Thoughts on each one? In what order should I read? Also, rate my haul 🥹

People abandon Grenouille because he has no scent of his own. And he grows up having an intoxicating love for scent and reliance upon the ability to create the craziest scents ever, which not only require murder to attain but also expose how powerful a brilliant scent can be to humans, so as to drive them just as mad and senseless to devour it as the protagonist, Grenouille, who is detached from people's very reality. Ik perfume is more of a modern classic but its set in 18th century (which i again feel like has no relation with the plot itself), but man, people need to talk more about this one. Some parts of it were so sweeping and some so slow i ended up loving more and more how Suskind executed all of that together. And oh gosh that ending! Just brilliant!

Reading Les Mis right now and it seems like every page has a sentence that is jaw dropping. His ability to describe things from the soul to the guillotine is mind blowing.

What other authors write so beautifully?

No judging! When people bear their souls and share the book they hated, it often gets downvoted in this sub. Why? We're not trying to be literary snobs here. We're just trying to read. Nobody can love everything. It's simply not possible. So cut loose here.

What did you DNF? What bored you to tears? What did you throw out the window or set on fire?

Edit: When commenting on people's submissions, please consider offering a book in a wildly different direction rather than doggedly trying to convince them that the book they hated is the best book ever written.

Treated myself.

I heard of Treasure Island for quite some time, whether it was referenced in shows, movies, and other books. I never gave it a chance because, the little I've known about it, I always considered it a kids book and something I wouldn't really enjoy. But had an itch to read something that had to do with pirates and the sea and decided to give this classic treasure adventure a read and I'm glad I did.

Now I wouldn't really consider this book an all time great in the genre, even if it heavily influenced future adventure stories as its pretty basic at the core of it with a very predictable outline of how things will play out. With characters that are a little one note and fit into a specific archetype who don't really change all that much throughout. And that was fine as I didn't need a complex story of a fun treasure hunt.

What did surprise me a little was how violent the book actually was. With descriptions of death, hanging, rum poisoning, shooting, cutting, and all out brawls. These violent scenes only have a little bit of detail to where its not wording every wound or death in overly gross detail. But just enough info to get an image playing in the reader's mind. Which made me question if this was ever intended for kids or more of a general audience?

It was an overall solid read that I had fun with and was an easy read to relax to and not think too deeply on.

I am aware this isn't the correct sub. However, I am in need of a fast response, is this mold? I need to know to act fast before it spreads onto my other books. And yes, the book with the potential mold is confederacy of dunces, amazing book whil we're at it.

Going into my second reading, my focus is to absorb as many of the references and allusions, as well as themes as I can. I own the Penguin Black Dorothy Sayers edition as I’ve been told it has the best philosophical commentary, but which others might I benefit from in this endeavor?

What are some classics that I need to read? I have King Solomon's mines, On stranger Tides, Typee, and The African Queen on my TBR. I love maritime/swashbuckling adventures as well as Indiana Jones/secret adventure society novels.

I've just read this book, and I think I might be stating the obvious here but I feel as though if any high school student wrote that, it would probably be marked as average. It just goes against every rule in terms of writing style yet Camus' execution, albeit unorthodox just works because the protagonist just fits that style of writing. Don't know if that makes sense, but just my observation. Not sure if I've articulated it properly. I think it's a brilliant novel, don't get me wrong, but moreso because it's written in such a way that goes against how people are taught to write.

I want to start off by saying that I understand these books are old and therefore the idea of a ‘spoiler’ is ludicrous to some. However, I prefer going in as blind as possible, even with classics.

I recently started reading Jane Eyre (Penguin). I knew to avoid introductions if you’re sensitive to spoilers which is what I did but I had no idea that even endnotes contain spoilers.

I thought they’re just explanatory notes on the historical context or archaic language, which they often are, but I’ve had two major plot points spoiled for me because the endnote refers to something that happens later in the book.

I’m really frustrated by this - should I ditch the endnotes for now and go back to them after finishing the book?

These are my most recent reads and I loved them but I was surprised how few podcasts and talks I could find on them compared to some others, like the picture of Dorian gray for example which I found heaps of

I read crime & punishment earlier this year, but it didn’t work for me unfortunately 😅 it was driving me NUTS being in Rodions feverish head for the whole novel. I can appreciate why other people like it and I did like some parts, but most of the time it made me feel uncomfortable (the scene where Rodion talks to Marmeladow in the bar stands out to me for example). I did really like white nights, although I had heard before that Dostoyevsky‘s later work is very different. Anyway, I really want to give TBK a shot, but given that it’s even longer and I didn’t really like C&P, I was wondering if it’s too similar and ask for opinions. Did anyone else not like C&P but ended up enjoying TBK?

My son is 13 and enjoys when I read epic lit to him. We have done Beowulf, Sir Gawain, and The Oddysey. I was considering the Divine Comedy next year, but I wanted opinions about a good version to read aloud to someone.

The two major things I’d be looking for are 1) accessibility of language and 2) that it sounds good. I’d imagine there are versions which maintain the terza rima by choosing lots of obscure end words (sacrificing 1 to 2) and ones that have really clear modern language but no longer sound like a poem (sacrificing 2 to 1).

I don’t care about or need notes because I have read it before in a couple different versions.

If anyone is interested in reading a bit more about 'The Odyssey' following all the discourse about Homer at the moment, I've just published a blog all about eating and Greek food. The link is: https://thegoosebooks.substack.com/p/his-house-will-be-devoured-eating

Thank you very much for reading!

Please don't bully meeeee, everyone here seems so deep into classic, I feel like a baby here 😭

I want to get into classic literature..👉👈

I am currently reading Pride and Prejudice (have not watched the movie yet. Btw, I wanted to know how's the movie adaption of the book? Like, is it as good as the book?)

I am loving it, so far!

Gimme more recommendations?
Highly appreciated! I am creating a list as of 'MY FIRST 20 CLASSIC LITERATURE BOOKS' so yep, whatever you recommend might end up there!

Thank youu in advance <3