Lesser known classics that should be known

[pooh bear]

I'm looking for some suggestions for classic literature, 18th to 19th century, that are not widely know. 

 

We all know Austin, Dickens, the Brontes and Trollope. What are some of your favorite authors that don't often, if ever, get mentioned?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think Uncle Tom's Cabin is often referred to but not often read. I think folks who come up with stupid comments about slavery AND people who misuse the term Uncle Tom would be required to read it.

 

I found the book anticipated and disassemble every argument justifying slavery.

[WTMCassandra]

I agree, Uncle Tom's Cabin was kind of a sleeper for me until I actually *read it* at age 30.  People who disparagingly sneer Uncle Tom have No. Idea. I would be honored to be truly like him. And the book doesn't just present the worst slavery stories--it portrays a range of owner behavior/motives--even the owners who were truly trying to help made a wreck of things. It really shows how the whole system was unredeemable and untenable. Seriously one of the best books I ever read.

[Crimson Wife]

Elizabeth Gaskell. My mom turned me on to her knowing that I enjoy the Brontes, Jane Austen, and Edith Wharton.

[Lori D.]

:tongue_smilie: Well, clearly, *I* need to focus on the well-known classics first, before I can get to lesser-known classics -- I had never ever ever heard of Trollope before, and when I looked him up, the ONLY work of his that I had ever seen mentioned was in passing somewhere, and not as part of a classics list -- The Barchester Towers. ;)

 

TRULY meaning that lightly and humorous, and as a dig at myself… ;)

 

I went to the literature lists by decades/centuries at Wikipedia and came up with some ideas (only familiar with the titles or themes in these works -- other than Candide, I've not read any of these). Some of these are well-known authors, but their lesser-known works.

 

I didn't know if you were looking for adults or teens, so some of these may not be appropriate or of interest to high school students:

 

1700s

- Voltaire (Candide)

- Henry Felding (Tom Jones)

- Daniel Defoe (Moll Flanders)

- Alexander Pope (Essay on Man)

- Oliver Goldsmith (The Vicar of Wakefield)

- Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman)

 

1800s

- Nikolai Gogol (Dead Souls)

- William Harrison Ainsworth (Rookwood)

- Anne Bronte (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)

- Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White)

- Rudyard Kipling (The Man Who Would Be King)

- William Morris (Well at the World's End)

- HG Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau)

 

 

19th century works that are lesser known that I've enjoyed and thought worthwhile:

 

short stories

- "Luck of Roaring Camp" (Bret Harte)

- "The Storm" aka "Frritt-Flaac" (Jules Verne)

- "Bartleby the Scrivner" (Henry Melville)

- "Queen of Spades" (Alexander Pushkin)

- "Fight With a Cannon" (Victor Hugo)

- "Christmas Every Day" (William Dean Howells)

 

novels

- The Invisible Man (HG Wells)

- Ben Hur (Lew Wallace)

- Through the Looking Glass (Carroll) -- the annotated version by Martin Gardner is great, as it shows you each chapter is really a chess move; plus it gives you insight into all of the puzzles, puns, and mathematical things, plus satire, that Carroll put into the work

 

[Kendall]

Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

[Julie in MN]

I had never heard Charlotte Yonge mentioned until Beautiful Feet republished The Daisy Chain.  I think of her as a step in between Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, and I enjoyed a glimpse closer into an 1800s home trying to teach faith and values to their children alongside current events and life events.

 

http://bfbooks.com/The-Daisy-Chain?sc=17&category=878

 

Just one random addition.

Julie

[pooh bear]

I should have stated that I am looking for books for my ds.

 

Crimson Wife - He has read a few Elizabeth Gaskell novels. I spent my childhood summers surrounded by the cotton and wool mills of Lancashire, so North and South and Ruth speak volumes to me. I have how ever never read anything by Edith Wharton. Which book/s would you recommend?

 

Lori - Great list, as always. I grew up in Britain, so I wonder if that is why Trollope is more known to me than you?

 

Ds is reading Dead Souls at the moment. Would you say Moll Flanders and Tom Jones would be a good read if he has already ready Tess of the d'Ubervilles and Les Miserables?

 

I'll check out the other books you listed.

 

Kendall - He has read The Moonstone and The Woman in White, but that did remind me that Collins wrote some other great books. Must look into those.

 

 

[Julie in MN]

I should have stated that I am looking for books for my ds.

 

 

Oh, what a well-read, wonderful son you must have.  It would be fun to sit down and chat with him about the male perspective on some of his reading :)

 

I suppose he's read C.S. Forester?  Well, Forester wrote more into the 1900s but many of his novels are set in the 1800s.  His writing is supposed to have influenced several authors.

Julie

[pooh bear]

Oh, what a well-read, wonderful son you must have.  It would be fun to sit down and chat with him about the male perspective on some of his reading :)

 

I suppose he's read C.S. Forester?  Well, Forester wrote more into the 1900s but many of his novels are set in the 1800s.  His writing is supposed to have influenced several authors.

Julie

 

Not read Forester yet. That's the Hornblower series, right?

 

And thank you for the Daisy Chain link, it looks interesting.

 

It is fun to sit down with my ds and talk about books that are typically thought to be girly books. He really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre. I think his summer reading list contains a couple more Austin and Bronte books.

 

When I asked him if he thought Tess was a sad book he said "No, it's more of a social commentary on fallen women of that time."

 

And his summoning up of Les Miserables was "It's about going from darkness to light."

[Crimson Wife]

My favorite Wharton novel is "The Age of Innocence" but I also really like "The House of Mirth". The one novel of her that I didn't care for was "Ethan Frome".

[Roadrunner]

Thomas Wolfe "Look Homeward Angel."

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Edith Wharton has some lovely short stories. Xingu is one of my favorites.

 

I also recommend E. B. White's essays.

[rhrice3]

What about Willa Cather? As an American writer, I think that she is a must read. She does an amazing job of bringing the west/plains living during the 1800's to life. I love everything of hers I have read

Rhrice3

[lewelma]

My son liked this compilation of short stories Late Victorian Gothic Tales

I have also bought Art of the Short Story which has a large number of lessor known authors from all over the world.

 

Not lessor known, be he also liked Count of Monte Cristo, Dracula, Huck Finn, and all things Poe.  He did not like Moby Dick or Frankenstein.

 

Ruth in NZ

[shanvan]

Pearl S. Buck

Maria Edgeworth

George Mac Donald (more than just The Princess and The Goblin, etc.)

Howard Pyle 

I really like William Maxwell, not sure I'd recommend it for high school though.  Gaskell was already mentioned.  Anne Radcliffe is interesting too.

 

Wallace Stegner, especially Angle of Repose, though he is more modern.

 

Have you checked Amblesides' lists?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Oh I know another good one. Tales Before Lewis. It is an anthology of stories C. S. Lewis either would have been familiar with or explicitly mentioned as being an inspiration for his own writing. One of my favorites was Undine.

[Zoo Keeper]

Edith Wharton has some lovely short stories. Xingu is one of my favorites.

 

I also recommend E. B. White's essays.

 

I also greatly enjoy E. B. White's essays, poems, and letters.  Simple, quiet, funny, and touching.

 

Sarah Orne Jewett (The Country of the Pointed Firs) deserves more praise.

 

 

I'm looking forward to reading Jane Eyre with my boys, and enjoying The Eyre Affair (Fforde) together afterwards...:)

[Lori D.]

I'm looking forward to reading Jane Eyre with my boys, and enjoying The Eyre Affair (Fforde) together afterwards... :)

 

Fun! You also might want to read (or watch) Great Expectations, as a major character from that Dickens novel is heavily in The Eyre Affair. ;)

[basketcase]

I'm assuming you've read Thackeray and Eliot, considering the list you've already covered. I think Anne Bronte is underrated. Sir Walter Scott also isn't read as often as he should be, or at least not beyond Ivanhoe.

 

The Semi-Attached Couple and The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden are little gems. Short novels with humor that complement each other nicely. 

 

Pamela by Samuel Richardson. It's great for understanding the development of the novel. 

 

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. It's amusing because it's the focal point of Austen's Northanger Abbey, plus it's the classic gothic novel. Not as great as literature in and of itself, but still interesting. The Monk by Lewis is another you could try - as the beginning of horror.

 

There are a lot (like Edith Wharton and Willa Cather, already suggested) that are usually counted as early 20th century authors. In that category, Thornton Wilder comes to mind - The Eighth Day, perhaps. I quite enjoyed Crossrigs by Jane and Mary Findlater.

 

Do you read in translation? I'm thinking of the great Russian novels of that period, particularly. 

[Laura in CA]

Not read Forester yet. That's the Hornblower series, right?

 

And thank you for the Daisy Chain link, it looks interesting.

 

It is fun to sit down with my ds and talk about books that are typically thought to be girly books. He really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre. I think his summer reading list contains a couple more Austin and Bronte books.

 

When I asked him if he thought Tess was a sad book he said "No, it's more of a social commentary on fallen women of that time."

 

And his summoning up of Les Miserables was "It's about going from darkness to light."

 

 

What about Willa Cather? As an American writer, I think that she is a must read. She does an amazing job of bringing the west/plains living during the 1800's to life. I love everything of hers I have read

Rhrice3

 

Well, since these are getting into early 20th century, I'll add some of my favorite late-19th/early-20th C authors --

 

LOVE Willa Cather. I'm reading my first Cather right now (My Ãntonia) and loving it. I'm sure I heard about it on these boards :)

 

I also love Edith Wharton, including Ethan Frome :)

 

Speaking of Forester, what about E. M. Forster? I love (and can quote long passages from memory) Room with a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Howards End, A Passage to India, etc. He only published about 6 novels. (There's only one I haven't read -- Maurice, I think.)

 

How about Thomas Hardy? Oh, I see he's read Tess. I love Far from the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native (we have this as an audio book read by Alan Rickman!), etc.

 

I love Silas Marner, and anything by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

 

Maybe he'd like The House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne, or The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.

 

Oh, you know what's a good book ... Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. And the subsequent ones ... Little Men, Jo's Boys, I think ...

 

I've read Alice & Through the Looking-Glass (annotated version, as noted above!) at least 3 times aloud to my boys -- so funny and clever!

 

I love this thread! Many good ideas to add to my list! :)

[Lori D.]

Lori - … I grew up in Britain, so I wonder if that is why Trollope is more known to me than you?… Would you say Moll Flanders and Tom Jones would be a good read if he has already ready Tess of the d'Ubervilles and Les Miserables?

 

Thanks for that insight on Trollope. Yes, I'm in the US, and always have been in this same little corner of the country, so that may be why I'm not familiar with a number of classic authors. ;)

 

 

Wow! Your DS is quite well-read! :)

 

Again, no personal experience with Moll Flanders or Tom Jones. But from my seeing bits of TV versions and reading synopses of both, I would say they both would fall more towards the tone of Tess d'Ubervilles, but with "picaresque"** type of characters who have numerous s*xual exploits as part of their street survival tactics. I don't believe there is any sort of "moral redemption" of either title character, if that is important. But I personally would go for some of the other suggestions by the other posters first before Moll Flanders or Tom Jones.

 

** picaresque = work of adventures of a rogue-like protagonist of low social class, living by wits in a corrupt society

 

I was going to mention Thomas Hardy, but your DS has already read Tess d'U. Not read it, but I gather that Far From the Maddening Crowd is a touch more redemptive than Tess d'U. Henry James seems similar in mood and psychological character exploration to Thomas Hardy to me.

 

Perhaps Thackery? Although I despise him personally -- so outright MEAN in his satire that he is NOT my cup of tea -- but others can get past that and appreciate him. Vanity Fair is his most well-known novel; his The Luck of Barry Lyndon is another picaresque work.

 

What about some Dickens? He has wonderful characters and some very comic scenes in his 19th century settings:

Cricket on the Hearth, Oliver Twist, Hard Times, David Copperfield, Tale of Two Cities.

 

E.M. Forester was writing in the very early 20th century, but feels late-19th century Victorian: A Room With A View, and Passage to India. C.S. forester wrote the Hornblower series, and for other British navy/Napoleonic Wars works, check out the Midshipman Quinn series by Showell Styles, and the Aubrey-Maturin (Master and Commander) series by Patrick O'Brian -- those are all 20th century authors.

 

How about some of Walter Scott's early 19th century works (historical "romances" in the similar way that the Bronte works are "romances"): Waverly, Rob Roy, and Kenilworth?

 

And while it's written and set in the 1920s, Elizabeth von Arnim's Enchanted April has a very similar feel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. I very much enjoyed Enchanted April (quite a bit of humor), and have heard good things about Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

 

And for more 19th century humorous works: Three Men in a Boat, and, Three Men on a Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome.

 

 

ETA -- PS -- Thanks everyone! I have a nice list to work on now. :)

[Laura in CA]

Oh, no one's mentioned the Lark Rise books. When I stayed with my aunt in Co. Durham in the 1980s, she lent me three charming books which later I could NOT remember the names of, except that I thought there was 'candle' in one of the titles. Anyway there's a series on TV based on the Lark Rise books and I think that must be them!

[Chrysalis Academy]

My favorite Wharton novel is "The Age of Innocence" but I also really like "The House of Mirth". The one novel of her that I didn't care for was "Ethan Frome".

:iagree: completely and wanted to add that The Age of Innocence would be great for a boy, the story is all about making choices and the road not taken and the price of honor,  the protagonist is male and this is one of the most poignant, touching, and beautiful books I have read in a long time!

[Anacharsis]

The short stories of Guy de Maupassant are quite nice.

 

Joseph Conrad's earlier works were once well-regarded, even if he is more famous for Heart of Darkness today. (My personal favorite is The End of the Tether, although I think he published that in the early 1900s.)