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If you could recommend one classic book...


Epicurean
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I'm part of a book club that focuses on reading classic books. Each meeting, one person's name is drawn to choose a book. To give you an idea, so far we have read 1984, Huck Finn, Brave New World, Watership Down, and Tess of D'Ubervilles.

 

What one classic book would you recommend and why? It has to be under 400 pages, because otherwise, I don't think people would have time to finish it. "Classic" can have different meanings to different people, but just use the definition you feel comfortable with.

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The Scarlet Letter -- I love the use of names, the Nature vs Civilization, the secrecy and surprises

All Quiet on the Western Front--showed how devastating WWI was to the soldiers

Grapes of Wrath--I think this is under 400, but I don't know for sure. Very interesting part of history, to me.

 

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I like all the recommendations. Your books so far are English and American, so I might suggest

 

Madame Bovary, just under the page limit

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, quite short, even though it is James Joyce, lol

 

And a favorite of mine

Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis, putting it in classic, because it was one of the first 'Angry Young Men' novels. An easy read, laugh out loud funny

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I like all these suggestions:

The Age of Innocence

Pride & Prejudice

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

But if I had to pick just one, it would be Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  The grandmama of science fiction, chock full of literary allusions, written by a girl barely out of her teens, and one of the most unknown well-known books out there!  A ridiculous percentage of the population still thinks Frankenstein is the name of the monster.  And isn't it one of the most assigned books on college reading lists?  A book everybody should actually read, IMHO.  :)

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Longer best option:  Anna Karenena

 

Sci Fi:  Dune or That Hideous Strength

 

Semi-classic:  So Big

 

Pioneers:  Giants in the Earth--this one is fantastic and also a bit obscure, I think I would go with it

 

Lutheran:  The Hammer of God--This is the best Christian novel I have ever read, despite the stupidly mistranslated title

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Longer best option:  Anna Karenena

 

Sci Fi:  Dune or That Hideous Strength

 

Semi-classic:  So Big

 

Pioneers:  Giants in the Earth--this one is fantastic and also a bit obscure, I think I would go with it

 

Lutheran:  The Hammer of God--This is the best Christian novel I have ever read, despite the stupidly mistranslated title

 

I read that book and LOVED it.  It's a great book and I read it at just the right time.

 

 

Adding my own suggestions:

 

"Men Against the Sea" by  Nordhoff.   It's the 2nd in the Bounty books-  but you should already know the background about Mutiny on the Bounty

 

"Tenant of Wildfell Hall"  by Ann Bronte - I love this lesser known book.

 

"Heart of Darkness" by Conrad

 

"The Good Earth" by Buck.  It might be a smidge over 400. 

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I was deeply moved by Cry, the Beloved Country a few years back. From Amazon:

 

Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.

 

Also agree with above recommendations for

My Antonia

Fahrenheit 451

Pride and Prejudice 

Edited by Ali in OR
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I'd vote for an Austen, any of them is fine. Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath. Solzhenitsyn I like The First Circle. Sinclair Lewis - Main Street is very good look at small town Midwest America and life of an educated woman a century ago. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. Excellent Woman by Barbara Pym - women's lives in post-war England. I love books by Pearl S. Buck, too. Her The Good Earth is a classic. Kipling's Kim is fun (channel my inner teen boy when I read it!)

 

You could be a trouble maker and, assuming everyone has read or at least seen the film To Kill a Mockingbird, read and discuss the portrayal of Atticus in To Set a Watchman (I still say the Atticus of Mockingbird is the child view of the same man in Watchman. Feel free to argue.)

Edited by JFSinIL
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I'll be patriotic and make some classic Canlit suggestions:

 

The Diviners (my daughter is named after the main charachter in this book.)

Fifth Business (maybe my favorite novel.)

Mad Shadows (this is a bit creepy and weird but could be fun for a book group. Lots of interest with regards to Jansenism in Quebec before the Quiet Revolution. It's also quite short.)

The Nymph and the Lantern (takes place on Sable Island which is an interesting setting.)

Edited by Bluegoat
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As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Classic American lit with an interesting story and not very long.

 

Many good suggestions already but add my votes to Heart of Darkness (watch Acopalypse Now for a different adaptation of the story) and Grapes of Wrath (good movie too).

 

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I was deeply moved by Cry, the Beloved Country a few year's back. From Amazon:

 

Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.

 

Also agree with above recommendations for

My Antonia

Fahrenheit 451

Pride and Prejudice 

 

Anyone else feeling smug because she's read so many of the books everyone else has listed?

 

I loved and appreciated many of the books listed, but I have to agree with CTBC.  It touched me more than most books, and I'm not easily moved.  To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance, did nothing for me.  I know I'm likely be shot on sight for such blasphemy.

 

If you want classic but lighter, there's always Murder on the Orient Express or another Agatha Christie, and Heart of Darkness, as others have suggested, while not light, is short.

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Oh, I third Frankenstein. Love that book. GREAT discussion materials about the nature of man.

 

I also love Lord of the Flies.

I love Frankenstein. I read Lord of the flies in high school, and only because it was on a teachers shelf. I really loved it, it resonated deeply with me. Both of these are some of my all time favorite (and both are super short and easy reads, if that matters)

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Oh, so tough. For group discussion of lean toward something like "The English Patient". So much there in a paucity of words.

Edited by Arctic Mama
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I love The Grapes of Wrath, but I have it on my shelf, and it clocks in at 577 pages. But Of Mice and Men is very short, and also good.

"Of Mice and Men" makes me bawl like a baby. So does "Tuesdays with Morrie". So good!

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