That’s Classic! (A Top Ten Tuesday List)

July 1, 2014 Classics, Top Ten Tuesday 38

Hidey Ho, Bookworms!

It’s time to get listy with it, and the ladies of The Broke and the Bookish have provided me with a topic near and dear to my heart… Classic books that rock! I haven’t been in a super classics-y mood of late, but there are a good many that I have loved. Ready or not, here they come!

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1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (review)– Charlotte, you’re the only Brontë for me! I probably shouldn’t say that, as I haven’t read any of Anne’s work, but Wuthering Heights (review) was not my favorite (sorrynotsorry, EMILY.) I seriously doubt anything could live up to my adoration of Jane Eyre.

2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo– I know a LOT of people do not enjoy this book. Frankly, I’m shocked that I liked it as much as I did. It may just have been the timing or the fact that I had the musical playing on repeat in my head the whole time (or the fun of pointing out inconsistencies from the book to the musical… That helped, being an insufferable know-it-all.) Given its sheer enormity I’m not sure it’s one I’d tackle again any time soon, but I really did like it!

3. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy- Oh Tess! This book, you guys. Tess had such a rough go of it, the poor girl. The quintessential victim of circumstance, our Tess.

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4. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott-The March girls have had my heart since I was 11 years old. I still don’t know what a pickled lime is, and I’m curious… Does anybody know where I may procure pickled limes?

5. Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen- Northanger Abbey (review) runs a very close second place in the contest of my favorite Austen, but Pride and Prejudice wins out because it’s one of the books I was assigned to read in high school that I actually lurved. Nobody really expects to enjoy their homework, it felt like my dirty little secret. It was so soapy, and that Lydia! Scandalous.

6. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain- (which I intentionally list below Jane Austen because Twain was a notorious Austen hater, and I like to think I’m needling his ghost by doing so.) This was assigned reading my junior year of high school and I loved it. I was particularly drawn in by the segment about the family feud.

7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (review)- Mmmm I love a good dystopia. I won’t claim there aren’t days I wouldn’t love to have access to some SOMA, but I am pretty pleased not to be subject to government mandated orgies…

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8. 1984 by George Orwell- Yep, two dystopias in a one list. Don’t judge me, yo!

9. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald- Another school assignment that turned out well! I find it a little disconcerting that at the age of 31 I have a desperate hankering for a BFF necklace. Thanks a lot, Modcloth. (It’s HERE, you know you want to look.)

10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (review)- Francie Nolan, oh, how I love thee! I don’t know how I made it so many years before finally reading this book, but I’m SO GLAD that I did! I know I’d read excerpts from this book in school (the Christmas tree throwing incident, anyone?), but I didn’t appreciate the wonderfulness of the book until I read the whole thing. READ IT!!!

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Bookworms, how many of you get down with the classics? What are some of your favorites?

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38 Responses to “That’s Classic! (A Top Ten Tuesday List)”

  6. Carrie

    Three of my favorites are on your list: Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and a Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Little Women and A Tree Grows are probably responsible for me being a reader today.

    Reply

  7. April @ The Steadfast Reader

    I LOVE Tess… which I was shocked by because I put off reading it FORVER. But it’s really super kind of modern. Of course 1984 and Brave New World would have been on my list too – I probably would have had A Handmaid’s Tale – so I would have had THREE dystopias. Hater’s gonna hate. 🙂

    Reply

    • Words For Worms

      I toyed with the idea of putting The Handmaid’s Tale on the list, but it seemed too new to be a classic… At least, for this list. Because that book is friggin genius.

      Reply

  10. Kerri

    I have lots of the same on my list- but I need to steal my son’s copy of 1984 this summer before he marks it up!

    Reply

  11. AMB

    Great list! I love Jane Eyre. My husband made a comment about someone named “Jane” yesterday, and I thought he was talking about some woman he met. It turned out to be Jane Eyre! He’s listening to the audio book.

    As for Jane Austen, I love everything she wrote. Persuasion is my favorite at the moment.

    Reply

  14. Megan M.

    First of all, the necklace — LOVE. I would totally rock that with you! I do like The Great Gatsby but I wouldn’t choose to re-read it because, ugh, Daisy and Tom.

    Little Women is my fave classic from this list. I read it in third grade and then my older sister took me to see the Winona Ryder movie version for my 12th birthday and my first celebrity crushes were Christian Bale and Gabriel Byrne. That lucky, lucky Jo March!

    Reply

  16. Jenny @ Reading the End

    Agree one hundred percent about Charlotte vs Emily BUT: Didn’t Charlotte find the manuscript of Wuthering Heights and submit it to a publisher without Emily’s consent? Am I imagining things? If not, we really can’t blame Emily for anything. She was just writing quietly in her room before her sister got all up in her business.

    (Unless I am imagining things, which again: Very possible.)

    Reply

  18. Megan

    I’m not a huge classic reader, but who could read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and not love it? I seriously have got to read it again! I like Huck Finn, particularly the floating down the Mississippi part. Jane Eyre almost made my list, but I was being super picky and she got left off, but Charlotte still definitely wins over Emily in the battle of the Brontes!

    Reply

  20. Jennine G.

    Lady, you have wonderful taste in classics! I’ve read and liked almost all of those! Even Les Mis, which I read before ever hearing or seeing a single song/production of it!

    Reply

  21. Giselle

    I love Jane Eyre, its absolutely amazing! I love The Great Gatsby. I haven’t read Les Miserables but i loved the movie and want to read the book

    Reply

  23. Amy @ Read a Latte

    I feel like I rushed through Tess of the D’Urbervilles one summer for summer reading and I only remember slogging through it, but I hope to someday to re-read it and see if I feel differently now. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Great Gatsby are some of my favorites though, too!

    Reply

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