Suggestions for meaty but not depressing classics for teenagers?

[Laura Corin]

Following on from Lorna's post about Virginia Woolf, what classics would you assign to teenagers who were ready for something meaty, if you didn't want to hand them anything too dark or depressing?

 

Off the top of my head (I'll edit later when I think of more):

 

All of Austen

Silas Marner (George Eliot)

Some Shakespeare Comedies (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Tempest)

David Copperfield (sad in places, but not depressing)

 

Laura

[Michelle in GA]

We just finished The Good Earth by Pearl Buck about a month ago and really enjoyed it. Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis is also good!

[Guest Lorna]

The Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Any P G Wodehouse books

Marriage by Susan Ferrier

The Call of The Wild, White Fang, and Sea Wolf by Jack London

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Beowulf

Shakespeare's comedies

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome

The Odyssey

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Kim by Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Book By Rudyard Kipling

The Midnight Folk by John Masefield

Live and Kicking Ned by John Masefield

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley

The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis

At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald, and all his books

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

The Once and Future King by T. H. White

Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

[elegantlion]

 

The Chosen has been one of my favorites.

[Nan in Mass]

A Christmas Carol

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Dune (but beware of some scenes)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Foundation Trilogy (liked as a teenager but there might be stuff in it I don't remember that might make it something you don't want to give your children)

Captains Couragous

LOTR

The Ransom of Red Chief (politically incorrect but very funny)

The Birds (and some other Greek comedies)

The Time Machine

The Importance of Being Earnest

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Scarlet Pimpernel

Til Eulenspiegel

[Miss Marple]

G.K. Chesterton fiction (Father Brown, The Man Who Was Thursday)

Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche, Captain Blood)

Somerset Maugham (Ashenden - secret agent)

Dumas (Count of Monte Cristo, The Black Tulip, the Musketeer stories)

 

These are some of our favorites as well as others on the lists you've already received.

[Carol in Cal.]

"That Hideous Strength" by C. S. Lewis

"Christy" by Catherine Marshall (not quite up to the rest, but still very good.)

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

"An Old Fashioned Girl" by Louisa May Alcott (do not be put off by the 'babyish' tone of the first part of the book. The second part is one of her most sophisticated and thought-provoking novels.)

"The House of the Seven Gables" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Robinson Crusoe" the unexpurgated version by Robert Louis Stevenson (this is an philosophical and Christian book, not really an adventure story, if you read the original.)

[Jane in NC]

Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries (Dorothy Sayers)

 

Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters (these may not be as high brow as some would want but for lighter reading I think they are terrific!)

 

How about Italo Calvino? I have read most of his books but I cannot remember if there is anything inappropriate for teens. Anyone have a better memory?

[Laura Corin]

We just finished The Good Earth by Pearl Buck about a month ago and really enjoyed it.

 

I found that utterly depressing when I read it a few years ago.

 

Laura

[Guest Lorna]

I found that utterly depressing when I read it a few years ago.

 

Laura

 

I must confess, we bought it on the suggestion of a 'list' and dd decided it sounded too sad to read.

[Guest Lorna]

 

How about Italo Calvino? I have read most of his books but I cannot remember if there is anything inappropriate for teens. Anyone have a better memory?

 

I haven't heard of Italo Calvino and I would love to hear more.

[Jane in NC]

I haven't heard of Italo Calvino and I would love to hear more.

 

His book If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is on the WEM list. This is the book that introduced me to Calvino several decades ago, after which I read his earlier books, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, Invisible Cities, t zero, Cosmicomics. The hefty volume which retells Italian fairy tales has been critically acclaimed. In fact, his writing often seems to have a fairy tale aspect to it.

 

Invisible Cities takes the reader on an imaginary journey as narrated by Marco Polo. This does not try to be non-fiction but is a poetic walk through imaginary places. Castle is a sort of Canterbury Tale-like book told through Tarot cards.

 

Recently Salman Rushdie did a commentary for NPR on the influence that Calvino's Cosmicomics had on him, calling it "possibly the most enjoyable short story collection every written". You can read or listen to his essay in the NPR archives here.

 

If on a Winter's Night was a book that I adored when I read it in my twenties. After seeing it listed (much to my delight!) in the WEM, I decided to read it again and was even more impressed. Winter's Night is a novel about fictional genre's and the reader's participation in the process.

 

I carried a stack of Calvino books into this marriage; interestingly, my husband owned the ones I did not! Was that not a sign that we'd be together twenty years later?

 

Jane

[Guest Lorna]

His book If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is on the WEM list. This is the book that introduced me to Calvino several decades ago, after which I read his earlier books, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, Invisible Cities, t zero, Cosmicomics. The hefty volume which retells Italian fairy tales has been critically acclaimed. In fact, his writing often seems to have a fairy tale aspect to it.

 

Invisible Cities takes the reader on an imaginary journey as narrated by Marco Polo. This does not try to be non-fiction but is a poetic walk through imaginary places. Castle is a sort of Canterbury Tale-like book told through Tarot cards.

 

Recently Salman Rushdie did a commentary for NPR on the influence that Calvino's Cosmicomics had on him, calling it "possibly the most enjoyable short story collection every written". You can read or listen to his essay in the NPR archives here.

 

If on a Winter's Night was a book that I adored when I read it in my twenties. After seeing it listed (much to my delight!) in the WEM, I decided to read it again and was even more impressed. Winter's Night is a novel about fictional genre's and the reader's participation in the process.

 

I carried a stack of Calvino books into this marriage; interestingly, my husband owned the ones I did not! Was that not a sign that we'd be together twenty years later?

 

Jane

 

Calvino sounds a perfect fit for our daughter, as was your husband for yourself.

[Guest Lorna]

Some of these are books I have read, not my daughter, and so please tell me if you don't think any are suitable for the list - it has been a while for some:

 

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

All Creatures Great and Small and the rest of the series by James Herriot (not meaty but a great read)

Barchester Towers and others by Anthony Trollope

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

Snow Goose by Paul Gallico

Candide by Voltaire (oh please let me have this - I laughed and laughed at it in my twenties!)

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne and other works

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene

Washington Square by Henry James

[Laura Corin]

Candide by Voltaire (oh please let me have this - I laughed and laughed at it in my twenties!)

 

 

Wonderful book. There's quite a lot of low-living going on (characters succumbing colourfully to syphilis) but no sexual acts are described explicitly.

 

Cold Comfort Farm is great too, but much better after you have had Wuthering Heights (or similar) inflicted on you.

 

Laura

[Jane in NC]

Barchester Towers and others by Anthony Trollope

 

 

Let me add to this list the author who was inspired by Trollope, Angela Thirkell. Her books, also sent in Barsetshire, reflect small town life in England in the early to mid twentieth century. The books are quite amusing in a dry and wry fashion--not blatant humor as much as a reflection of the ironies of real life. I adore Thirkell!

 

I am also a fan of Barbara Pym, who was once billed as the most underrated novelist of the 20th century in the Times Literary Supplement. Austen fans would probably be attracted to her books.

[Nan in Mass]

I should have known!!!! I should have known!!!!! Of course you like Angela Thirkell. My family's copies of her books have been reduced to tattered, yellowed, coverless masses of pages held together by elastic bands, we've read them so often. I've recommended them here from time to time, even recently in the light lit needed for an omnivorous reader thread, but it seemed like nobody else had ever seen them. We like them because they are funny in the same way that Pooh is funny. (And Three Men in a Boat, and Wooster - one of the only sorts of verbal humour that strikes me funny, aside from puns.) Which are your favourites? We've read some Barbara Pyms, too, and liked them.

-Nan

[Jane in NC]

I should have known!!!! I should have known!!!!! Of course you like Angela Thirkell. My family's copies of her books have been reduced to tattered, yellowed, coverless masses of pages held together by elastic bands, we've read them so often. I've recommended them here from time to time, even recently in the light lit needed for an omnivorous reader thread, but it seemed like nobody else had ever seen them. We like them because they are funny in the same way that Pooh is funny. (And Three Men in a Boat, and Wooster - one of the only sorts of verbal humour that strikes me funny, aside from puns.) Which are your favourites? We've read some Barbara Pyms, too, and liked them.

-Nan

 

My favorite Thirkells are probably the ones which feature the scatterbrained and sometimes foolish Rose Birkett: Summer Half and Cheerfullness Breaks In. The latter features the Mixo-Lydian refugees--how the Barchester residents perform their duty and react is quite comical to me. Another of her books with a WWII setting is Northbridge Rectory. The tale she tells of war on the homefront is poignant, even in her comical moments.

 

I think that I have read every Pym. Jane and Prudence was always a favorite, as is Excellent Women. Pym demonstrates how much of the world could be put right with a good cup of tea!

 

Thirkell is an especially fun read. Pym is a bit more serious--sometimes depressing.

[Lori D.]

DO PREVIEW Calvino!! A sense of sexual longing/lust of a man for an unattainable woman underlays a lot of his works, along with somewhat explicit sexuality, esp. in If On A Winter's Night and Under the Jaguar Sun. A minor sexual longing is even somewhat evident in several of the Cosmicomic short stories. While handled skillfully, it's just something to be aware of as you may either want to preview or to save Calvino until your teen is more mature.

Also, it's important to understand Calvino's writing has some Cuban communist/Italian socialist influences, and is usually pretty existential in outlookm which I find depressing.

While he is very creative and imaginative, and uses language wonderfully -- I'd be careful about exposing a teen to a lot of Calvino; at least do so by reading and discussing together. But, bear in mind, that while we have a huge stack of Calvino -- and I've read most of them -- it was about 20 years ago, so I'm giving you my impressions from what I can remember from long ago. But the impression that has stuck with me (along with his creativity) is the main character usually suffers from sensuality/longing and a vague sense of the ultimate futility/hopelessness of his situation or that there is any meaning in life.

Warmly, Lori D.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[Jane in NC]

DO PREVIEW Calvino!!

 

 

Thanks Lori. The man's imagination and use of language (which I read via translation) is what I was remembering. I had not encountered Calvino until my 20's and began reading his books through my lens of the time and certainly not thinking about what would be appropriate for a teen to read.

 

This thread had me thinking of my favorite novels. One is For Whom the Bell Tolls. Is that appropriate for a teen? It probably depends on the teen.

 

My son read some Calvino Italian fairy tales a few years ago and I was thinking that he might like the short stories. He seems attracted to dystopian themes in science fiction, something we've been trying to move away from in this thread, and I just don't remember an overwhelming sense of that from Cosmicomics. But then my memory is not what it used to be. Sigh.

 

Again, thank you for these comments.

 

Jane

[MBH]

Socrates' Defense (Apology) by Plato provides a nice introduction to Plato and enough meat for any teenager (25 pages). It may spark interest in Plato's dialogues.

[Nan in Mass]

I love Cheerfulness Breaks In. I think I like Wild Strawberries, Pomfret Towers, and Cheerfulness the best. It is hard to choose, though. I have found that I liked best different ones at different stages of my life. My mother gave me Pomfret Towers to read to comfort me when I was floundering in college, since I'm way too much like the main character. Wild Strawberries got me through my very brief but intense bout of baby blues after my first baby. Every time I put the book down, I started crying because my mother wasn't there in the hospital with me and I was so homesick - totally irrationally because she arrived as soon as the baby was born (bringing me Wild Strawberries, a silver baby spoon, the traditional feather-stitched blanket, and flowers), stayed with me until bed time, and was coming back first thing in the morning to take me home and spend the rest of the day with me until my husband came home from work. Somehow I'd missed reading it as a student, so it was nice and absorbing. And for some reason, I like Clarissa. I like the author. Kate is my favourite character, though. And Clarissa's grandmother reminds me of my mother. Ok - now I'm going to have to reread them GRIN.

-Nan

[Jane in NC]

I love Cheerfulness Breaks In. I think I like Wild Strawberries, Pomfret Towers, and Cheerfulness the best. It is hard to choose, though. I have found that I liked best different ones at different stages of my life....

 

Wild Strawberries is wonderful. I sent a copy of it to a friend as her introduction to the author. She was astounded that she had lived her life not having read Thirkell!

 

Jane (who wants to be Nan's neighbor in Barsetshire)

[Michelle in MO]

I get on them, I learn something new.

 

Would you believe I have never heard of Italo Calvino, or Anthony Trollope, or Angela Thirkell? Why have I not heard of these? Have I been living under a rock?

 

At any rate, I'm going to the library this afternoon to see if they carry any of these; I've copied and pasted the names of the authors and titles of the books into a Word document.

 

If our library doesn't carry them, I'm checking out Barnes & Noble.

 

Thanks for the great ideas, everyone!

 

ETA: Just checked our library, and as I suspected, we still live in a cultural backwater. :( None of the titles or authors were available. When people ask me why I own so many books, I just point to where we live. If I'm ever rich and famous, I hope to do three things for our town: 1) start a classical school; 2) help build a bigger and better library; 3) open a Barnes & Noble.

Edited November 26, 2008 by Michelle in MO

[Laurie4b]

American lit through the 19th century is meaty without being depressing. It may have sad themes, but usually there is a light of redemption. When we were doing American Lit, we noticed how the absence of a belief in God in most 20th century authors resulted in very dark, depressing literature. Ds hated 20th century lit. because it was so depressing.

[Nan in Mass]

Snow Goose is beautiful but sad in the end. Just a warning...

[Nan in Mass]

I enjoyed it, especially keeping Wuthering Heights in mind, which I haven't really read because I sort of cheated. The only place I ever did was in not really completely reading something I knew I didn't want to have to live with in my head for the rest of my life. Wuthering Heights was definately one of those. But if I remember correctly, birth control comes into Cold Comfort Farm? I would give it to my teenagers to read without hesitation, but just in case someone else is a bit more worried about such things...

Edited November 26, 2008 by Nan in Mass
Cold Comfort Farm...

[Nan in Mass]

It lost its title when I tried to switch mid-post to advanced. Or something.

[Lori D.]

Jane in NC said:

Thanks Lori. The man's imagination and use of language (which I read via translation) is what I was remembering. I had not encountered Calvino until my 20's and began reading his books through my lens of the time and certainly not thinking about what would be appropriate for a teen to read.

Hey Jane,

That was exactly my experience with Calvino, too! :001_smile: Discovered him in my 20s, and read a lot of his works, and was really amazed at his imagination and use of language. But... Just now starting to re-evaluate in light of having a teen read it. (Amazing how differently you read things when previewing!) We must be literature twins separated at birth. (lol!)

And I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading Calvino. I'm pre-reading Cosmicomics right now, as we'll be doing some of these this year (16yo/10th grade son) as part of our "Worldviews in Sci-Fi and Gothic Literature" course we're making up as we go. :tongue_smilie: So Calvino will be great for evolution and existentialism without getting so dang bleak. Those issues I expressed concern over are pretty quiet throughout Cosmicomics, so it's a good choice for first exposure to Calvino -- as are his fairytales -- at least, the book I have is his translation/rendition of traditional Italian fairytales, so there isn't anything mature in there that I *remember*...

Jane in NC said:

This thread had me thinking of my favorite novels. One is For Whom the Bell Tolls. Is that appropriate for a teen? It probably depends on the teen.

I put off Hemingway just because of his depressing worldview. Next year we'll be doing American Lit., so I guess we'll have to do *something* by him. sigh...

Jane in NC said:

My son read some Calvino Italian fairy tales a few years ago and I was thinking that he might like the short stories. He seems attracted to dystopian themes in science fiction, something we've been trying to move away from in this thread, and I just don't remember an overwhelming sense of that from Cosmicomics. But then my memory is not what it used to be. Sigh.

Actually, I think Cosmicomics are some of the lightest and most humorous of Calvino's works that I've read. What can be outright depressing in other of his works is just a vague longing -- an itch that can't be scratched -- in Cosmicomics.

And fortunately, a lot of other ladies have thrown out some *great* works that are not depressing! Here are a few more titles, though they may be repeats. Warmest regards, Lori

MYSTERY
- Cadfael series (Peters)
- Sherlock Holmes series (Doyle)
- Father Brown series (Chesterton)
- Lord Peter (Sayers)

FANTASY
- Earthsea trilogy (LeGuin)
- Aurelia's Colors, Cyndere's Midnight (Overstreet)
- Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
- Leaf by Niggle, Smith of Wooten Major, Farmer Giles of Ham (Tolkien) -- short stories
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)
- Watership Down (Adams)

HUMOR
- Life With Jeeves (Wodehouse)
- Three Men in a Boat (Jerome)
- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)
- All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot)

CLASSICS
- Ben Hur (Wallace)
- Christmas Carol (Dickens)
- Tom Sawyer (Twain)
- Rikki Tikki Tavi (Kipling)
- Jungle Book (Kipling)
- Emma, Pride & Prejudice, or Sense & Sensibility (Austen)
- Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare)

CHRISTIAN THEME
- Till We Have Faces (Lewis)
- Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength (Lewis)
- The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton)
- A Severe Mercy (Vanauken)
- Bruchko (Olson)
- The Great and Terrible Quest (Lovett)

These books are powerful, with tragic events taking place in them, but I think are ultimately very redeeming, which (IMHO) lifts them from being depressing:

- Cry The Beloved Country (Paton)
- I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Craven)
- The Hiding Place (tenBoom)

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[Laura Corin]

I might argue with Much Ado though: the 'Kill Claudio' scene always chills my blood, and makes the jollity of the play's ending seem hollow and dark.

 

Laura

[Lori D.]

Yep. That's why we're doing sci-fi rather than 20th century lit. this year to go along with our 20th century history. HOWEVER -- I'm beginning to wonder how much "lighter" our reading list is! Check it out below. Warmly, Lori D.

- Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde -- man cannot by his own efforts separate himself from his inner evil
- Frankenstein -- obsessed, fallen scientist creates an obsessed fallen creature; everyone plays the "victim card"
- The Time Machine (evolution, socialism) -- VERY bleak future view of evolution!!
- Animal Farm (communism) -- "equal society" quickly deteriorates into totalitarianism
- The Giver (utopia) -- the dark side of "utopia"
- Brave New World (utopia/distopia) -- the even darker view of utopia
- Farenheit 451 (humanism) -- loss of thinking to screen images; ultimately ending with nuclear war
- "There Will Come Soft Rains" -- humanistic, post-apocalypse
- A Canticle for Leibowitz -- the enduring church outlasts the repeated cycle of apocalypse of man's nature/history
- Cosmicomics (existentialism) -- man is alone, left only with a vague never-to-be-satisfied longing
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (absurdism) -- life is meaningless, so let's laugh at it all before (and after!) Earth is destroyed

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[ereks mom]

I found that utterly depressing when I read it a few years ago.

 

Laura

 

;)

[Nan in Mass]

Hornblower series

Captain Blood

Midshipman Quinn

 

I haven't read any of these, so I can't vouch for how suitable they are for various ages. Even my non-readers liked them, though.

 

And not for the faint of heart, since they are full of violence, yukiness, and contain some sex, the Falco mysteries, set in ancient Rome. I include them because they've been such a hit with my family, even the non-readers like my dad, from 14yo on up, and if you are looking for something to get older boys reading, they might work. As I said, though, they aren't classics, and you'll want to pre-read them.

 

-Nan

[Nan in Mass]

Very cool! Lots of these I haven't read!

[Nan in Mass]

Definately a sign :)

[Nan in Mass]

I think you might like it.

-Nan

[Jane in NC]

I think you might like it.

-Nan

 

Thanks for recommending Greenwillow, Nan. I have not read it and look forward to doing so.

[Lori D.]

I know what you mean. The more I started thinking about a lot of the classics, the more I started thinking about most of them have scenes, characters or elements that someone would consider depressing:

- Call of the Wild = pretty violent

- Treasure Island = Jim loses his taste for adventure and never goes to sea again due to what he experienced

- At the Back of the North Wind = the child dies in the end (though, we know he enters paradise, that is still a tough ending for moms!)

- Little Women = Beth dies; Jo and Laurie don't get married

- The Once and Future King = man, does that book get bleak! -- adultery, no turning from it, and the king grows old and realizes that even before he dies, all his efforts were for naught and the new generation doesn't have any sense of the importance of the high ideals he strove to instill in his people

It got pretty difficult to come up with anything! And even books I did put on the list may include a tough scene, the loss of a character, etc. ... Hmmm... that poses the question: is part of what makes a book a classic is that it walks us through difficulties and loss so we can better do so in real life??

Love chatting with you ladies! : ) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[Nan in Mass]

You are welcome. Happy Thanksgiving!

[Nan in Mass]

Yup. I assigned some dark ones, and then let my son choose his own darkness to fill out the list. He chose vampire ones, which he seems to find redeeming, somehow, and I find worrisome. As far as I can tell from his explainations, I think he is liking the outcast-trying-to-survive aspect. I just thought the warnings were more accessable to the young in scifi.

[RebeccaC]

I have not seen any books by this author on this list so I thought I would add her on, Gene Stratton-Porter. The best in imho is The Keeper of the Bees. It is a story about a WWI vet and it is very good and should be a must read by all young men. The book most folks are familiar with is, A Girl of the Limberlost. We have quite a few of her books but Keeper of the Bees is the best. The book was published after her death and was made into a movie in 1935.

 

A sub theme of the book is Chasity so there is no s*x. It covers Chasity in a very nice way and a girl who gets knocked up is redeemed by the main character. It has a lot about how a man should treat a woman when it comes to Chasity, ect..... The book was written in 1925 and has that time period flavor. There are dark themes as in soldiers dealing with wounds and gassing during WWI once they are home and how trouble they have entering into civilian life but it ends on a very high and positive note and the dark themes are never overwhelming.

 

Another major sub theme is hope........ in tragedy, in sickness, in mistakes, ect....

Edited November 27, 2008 by RebeccaC

[Nan in Mass]

I thought of another - My Friend Flicka and the sequels. And the writing in Wind of the Willows is beautiful, definately not to be missed as an adult.

[Storm Bay]

I'll have to go back and reread some of these posts (I did read &/or scan all).

 

I hated Animal Farm. I wouldn't suggest Pearl S. Buck for what the OP wanted. I'd avoid Lord of the Flies (dark!)

 

For literature, not necessarily old, that is not dark (I loathe dark literature)

 

The Republic of Love (not sure how boys would like that one or if the content is kid-friendly, though, but this is for the general conversation that moved along--all of Carol Shield's other books are dark)

 

The Tale of Two Cities I just love the heroic ending of this one. It's not all light and there are some nasty things that happen, but it's not really dark overall and because there's the element of hope and redemption (okay, this is my take on it and I am NOT a literary buff whatsoever--I eshewed litereary analysis and avoided it like the plague.)

 

I loved a good abridged version of Les Miserables when I was a kid--I'd never force an unabridged one on anyone as only an ardent purist would want to read all those pages on sewers, etc.

 

My dd is looking forward to reading Don Quixote when she gets to high school (my 10 yo, that is. My 13 yo would probably hate it.) That's not dark, even though it's not my kind of novel.

 

I'd avoid most Canadian literature as it tends to be dark although very good (there ought to be more of it studied, IMO, and not just because I'm Canadian--there's more to Canadian lit than Anne of Green Gables & Margaret Atwood.) However, some great nonfiction but literary books for boys (but many girls love it, too) that I'd recommend are The Dog Who Wouldn't Be and The Boat Who Wouldn't Float. Humour, but I personally think that Farley Mowatt should be on the lists.

 

eta I think your boys are too young for this right now, but I loved the literary novel Snow Falling on Cedars.

[kokotg]

Hmm...Delta Wedding (Eudora Welty)? I don't know how much appeal it would have to high school boys. I just think everyone should read it.

 

I taught Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant in a freshman comp class once; there's a surprising amount of stuff to dig into there.

[Sahamamama]

Kim -- Kipling

Tom Sawyer; Huck Finn; Prince and Pauper -- Twain

The Secret of Hermit's Bay -- Elinor Lyon (set in Scotland)

Cadfael mysteries -- Ellis Peters (great for building "Old English" vocabulary, I think, at least for this American reader ;))

 

Hope this helps. I loved the photos on your blog of your walks and wanderings in Scotland! Hope the weather holds a bit longer for you. Enjoy autumn while you can.

[Guest Lorna]

I know that, for example, I personally cannot abide the long drawn out tragedies of Thomas Hardy - particularly Jude the Obscure and Tess; but I do love Turgenev's 'On the Eve' and Tolstoy's 'Resurrection' and 'Anna Karenin' and I will probably encourage dd to read them in a couple of years time. Am I being hypocritical in what I consider 'gloomy'? I guess some books simply seem to wallow in tragedy, whereas as Tolstoy and Turgenev have a postive purpose to them.

Can I suggest E M Forster? Particularly 'Where Angels Fear to Tread' for an older teen; 'Howard's End', 'The Longest Journey' and 'A Room with a View'. I love 'Maurice' too but perhaps that would need to be preread depending on a family's beliefs.

I am enjoying this thread enormously, thank you for all your wonderful suggestions everyone. There are so many I have never heard of or thought of. The Greek commedies I hadn't thought of giving to our daughter but I know she will love them.

Edited November 28, 2008 by Lorna

[Jane in NC]

I know that, for example, I personally cannot abide the long drawn out tragedies of Thomas Hardy - particularly Jude the Obscure and Tess; but I do love Turgenev's 'On the Eve' and Tolstoy's 'Resurrection' and 'Anna Karenin' and I will probably encourage dd to read them in a couple of years time. Am I being hypocritical in what I consider 'gloomy'? I guess some books simply seem to wallow in tragedy, whereas as Tolstoy and Turgenev have a postive purpose to them.

Can I suggest E M Forster? Particularly 'Where Angels Fear to Tread' for an older teen; 'Howard's End', 'The Longest Journey' and 'A Room with a View'. I love 'Maurice' too but perhaps that would need to be preread depending on a family's beliefs.

I am enjoying this thread enormously, thank you for all your wonderful suggestions everyone. There are so many I have never heard of or thought of. The Greek commedies I hadn't thought of giving to our daughter but I know she will love them.

 

Lorna, I share your enjoyment of this thread. Not only is it providing a list of books for my son to read, but reminding me of books that I have read (and should reread) or have wanted to read.

 

Forster is another personal favorite but I don't think I would put him in my son's hands. (Not his cup of tea.)

 

Turgenev's Fathers and Sons and A Sportman's Sketches influenced Hemingway, the Nick Adams stories in particular, which might provide an interesting avenue of study. Turgenev opened my eyes to the grit and exploitation of 19th century Russian serfdom. Nihilism is the world view openly discussed in Fathers and Sons but I don't remember the book being overly depressing.

 

As I think about books for this thread, I have come to the realization that authors of the mid to late nineteen century and into the early 20th were often reflecting the state of their societies where life was difficult. Hence we may find the small town life of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, or the the urban landscapes of Drieser's Sister Carrie to be depressing. (The storyline in Sister Carrie really is a downer--I would not want to have read that book in high school when all of the possibility of life seem ahead of me!) As Lorna mentioned, some books seem to wallow in tragedy. I think when an author leads characters through the crucible to redemption in some form, the tragedy is part of the process from which we learn. And what a teen digests at 13 is quite different than 17.

 

Bottom line from this thread: Too many books, so little time.

 

Best,

Jane

 

P.S. Lorna-- some parents on these boards have considered Aristophanes crude. That did not stop us from enjoying The Frogs!

[Jane in NC]

I remember as a teen going through a LOT of Kenneth Roberts historical fiction (mostly American history, Northwest Passage, Arundel, Rabble in Arms), Lloyd C. Douglas (the guy who wrote The Robe, but also lots of other novels including Magnificent Obsession), and James Hilton (who wrote Lost Horizon, but also Goodbye Mr. Chips and other novels).

 

Glad you mentioned Kenneth Roberts! One of my friends adored these books in her youth and has recommended them. Alas, I had forgotten the recommendation.

 

Jane (who needs to write more things down)

[dymphna57]

Can I state that I am a Trollope, Austen, Thirkell, Pym , Goudge, Dickens fan here? Just in case some one confuses me with someone from the real world.

I just dipped into the required reading list for the highschool leaving cert exam here and it is depressing.

I think that my teens have loved heros and heroines and needed courage and idealism. I guess the idea is they need to identifiy wilth some of the darker moods they are also coping with but what if they get stuck in gothic black and body piercing?

I love the lists so far. I really love Cold Comfort Farm and it does deal with promiscuity and b*rth c*tr*l. It is so hilarious though!

I think that Charles Williams, another of the Inklings group that included Tollkien and Lewis really deserves recognition. His books such as "Descent into Hell" and "Place of the Lion", " Matter of Substance", and "All Hallows' Eve", are incredibly well written, have strong Christian themes and are just supernatural enough to be captivating. Really can't recommend highly enough .

[Storm Bay]

I know that, for example, I personally cannot abide the long drawn out tragedies of Thomas Hardy - particularly Jude the Obscure and Tess; but I do love Turgenev's 'On the Eve' and Tolstoy's 'Resurrection' and 'Anna Karenin' and I will probably encourage dd to read them in a couple of years time. Am I being hypocritical in what I consider 'gloomy'? I guess some books simply seem to wallow in tragedy, whereas as Tolstoy and Turgenev have a postive purpose to them.

.

 

Do you know that I've never read a Russian book? When I was young, my grandmother, who was trilingual, told me that she would only read Russian novels in Russian because the translations just weren't the same (can't remember how she put it.) I'm not Russian by descent, btw.