Your top 3 Classics

[Timstar]

Simply enough, what are your three favourites?

I'd say mine are:

• The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
• Moby Dick - Herman Melville
• Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

[JMack]

1. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
2. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
3. Short Stories of William Faulkner

[Doctor_Chill]

1. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley
2. Short Stories and Poems - Edgar Allen Poe
3. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

If it hadn't been for that little thing called a confusing introduction, Paradise Lost by Milton would've taken 3rd.

[Fallen One]

 What exactly do you mean by "classics"? Works of the beginning of the 20th century or before?

 For me, it'd be
 1. The Iliad
 2. The Lord of the Rings
 3. The Call of Cthulhu

[JMack]

Dunno what definition of classics Timstar had in mind, except that we're in the non-fantasy section of the forum.  That said, LOTR and the Iliad are classic across genres.  To be honest, LOTR should be my number 3, before Faulkner.  Tho I love me some Faulkner.

And I loved Call, if that's the right emotion for scared sh*tless at age 12.  Read aloud by my older brother, the effect of the mysterious words Cthulhu r'lyeh were actually spine tingling.

[Justan Henner]

This is a fun one... I'd have to go with:

1) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
2) Othello by Shakespeare. (Love me some Iago.)
3a) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Feels more like 1000 years when you're reading it, but it's one of those books you just look back on a lot. If not for the part where:

Spoiler for Hiden:

The step mom is angry because the daughter took the best sheets with her when she ascended into heaven

it probably wouldn't have made it into my top 10.
EDIT: 3b) I just remembered The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne and now I feel bad.

And for fun, I'll add my most hated classics:

1) Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.
2) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I love the second half of this book, but the first half where I have to sit and yell at all the characters to stop doing such stupid things like it's 90's horror film, really doesn't do the novel any good.

[ravenoak]

Mine would be:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
3. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Raven

[JMack]

Oh, man, Justin!  I really liked Death Comes for the Archbishop!
Oh well.  I'll have to try 100 Years.

[Justan Henner]

Oh, man, Justin!  I really liked Death Comes for the Archbishop!
Oh well.  I'll have to try 100 Years.

It was too uneventful for me haha. I think it was the fact that it's more short stories that were pieces of his life than a consistent plot. I think if I'd gone into knowing there wouldn't be a continuous plot I might've liked it more.

[portmeiriona]

Interesting to think about, which "classics" I truly enjoyed. There aren't many.

I'll go with:

1. The Tempest, William Shakespeare
2. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
3. The Awakening, Kate Chopin

[JMack]

The Awakening has always been a fascinating book for me.
Really liked it.  Essay question in American Novel course was: Do you think the character's suicide at the end was justified?  Worth it's own thread, that.

[portmeiriona]

The Awakening has always been a fascinating book for me.
Really liked it.  Essay question in American Novel course was: Do you think the character's suicide at the end was justified?  Worth it's own thread, that.

That book was one of the only books I read as assigned reading in high school English and actually liked. It was too long ago for me to contribute anything substantial to your thoughts, but I do remember thinking about that question quite a bit when I read it originally. Might have written a paper about that too.

[JMack]

Might as well address the Awakening question,m&t hen.

IMHO there was no justification for suicide, it was a supremely selfish act.  Fine, she was oppressed and unhappy.

But I'm not sure the author wants us to see the act as justified.  Chopin probably is just presenting what this character would do, and asking the reader to engage with the "facts" of her life, desires, and actions.  In another thread, some of us went on for post after post about what is or is not a "feminist" story.  Awakening is clearly one under any definition.  For me, it's a "great minor novel" - quotes especially relevant, since I'm not even sure what I mean by that!

[ravenoak]

IMHO there was no justification for suicide, it was a supremely selfish act.  Fine, she was oppressed and unhappy.

Spoken like someone who doesn't suffer depression--though I could be wrong.
Depression lies. It tells us all the things we don't want to hear, pokes holes in our suit of armor, and leaves us vulnerable. Saying, "Fine, she was oppressed and unhappy," is:
a) an understatement
and b) akin to saying, "Just get over it" to someone suffering from depression.

It's a mental illness that makes people so vulnerable and unhappy that suicide is often seen as a way out. A way to end suffering. It's not, but your brain will trick you into believing it is. You aren't in your right mind when you're thinking like that. It's not something one just "gets over" or moves on from.

I love The Awakening. There's a great argument to be had for Edna suffering from depression, especially because of the oppression she suffers. She doesn't fit within the society everyone says she must fit into.

While her suicide is most certainly the coward's way out, it could easily be argued as the justified actions of one who is mentally not well. There is a huge difference between justified and selfish. Even the most selfish actions can still be justified.

[RussetDivinity]

I was going to list some very different books, but as I read through the list, I found one that absolutely had to fit on the list.

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Even in the middle of my rejecting religion, it spoke to me, and it wasn't until a few years later that I realized just how powerful that made it.
2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I saw the musical first, but I love the book just as much, and I will defend it to whatever cause. I even stopped liking a character on a TV show for a while because she declared that she couldn't stand Victor Hugo's writing.
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. First, French Revolution. I've had a slight fascination with it for years. Second, Sydney Carton. I feel a strange kinship to him, and it bothers me when people romanticize him into an ideal man. He isn't, and that's why I feel that connection, I think.