Ive discovered that I tend to really enjoy “old” books. Let’s say anything written before 1900. Dracula, by Bram Stoker, and Moby Dick are among my favorites, and perhaps that is because to me they don’t read “old”, if that makes sense. I’d love to hear other suggestions in this vein, bonus points if they aren’t the standard classics we all read in highschool/college.
by Throwaway_8899357
22 Comments
Little Women feels shockingly contemporary at tines
Wuthering Heights
Just finished The Idiot and it felt pretty timeless.
My first thought was Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. If you enjoy it, consider the modern book To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a delightful time-travel into Victorian England.
Others from that period to consider might be Crime and Punishment (a school read for me, but I doubt it’s assigned often these days) and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Great Gatsby
Little Women!
A Tale of Two Cities. Which is about the French Revolution and has a minor character named The Vengance, whose weapon of choice iirc is an axe.
The Three Musketeers/Guardsmen published in the mid 1800s is a favorite of mine. Count of Monte Cristo is also good.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles has a weirdly ‘not old’ style.
Sherlock Holmes!
Its a play but The Importance of Being Earnest
1984. It’s wild!
{{Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë}} is one of the better-known classics, but I think it’s one of the most approachable and modern-reading of the bunch.
However, the two you mentioned read like “old” books to me—I think you might be underestimating how readable most 19th century literature actually is. Based on you liking those two, you might like {{The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde}}, {{The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins}}, and even {{Middlemarch by George Eliot}}.
I do think Austen is more difficult (especially due to her reliance on social norms that today are foreign), though the romance in Pride and Prejudice feels incredibly modern. But aside from the odd author like Henry James, most Victorian authors are perfectly easy to follow.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. It’s so shockingly modern in some parts despite being written in the 1840s.
I was very pleasantly surprised by how modern *The War of the Worlds* by H. G. Wells felt. It’s simultaneously really unique to the period (like, bicycles were still a big deal) while also feeling really modern. Lots of fun.
*All Hallows Eve* by Charles Williams is not as well known but I really enjoyed it. Sort of eerie, occult/Christian mysticism vibes
A Tale of Two Cities
The Age of Innocence
Anne of Green Gables (a couple years past 1900 though)
I really enjoyed Madame Bovary and The Awakening
To Say Nothing of the Dog was wonderful
Candide by Voltaire
Little Woman and Picture of Dorian Gray are both really fast, easy reads. Anna Karenina is one of my favorites of all-time and so is Wuthering Heights.