Classics-I-Have-Not-Read - A Challenge Continued in 2020, by fuzzi

Back in 2018 I decided that I wanted to read "classics" (mostly 19th Century and prior) that I had skipped over in my youth.

Did I make a dent?

Well, I managed to read three that year, and then three more (so far) in 2019.

So I did get a few "off the shelves"!

From last year's list of books garnered from my own "TBR" list, and suggestions by other LT'ers as "classics":

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Read in January
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Middlemarch by George Eliot - Read
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - Read
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan - Read some, did not finish
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - Read some, did not finish
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - Read some, did not finish
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Peter Pan by JM Barrie - Read some, did not finish
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - Read
The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper - Already read
The Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia by Philip Sidney
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Already read
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - Already read
Nicholas Nickerby by Charles Dickens (note: I'm having a difficult time finding this in easy-to-read print, and I don't like reading ebooks)
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman - Read

Not originally written in English (for those who want a BIG challenge, thanks to harrygbutler for these)
The Iliad by Homer (I read a graphic novel version from ER)
Daphnis and Chloe by Longus
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Boiardo
Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso

Care to join me? Us?

Have some suggestions?

Let's GO!!!!

(touchstones not currently working, will update this post as soon as they DO work!)

I dropped a star. I was gifted a beautiful hard cover set of Jane Austen that I would like to read this year. Some would be a re-read but from my college years so I think they would count as new reads after nearly 4 decades.

Added this to the group wiki!

Good luck with second year of classic reading; I'll be following your progress with interest (and trying to remember to comment a bit more). I also have plans for a greater focus on 17th - 19th century books, though I can't honestly say they'll all be classics. :)

I just got a lovely edition of The Song of Hiawatha, with illustrations by Frederic Remington. I'll join you in that one if you're going to read it this year.

>5 laytonwoman3rd: I will make an effort to read that one soon! I'll need to find a copy, preferably a paper book, and unabridged.

Which edition did you receive?

>4 lyzard: love to get more feedback, even if you're reading off a different list.

>3 drneutron: thank you, SIR! 😁

>2 witchyrichy: ooh! Jane Austen is good reading. I think I've read all her works, yet Pride & Prejudice remains my favorite.

My copy of The Song of Hiawatha is from a small independent publisher, David R. Godine. I've received their catalog for a few years now, and always treat myself to something from them at Christmas. Here's a link to it on their webside.

>7 laytonwoman3rd: I downloaded a copy of TSOH, want to read it in January?

Yes, that will work for me!

I'll follow your progress here!

A definite maybe...! I will keep an eye on this one. :)

Best wishes for 2020!

Thanks for all the kind words and wishes.

Hiawatha is going to be a challenge for me as I've never been a poetry fan. I'm good with reading one or maybe two poems, thinking "Oh, that's nice" and then going on to a novel. I'm just not much into poems.

I will be reading some more volumes from that set of Classic Tales by Famous Authors” but have no specific plans for classics. Though I’m having to sort through the books I’d put in storage at the college library where I work, and there is a copy of “The Last of the Mohicans”, which I’ve been meaning to read....

I read quite a few "classics" in 2019, as I noted in last year's thread. I'm beached about halfway through ...Tristram Shandy, but I'll get refloated and finish that in 2020. I sort of wanted to read Jane Austin's Emma, and that remains on the oughta-read agenda. A third read will be The Greek Plays, a recent anthology of 16 plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. My granddaughter Claire took a college course last year that used the book as the text.

I'll come up with some other books and will post here when and if I decide to read them.

I'm in again for this year. Last year, I finished 4 - and I'll have to look at my list and see what I may plan to finish this year. I might be interested in joining for The Song of Hiawatha - I read it many years ago but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

>16 rretzler: oh, would LOVE to have another join us. I'll probably be starting Hiawatha this weekend.

What four did you complete? Did you post them in the old thread? If not, let us know here. :)

>14 CassieBash:

I have The Last Of The Mohicans on my shortlist too, though I won't be getting to it before next month.

>18 lyzard: Don't feel too bad; I doubt I'll get to it before next month, either! :D

>19 CassieBash:

Yes, I've rather over-committed myself this month, despite numerous resolutions to the contrary! :D

Well, I started Hiawatha last night. I got about a third of the way through.

I still am not a fan of poetry.

After skimming a couple of the chapters this evening I finished The Song of Hiawatha. Poetry still isn't something that I care to read.

Good luck with your classics this year! Of those on your list you haven't read yet, I'd especially recommend The Mayor of Casterbridge.
I'd like to get to one of Thomas Hardy's I haven't read yet - maybe Jude the Obscure or Far From the Madding Crowd. Anyone have a recommendation there? I'd also like to read Gulliver's Travels - I read the first two of the four sections for a class, which was enough to write the paper I needed to write, and then I flaked on the rest. But I loved that first half! And I've lost count of how many years I've had The Forsyte Saga on my classics-to-read-this-year list. I finally found a copy to replace my copy with the tiniest print ever that replaced my dangerously heavy copy, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I finished Sanditon by Jane Austen, in anticipation of the PBS series that starts next Sunday.

I hope to read a few from this list this year:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens
Felix Holt, George Eliot
Romola, George Eliot
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
Waverley, Sir Walter Scott
Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope
Daniel Deronda, Eliot (a re-read)

All of these (except Sanditon) qualify as a "Big Fat Book" for John's Big Fat Book Challenge (500+ pages): https://www.librarything.com/groups/2020bigfatbookchalle

>24 kac522: I'd not even heard of Sanditon, how did you like it?

>23 madhatter22: thanks for the Hardy suggestion. I have not tried any of his works, being "put off" as a teenager by the opening of The Return of the Native (so wordy!).

I would like to get Gulliver's Travel's read this year, perhaps we could do a shared read?

>25 fuzzi: Sanditon is Austen's last work, which was unfinished at her death because of her increasing illness. It's less than 100 pages, is set in Sussex, and is centered around people who are overly concerned with their health. There's not a lot of plot in the small bit she wrote, but a lot of characters are introduced. It will be interesting to see what Andrew Davies does with this; supposedly he's written an ending (and I suppose a middle, too!).

>17 fuzzi: I'm not sure I did post them on last year's thread.

They were:
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

This year, I'm planning to read:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - don't know if this technically counts as a classic...
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

>21 fuzzi: >22 fuzzi: I'm not a big fan of poetry, either. I find I can tolerate Longfellow and Emily Dickinson more than other poets, for some reason.

>27 rretzler: I'm about to start The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This month is the 200th anniversary of Anne Bronte's birth.

And I love that Willa Cather; if it's not a classic, it should be. I'm going to try to read 3 Cather titles (that I haven't read yet) this year: Alexander's Bridge, The Song of the Lark and A Lost Lady.

>27 rretzler:, >28 kac522: I would definitely count Death Comes for the Archbishop as a classic.

>29 laytonwoman3rd: As would I, although it technically doesn't qualify as 19th century or prior (published in 1927). So it would depend on how you personally interpret "classic". Generally, I think of classics as works that stand the test of time--it's pushing the 100 year mark and it's still in print, and is considered a lasting work. That's good enough for me. And speaking of....

While technically it doesn't quite fall into the 19th century (published in 1912), if you want a bit of nonfiction classics to shake things up, try Moths of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter. I loved reading about a fellow Hoosier who did the same thing that I do--find caterpillars and raise them into butterflies, skippers, and moths. While this book focuses on the moths (and she takes her caterpillar rearing to the extreme compared to me), it's an interesting and important work in the field of entomology.

I came across an image of a reprint of this book by Dodo Press, and their very inaccurate cover. I'm sure they're trying to keep things cheap, but come on; there is no way that this is either a moth, nor a species found in the Limberlost (which is in Indiana), as it is a butterfly, and likely a tropical one at that!



Come on, Dodo Press--do a little research! Geez.... :D

Sorry about the double-posting....I've deleted 31 because it was the same as 30.

I'm happy to see Tenant of Wildfell Hall is getting some attention. I read it a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it much more than I expected.

I'm not sure what classic(s) I'll be reading this year, but I plan to read Black Count, a biography of Alexander Dumas.

I have finished The Song of Hiawatha...I know I read parts of it in high school, but this is the first time I've read it in its entirety. I found it beautiful, if problematic in certain ways. I'll try to compose an actual review shortly.

>34 laytonwoman3rd: I am looking forward to your review. It was beautiful, just not something I enjoyed reading...does that make sense?

>35 fuzzi: It does make sense. Poetry isn't "natural" as it isn't written in our usual speaking rhythms. And Longfellow used such a strict rhythmic pattern in this one. I enjoy that kind of thing, but certainly understand that not everyone does. I like licorice, too, and every time I eat it my husband makes a face! C'est la.

>25 fuzzi: So many books are never read (or reread and finally appreciated) because we first came across them when we weren't ready for them!
I didn't find The Return of the Native too wordy, but it's possible that that's because I was listening to the audiobook and Alan Rickman was reading it. There's a bit where he's reading an enraptured description of Eustacia Vye, and I must've gone back and listened to it at least 5 times in a row. :)

I'd def. be up for a shared read of Gulliver's Travels. Just let me know when.

>37 madhatter22: I have that same recording. Rickman did an excellent reading of it!

I had to memorize whole chunks of Hiawatha when I was 10/11, at my school in England. I still remember the meter banging away "By the shores of Gitchee Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis; Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis." Eeeek.

Input, I need input!

For my British author challenge in March, I have chosen Sir Walter Scott.

I've already read Ivanhoe, should I read Rob Roy or something else you'd personally recommend?If you vote "no" or "undecided" please make your other recommendation.

>40 fuzzi: Oh go on....fall in love with Rob Roy MacGregor.

Note recommendation here.

>42 fuzzi: I haven't read any Sir Walter Scott, but right now I plan on reading Waverley for the March BAC, so you would have someone to commiserate share reactions to the book. I figured I'd start at the beginning of the series and decide whether to continue.

>43 kac522: thank you, that's the type of input I was looking for.

I find Scott problematic in spite of his influence and reputation.

I read Kenilworth last year, which is a good novel but terrible (false) history, so caveat emptor. Heather and I read The Heart Of Midlothian together a few years ago, a rare female-cenric work. (There's a discussion thread out there somewhere.)

I read Ivanhoe back in 2013 and only gave it 3 stars. I think I prefer his poetry to his prose so I'll probably go with that, but I haven't really decided.

Read whatever you want; there are lots of classics out there. I don’t think I’d be a fan of his myself.

I finished 3 more classics in Jan & Feb:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte (1848)
Alexander's Bridge, Willa Cather (1912)
Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope (1860)

and 2 classic Agatha Christies: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) and Partners in Crime (1929)

>48 kac522: wow, great job!

I tried reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte but put it down after a couple chapters, it didn't "grab me".

>49 fuzzi: I read Agnes Grey a few years ago, but it was so-so, and I don't remember much of it. Although The Tenant of Wildfell Hall dragged at times and was a little too long, it kept me reading. Bronte has a lot to say about a woman's limited choices and her inability to control her own destiny in the 19th century.

Still haven't started Waverly, good thing there's no time limit on the pdf I found.

If we wind up staying home from work for a week, I can see getting it read.

>51 fuzzi: Me neither. Too distracted reading corona updates.

>52 kac522: I've turned off the television news. I get less hysterical reporting from the internet. My nerves are SO much better.

But I did manage to read eleven books so far in March...

"I get less hysterical reporting from the internet." Really? It's all unsettling to me. Even my email is full of virus announcements from everyone in the world who has my address.

>54 laytonwoman3rd: yes. I just filter out the Chicken Little rants and read news stories that have fact-based information. If the reporter says "an inside source said" then I'm pretty sure it's BS.

My grandmother used to say "Consider the source", and I do.

>53 fuzzi: I've yet to get much reading done because I'm too busy trying to help convert our faculty's face to face classes to online ones, plus prep the library resources and access for a huge influx of online users. I'm hoping that these last 2 weeks of prep mean a whole lotta reading time later....

I'm less worried about me and more concerned about spreading it unknowingly to my mom, who lives with us (that includes my 2 sisters). I'm young enough and healthy with a good immune system, but with her lung cancer, any little respiratory illness is a potential big deal.

>56 CassieBash: some things need our attention more than reading.

Family takes precedence.

My son's professors have figured out how to finish up the semester teaching classes online, except his Spanish instructor.

>57 fuzzi: Yes. I have a feeling I'm going to be hitting the audiobooks hard again this year. I'm almost finished with the horror audiobook and am about to start the next Brandon Sanderson set, starting with The Alloy of Law.

I hope the Spanish instructor can figure it out soon. I know that causes a lot of stress among the faculty. I do know that many of ours have talked about doing some synchronous work and holding office hours through Zoom; maybe he could use that for some "seat" time?

Two and a half months later...is anyone reading classics?

I decided to read The Oregon Trail, which has been on my TBR shelves for a couple years, only to discover it is considered a classic!

I'll post a review once I finish reading it.

I should get back to that 20 volume set, lol! Unfortunately they are buried behind other books in the to read piles.

Have fun on the Oregon Trail, and let us know if you agree with the classic rating.

Well, I just read The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, which I was just a little too old for when it came out, and which I somehow missed reading with my daughter in her teenage years.

My classics for May were Frances Trollope's first novel, The Refugee In America (a weird mix of crime and satire), and the third volume of George Reynolds' massive penny-dreadful, The Mysteries Of London. Though I don't think either warrant being called "classic" except by virtue of their age. :)

>59 fuzzi: Well thanks for reminding me. I've read the following since early March:

Sense and Sensibility: an Annotated Edition, Jane Austen, annotated by Patricia Meyer Spacks (1811)
Mansfield Park: an Annotated Edition, Jane Austen, annotated by Deidre Shauna Lynch (1814)
Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)
The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson: By One of the Firm, Anthony Trollope (1861)
Howards End, E. M. Forster (1910)
3 plays by John Galsworthy (The Silver Box, 1906; Joy, 1907; Strife, 1909)
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens (1848)
Lady Oracle, Margaret Atwood (1976) (I know, she's still alive, but this early Atwood is definitely a "classic" of the 1960s-70s)

and two Agatha Christies: The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930) and Peril at End House (1932)

I'm finding classics very comforting (escapist?) in these times.

>62 lyzard: age works. 😁

>63 kac522: reading new books of any genre is more challenging for me. I want to go back to some comfort reads, but am making myself read from the TBR mountain...

>64 fuzzi: Except for the Austens, these were all new works for me, although most were authors I had read, so that gave me comfort, I guess. And all, except one, were on the TBR. Of course I have a very large TBR (600+), to get me through these libraryless months.

>65 kac522: good for you! I am down to 279 books on my "TBR owned" list.

Did you like the Forester?

>66 fuzzi: I loved Howards End. It's about class and gender and ideas in pre-WWI Britain. The dialogue is more like a play, and I wanted to be in the room with the Schlegels as the conversations flew back and forth. And the house, Howards End, is in some ways the main character in the background.

>67 kac522: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I was wondering because I've read two Foresters (not Howard's End) and didn't care for either of them, so I wasn't planning on giving the author a third try. Maybe later.

>68 fuzzi: What prompted me to read the book was the PBS mini-series that was on last January with Matthew MacFadyen and Hayley Atwell
(https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/howards-end/).

Now after reading the book, the series was fairly true to the book. Years ago I had watched the movie with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, which was good (and if I remember had great music), but I think the recent series was better.

I received a copy of Catch-22 on DVD yesterday for a birthday present; it's been a few years since I've read the book so now I'm thinking I need to check it out of the library and do a re-read soon before watching the DVD.

Plus, that will give my still-closed library a much-needed usage stat! :D

>69 kac522: I remember the movie with Anthony Hopkins though I didn't see it. Would watch it just for Anthony Hopkins...

>70 CassieBash: I just rehomed my copy of Catch 22. It had been on my shelves for a long time, unread. It's one of those books that can be easily found at the library or at a used book store so I let it go...

The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

A very interesting and illuminating journal of sorts, written by a 23 year old young man looking for adventure in the American West of the 1840s. While one might not agree with his analysis about the native societies, his observations appear valid, and his prose paints a clear picture of his time. Occasionally his narrative timeline was muddled, and I had to turn back a page or two to get my bearings, but the chapters flow well for the most part. The attitude of the author and his companions are sometimes upsetting, but should be viewed in the context of the time and the age of the people involved. Definitely recommended.

This month I read a couple of 20th century classics:
--The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim (1914); beautifully written about the independence (or lack of it) of women
--Hiroshima by John Hersey (1995 edition); classic work of journalism following 6 survivors of the atomic bomb. Originally written in 1946 for the New Yorker, this 1995 edition includes an extra "Aftermath" chapter that updates the fates of the 6 survivors in the 40th anniversary year of the bomb.

>73 kac522: Hiroshima was a book we were supposed to read for English class, but we ran out of time at the end of the semester.

>74 fuzzi: It's not long, and well worth the time to read. It is told in an objective way, I think; that is, from the eyes of the ordinary Japanese citizen just trying to survive. There are some descriptions of the wounds and destruction that might overwhelm more sensitive readers.

I've started Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens for this month's featured author in the Monthly Author Reads group:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/321182

If you've been meaning to pick up another Dickens, now's your chance to have group support ;)

In July I read Typee by Herman Melville. It was his most popular book during his lifetime. It describes his journey to the South Seas islands where he and a mate jump ship and live among native tribes said to be cannibals. Modern research has determined that it's partly true (he did go there), but much was lifted from other travel writings, and some just made up.

If you consider it fiction, I'd say the beginning and ending were engaging, but the middle portion dragged on a bit. At least it's a lot shorter than Moby Dick.

>77 kac522: thanks for the recommendation. I have a good friend who didn't read Moby Dick until he was in his 60s, but enjoyed it enough to suggest I read it as well. I might try Typee in lieu of the longer book.

And four months later...

...I only read one "classic" this year.

Should I try again in 2021?

Edit: I read two classics in 2020, and I've decided to try again!

I'm here for 2021:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/327983

I read the following new-to-me classics in 2020:

Sanditon, Jane Austen
Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
Alexander's Bridge, Willa Cather
Dombey and Son and Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens
Howards End, E. M. Forster
The Moorland Cottage, Elizabeth Gaskell
Typee, Herman Melville
Castle Richmond, Orley Farm and Rachel Ray, by Anthony Trollope
Elizabeth and her German Garden and The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim
Fighting France by Edith Wharton (non-fiction)

I also read about 6 or 7 Agatha Christie mysteries--not sure if these are "classics" in the traditional sense, but they are certainly classic mysteries.

Classic re-reads in 2020 included:
All of Jane Austen's major novels (except Emma), plus re-read Lady Susan, most via audiobook
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell, audiobook

I found a "Classics Challenge" on another thread, which I am going to try to achieve in 2021. I'll post it on the new thread, in case anyone is interested.

>80 kac522: wow, you were a busy camper!

>81 fuzzi: Austen, Dickens, Forster, Gaskell, Trollope and von Arnim were really more comfort reads in a difficult year. They took me to times and problems far away from the stresses of 2020.

>82 kac522: I love getting immersed in a comfort read, know exactly what you mean.