Classic Lit. - The Ultimate Beginners Guide! (tips and recommendations) 2021

Growing up, I never encountered anything or anyone who made me think that classics can be intimidating or a special kind of books that would need mental preparation. I guess I was just too ignorant to be daunted. lol As a pre-teen, I just kept reading these titles and authors in encyclopedias (yes, I grew up with them at home) and I thought, wow these must really be good books if they're still being read by people. So, I just picked whatever classic books I could find and read them. Sir Walter Scott, Bronte, Austen, Hardy, etc.

I was a kid in a time and place where YA books were not that ubiquitous so I never really had the chance to read a lot of YA books. I transitioned from children's books to classics as I was entering my teens so that influenced my taste in fiction as an adult. I mostly read classics and science fiction for fiction works; as for non-fiction, my interests are considerably more expansive.

great video 🙏
I love classic literature
I really enjoyed Wuthering Heights❤

🙏🙏❤

I had to get the audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov. I struggled with that book not gonna lie. But the Audiobook helped me a ton!

Oh, love the intro!

Book: Racist Mother of Black Son. CRV publisher. This one is mandatory. Very worth reading. Published in Brazil

the automatically generated subtitles keep writing "tolstoy" as "toaster" and i just can't stop laughing

Your voice is so soothing! I loved loved this video❤

You can babble on all you like because its all good stuff.Well done!

Very compelling. I'm now inspired to give this a go this summer. Many thanks!

Yes,she is an enthusiast and charming too.

Horror/ Sci Fi - you need to read Frankenstein

If ever you didn't watch it, I would recommand you the 1997 movie adaptation of Anna Karenina, whose role is played by the gorgeous Sophie Marceau.

The 2012, with Keira Knightkey, is esthetically pretty good, but dramatically speaking not as good as the 1997.

Plus, the nature and the acting of Keira does not fit really well with the character of Anna (and I would say the same for her role in Pride and prejudice).
I don't understand why they chose her ; she's a good actress but too mischievous, playful and shallow.

Anyway...

Oh nice, you're beautiful btw.

Read the book first, and read Peter Pan, The Jungle Books and Alice in Wonderland instead.

You have such a beautiful voice! I could listen to you read a dictionary and I’d still be engaged

whats your favorite adaptation of anna karenina?

That's amazing 🤩😍 although, I have a question, are you really an English major? Because you really perfect!! 💛💛

This inspired me, and I've just ordered The Portrait of Dorian Gray and David Copperfield, both as Penguin Clothbound Classics! Thank you! 🙏

Most people find it hard to follow a classic because they had such a command of the English language! But if someone goes slowly and give it a chance the profound and powerful prose is so rewarding

Nice Video, for Novels I am only readidng classics lately, I need to put a limit for now, otherwise I won't be able to get anywhere lol

As someone who is passionate about history I love classics because they tell a lot about the context they were written in. Don Quixote (one of my first classics) was great for that. Nice video.

Hiya Carolyn. I have been looking for some new material to read and decided on reading the Classics. I've read about 6 classics over the years and found them Heavy going...Jane Eyre, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice.....loved Dracula. But I want to read them seriously now so looking for my next read? Any recommendations please?

Great recommendations and video structure

My day was made when I found Anna Karenina The Barnes and Nobles Classics edition, at my local library for $1. It’s been the first book on my TBR for this year and I’ve been avoiding it. Well no more , diving right in. 😊

Very good intro ...Bravo!!

If I read a book following my finger, it goes really fast and is something like watching it all happen.

And I also really want to read Les Mis in the French which is down the road quite a ways!

Speaking of expectations, with great trepidation, I read Great Expectations and was astounded by the author's sense of humor! It didn't take long before the trepidation evaporated. Thank you SO much for this channel! See you soon.

"The best thing about reading classics is the memes." LOL, wasn't expecting that! Great video!

When you mentioned The Outsiders, I got so excited because that is my favourite book ever!

Just wondering if you read the “introduction” section first before reading the classic, or do you go straight to the story?

" Even if you don't like a classic and you've a copy of it , you've a beautiful book" HAHAHAHAH !
Amazing amazing video ! 😘

It’s funny but for one advice I did the exact opposite. I decided to start with the bigger/heavier books, just in order to be able to say to any other book: pfft, easy read compared to xyz 😅

Audible has a bunch of Jane Austen novels narrated by Rosamund Pike and I seriously recommend! That was how I approached Pride and Prejudice for the first time!

Are you Beatrice from the Divine Comedy?

please recommend some mystery or crime classics

Once you read the classics then you will be the smart person people are referring too.

You are mispronouncing “Anna” with regards to Anna Karenina. It sounds more like “On ah.” Remember that the author is Russian. You are also mispronouncing “Otranto.” It sounds more like “Oh tron toe.” My recommendation for a classic social problems novel is Native Son (Richard Wright). Additionally, a good recommendation for an excellent African American literature classic is Toni Morrison’s Beloved. A tip for reading Capote’s masterpiece In Cold Blood: Watch the movie titled Capote as you read or before starting the novel. This makes the novel easier to get into. It’s also imperative to know something about Capote the person. The movie helps with this. Lastly, before tackling Ulysses, read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners. Joyce makes light of his own writing in Ulysses, so having read these works provides clarity. It’s also advisable to read Ulysses as part of a class if possible. If you cannot attend a class, pick up the Great Courses lecture box on Ulysses. It’s a series of lectures given by a top instructor. Just some advice and recommendations from a Harvard graduate student of literature. 😉

I started with The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison 2 years because I wanted to be a better ally and I enjoyed reading it so much that it got me back into reading, so I followed it with The Bell Jar and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Amazing video!

Great channel. The videos are quite lengthy. I think timestamps would be great for all of your videos.

The thing about classics (in my experience) is that it only takes one book to make you a classic reader. I read Anna of The Five Towns and was astonished that it could be a page-turner while portraying a somewhat mundane life about class in a small town. Before that, I always thought classics are dull and boring. Like, holly hell, classics are so cool. Then I read Where Angels Fear To Tread by E.M. Forster and found a reflection of myself in Philip Herriton. And since then, I became an avid classics reader. It blows my mind how these "old books" could be so impactful. Also, I couldn't agree more with the cultural references and memes thing! Shakespearean memes are especially my favourite :)

And thank you for the heartfelt and brilliant lecture! Listening to other classic readers gush about their love for classics is my favourite :))

Thank you for this video! I adore classical literature! The only problem is, after reading so many well written books, it's hard to read modern books that may have a plot that I am very interested in but are not well written. It's frustrating sometimes!!

Thank you so much for your excellent reviews. I enjoy your enthusiasm and your excellent sense of humor. I am 82 years old and recently cut cable. I enjoy you so much more than anything the commercial world can offer. I recently (the last decade) started reading Russian writers.

I agree with many of your viewpoints. Like seeing a movie can enrich the classics. Peter Fonda spectacles as Pierre and then another Pierre comes along. I'm still wondering what happened to that daughter that enjoyed science along with her father. I think she could be a book in her own right.

Best wishes in your life and Thanx!

My enemies to lovers "book" but actually a play is always Much Ado About Nothing. It has almost ruined every other romance for me. Benedick and Beatrice are so real in their motives, but they play off eachother so hilariously, and the circumstances that bring them together are so absurd but tonally fitting. Even the bard himself knew when to throw out the high prose and let Benedick happily scream that he'll be "horribly in love!"

Hey Carolyn, I just found you today- and have really enjoyed the couple videos I've had time to watch! By happenstance, I just did a bit of a Tolstoy/Dostoevsky deep dive and then realized that it may be time that I give Dickens a second chance (I narrowly avoided falling into a coma on a previous attempt at David Copperfield). I had no idea that this is apparently the hip transition to make.

Anyways, I have a question. I'm embarrassingly and perhaps even offensively under-read when it comes to female authors in general (at least as far as "classics" are concerned). I just ordered Pride and Prejudice which seems to be a logical start. Which female authors and books more specifically would make for a good launching off point?

I should mention that I ambitiously read Little Women when I was in the 4th grade as it was worth the most points for some scholastic something or other. I was, and am still, scarred from the experience. I am 33. This may or may not be relevant.

Thank you. :)

When you said you didn’t love Frankenstein that really helped me out. I read 1984 and didn’t like it at all but I went online and saw everyone saying how much they loved it and that it got them into classics and made them realize why they wanted to study literature. This really discouraged me because I started to think all these other classics that had great reviews I probably wouldn’t like so maybe I shouldn’t read them at all. But hearing you say it is okay to not like one book or a classic everyone else likes really lifted my spirits. This was a great video, thanks!

I discovered your channel last night and I've been binge watching your videos the whole afternoon. Thank you for your advise. If you haven't, I would recommend you to read the Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This book contributed ending the Soviet Union.