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Re: The Classics - general discussion / survey .. edited. Camilla Send a noteboard - 30/09/2010 08:58:14 PM
Legolas' post about Emma and Rebekah's challenge got me thinking that there are a lot of "classics" floating around out there that certain people (myself included) may never have given a chance. This will be true, regardless of what you consider a "classic" to be. I leaned a little too heavily on a man named Cliff during school to avoid getting too far out of my comfort zone. Also, making something "required" reading usually took away some of it's appeal for me.

This may be more of a survey than a discussion, but I think it would be interesting none the less, especially with the amount of literature buffs around this board. Anyway, here we go...

How do you define a classic work or author?


It depends. One definition sticks to a certain period of Greek literature. And then there is the fudgy "canon". But I suppose the main test is whether something is still considered good after a hundred years or so. Though I think people are calling "classics" books from the 50s. It is very fuzzy.

What are your favorite classic works?


I love Aristophanes and Herodotos. And I really like Hamlet and Macbeth. And I'll read Austen any chance I get. Same with Woolf, really. Or Dumas. Or Wodehouse. I am writing my PhD on Dickens, so I suppose I'll have to mention him. And Thackeray and Stevenson. I quite like some of Zola. There is too much to mention. I real a lot of "canon" literature.

Edit: the more I think about this, the more books I feel that I should enter. There are so many good ones. Starting with Homer (Gilgamesh was alright, but not something I feel an immediate urge to re-read), on to Sapho, Aeschylos, Sohpocles, Plato, Xenophon, then Catullus, Vergil, Ovid. The mystery plays of the medieval period are worth your time. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Shakespeare, and Aphra Behn, Michel de Montaigne, Moliére, Racine, Fielding, Swift, Laurence Sterne, Goethe's Elective Affinities (not the tragic romantic stuff), Pope, Blake, Baudelaire, Lewis Carroll, Jules Verne, Nietzche (oh, my god, Nietzsche... or are we only talking about fiction here?), Ibsen and Strindberg, Henry James, Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, Gaston Leroux, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky (within reason), Gogol, Bulgakov, Kafka, Joyce, Woolf, Proust, Walter Benjamin, Huxley, Orwell, Beckett, ... and with that I think we have reached the end of what I am comfortable calling a "classic". Although I will emphasise that I am associating wildly, and it is quite possible that I have forgotten someone I really like.

If you had to suggest just one, which would it be and why? (please not, "because it's good" )


Hmm. If you are not used to reading non-contemporary books, I think Dumas or Wodehouse, possibly Austen (but I think possibly that works better if you are a girl) is a good place to start, mainly because the difference will not be so great. Stevenson is always great. Or, you know, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Or Poe. Those are a good place to start because they are not terribly challenging.

The same goes for Tolstoy. I am always amused by how War and Peace is touted like this difficult, intellectual novel when it is really a soap opera. It is interesting, and it is fun to read (if you get through the periods of thoughts on history, but those are short).

What have you staunchly refused to read that might be considered a classic?


Nothing, really. I don't staunchly refuse to read anything that I think might be good. I am not a great fan of Milton. And I think Robinson Crusoe is one of the more boring books in the history of the canon, but I read them before I made up my mind.

Why don't you want to read it?


n/a

I considered myself relatively well read, until I started hanging out around here at least. I will answer the questions in the next post to get it started, despite what it might reveal about my literary experience (or lack thereof). Thanks!
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
This message last edited by Camilla on 30/09/2010 at 09:30:50 PM
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The Classics - general discussion / survey - 30/09/2010 03:52:53 PM 1318 Views
My own answers. - 30/09/2010 04:38:33 PM 905 Views
I'm trying to read a bit of Shakespeare at the moment - 30/09/2010 07:20:02 PM 850 Views
Re: I'm trying to read a bit of Shakespeare at the moment - 30/09/2010 09:14:23 PM 836 Views
Get a copy with annotations! - 30/09/2010 10:56:12 PM 828 Views
Re: My own answers. - 30/09/2010 09:02:08 PM 930 Views
Powdered Soup! - 30/09/2010 09:23:51 PM 951 Views
Re: Powdered Soup! - 30/09/2010 09:34:06 PM 1202 Views
Re: Powdered Soup! - 30/09/2010 10:07:20 PM 891 Views
Re: Powdered Soup! - 30/09/2010 10:10:32 PM 1055 Views
They are much, much worse than powder soup. - 30/09/2010 09:50:07 PM 787 Views
Well, since they're made of paper... - 30/09/2010 10:09:41 PM 873 Views
Re: My own answers. - 30/09/2010 11:35:36 PM 902 Views
Cliff's notes - 05/10/2010 08:05:56 PM 956 Views
Re: Cliff's notes - 05/10/2010 09:21:06 PM 1178 Views
Re: Cliff's notes - 06/10/2010 01:40:38 AM 967 Views
It's cool. - 06/10/2010 04:42:13 PM 1009 Views
A classic is really any book with enduring value. - 30/09/2010 05:33:35 PM 882 Views
Re: A classic is really any book with enduring value. - 30/09/2010 06:46:02 PM 911 Views
Re: A classic is really any book with enduring value. - 30/09/2010 10:57:23 PM 843 Views
Re: A classic is really any book with enduring value. - 30/09/2010 11:39:16 PM 736 Views
Camilla, that's just because you're an atheist. - 01/10/2010 09:37:34 PM 800 Views
Yes. - 01/10/2010 09:51:32 PM 783 Views
Re: A classic is really any book with enduring value. - 01/10/2010 12:20:51 AM 965 Views
totally problematic classics - 30/09/2010 08:07:22 PM 944 Views
Re: totally problematic classics - 30/09/2010 09:26:46 PM 848 Views
I study them, apparently. - 30/09/2010 08:44:40 PM 973 Views
I wish I could do that. - 30/09/2010 09:49:57 PM 880 Views
Less fun than you'd think. - 30/09/2010 10:52:10 PM 771 Views
Re: The Classics - general discussion / survey .. edited. - 30/09/2010 08:58:14 PM 948 Views
Good survey. - 30/09/2010 10:23:18 PM 959 Views
Agreed. edited - 30/09/2010 10:37:48 PM 920 Views
But but but Milton is beautiful - 30/09/2010 10:46:06 PM 860 Views
Sometimes. - 30/09/2010 10:47:28 PM 877 Views
Maybe I was unclear. - 30/09/2010 10:55:22 PM 886 Views
Re: Maybe I was unclear. - 30/09/2010 10:57:41 PM 765 Views
I'm glad you approve on the whole. - 30/09/2010 11:12:00 PM 891 Views
I generally do. - 30/09/2010 11:19:05 PM 886 Views
Excellent. Might as well include a Hooft poem anyway, in case anyone's interested... - 30/09/2010 11:40:24 PM 1041 Views
Re: Excellent. Might as well include a Hooft poem anyway, in case anyone's interested... - 30/09/2010 11:43:20 PM 877 Views
Dickens - 01/10/2010 02:42:42 PM 871 Views
Re: I generally do. - 30/09/2010 11:54:11 PM 939 Views
Oh, and link to the Flecker poem: - 30/09/2010 11:42:30 PM 771 Views
Re: Good survey. - 01/10/2010 02:52:27 AM 1040 Views
My classics - 30/09/2010 10:54:56 PM 849 Views
Re: My classics - 01/10/2010 03:01:24 AM 923 Views
Ah Cliff, I bow to thee - 30/09/2010 11:30:41 PM 982 Views
Re: Ah Cliff, I bow to thee - 01/10/2010 03:18:58 AM 830 Views
Re: Ah Cliff, I bow to thee - 01/10/2010 05:20:10 AM 924 Views
Re: Ah Cliff, I bow to thee - 01/10/2010 02:05:35 PM 868 Views
Re: Ah Cliff, I bow to thee - 02/10/2010 04:07:10 AM 874 Views
Ha, we weren't that far off after all. - 04/10/2010 08:11:39 PM 816 Views
I will not list 300+ books here, I promise - 01/10/2010 12:36:17 AM 970 Views
O'Connor is wonderful. But I am not sure many can appreciate her. - 01/10/2010 02:50:54 AM 674 Views
I agree, thus the "confound" part in there - 01/10/2010 02:53:26 AM 757 Views
I figured as much. - 01/10/2010 03:08:26 AM 800 Views
I expected you to have quite a few as well. - 01/10/2010 03:25:06 AM 874 Views
Re: I will not list 300+ books here, I promise - 02/10/2010 11:23:37 AM 926 Views
Criminy, I thought I was done with essay questions years ago. - 01/10/2010 01:39:56 AM 903 Views
Glad to bring back the school days. - 01/10/2010 01:49:48 PM 930 Views
Re: Glad to bring back the school days. - 02/10/2010 05:32:47 AM 757 Views
not sure but I don't believe in instant classics - 02/10/2010 05:22:07 AM 912 Views
the bf and I are going to do a "Paradise Lost" book club... - 02/10/2010 08:29:38 AM 1018 Views
Mm, Doré's engravings are gorgeous. - 02/10/2010 11:40:48 AM 942 Views
Re: Mm, Doré's engravings are gorgeous. - 02/10/2010 09:42:37 PM 903 Views

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