/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1896221]

Hey /lit/, I want to read some classics, but ones that I can enjoy, any ideas?

I'm thinking along the lines of:
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Cristo
Don Quixote

You know, that type of stuff

Any ideas? Many thanks in advance.

[Anonymous No.1896223]

THERE'S ALWAYS WAR AND PEACE BY TOLSTOY
ALSO, SALAMMBO BY FLAUBERT IS PRETTY IMPRESSIVE HISTORICAL FICTION, NOT AS LONG AS SOME OF THE OTHERS LISTED THOUGH

I AM THINKING OF READING THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, ANY SUGGESTED TRANSLATIONS?

[Anonymous No.1896225]

Outlaws of the Marsh (a.k.a The Water Margin).

Adventure, violence, intrigue, long and involved story, etc. It's one of the four classic Chinese novels. Either that one or The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

[Anonymous No.1896229]

The Pickwick Papers is pretty hilarious and is essentially Dickens' take on Don Quixote. I'd also suggest Vanity Fair by Thackeray and Gulliver's Travels by Swift--two of the best English satires.

[Anonymous No.1896237]

>>1896223

WHICH TRANSLATION OF SALAMMBO DID YOU READ? HEY, THIS IS FUN, ISN'T IT? I SEE WHY YOU DO IT NOW. ONE HAS TO REMEMBER NOT TO DO A i INSTEAD OF AN I WHEN ONE REFERS TO ONESELF HOWEVER, SO THAT'S JUST BALL-ACHE AND I'M GIVING MYSELF A HEADACHE.

[Anonymous No.1896240]

>>1896229

Vanity Fair's fucking long mind you - I don't think it's worth the bother, to be honest with you. It's only meh, at best, and irritating at worst. I wanted to strangle that Becky cunt by the end of it.

[Anonymous No.1896244]

>>1896237
IT WAS A PUBLIC DOMAIN ONE.

[Anonymous No.1896250]

>>1896240
You're supposed to hate her. That's the point.

[Anonymous No.1896258]

>>1896250

Yeah, but I wanted to torture Amelia to death - I kind of hated them all. After how ever fuck the many pages of their company, I felt like I'd been in a caravan with them during a rainy fortnight in Bridlington.

I kept hoping that Thackeray would get just as sick of it and start going "And then there were zombies and aliens and all kinds of mad shit and they all died. And I'm very very sorry I wasted your time with all this. I have no idea what I was thinking. I needed the money."

[Anonymous No.1896293]

>>1896258
Well, I can see how it could be frustrating, but again, you're not supposed to like them. Dobbin was the only one not self-absorbed, but even he gets annoying. At least, until he had had enough and left Amelia. My main complaint was when he went back to her, but I can see why Thackeray wrote it like that.

[Anonymous No.1896308]

I'm also trying to find something I can literally open up and read for hours.

[Anonymous No.1896313]

>>1896308
See >>1896225

[Anonymous No.1896316]

Go with Salammbo - you get bragging rights cos it's kind of not so well known in the anglophone world of grunting pigs. Flaubert's a lot better in French though. Just saying.

I would also recommend Balzac, if you're fond of inordinately long novels. It's not my thing, but you might like him. And you get to use Balzac in conversation, and it sounds kind of rude.

If you pronounce Sean Connery's surname in just the right way, it sounds sort of rude in French, we used to laugh about it whenever James Bond was on the TV. Then we'd sit and spit at the screen and pray that the English pig was killed this time.

[Anonymous No.1896319]

>>1896316
I'M ON A BALZAC BINGE AT THE MOMENT, STARTING WITH HIS SHORTER STUFF. WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND BY HIM?

[Anonymous No.1896325]

>>1896316
James Bond and Sean Connery are both Scottish.

[Anonymous No.1896327]

>>1896319

Oh god, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. They made me read it at school. .Eugénie Grandet I think was the least horrible of the things they forced me to. I preferred the short stories. They were short.

[Anonymous No.1896330]

I hated Count of Monte Cristo when I read it, but in hindsight it was a very good book. You might want to keep cliff/sparknotes handy if you decide to read it as it can get VERY confusing.

[Anonymous No.1896335]

>>1896319


Actually no, you like the long stuff don't you - go with Illusions Perdues, and if ou like it, there's even a sequel, so three volumes of chunky Balzac. I've never read it, my masochism doesn't stretch so far, but let us know what it's like.

[Anonymous No.1896337]

>>1896240
How I hated Vanity Fair, threw it away before I could finish it. I also can't read Don Quixote, I've tried FIVE TIMES. I got 3/4 of the way through and had no idea what was going on 99% of the time and gave up. I loved the beginning where they're burning all his books, though.

OP, most entertaining book I have ever read is Gone With the Wind. Seriously, you get right into head of the most anti-hero heroine ever created. Let me give a taste of how horrible she is (I would often laugh out loud at how evil she can be.)

The hospitals were filled with dirty, bewhiskered, verminous men who smelled terribly and bore on their bodies wounds hideous enough to turn a Christian’s stomach. The hospitals stank of gangrene, the odor assaulting her nostrils long before the doors were reached, a sickish sweet smell that clung to her hands and hair and haunted her in her dreams. Flies, mosquitoes and gnats hovered in droning, singing swarms over the wards, tormenting the men to curses and weak sobs; and Scarlett, scratching her own mosquito bites, swung palmetto fans until her shoulders ached and she wished that all the men were dead.

[Anonymous No.1896339]

>>1896327
YEAH, A FEW OF THE NOVELLAS I'VE READ WHERE IT'S JUST PRETTY MUCH HIS RANTING ON THE CORRUPT PARISIAN SOCIETY AND HIS IN-DEPTH AND REPETITIVE DEALINGS WITH INVESTING IN SHARES AT THE TIME WORKED DO BECOME QUITE A BORE.

I DO ENJOY READING ABOUT HIS FAILED GENIUSES THOUGH.

[Anonymous No.1896353]

>>1896337
I'm pretty sure I'm the only one on this board that likes Thackeray. I either find negative to no response when I bring him up. I've read five novels by him, and while he's not nearly my favorite writer, the response he always receives on this board has given him an underdog status that makes me root for him.

[Anonymous No.1896354]

>>1896335
IF IT'S NOT GOING TO BE AN ENJOYABLE READ, I WON'T BOTHER.

[Anonymous No.1896367]

>>1896353
To each their own of course. I force myself to read certain classic so I can say I read them, but I have to enjoy at least SOMETHING about the book to keep me slogging through it. Les Miserable had Jean Valjean's flight through France keeping me hooked, Gone with the wind had Scarlett being a huge bitch to everyone, East of Eden had familiar dysfunctional families, etc.

Classics exist because people like them, but not everyone can appreciate it. My personal take has always been, if I can't read it I'm not mature enough to appreciate it, so I try to go back to it.

So far Crime and Punishment, Don Quixote, and War and Peace are beyond my understanding and enjoyment.

[Anonymous No.1896374]

>ok I know a bit of spanish, maybe I should try reading the original Dom Quixote, it's long but looks enjoyable

>WORDS FAR FROM MY COMPREHENSION
>...but wait, this edition got a few foot notes to explain
>TWO PAGES AND 48 FOOT NOTES LATER
>mfw

>give up Dom Quixote

[Anonymous No.1896401]

>>1896374
While clearly an impregnable masterpiece, Don Quixote suffers from one fairly serious flaw – that of outright unreadability. –Martin Amis

[Anonymous No.1896471]

Bump

[Anonymous No.1896488]

Walter Scott's Ivanhoe and Kenilworth are both very good classic adventure novels.

[Anonymous No.1896497]

>>1896488
They're dense though, right?

[Anonymous No.1896505]

>>1896497
No. Well, Kenilworth maybe a little bit, but Ivanhoe was one of the easiest books I've read. Scott starts off slow though, but if you get passed the first chapter, things pick up and keep a steady pace throughout.

[JamesBond !!JAU/DZkp95n No.1896511]

Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Talisman and Quentin Durward.

R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island and Kidnapped

Jules Verne's Everything but especially Around the world in 80 days, Off on a comet and Michael Strogoff.

James Fennimore Cooper's Leatherstocking series.

I can tell you these off hand.

And I want your (OP's) reasons for liking them.

[Anonymous No.1896517]

[JamesBond !!JAU/DZkp95n No.1896519]

>>1896517
Shit books mingled with good ones. I would object strongly against this OP.

[Anonymous No.1896535]

>>1896519
They are all good works. I don't know what you are talking about.

[Anonymous No.1896551]

Start with The Count Of Monte Cristo and then move onto The Three Musketeers but read the entire series in order.

[Anonymous No.1896558]

Crime and Punishment
Hamlet
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
As I Lay Dying
Things Fall Apart
1984
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Moby Dick
Wuthering Heights
The Last of the Mohicans
Bleak House
Huckleberry Finn

[Popplagio of Darkspear !!EEV0tpSC1FE No.1896559]

>>1896558
none of those are like the three op mentioned at all
what the fuck is wrong with you

[Anonymous No.1896777]

Hmm, have you tried maybe some Thomas Hardy? His later stuff is pretty accessible and enjoyable. Daniel's Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders are both good, enjoyable classics. I would also consider some Robert Louis Stevenson for the adventure and accessibility of his work.