5 Classic Novels That I Love

During my time as an English Literature student (and then as an English teacher), I had to read a lot of classic novels. Some I liked, some I really didn’t (I’m looking at you, ‘Moby Dick’).

While I’m forever grateful that I did read these books that are considered to be the cream of Western Literature*, there are very few that really struck a chord and stuck with me. Here are just five that I’ve read and re-read – these are so good that I’ve come back to them repeatedly. Every reading is a revelation – I’m always astounded by how they change in my memory and understanding each time.

* Yes, I know there is a world out there beyond the Western canon but my course was pretty traditional and didn't really allow for this in a major way.  And I also know that women's writing tends to be sadly under-represented in the world of classics.  Never fear - I made up some of the gaps in my reading after university!

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‘Dracula’ – Bram Stoker (1897)

I’ll admit that I found this one hard-going when I first read it as a teenager. The different perspectives were a bit confusing to me and the pacing was – I thought – a bit slow compared to the film starring Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder.

I loved the idea of the vampire (‘Interview with a Vampire’ was also a favourite book at the time and the film of this was also really popular) but the novel that introduced a lot of the conventions of the genre…mmm, not so much.

Ah, how wrong I was.

I revisited this book in my twenties, thirties and last year – at the grand old age of 40 – discovered the fantastic audiobook with Tim Curry as Van Helsing. The text that I had come to know and love really came alive when read by the different voices and it all finally clicked into place. The clever use of narrative perspective, the tension, the settings – finally, I saw the full brilliance of the book.

This was also – in part – enhanced by reading Joseph O’Connor’s novel ‘Shadowplay’ about Bram Stoker’s experiences as a theatre manager while he was writing ‘Dracula’ – highly recommended!

Incidentally, the scenes in ‘Dracula’ with Lucy Westenra are some of the creepiest and tense that I’ve read – she got rather dismissed in the film version but actually she is pretty awesome.

‘A Room With a View’ by E M Forster (1908)

Another one that I was introduced to by a film – in this case, the gorgeous 1985 Merchant Ivory production starring Helena Bonham-Carter. However, as is often the way, the book is better!

I fell in love with this initially as a romance – the notion of beautiful and pure Lucy Honeychurch falling for the unconventional George Emerson was (in my teenage mind) an extension of those films about love across the class divide. Think ‘Pretty in Pink’ but with Edwardian dresses and fabulous settings!

Again, I was youthful and not entirely correct, but the Florence scenes still remain powerful and impactful for me.

What brought me back to the book was the humour that I somehow skimmed over at first – this is a novel packed with wit and comic caricatures and sly comments on British society at the turn of the 20th century.

My love of this novel led me to read everything I could by E M Forster – I can also whole-heartedly recommend ‘Maurice’, a gay love story that was only published after E M Forster’s death in 1970. It is touching and poignant (and was also made into a Merchant Ivory film starring a very young Hugh Grant – definitely worth a watch).

(My mum was obsessed with Merchant Ivory films…I can both thank and blame her for the many hours spent watching beautiful actors spin tales of repressed sexuality in fabulous clothes!)

‘Emma’ by Jane Austen (1815)

‘Pride and Prejudice is usually the go-to favourite for a lot of Austen fans – I think Colin Firth in THAT shirt might have something to do with its popularity!

Personally, I’d been stung by my experiences of Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’ at A Level – a book I really didn’t like and lessons that were only lightened by the seemingly endless comic possibilities of a main character called Fanny… (forgive me – I was young!)

Therefore, I approached ‘Emma’ at university with some trepidation, but found myself caught up in this story of this incredibly flawed and relatable girl whose heart was in the right place – even if she, at times, had a strange way of showing it. She is spiky and wrong about so many things – the muddled matchmaking is almost painful to read – but it is also a novel that sparks with wit.

I’ll also put my neck on the line and insist that the best film version of this is ‘Clueless’ with Alicia Silverstone – Austen’s humour and social structures transported to 1990s Beverley Hills in a pitch-perfect movie.

‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh (1945)

This was a book that I read a fair number of times when I was younger. The main draw initially was the fabulously eccentric character of Sebastian Flyte who – accompanied by his teddy bear, Aloysius – comes into the life of the main protagonist, Charles Ryder, at Oxford University. I loved the unconventionality of the character and the vibrancy of the Oxford scenes. To be honest, they were the highlight of the book for my younger self.

Ah, again, that all changed on re-reading. Instead, I grew to love the story of the dysfunctional Marchmain family and the ideas about an aristocracy who no longer seem relevant in the dying years of the Second World War.

My love of the novel was further enhanced by Paula Byrne’s excellent book ‘Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead’. I read this when I was pregnant with a child who was meant to be named Sebastian – although it didn’t work out that way and she got her name instead from a figure in Byrne’s book!

‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens (1843)

This is a book that I teach as part of the GCSE course in English Literature, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to read and think about this one.

I’ll admit that one of the main attractions of this book initially was its length – it is novella-length and so not quite the same experience as some of the more challenging Victorian novels.

However, I soon grew to love this story of redemption set at Christmas, a time of charity and good cheer. Scrooge’s journey from miser to reformed character is iconic, but it’s the other touches that I love – the bleak iciness of the Victorian winter, the scourges on society of Ignorance and Want, the emotional warmth (even in the face of poverty) of the Cratchitts.

This is also another book that has a great audio version read by Hugh Grant.

I’ll be totally honest and say that Dickens isn’t usually my bag – however, I’d also put forward a case for ‘Great Expectations’ being rather fabulous (and the only other Dickens I’ve really enjoyed).

So there we have it – 5 classic novels and some assorted connected recommendations!

I don’t read so many classics these days, but my TBR still contains these books. I’d be interested in any other recommendations.

• ‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene (that opening!)
• ‘Sense and Sensibility’ by Jane Austen (love the film…not yet sold on the book)
• ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy (my most recent run at this one got me halfway through – one day I’ll finish it and appreciate the war bits as much as I love the peace sections!)
• ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley (love the idea…just not got to it)
• ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte (my mum also loved Kate Bush so I was raised on THAT song…haven’t made it through the novel yet!)

Header picture by Giuseppe Mondì on Unsplash.