(long) classic books that are actually worth your time!

I saw the movie Princess Bride before I even knew it was a book. In fact, I read several other books that made reference to the Princess Bride before I even saw the movie. So, by the time I got to the book, I was pretty prepared to like it. But I didn’t! Not at all. There’s too much stuff about Gilder & Thorin that are at war, and written like it’s a real history of those 2 countries. I got so impatient for the “real” story that I gave up reading it altogether, lol.

You remembered me I have a beautiful old version of Anna Karenina somewhere in my home. Found it in a thriftshop for cheap. Haven't read it yet. Have to find it first.

...Planning to Read Les Misérables in 2024😁😊📚

🎇🙋‍♀️😊I am Currently Re reading Anna Karenina 😊📚When You Mentioned Emma(One Of My Favorites By Jane Austen), and A Thought Just Popped into My Head: I Wonder What it Would Be Like For Stepan Oblonsky and Emma to Plan Out a Dinner Party. Both Characters Seem To Like Bringing People Together😅😊📚

For a long time my favourite book was Wuthering heights, but I have just finished Anna Karenina and what a book! I did not expect to take my favourite place since I have not got one for a long time, but it did.
I could not put the book down, at work when I had nothing to do or losing track of the time at nights. I had many great surprises by almoust seeing in practise some lessons learned with great teachers. Suddenly this big lessons gained a body and came to life.

I see some resemblance with Wuthering heights although can not rally be compared with this master piece or maybe I should read again since has been years last time I read.
But after Heathcliff there was no character I have felt so disgusted by until I was presented to Anna. As long as I kept reading longer I wanted to slap her, like why I you doing it with yourself?

But it only means they have such depth that makes us forget they are not real. For sure it will be hard to take the spot of this book in my heart. I mean, I have just finished it and already want to read it again. It it definetelly worth your time! 🥺❤‍🔥

Crime & Punishment !!!

Charles Dickens, any other good books by him? Thanks

Les Miserables is a communion of genres. It is a novel, but it also contains essay, philosophy, history and analysis, and is one of the very few books that successfully contain the sum of humanity in its pages. Obviously it's not gonna be all action and drama, but there is not a single page without purpose. I urge everyone to not be daunted by its scope. Even with all its intricacies, it's a gentle and exciting read.

One more that I would add Carolyn is Jonathon Strange and Mr Norell. It has such an unfortunate title but it's historical fantasy and it's by the same person who wrote Piranesi and honestly that's all you need to know. It's about 800 or 900 pages long but it is ABSOLUTELY well worth your time. It will stay with you loooong after you've read it. Such a masterpiece. You can watch the TV adaptation but the book is by far superior

Congratulation for your commitment and for your already wise and good advices. Let's skip Victor Hugo and I will truly consider the rest -)

Great work. You may be interested in talking about Elizabeth Paradiso Urassa's books. They are very good for university students and may help the loved ones not to drop out of their studies. I appreciate what you are doing. Thank you very much.

I read an abbreviated version of les misérables and the whole book and I enjoyed the abbreviation is my favorite book ever.

Have you read For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Curiosity Shop?

Tess of the d'urbervilles is a book I love and hate, the way you described it is 100% how I feel whenever I read it- I have really enjoyed all of the books that you mentioned and agree that they are well worth looking into if you haven’t done before. I would add Wives and Daughters, it’s a long book but it’s wonderful.

im 12 years old and im currently reading war and peace! loving it so far

I loved the Anne of Green Gables series. Montgomery’s descriptive writing is so lovely. Some I would add are Gone with the Wind, Doctor Zhivago, and if it can be considered long, Lolita.

Moby Dick is one of my top five longer novels (it is actually a prose poem)

I’ve read Jane Eyre (and it’s a fave) and Rebecca. I really want to read Anna Karenina. But don’t know when I’ll get to it.

You reading thr opening of Emma sounded like your describing yourself😂..for a second

Would you tell wha edition’s of Emma you have.

David Copperfield is the best. But most people can't take the command of the English language that he had

Les Miserables is one of my favorite books ever. I have read the abridged and the unabridged - I really prefer the unabridged because you get a lot deeper into the characters that way. But definitely skip the sewage chapter. 😄My other favorite classic would be Pride and Prejudice, although Emma is another favorite Austen of mine. Yay, Emma! Not everybody loves her like we do. And yes, Anne of Green Gables, the whole set! My favorite is actually Rilla of Ingleside. Such a great coming-of-age story, I read it when I was around Rilla's age and it was so spot on with her emotions and behaviors at the time.

I've read Charles Dickens in Spanish (my first language) and love it so much, and tried reading Oliver Twist in English, but it was so hard. Great expectations, on the other hand, I found hard in both languages 😅

Love this video so much. You have such a passion and I am going to start Anna Karenina after watching this. Many have already suggested it but I would wholeheartedly recommend Count of Monte Cristo, along with Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, and the two other great Dickens novels; David Copperfield and Bleak House.

Have you read the count of monte cristo? I think you'd enjoy it

I agree with all of these except Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and I would MAYBE replace Great Expectations with David Copperfield.

Tess of D'U was really sad and good, but I don't think it's a must-read. I think Brothers Karamazov or Vanity Fair are more "must-reads" than Tess. I know Gone With the Wind is full of racist tropes, BUT it is an excellent psychological novel too-- just very well written--and I think better than Tess of D'U.

What I think your list really lacks though is The Iliad!!!!!! Absolute 100% must-read!! (I think it's better than The Odyssey, but both are truly must-reads.)

Your list is fantastic, much agreement. Off the top of my head, there are eight I'd sneakily tack onto your list as 'classics worth everybody's time': Madame Bovary, Sense and Sensibility, Vanity Fair, Middlemarch, Brideshead Revisited, Howard's End, Pride and Prejudice. Everything else I'd add in an undisciplined frenzy of enthusiasm wouldn't technically be a classic, but from later eras as 'modern classics' or even contemporary works (ie; why doesn't anybody talk about the tremendous fun of 'Colors Insulting to Nature' by Cintra Wilson?! For shame! Caitlin Moran's 'How To Build a Girl' followed by 'How to Become Famous' are must reads too but seem to get overlooked outside of the UK, which is a travesty). Everybody ought to read 1984 and should have had The Collected Short Stories of Richard Yates by their bedside at some point too-- sitting on top of Vita by Victoria Glendinning (cheating, as neither fall into the classics genre). I must go now or I'll edit until the cows come home...💨

As someone who started reading many of the classics as a hobby after college, I'm blown away by Tolstoy's ability to create such real, immersive worlds. His talent is awesome. Levin is one of my favorite characters in any book.

I read Jane Eyre in like a day and a half, length is related directly with my interest.

Do you consider Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" a classic? It's nearly a hundred years old now. Anyway, it's my favorite long book. (450 pages.) And it's got everything any book could possibly have: Romance, Adventure, Comedy, Tragedy, Fantasy, Spectacle, Spirituality, Politics, and lots of great storytelling. Plus one of the great happy endings of all time. It's a must!

Your joy of reading is equal to my own great video

I know this was put out quite awhile ago - but anyone looking for more long classic recs - one of my absolute favorites is Ann Radcliffe's 'The Mysteries of Udolpho'. It's a gothic story from the Romantic period by one of the premiere gothic authors. The story features all sorts of classic gothic elements - an orphaned protag, creepy castles, evil family members making our protagonist miserable, awe-inspiring landscapes, suspenseful mysteries, potential supernatural activity.

Suggestion: The Count of Montecristo

Anna Karenina is soooooo easy to read or maybe is Tolstoy’s writing.

War and Peace, I have tried many times to start but is a hard start, maybe is the translation that I have.

You need to add WALDEN. 😂I love it

I just finished the first book of Anne of green gable. I too kept forgetting she’s not a real person. I’m so excited to get the next book

Moby Dick? Read the first page

Les is such a great play but next read.

Amazing taste!! Great video

please don't make fun of yourself.

Two of my favs are The Hunchback of Notre Dame and East of Eden.

wuthering heights has been my favorite book for as long as i can remember and i reread it every year

Rebecca is my favorite book of all time! So eerie and tense and just a profound exploration of power in women and the way it upsets the status quo when women refuse to apologize for the upper hand (assuming you can even trust the narrator’s perception!). You have excellent taste in books!

On Les Mis - Yes!! I was the same way! I was like, "dude, no one needs to know that much about the sewer system of Paris and French slang! Please get back to the story!" haha

I had to read les misérables in middle school we spent like 4 months on it even watched a film adaptation it traumatised me and made me hate this book 🥲 same goes with various classics the french school system love to make us study classics I’ll try to read this year some of them again hopefully I can understand why some of them are always recommended!

I've went on a mission and listened to almost 50 books in the last year on audiobooks. honestly anna karenina and war and peace are by far the best books. Dostoevsky and Dickens are also really enjoyable authors.

I have Iliad, The Odyssey, Jane Austen, Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Aristotle Poetics and Rhetoric, Histories by Herodotus, Peloponnesian War by Thueydides, Moby Dick and more.

Some of the monster books like Don Quixote, War and Peace, and Moby Dick (not on your list), are best gotten through once and then re-read. Upon re-read they truly achieve their brilliance.

First time I ever heard someone suggest that first person was more engaging for the reader.

They are all worth our time. They are classics for a reason, not just because they are older. But this is a good prioritization. In the end, our lives are finite. We need to read them all! But unfortunately, we can't.

Start with Hemingway, folks. Poetry. :)