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Anyone here into classic lit?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by skycollage, Mar 16, 2015.

  1. skycollage

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    Just wondering if anyone wants to chat about their favorite classic books. :icon_wink
     
  2. NingyoBroken

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    I'm more into old movies, but I've read a few classic gothic horror books , like Dracula, Frankenstien, Jekyll and Hyde ect.
     
  3. skycollage

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    I've been wanting to read Frankenstein ─ have a copy in my house but haven't gotten around to it. Don't have Dr Jekyll & Hyde but I want to read it, too.
     
  4. lemons123

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    Not the most avid reader though the first book I ever read was when i was 10 or so: "Iliad" by Homer.

    Also: A month or so ago I happened to be reading "crime and punishment" ("prestuplenie i nakazanie"...funnily in my native tongue the title sounds the same as the Russian original).

    I wasn't so charmed by crime and punishment though - i mean...it was OK but my personal opinion is that it would've been way better if Raskolnikov was killing that merchant not driven by mercantile goals but if he was some sort of rich aristocrat or just someone from the "old aristocracy" who had lost his fortune and then kills to fell "like napoleon", that is: "untouchable" who can do whatever he wants.
    I believe such idea will portray the character as more psychopathic and more interesting for the readers than just someone who kills for money...

    ---------- Post added 16th Mar 2015 at 03:42 PM ----------

    also:

    really enjoyed Les Misérables and Tale of two cities since I am fan of the particular time around the French revolution.
     
  5. essie

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    My ultimate favourite would probably be "Emma" by Jane Austen, but I remember that I've also enjoyed "Oliver Twist" when I read it a few years ago. I love classics: I think they're just magical and people my age think I'm crazy because of that. They don't know what they're missing out! And about "Dr. Jackill and Mr. Hyde" I would have to say that I didn't raelly like it, but that's just what I thought.
     
  6. Michael

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    You and I, sir, didn't read the same book. You were not reading anyways, but expecting a book you obviously were doomed not to find in Crime and Punishment, which is by the way a masterpiece that requires active, not pasive reading.

    Or simply reading, to be honest... :dry:

    Raskolnikov didn't killed just for money. He was trying to kill a symbol of all that he despised, he was killing an idea, not a human being. (Dostoievski was also into politics, and he event went to jail for his activism.)
    Back to Crime and Punishment, the second killing (have you forgotten it?) was his fall, it was that accident that gave him back his humanity. Every piece, every character of Crime and Punishment is there for a reason. Or do you think Dostoievski was just trying to fill the blank spaces on a page?

    I'm heavily into classics, as you've probably guessed. I could talk for hours about Herman Hesse, Dostoievski, Kafka... I used to be a voracious reader, to the point of looking (and being) like Bernard Black, from "Black Books". I think I'm almost cured, but I confess I'm right now enjoying Moby Dick, and I refuse to give it up... Even if it would be for my own good, 'cause I need to keep a job that I love, have a social life and so on...
     
  7. MrSkittles

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    Don't read much classics but we do read some for English. I heard about some like
    Romeo and Juliet which I look forward to in English this year
    Of Mice and Men
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    Frankenstein

    Those are some of the books I heard about. and we read in school.
     
    #7 MrSkittles, Mar 16, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2015
  8. Manitoban

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    If you're into Shakespeare the tetralogy(please not make that a movie thing Hollywood) of Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V is fantastic.

    For you film lovers the BBC did a fairly decent rendition of all of the plays as well, called the hollow crown.

    ---------- Post added 16th Mar 2015 at 10:10 PM ----------

    Also Oedipus is a great play/book to, although disturbing.
     
  9. Elendil

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    I'm currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Just coming up on the last chapters and I have to say I'm really enjoying the story. I saw the 2002 film version years ago and when I heard that it was actually based on a book I decided to pick it up. I think the novel is far better than the movie.

    One of the main differences between the film and novel that I take issue with is the portrayal of the character of Edmond Dantes. In the novel Edmond uses the fortune he finds to save the lives of the people who most cared about him shortly after he escapes from prison. Instead the film quickly delves into Edmond executing his revenge against his enemies only to have him decide to do good after they're dead.

    Another big difference is how Edmond takes his revenge. In the novel he insinuates himself into the confidence of his enemies' families through his charm and charisma, then he slowly works to destroy them from within. The film waters this down considerably which I think really diminishes the power of the story. And the way he ends up destroying Fernand in the novel was much more satisfying than what we got in the film.

    I think to really do the book justice a movie version would have to be at least 3 hours long, maybe 4. The original written material is that good!
     
    #9 Elendil, Mar 16, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2015
  10. Wolf of The Baltic

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    I'm currently reading The Great Gatsby so amazing! I'm loving it so far.
     
  11. CJliving

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    I majored in English Literature but I'm more a fan of modern and post-colonial than classics. That being said, my favourite novel is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I also really enjoy Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Island of Dr. Moreau.

    To anyone who likes Jane Eyre by the way, I highly recommended Jean Ryhs's Wide Sargasso Sea. It's a post-colonial prologue focusing on Mr. Rochester's time in Jamaica.
     
  12. Lyana

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    My favorite novel ever is Les Misérables.
    I also loved the Count of Monte Cristo (as well as The Three Musketeers), which someone mentioned above. Also adore Little Women... Oh and pretty much anything by Jane Austen.

    Some classics are just so amazingly beautiful.
     
  13. RainDreamer

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    Define "classics lit". If you mean the literature from classical antiquity from the greek, no. While I can appreciate the significance of the works like Odyssey, I can't stand reading those style. Not my thing.

    I prefer post-modern literatures. My favourite work is still Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. His writing style is so poisonously addictive, so venomously alluring. It seeps to your mind smoothly and makes you numb to anything else but the words before you, and it is so hard to break away. It never try to grab your attention with force, it doesn't try to throw you off with confusion and take you by surprise. Nabokov's writing style is very structured, but still elegant and soft, and it lure you it slowly and gently, and keep you there, before you glanced at the clock and it is already ****ing 4AM and you have to go to class at 9, yet you still want to read some more.
    I learned so many thing about writing from trying to imitate his style. Hah, if only there is such a great writer again these days.
     
  14. Boudicca

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    If you're talking Ancient Greek and Roman literature, I am so there. I love the stuff. It also helps that I can read it in the original language (I studied classics for 8 years). They definitely lose a lot in translation.
     
  15. LaEsmeralda

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    If you like Les Mis, you should read the Hunchback of Notre Dame, also by Victor Hugo. It's such a haunting, beautiful tale - nothing like the Disney adaptation.

    I like Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Jane Austen's Emma. I'm a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Anthony and Cleopatra, Macbeth and Hamlet by Shakespeare are also great. I think classic literature can be very hard to read so I get pretty happy when I find one I can stick with.
     
  16. tscott

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    I was wondering what you meant by the classics: the Western Cannon or the Greeks? I suppose my favourite author would be Shakespeare, especially Richard II - "Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad tales of the death of kings." In the strictest sense not an author of books, by that I it you mean novels. That being the case, I would have to say Trollope's Vanity Fair. Becky Sharpe is such an incorrigible minx and so deliciously fun. One of the great social satires ever written.
     
  17. Manitoban

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    I've always wondered why they don't start of high school students with these, or Macbeth or Hamlet, or Othello or... No no, start them off with Romeo and Juliet. The most dry one you can come up with. No wonder so many people say they don't like Shakespeare.