Finally I’ve decided to join this exciting project, The Classics Club, initiated by Jillian at A Room of One’s Own. I’m actually an omnivorous reader, but classics have often been in my readings. I see that without being consciously planned, up to this month of this year I’ve read 11 classics works. So I thought I’d like to make it a real project, and by this I hope I will read more classics in a more persistent way, and get connected with the community out there to discuss and find good recommendation on what to read next. So, thanks to Jillian, and to all the moderators, for hosting this Classics Club!
I’m aiming at reading 75 classics for the period of five years (till August 22, 2017). It’s a high number for me as a slow reader, who likes to stroll in reading and savors the sentences, and some of the books in my list are so long (those of Dumas, Hugo, Proust, Tolstoy, or Beauvoir). But I’d also want to stretch myself a bit. However, my enjoyment in reading the books is still my ultimate goal, not just only about finishing the list.
And below is my list. Rather than putting a complete list, I’d like to make it a living list though – I’ll add more titles along the way, or may change or swap a few. The books listed here are mainly in my reading plan indeed, or already my TBRs, so I’ve intended to read them anyway, and I’ll add some more later when I find recommendation on what to read next from fellow bloggers or when I feel like to read other works of the same author whose works I have read and found good. Here I include non-occidental classics as well, such as those from Japan and Philippines, and later possibly also from Indonesia. I also include a considerable number from French literature, which I adore! A few are rereads.
- Villette – Charlotte Bronte
- A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
- Persuasion – Jane Austen
- Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
- Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
- Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte
- Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes – Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
- A Tramp Abroad – Mark Twain
- The Call of The Wild – Jack London
- Animal Farm – George Orwell
- Homage to Catalonia – George Orwell
- 1984 – George Orwell
- Burmese Days – George Orwell
- A Collection of Essays – George Orwell
- The Collected Essay, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 4: In Front of Your Nose 1945-1950 – George Orwell
- Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays – George Orwell
- For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
- Tender is the Night – Scott F. Fitzgerald
- Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
- The Trial – Franz Kafka
- The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
- The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
- Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
- Three Men on a Bummel – Jerome K. Jerome
- I am A Cat – Natsume Soseki
- Tower of London – Natsume Soseki
- The Journey – Jiro Osaragi
- The Snow Country – Yasunari Kawabata
- Noli Me Tangere – Jose Rizal
- Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne
- 20,000 Leagues under The Sea – Jules Verne
- The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
- The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
- The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux
- Sentimental Education – Gustave Flaubert
- The Belly of Paris – Emile Zola
- The Masterpiece – Emile Zola
- Germinal – Emile Zola
- The Debacle – Emile Zola
- La Bete Humaine – Emile Zola
- The Plaque – Albert Camus
- Tartufe – Moliere
- Bonjour Tristesse – Francoise Sagan
- La Gloire de Mon Pere – Marcel Pagnol
- Le Petit Prince – Antoine de Saint Exupery (to reread, this time the french version)
- L’Amant – Marguerite Duras (to reread, this time the french version)
- Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust
- Les Miserables – Victor Hugo (to reread, this time the unabridged version)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
- The Last Day of a Condemned Man – Victor Hugo
- Old Goriot – Honore de Balzac
- Candide – Voltaire (to reread)
- Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
- Maria – Vladimir Nabokov
- Anne Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
- The Cossacks – Leo Tolstoy
- Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- The Idiot – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
- The Railway Children – Edith Nesbit
- The Dubliner – James Joyce (to reread)
- Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
- Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
- Walden – Henry David Thoreau
- Anne of the Island – L. M. Montgomery
- Anne of Windy Poplars – L. M. Montgomery
- Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter – Simone de Beauvoir
- The Prime of Life – Simone de Beauvoir
- All Said and Done – Simone de Beauvoir
- …
This is My Classics Club Project page.
Inspired to join as well? Join the Club here.
Yayyyy! You finally joined in! You are the 7th Indonesian blogger who joined the club.
You have chosen quite a lot of Zola, Germinal is superb, I have just finished it. L’Assommoir was also good, almost as good as Germinal. The Masterpiece is also in my list, the next Zola on my TBR piles.
I think I’ll put L’Assommoir into the list… see, it seems my list will get longer in time 🙂
Been thinking to make a personal ‘reading event’ for all the Rougon-Macquart novels… definitely it’ll take years to finish, but seems to be well worth..
Welcome to the group!! I’m inspired by all your French literature. I have a feeling I too will eventually love the French works. Villette is a beautiful novel. (Lots of French throughout.) Sense & Sensibility is one of my favorites, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was my first club read. 🙂
Thanks, Jillian! What you initiated and have done so far with the Classics Club is inspiring to me! A lot of good books out there, and the discussions in the club are so encouraging. I’m glad I joined the club!
I love your list! I’m in great favor of a diverse reading list myself, and this covers so many wonderful authors and titles. I can’t wait to continue on our journey, and cast several other, more current novels, temporarily aside.
hi Bellezza! so many good books to choose and I try to make it a diverse reading. Have fun with your list as well! 🙂
asyik, semakin ramai ternyata yg dari Indonesia 🙂
I envy you for reading French literature.. I always want to speak the language but apparently have no time to take some courses, hehe..
yup, I’ve learnt I’m the 7th from Indonesia!
Yeah we can’t have time for everything, same situation with me here… I’ve long been in favor for french literature, but mostly I read it in english. Only sometimes I read it in its original version. Most of the french lit books on the list I’ll read in english.
You’ve got a really nice list! I’d like to know how you liked these books.
Thank you Gargi! Have an enjoyable read to you, too! 🙂
Welcome to The Classics Club. I like the idea of a ‘living list’. After all, who knows where our reading adventures will take us?
I look forward to reading your reviews.
Thank you, Karen! Yes, I hope it would be an enjoyable journey, for all of us. 🙂
Wow … what a awesome list, maybe I can learn some of sight on those literature. If you’re the 7th participants from Indonesia, maybe we should looking someone else so it will become 10 participants 😀 Btw, on the French Literature are you gonna compared with the English version ? I wonder is it any different…
Yes maybe some other would like to join as well 🙂
As for the french lit, I didn’t intend to compare them with the english version. Just that before I read those books in Indonesian, now that I can read french in some degree, I would like to reread them in their original version. But that’s not all the case, most of the french lit books I’ll read in english.
wow….I love your ‘living list’ *speechless*
mau bergabung mbak Riana? it’s for a 5-year riding though, and I’m willing to just stroll and enjoy… 🙂
Eh, baru tau Mei ikut CCP juga akhirnya. Yaaay *seneng ketambahan 1 orang dari Indo*
Welcome aboard dan selamat membaca! 🙂
selamat membaca juga 🙂