing how lacking my own education was. I am grateful to have found the Well-Trained Mind, and this list, and am determined to do better by my own kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 College Prep Boarding School Ancients - Oedipus Rex The Bible Epic of Gilgamesh A couple more Greek plays that I can't remember Homer - The Odyssey and the Illiad Plato Plutarch Medieval Times - Canterbury Tales Dante's Inferno Beowulf I know we read some Bede but I think it was just selections Everyman (we did this as a play) Shakespeare - Romeo & Juliet, MacBeth, Midsummer's Night Dream, The Tempest, Hamlet Shakespeare poetry Lots of other poetry Tale of Genji Age of Discovery - Descartes Milton - selections, I think Gulliver's Travels (I hated this) Excerpts from a lot of early American writing William Blake Wuthering Heights Jane Eyre Dickens - Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities Poe - The Raven, The Bells, The Tell Tale Heart, and a couple more I think The Scarlett Letter Moby Dick Les Miserables Modern Age - Kafka - Thoreau - Walden Communist Manifesto and the Humanist Manifesto Uncle Tom's Cabin Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn Anna Karenina The Jungle Father Brown - Chesterton Frost The Great Gatsby 1984 Animal Farm Our Town (we watched the play) The Grapes of Wrath Mere Christianity A Man for All Seasons (we watched the play) The Gulag Archipelego The Old man and the Sea and one other Hemingway book that I can't remember J.D. Salinger D H Lawrence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessedchaos Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I'm very impressed with some of the lists here. I have come to the conclusion that my education was pretty pathetic because I really had to think long and hard to come up with any, but then I remembered reading these: The Scarlet Letter To Kill a Mockingbird Jane Eyre Animal Farm And that's all I remember. This was suburban Minneapolis area high school in the late 1980s. I did go Post Secondary Enrollment in 11th grade and took my English courses at the college, so I read more from that point on and on my own as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 My school already had the textbook excerpts of classics. So I knew bits and pieces of the many of them from school, but hardly any were read all the way through. I read a great many on my own though! I loved/love to read. These are the four that we actually read in full: The Scarlet Letter The Great Gatsby Romeo and Juliet To Kill a Mockingbird I graduated in '96 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 High School was SO long ago (this year is my 20th college reunion!!!), but these are some of the books we read that I can remember: Animal Farm The Great Gatsby The House of Seven Gables The Scarlet Letter Julius Caesar MacBeth Le Morte D'Arthur The Old Man and the Sea Raisin in the Sun To Kill a Mockingbird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Here's what I remember off the top of my head... Canterbury Tales Julius Caesar Romeo and Juliet Macbeth King Lear Hamlet Othello Great Expectations Brave New World Westside Story The Crucible Silas Marner Beowulf The Pearl The Good Earth Tobacco Road The Light in the Forest Huckleberry Finn The Lord of the Flies Walden Animal Farm Short stories and poetry -- lots and lots of both Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crissy Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I was moved to a remedial English class when my 7th grade teacher realized I wasn't catching on quickly enough to sentence diagramming. I continued in those classes for the remainder of my schooling, so I never read a 'classic' in school. We did watch Romeo and Juliet in my eighth grade year. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LidiyaDawn Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I don't remember reading any "classics" in school - but my 8th & 9th years were a mess of this school, that school, no school, alternative school, etc. My high school experience includes a few months of being registered in the tenth grade… but I rarely showed up for any classes. I do remember my 6th grade teacher reading "The Hobbit" to us.. drove me crazy though, as I *hate* having anyone read to me. Just give me the dang book already. :p That's not to say that I haven't read any of the books being listed, as I've actually read quite a few of them - both on my own as a kid/teen and as an adult. I just don't have any 'school experience' with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I'm sure I will miss a lot of them, but here's a short list from 7-12 grade (leaving out modern classics like The Outsiders): Tale of Two Cities Greek mythology Romeo and Juliet The Pearl The Scarlet Letter lots of short stories Beowulf Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale and The Squire's Tale The Great Gatsby Lord of the Flies Macbeth Julius Caesar The Hobbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 The UK system tends to go for depth rather than breadth, so I didn't read that many works. I did study each one for long periods, however. I remember: Silas Marner Wuthering Heights The Woodlanders A Midsummer Night's Dream Measure for Measure Our Mutual Friend Keats complete poems Tennyson complete poems The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband ETA: also, in French, Candide and a couple of other less classic French novels. There must have been more. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) Here's what I remember 10-12. I'm sure I'm missing some. I also read classic and modern novels extensively outside of school, so I may be wrong about a few of these. My hs classes were heavy on novels, but historical lit. and original historical sources were seriously lacking. Lord Jim The Tempest Taming of the Shrew Macbeth Oedipus Rex Antigone Our Town No Exit Candide The Stranger Tartuffe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead As I Lay Dying Great Gatsby portions of Canterbury Tales portions of Paradise Lost Inferno A Christmas Carol Old Man and the Sea Metamorphosis lots of other short stories Bartleby the Scrivener Tell-tale Heart Pilgrim's Progress Wuthering Heights Madame Bovary The Scarlet Letter Lord of the Flies Gulliver's Travels Crime and Punishment Catch-22 Walden excerpts poetry, mostly in the Brit. lit. year I remember Moby Dick, excerpts only The Wasteland Lesson Before Dying Edited May 19, 2011 by Penelope fix something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) I'm assuming that you're asking about up through 12th grade? I'll asterisk the ones that I can't recall were H.S. or college. I was on the honors track. Hamlet Macbeth Othello Romeo & Juliet Julius Caesar Antony & Cleopatra Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night Midsummer Night's Dream *The Tempest Arthur Miller anthology Animal Farm 1984 Brave New World Fahrenheit 451 Crime & Punishment Pride & Prejudice Wuthering Heights Great Gatsby Old Man and the Sea Scarlet Letter To Kill a Mockingbird A Separate Peace Huckleberry Finn Great Expectations A Tale of Two Cities Jude the Obscure Tess of the D'Urbervilles Ethan Frome Age of Innocence Antigone Oedipus Agamemnon Bullfinch Mythology The King Must Die Odyssey Aeneid (in Latin) Epic of Gilgamesh excerpts OT excerpts Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Beloved Autobiography of Frederick Douglass Call of the Wild Gulliver's Travels Frankenstein Canterbury Tales Beowulf Edgar Allen Poe anthology *Grapes of Wrath One of the Dumas novels, can't remember if it was The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo. One was assigned and I liked it so much that I read the other on my own. Candide (in French) Le Petit Prince (in French) ETA: I'd forgotten about being assigned The Joy Luck Club until I saw it on someone's list. We also read one of Louise Erdrich's novels during the same "multicultural" unit. Edited May 17, 2011 by Crimson Wife Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) I went to a private, all girls hs that followed a classical curriculum. All we studied was classics in literature and history. I don't think I could list them all! For ps from 1st through 8th grade, we did many classics as well, but I was in an accelerated/gifted program so our books were often 2+ grades ahead. Here's what I remember... The Hobbit A Wrinkle in Time THe Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Poe's short stories The Cay Tom Sawyer Huck Finn The Secret Garden Charlotte's Web Night The Diary of Anne Frank Farenheit 451 Call of the Wild A Separate Peace To Kill A Mockingbird The Red Badge of Courage Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry A Christmas Carol Our Town I know the mainstream kids did not study the same caliber of literature as my group did just from being friends with kids who were not in my program. When I was teaching 8th gr. Language Arts in NH 6 years ago, we would teach The Diary of Anne Frank, Poe's short stories, Night, The Giver, and The Incident at Hawk's Hill (not a defined classic), The Dangerous Game (ss), and an assortment of poetry. Edited May 16, 2011 by jenL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) Okay, this is what I remember by looking at other lists. Some I may have read starting in 8th grade - I know Romeo & Juliet and Dante's Inferno were 8th grade. In high school I took Honors American Literature one year and Honors British Literature another year. One year I took what was officially called Multi-course English but we called Multi-Course Slide. Each semester was a different topic and I chose Science Fiction as one of my options. Some that I really like, I read for the first time around high school age but I don't know if they were assigned or I just read them. We didn't have a television so I read a LOT! In class we averaged a novel a week - didn't realize that was so unusual. I went to school in Suburban New Jersey in the late 1980's. The ones I think were just for fun: Watership Down (have this on my shelf to reread now) Three Muskateers Count of Monte Cristo Bulfinches Mythology Martian Chronicles Alas Babylon (love this book) All Creatures Great and Small (also All Things Wise & Wonderful and All Things Bright & Beautiful) Oliver Twist Murder on the Orient Express (I used to read all my grandmas old Agatha Christie books - my favorite is And Then There Were None) Hobbit Lord of the Rings Time Machine War of the Worlds Handmaids Tale (may have been after high school - not sure) Martian Chronicles My favorites that were definitely assigned: Flowers for Algernon Portrait of Dorian Gray Joy Luck Club (maybe college?) Greek Myths Dante's Inferno White Fang Brave New World Macbeth Scarlet Letter pretty much everything Poe 1984 Fahrenheit 451 Lord of the Flies Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde Canterbury Tales Animal Farm Witch of Blackbird Pond Legend of Sleepy Hollow Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank Island of Dr. Moreau Lost World The Odyssey Color Purple (a rough one to read - emotionally) Romeo & Juliet Crucible Frost poems Tom Sawyer Island of the Blue Dolphins Once & Future King On the Beach Ones that were assigned that I didn't care for/don't really remember much about them: The entire Norton Anthology of British LIterature The entire Norton Anthology of American Literature Beowulf Pilgrims Progress (sorry to those who love it but I hated it) Paradise Lost Gullivers Travels Walden Ralph Waldo Emerson selections (Boring!) Death Comes for the Archbishop For Whom the Bell Tolls Old Man & The Sea Slaughterhouse Five The Jungle (yuck!) Siddhartha Raisin in the Sun One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Uncle Tom's Cabin Look Homeward Angel Notes of a Native Son Autobiography of Ben Franklin I forgot the Most Dangerous Game - but that was a short story, wasn't it? Edited May 16, 2011 by dottieanna29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I definitely remember reading these with my classes in high school: The Scarlet Letter The Jungle Call of the Wild Billy Budd The Crucible The Great Gatsby Red Badge of Courage 1984 Ethan Frome Walden (in detail, for the entire year, or at least that's how it seemed) Catcher in the Rye Lord of the Flies Native Son (not sure if the entire book or only portions) Light in August Doll's House (Ibsen) Romeo & Juliet (8th) Much Ado About Nothing (12th) Pride & Prejudice Jane Eyre Crime & Punishment (in great detail, for at least one semester, maybe the whole year) Time has probably made me forget several (including all of 9th grade), but those are the ones that stick out. I also read others where one book was not specifically assigned but where we had to read on our own and present/write about it. Others like, say, The Hobbit, I read in 7th grade, I think, along with an inordinate amount of Sherlock Holmes (assigned) and Edgar Allen Poe (not, but we did memorize The Raven). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise in Florida Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I graduated high school from a small (v.v.small) mining town in Arizona in the late 70's. I think all the high schools in Arizona had the same procession of reading back then. My husband grew up in a different small mining town and read the same books I did. Freshman: Romeo Juliet Sophmore: Red Badge of Courage Junior: Julius Ceaser Senior: MacBeth There were probably other books but those were the 'big one' each year. I have no idea if Arizona high schools still follow the same pattern. I learned to love Shakespeare but I loathe...loathe...loathe Red Badge of Courage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m0mmaBuck Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 It's been a while since high school but off the top of my head: A Midsummer Night's Dream Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Julius Caesar Othello Pilgrim's Progress (excerpts) Dante's Inferno (excerpts) Last of the Mohicans The Turn of the Screw Oedipus Rex Macbeth Henry V The Great Gatsby The Old Man and the Sea Moby Dick Grapes of Wrath Farenheit 451 Lord of the Flies Animal Farm The Scarlet Letter Pygmalion Of Mice and Men Atlas Shrugged Catcher in the Rye Death of a Salesman To Kill a Mockingbird The Crucible Canterbery Tales (excerpts) Walden (excerpts) Of Mice and Men Red Badge of Courage All Quiet on the Western Front 1984 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 The Odyssey Lord of the Flies Tom Sawyer The Hobbit 1984 Animal Farm Lots of poetry- I especially remember Keats For Whom The Bell Tolls Romeo and Juliet and several other Shakespeares Tess of the Durbavilles Jane Eyre Pride and Prejudice Probably more.....I went to a pretty good highschool- we learned Latin too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyzenthlay in Pa. Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I spent all my school years in the same district. It had a good reputation.:glare:I only was assigned 4 books I'd call classic , 3 in 11th & 1 Shakespeare play in 12th.Literature was from texts all other years.It was all about comprehension.:001_huh: In 11th grade we studied Hemingway, Falkner & Steinbeck, needed to read one from each author.There was no discussion ,just a little bio info lectured about.In 12th we read 3 plays, 1 of which was Shakespeare.No discussion, we did set design, costumes , lighting schedules as projects. In no other grades were books assigned. I did have 1 crazy teacher in 3rd grade who read aloud to us from a classic.She chose "A Scarlet Letter", I remember as the book drug on , wondering when did we get to find out about "that valentine". :w00t::blink::lol: I had a personal library pass arraigned from the guidance councilor I could use any time I wanted to get out of a class. I was given this because I had complained of not getting any help from my teachers and I was bored.Not once, ever did a my parent, teacher, the councilor or librarians speak with me to offer advice on something to read.:ohmy::sad: I read about a book a day, saved the long ones for weekends. Part of my library time was spent in the reference section following bunny trails of interest. I read most of the library, my regret is spending little time on biographies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimnc Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Some of you ladies have amazing lists. High school was in the early 80's so a few things may have been forgotten. Great Expectations The House of the Seven Gables The Scarlett Letter The Old Man and the Sea Romeo & Juliet 1984 The Great Gatsby The Catcher in the Rye Two Gentlemen of Verona several classic short stories, including The Lady or the Tiger, The Metamorphosis, & The Gift of the Magi a poetry unit or two, including one of Shakesphere's sonnets and some Poe a unit on Poe, included The Cask of Amantillado and The Tale Tale Heart. Being frequently bored in class, I used to pull the anthology off the bookshelf next to me and flip through it. So among others, I read The Lottery and The Red Badge of Courage. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Required reading for high school? 1984 The Time Machine Lord of the Flies We watched The Scarlet Letter and Romeo and Juliet on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in TN Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I tried to make a list of the works I'd call classics that I covered in my school days. These are works that were assigned, not books I read for my own enjoyement. I went as far back as 8th grade, because that class included Chaucer, Shakespeare, etc. (I didn't include other works that I read as a high schooler that weren't assigned.) . Wow - that's quite a list! I don't remember reading anything in Jr. High, although I'm sure I must have read something. In high school (public school) I remember reading lots of poetry - Dickenson, Poe, Shakespeare, Eliot, Frost, etc - probably from a lit. book. Animal Farm Tess of the D'urbervilles Tale of Two Cities Jane Eyre Brave New World Wuthering Heights Cry, the Beloved Country some Flannery O'Connor some Greek Myths and several Greek plays Huck Finn a couple short stories by Scott Orson Card Surely there was more? I just don't remember. Some of y'all had some serious reading going on there! A lot of the classics you've listed I didn't read until an adult, and some I still haven't read (The Scarlett Letter! I'm going to dig that out right now.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 (edited) I cannot even begin to fathom how some of you ladies remember the years you read what. in no particular order and to the best of my recollection (meaning I'm sure I'm forgetting...) The Great Gatsby A Separate Peace Catcher in the Rye To Kill a Mockingbird Lord of the Flies Of Mice and Men The Outsiders The Brother's Karamazov Romeo and Juliet Macbeth Hamlet The Old Man and The Sea For Whom the Bell Tolls Siddhartha Narcissus and Goldmund The Jungle The Scarlet Letter The Crucible Lots of Poetry. My senior Eng teacher was a published poet/Author Beowulf The Canterbury Tales. And that year my teacher could read/speak in Old English and man, hearing him lit a fire in me. He loved literature. All of my English teachers did. More, but those I really remember. Edited May 17, 2011 by justamouse as I remember... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebug42 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 This is what we read in its entirety in high school. We did a lot of excerpts in our literature studies as well as a lot of poetry but I can't remember all of those now. The Hobbit Wuthering Heights Romeo and Juliet To Kill a Mockingbird Lord of the Flies Julius Caesar Hamlet Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald) Jane Eyre Far from the Madding Crowd Cry, the Beloved Country Murder in the Cathedral In depth study of poem Gift of the Magi In Jr High, I remember reading: A Separate Peace My Brother Sam is Dead April Morning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Oedipus Rex Iliad Odyssey Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar Hamlet The Taming Macbeth Midsummer Night's Dream Henry V Richard III Grapes of Wrath Pride and Prejudice Northanger Abbey Mayor of Casterbridge Flowers for Algernon Les Miserables To Kill A Mockingbird Canterbury Tales The Scarlet Letter Scarlet Pimpernel Utopia Fahrenheit 451 Tale of Two Cities David Copperfield The Crucible Anna Karenina Animal Farm 1984 Tom Sawyer Madame Bovary Candide Dante’s Inferno The Painted Bird She On the Beach Antigone Watership Down Diary of Anne Frank Aesop Le Morte D'Arthur Beowulf Jungle Book Heart of Darkness Gulliver’s Travels The Voyage of the Beagle Moby Dick Kipling, Byron, Frost, Tennyson, Longfellow Selections of myths and short stories and I am sure many more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamee Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Let's see if I can remember. My school was lit heavy, especially my senior year, Brit Lit. Romeo and Juliet Julius Ceaser Our Town Of Mice and Men--some other Steinbeck too the Pearl Macbeth Hamlet Othello Tempest Twelfth Night Henry V--the movie had just come out so we went to see it too some sci-fi book I can't remember Great Gatsby 1984 Oedipus Rex Beowulf Cantebury Tales Great Expectations Call of the Wild On my own, I read Madam Bovery Jane Eyre Pride and Prejudice Les Miserables--unabridged Wuthering Heights Not so much "classic" but I read Herman Wouk and Leon Uris There has to be more, we always read in my English classes. I do know I got out of high school having NOT read Lord of the Flies, Huck Finn, Grapes of Wrath Not sure how I lucked out with those.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piraterose Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 (edited) 12th grade - AP English The Grapes of Wrath Wuthering Heights 1984 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest King Lear Antigone Crime and Punishment Native Son Lord of the Flies 11th grade I took Journalism and Creative Writing - no major books 10th - English 10X The Diary of Anne Frank Night Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar 9th grade - English 9Y Mostly excerpts - don't remember any particular books Edited May 17, 2011 by piraterose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 My recall memory would miss most of what we read. My recognition memory works better, so I'm mostly working off of your lists. Here's what we read (and I know I'm going to be missing some). We were always reading something and always outside of class. (80's, small high school, upstate NY) Grapes of Wrath Red Badge of Courage The Oxbow Incident Romeo & Juliet King Lear Hamlet Macbeth Richard III The Taming of the Shrew 1984 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest To Kill a Mockingbird Lord of the Flies Oliver Twist Tale of Two Cities A Christmas Carol (this was likely earlier than high school) The Diary of Anne Frank (middle school I think) Our Town Beowolf Call of the Wild Les Miserables (abridged - in French) Odyssey Illiad Flowers for Algernon - both the book and the short story The Scarlet Letter Heart of Darkness The Portrait of Dorian Gray Bridge over the River Kwai (sp?) Count of Monte Cristo (a favorite of mine - I used it on the AP test) The Old Man and the Sea The Sun Also Rises The Good Earth Tom Sawyer (middle school I think) On Walden Pond some Canterbury Tales Black Like Me Silas Marner (middle school I think) The Color Purple I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings All Creatures Great and Small Light in August (my least favorite!) Plus, poems and short stories, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 (edited) Of Mice & Men Romeo & Juliet The Scarlett Letter if it counts, Slaughterhouse Five The Oedipus trilogy the end. I read way more on my own. This was in a "nice" school district and their higher level English classes. Edited May 17, 2011 by LittleIzumi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I don't recall being required to read one single classical work in school. I can only remember reading excerpts of the Odyssey, Romeo & Juliet, and The Tell-Tale Heart from our literature textbooks. I read lots of biographies, true-crime (Ann Rule) and Stephen King novels on my own during my junior-high and high-school years. Graduated in 1985 from a northern VA high school. K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakerks Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I'm sure there were others, but this is all I can remember right now. (Public school, '80's) 8th: Poe short stories 9th: Romeo and Juliet 10th: Julius Casear Tartuffe Of Mice and Men The Inferno Death of a Salesman Shakespearean sonnets Odyssey 11th: ??? 12th: MacBeth Othello something else Shakespeare - maybe King Lear? or Richard something? Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Canterbury Tales Wuthering Heights I feel like The Crucible and Fahrenheit 451 might have been in there somewhere, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I graduated in 2001. After looking at these lists, my lit education was pitiful! I was in an australian public school, I guess they went for lowest common denominator books... I took a course in literature (not the normal 'required' english LA) which is where I read most of this in years 11/12: Tess of the D'urbervilles Some shakespeare (medea) some plays (streetcar named desire) some poetry (mostly sylvia plath and emily dickinson) yep, that's about it. I read a few others on my own at home, nothing to do with curriculum. Pretty standard too, my university literature lecturer was livid that no-one in the class knew anything about the odyssey, illiad, inferno, paradise lost etc... grumblings like 'what are they teaching now-a-days' were often heard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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