5 ms·
Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?
I'm looking to read more classic books. What are your personal favorites? Extra points if it's something not commonly recommended. I'm open to pretty much anything
- purple-leafy 2y agoThe old man and the sea
- warrenm 2y agoFlatland by Edwin Abbott
- warrenm 2y ago(ftr - I am using the definition of "classic", as I make suggestions/recommendations, applying to works produced more than a century ago)
- warrenm 2y agoInstitutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin Regardless of whether you are Protestant or not (or religious or not) - understanding the theological philosophy of one of the great thinkers of the Protestant Reformation is a wonderful addition to your own mental maps fo the world at large
- FerretFred 2y ago"Confessions of an English Eater" by Thomas De Quincey. An autobiographical work in which the author details his unfortunate descent into Laudanum addiction. It all started well, but ended badly...
- northernman 2y agoI think you mean "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater"
- FerretFred 2y agoTsk! I did indeed!
- keiferski 2y agoThis book is amazingly well-written and is worth reading on that basis alone.
- warrenm 2y agoThe Travels of Marco Polo (I prefer the Modern Library edition translated by Manuel Komroff (it was published in 1931, but the source dates to the 13th-14th centuries))
- markus_zhang 2y agoAnything by Dostoevsky, but specifically "Notes from Underground" and "The Brothers Karamazov". "Jean-Christophe" by Romain Rolland.
- phaser 2y agoMeditations, Marcus Aurelius
- __rito__ 2y agoDoes it have to be old to be a "classic"? If not, by far, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez is my favorite novel by a Nobel winner. It's great, epic, and lovely to read. If you include epics, Mahabharata is actually a grand, epic book with war, friendship, love, sex, politics, realpolitik, strategy, and has a reach story line with scores of great side-stories. I also genuinely enjoyed Iliad and Aenied. I was also surprised at how good Candide by Voltaire was to read. Had a ton of fun reading it.
- tra3 2y agoEast of Eden by Steinbeck is great. I found it very approachable, and the characters very familiar.
- nicbou 2y agoGreat book! I loved Grapes of Wrath even more, but anything by Steinbeck is a safe bet.
- nicbou 2y agoThe Count of Monte Cristo. Everyone loves it. It aged marvelously!
- Blackstrat 2y agoNot everyone. I found it tedious and poorly written/translated. I read it last year in the unabridged translation. Not for me.
- wrp 2y agoDumas has a pretty intense fan base, though clearly not universal. I found his novels way too pulpy, but I can see why they were a sensation in the 19th century, when most literature was deadly slow by our standards.
- nicbou 2y agoAlmost everyone except Blackstrat* I read it in its original French, so perhaps it played a role. Dumas certainly has a unique writing style.
- throwawaymanbot 2y ago[dead]
- sickofparadox 2y agoDon Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
- abrookewood 2y agoI really enjoyed both The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London.
- fabianholzer 2y agoSenecas "De brevitate vitae"
- ZeroGravitas 2y agoThe Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character by Thomas Hardy (1886) https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thomas-hardy/the-mayor-of-casterbridge https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thomas-hardy/the-mayor-of-... I notice from that link it was on a top 100 Great British novels list.
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoBlech. I was afflicted with this in literature class. Would not recommend, even to someone who didn't have to read it. Hardy is better at torturing his characters than he is at giving them much of a personality. (Or so it seemed to me at the time; I haven't re-read it...)
- kbknight 2y agoI end up re-reading "Brideshead, Revisited" about once a year. It's the rare Christian book where every single character (regardless of their relationship with Christianity) is basically screwed up.
- edtech_dev 2y agoI recently read Stoner by John Williams. Would recommend.
- danielfink 2y agoBy I D.
- wrp 2y agoWhat do you want to get out of reading "classics"? I can think of three types of book that are called classic. First, there are things that are simply old. Second are things that made substantial contribution to our intellectual heritage. Third, there are books that are exceptionally enjoyable to read because of the quality of writing. What are you after? Things that were interesting to me for representing older times -- The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Battle of Maldon. Books that I didn't enjoy but I'm glad to know their contents -- all that old Greek and Latin stuff. Books that I enjoy rereading just for their quality -- things by Tolkien, Eco, Wodehouse, Chandler...
- pyzhianov 2y ago> First, there are things that are simply old. Second are things that made substantial contribution to our intellectual heritage I wish there was a way to easily distinguish one from the other. I find that the age of the book often distracts people from the actual content
- warrenm 2y agoPascal's Pensees
- benpbenp 2y agoI just finished the sublime Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset, in the Tiina Nunnally translation. If you have any interest in the medieval period or specifically medieval rural Norway, it really brings that setting to life and this is reason enough to give it a try. Much more than that though, it deals with so many profound themes -- mostly related to family and faith -- in a very natural and poignant way. I feel like reading it gave me one big long meditation running parallel to my life, to which my mind would dip in and out throughout all sorts of other goings on (it took me almost a year to finish). I would say the cumulative effect was transformative.
- bikenaga 2y agoSomeone else mentioned Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbirdge". It's the one of his 5 major novels I haven't read. "Far From the Madding Crowd" and "Return of the Native" are okay, but the two that really are magnificent are: "Jude the Obscure" - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/153 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/153 "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/110 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/110 You can sense his fury at the society he was depicting. You might not want to read either of these, particularly "Tess", if you're prone to depression. Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Frontier in American History" (1921) - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22994 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22994 This collection leads off with Turner's essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893). It's considered by some the most influential historical essay about America ever written. Historians went back and forth on his claims for decades, and people pointed out many issues with them. It seems like the critics predominate now. But it's still worth reading, particularly since (right or wrong) his ideas influenced the way we think of ourselves. Turner was a very good writer - he was a noted orator, and his essays have an oratorical quality - and the other essays in the collection are pretty good, too. Owen Wister, "The Virginian" - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1298 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1298 Zane Grey, "Riders of the Purple Sage" - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1300 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1300 And the sequel: "The Rainbow Trail" - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5067 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5067 "The Virginian" (1902) and "Riders" (1912) established many of the themes and tropes for the "standard" western, and they're still fun to read. But the genre comprises many other kinds of writing - e.g. A. B. Guthrie, Elmer Kelton, and the next writer. Willa Cather's novels: The "plains trilogy" (the stories are set in Nebraska and Colorado, but otherwise unrelated): "O Pioneers!" (1913) - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24 "The Song of the Lark" (1915) - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44 "My Ántonia" (1918) - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19810 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19810 And not quite a hundred years ago, but a wonderful novel: "Death Comes for the Archbishop" (1927) - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69730 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69730 A few brief mentions: James Joyce's "Ulysses", though I had a tough time getting through it; some of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories (e.g. "The Minister's Black Veil"); "Njal's Saga" (I liked the Penguin edition with the translation by Magnusson and Pallson); the great works of classic fantasy (Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison, William Morris, Arthur Machen); the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
- nataliste 2y agoThe Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. Written in 523 while he was imprisoned and awaiting execution by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric, it is often described as the last great Western work of the Classical Period.
- cafard 2y agoNYRB had the wonderful idea of taking the first and last few chapters of Henry Adams's history of the US 1801-1817, and printing them in a form you can slide into a windbreaker's pocket. Look for The Jeffersonian Transformation. For that matter NYRB's War and the Iliad is excellent brief reading, though I say less for Simone Weil's famous essay that for Rachel Bespaloff's "On the Iliad" and Herman Broch's "The Style of the Mythical Age".
- aitooltrek-com 2y agoI personally recommend this book: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant A Guide to Wealth and Happiness. It was an old book but it is really classic. I think Naval's philosophy in this book has inspired me a lot and change my mindset in daily life.
- pyzhianov 2y agoDefinitely not a classic by most definitions, but I agree that it's really good
- aitooltrek-com 2y agoOh, have you ever read this book? You make a fair point. I agree that by conventional definitions, this book may not be widely considered a 'classic'. Maybe just'personal classic'. After working for 8 years and finding myself at a career low point, this book completely transformed my mindset. Keep an eye on this topic so that I can explorer which book I can read during the flight! Thank you
- vismit2000 2y agoSICP
- constantinum 2y agoThere is a bookshelf called The Harvard Classics. The collection of literary works, philosophical texts, and scientific writings was initially titled "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf." It was assembled by Charles W. Eliot, who served as Harvard University's president. Almost all the books can be read for free in Gutenberg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/40 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/40 My favourite will always be the plays of William Shakespeare. It has it all.
- 7222aafdcf68cfe 2y agoI wonder if there are reading lists, similar to the Harvard Classics, but curated for a more contemporary audience based on which books are important now. After all, the first volumes of the Harvard Classics came out over a century ago, and the world has changed considerably since then. Does anyone know of any ?
- constantinum 2y agoNot a bookshelf. But i'm a part of a local book-club where we discuss books based on "topic of the month" Not sure if it would help. But you can find some very good recommendations there. https://poongabook.club/meeting-archives-3.html https://poongabook.club/meeting-archives-3.html (not a HTTPS website) Twitter - https://twitter.com/poongabook?lang=en https://twitter.com/poongabook?lang=en
- veeblevee 2y agoThe Odyssey.
- pyzhianov 2y agoWow, so many great responses, thank you all for that! I'm going to throw in my personal favorite: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Somehow it touches me in a way that no other book does. It's also quite short, I think I've read it at least 3 times in the last few years and found something new and insightful each time