I’ve been getting into reading classics after a long held fear that I wouldn’t be able to understand them. When I search up classics to read, it’s all very popular titles written by Austen, Bronte, Melville, etc. What are your recommendations for underrated classics? Ones that are easier to read for a beginner like me would be great!
by Toporangecat
7 Comments
I used to say Passing by Nella Larsen but that got a recent adaptation and seems to be more popular the last few years.
Looking through Goodreads, two classics I rated highly that have very few reviews are:
– Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot
– The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin (Evidence of Things Not Seen has even fewer ratings but I found it much harder to read.)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe
The Giver by Lois Lowry
I know you mentioned the Brontes, but I have to say Jane Eyre was really easy to read and a delight. I didn’t feel the same way about Wuthering Heights, and I HATED Moby Dick.
Don’t be put off by some of the more well known classics – they’re classics for a reason! That said, don’t force yourself to read them because you feel like you should (I’ll never get the time I spent on Moby Dick back).
You might do well to try some slightly more modern classics. Such as The Great Gatsby, Revolutionary Road, or To Kill a Mockingbird (if you haven’t already!)
Carmilla by Sheridan de Fanu (the og vampire novel, atmospheric)
Letter from an unknown woman by Stefan Zweig
The blind owl by Sadegh Hedayat
The prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Mary by Vladimir Nabokov. It’s short and bittersweet, perfect to reading during an afternoon, the remembrance of a first love (also see First Love by Ivan Turgenev). Lizzie by Shirley Jackson. Her best novel in my opinion: psychological but not excessively so, engaging and sometimes relatable, written in a noir style. Valerie and her week of wonders by Vítězslav Nezval. You might have heard of the movie, if not make sure to check that one out too, it’s wonderful, a criminally underrated classic: a Czech fantasy with brushes of folklore and fever dreams. + Pretty much anything written by Evelyn Waugh.
Treasure Island