10 Must-Read Classic Novels

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[@xxMegha33xx]

I am always waiting for your videos. You always have just the right books! Love your work. Much love from India

[@saly4762]

I’m happy to say I read 8/10 of these books and I just placed an order for The Castle of Otranto and Monkey King 😊 I can’t wait for you to read Anne Brontë’s books she’s amazing, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is my favorite.

[@lihayes5046]

I just found your channel and I connected with everything you've said about the novels in the video that I've read. You're so interesting to listen to and you've really gotten me excited about reading the rest of the novels on your list that I haven't read yet! I've already subscribed and am off to order some books and binge some of your other videos! Thanks!!!!

[@myonstrauss]

Frankenstein🖤 when you read it and get it’s not a horror story about a monster, rather it’s a horror story about human nature. Dorian Gray is one of my favourite books of all time❤️

[@ok-xb1ig]

i love and appreciate how you don’t spoil the book while talking about it. the combination of information ab the author and comments on the plot are A1. i’m the type of person i don’t want to know much if anything ab a book before i read it lol. i’m definitely reading most of these. this video was perfect

[@Amoscrts]

Oh, I love North and South so much! I was so shocked when I read Frankenstein for the first time to discover the heartbreaking abuse of a “child” in this famous horror novel. Jane Eyre is a force of nature, and so many lines in it overwhelm me with their beauty and fierceness! And Dracula is my absolute favorite classic! I wrote my graduate thesis on it titled “The Sum of all Victorian Fears.” This helps explain why I always love your recommendations so much. We have such similar taste! Thank you, Willow!

[@bookssongsandothermagic]

Nice set of books and a great subject to tackle on your channel. You've turned me onto some really interesting recent books - now you've nudged me to keep my copy of Dorian Gray and actually read it! Thanks as always.

[@genteelblackhole]

This is making me want to reread the ones I’ve already read, and try most of those I haven’t!

[@madamevoid1]

I absolutely agree, Frankenstein is my all time favourite novel and I consider it an immediate "YOU NEED THIS" for everyone ever. Soon to follow is The Picture Of Dorian Gray, with similar themes of mortality and morality.

[@isirlasplace91]

I could listen to you talk about classic books all day!!😊

[@Barryislarge]

God, I LOVE the invisible man. It's one of my favorite cozy winter reads. The settings feel so gothic and romantic. It's the kind of book to read by an open fireplace on a cold and stormy evening ❤

[@badfaith4u]

Thank you so much for the book recommendations. Your videos are so awesome.

[@awebofstories]

Anne is my favorite Bronte. I consider her the "sane one," which may or may not be fair. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is my favorite of all the Bronte novels.

[@ABookFiendNamedMel]

I love your editions of these books, so pretty

[@sylviakanel9766]

💜Lovely journey through these classics. Thank you, Willow.💜

[@nelson6553]

I'm on a little trek to read the 100 Greatest books ever written - I like your list there are several that I've never heard of (Read 4 of your list) - You have a really great way of summarizing your reads; Terrific!! You know, I had been a little confused by how Wuthering Heights gets interpreted, by many [it's the greatest loves story ever written]; I didn't come away thinking that all; your interpretation was spot on- Loved it.

[@LuxexNihilo]

Hello, I’m just passing by to say that I love your videos, they are so wonderfully clear and passionate. Thank you for sharing ❤

[@marinellamaccagni6951]

I've always love classics. When I was 13 years old, I read all jules verne books. What an amazing journey in my teenager years. I enjoyed them so much. Your books' reviews are astonishing. Btw you look gorgeous!

[@WillowTalksBooks]

🥹💜

[@ArchiduquesaMA]

I read the portrait of dorian gray for the first time this year and I can confirm, i had to stop reading to take in the incredible monologues, the characters are so charming

[@lindylouwho550]

Great list. My favourite Bronte book is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - away ahead of its time 📚📚📚

[@Weylane]

I'm from Switzerland and only read Frankenstein last year at the good old age of 33... And daaaamn, it's still my favorite read in the past 5 years with The Picture of Dorian Gray (Also they're super Queer coded and I loved that). As a native french speaker I focused so much on french Classics (Hugo, Verne, Dumas, ...) and I'm now discovering amazing worlds in english ! Definitely adding some new clothbounds classics to my wishlist now.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Yay, I’m so happy to hear that! I’m 33 as well :)

[@Weylane]

​@@WillowTalksBooks oooh That might explain why I find your recs and review so amazing. I'm about to finally read Carmilla to finally compare it with Dracula (That I'm also re reading each year with the Dracula Daily emails)

[@lyndaross4617]

Thank you Willow, new subscriber and loving all your book reviews and recommendations. x

[@micaelagonzalez71]

I love Frankenstein. It was my favorite classic when I first read it, but in my second read it became my favorite book period. It is so heartbreakingly beautiful. It broke me and it's a great book on violence and vengeance. Del Toro is working on an adaptation and I really hope he will make a movie that respects the themes of the book, all the feelings, and won't just make it a monster movie. The best adaptation I've seen up to now is the one in the TV show Penny Dreadful.

[@ghanshyamsingh3653]

Dammnnn! Willow, your lists just make me wanna read and done with these pages already...you describe them so deliciously tbh...I kinda drooled over Dorian Grey a little bit there lmaooo! Awesome and really interesting list...can't wait to be done with them all, as I haven't read any of these in it's entirety yet but I surely do own some...sooo thanks for making me wanna pick them up asap! 💙👌💙👍👍

[@fiktionbuchlichkeit9238]

Such a wonderful video, thank you so much! 🥳🤗

[@YonatanGelfand]

Great stuff! Thank you

[@womenwotreads]

Dorian Gray is one of my favourite novels ever . I haven't read Ann Bronte either but plan to rectify that soon . I believe I have North and South on my bookshelf but I don't think I've read it so that's something to look forward to . A great list Willow.

[@apollonia6656]

I love TPoDG. Must have read it at least five times.

[@xyw8383]

Growing up on Monkey King TV series and cartoons, so happy to see the story is brought up here. Jane Eyre was the very first English novel I've ever read. The romance in the book feels so soothing at times. I read Wuthering Heights in translated Mandarin. I was young and wasn't able to fully appreciate it back then. I remember there was one creepy scene that involves Catherine and a window that traumatized me 😅But looking back, I totally agree with you that the book is not really about romance. I think it's more about revenge. Great video!

[@slenderhatesyou]

Frankenstein is the book that really made me appreciate literature, and the fact that you said it's your ultimate favourite means that I am taking all your recommendations to HEART

[@SuperStrangSshadow]

I read Frankenstein for the first time a few years ago and loved it. I learned a lot of new things about the story and you just feel sorry for the creature.❤

[@nilulal545]

Do you know how much i appreciate you!! You know that right ❤ 😊 Thank you you just helped me with classic list of what ive been wanting more off. I've been wanting to read but didn't know where to go or start, especially not modern classic. Ohh you are truly the best.. ❤

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Wow, you’re incredibly sweet, thank you!

[@robyn3943]

I read Frankenstein for the first time this year and I adored it!!!! It is definitely one of my favourite books of all time

[@ansk6850]

Hey, thanks for this. Awesome.

[@Tutankhamun18Reads]

Such a good list. Ive read all of these and think they are all great!!

[@isabelab6851]

Been absent from the reading world…these are such great choices…not into super dark gothic but love science fiction. Great video. Need to catch up on your videos. As always, great content

[@ranjanarawat4336]

Jane Eyre is an absolute favorite. ❤

[@bhashamewar]

Some amazing recommendations! I love the gothic novel so this is right up my alley❤

[@margaritabetancourt1167]

Love this channel ❤

[@aye.p]

Such an amazing taste!! 💜💜

[@hellobookworm]

This is a great list! I read Monkey King a few months ago and found it highly entertaining, especially the first half. I'm happy to see it on your list, as I feel most people in the West haven't heard about it.

[@MiruMSO]

Such beautiful editions 😍😍 so glad and proud that you visited my country or a part of it. (Romania) The Transylvania land/ areas are so beautiful. ❤

[@snarksss]

Amazing vid as alwaysss

[@SM-vr8dz]

Love these kinds of videos:listicles! I would love to see a fiction list of pieces critical of empire, just in case you’re looking for ideas, lol.😂🎉

[@maudieicrochet9491]

I love ❤ your reviews, Willow. Love you, love your sweater…❤

[@katiejlumsden]

Many excellent books here! Three cheers for North and South.

[@jennyrbaker]

I LOVE The Picture of Dorian Gray! I'm heartbroken that he never wrote any other novels, but I still can read his short fiction. You've got me wanting to reread it along with Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and finally read Jules Verne and Anne Bronte.

[@Calcprof]

Anne B is wonderful.. I'm looking forward to your take on her 2 (IIRC) novels.

[@rachel1021]

The Castle of Otranto was a fun reading experience. I'm going to reread that and some of my other favorite classics, and check out the ones I haven't read. This is a nice list. 🖤🩶❤️

[@sapnasarfare2920]

Quite interesting to hear about classics from someone else. Had read The Picture of Dorian Gray in college and i still love it...

[@vitareads]

I've read all but three of these! Planning to read Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre this year. Thanks for putting Monkey King on my radar, it sounds one I will love. 🖤

[@loudoy1]

Lovely to see two Irish authors in this list 🙂

[@p5meo]

i love your videos

[@NotGhostCaos]

I haven't read any of them, but thanks to you I'll give them a go :)

[@mrincorrect848]

Hey, I just wanted to say that Ive silently watching your videos for s couple years now. Without a doubt youre one of my favourite channels. I will be transparent that I used to be very trans/homo phobic(lived in islamic country long time) however this channel made me realize and now support rights sctiviely. Thank you.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Wow, I’m very touched! Thank you so much for your support 💜

[@vortexvibes5944]

I like your style!

[@SheWasOnlyEvie]

The lens I’ve always read Frankenstein through is it being a novel of grief and depression-so I’m intrigued to re-read it with the parenthood view in mind! Calling Wuthering Heights even a tragic romance is a little bit of a stretch; it’s underrated as a revenge tale. Though, I’d say, it’s the failure of romance as well as the failure of revenge. Anne Brontë definitely deserves more love! It’s been a while since I read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but I remember loving it. Agnes Grey is, I dare say, the better version of Jane Eyre (I have a complicated relationship with Jane Eyre). I was so surprised by Dracula when I read it last year! It was so compelling, I could not put it down! If you haven’t already read it, Don Quixote is one of my favorite classics: I was blown away with how compelling and easy it was to read (I read the Edith Grossman translation), especially considering it was written in the early 17th century. It’s hysterical and, simultaneously, sad with its depiction of Don Quixote’s “madness”.

[@aldakendall4921]

Monkey King is now on the list!! Now I am inspired to reread these delightful treats!!

[@bookofdust]

In your Dracula research, have you heard the story about Stoker being in Highgate Cemetery and seeing people moving around in an underground mausoleum through the windows that allowed light into the crypt and that being part of the inspiration/impetus for writing the story? It was the story told to us in a 90s cemetery tour about a particularly unique underground mausoleum. I feel it was near the Rossetti grave and the story of Dante having his wife’s tomb interred to retrieve the only copy of his poetic manuscript that he buried with her. But rethought when he wanted to publish them.

[@missjenny1953]

Wow you look really nailed Wuthering Heights with your review

[@potatosocreepy7778]

I have purchased Frankenstein, Dracula, Crime and Punishment, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre to read in this fall

[@isirlasplace91]

I love your copy of Jane Eyre!!! It's stunning!!🤩

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Thanks! That and my Wuthering Heights are both from the Chiltern Classics collection :)

[@Jimbodisfan]

Good afternoon! I have most of the gothic novels mentioned in this video in an ebook omnibus called 60 Gothic Classics. I agree that the characters in Wuthering Heights deserve to be autopsied while still alive.

[@tyghe_bright]

Most of these I've read and love, but this is making me want to seek out beautiful special editions of them, especially Dorian Gray and Frankenstein. I never much cared for Jane Austin, who so many seem to love, but LOVE Charlotte Bronte.

[@barbarablonsky7521]

I love The Picture of Dorian Gray! I would read passages out loud because of the sumptuous language. I recently read Wuthering Heights and I was so surprised and shocked! I had always thought it was a romantic tragedy ( Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff!). Reading it and experiencing the monster that is Heathcliff astonished me. I loved the gothic tone of the book. And I have read Dracula three times. Iconic. Absolutely haunting. And when I would read it alone at night it was damn scary! Now looking forward to reading Jane Eyre.

[@angelaholmes8888]

I'm planning on reading jane Eyre soon

[@Emy-fh1zn]

I read Frankenstein for school and I loved it so much, I felt a lot for the monster 😢now it’s one of my favourite classics along with the count of Monte cristo. I clearly love revenge novels 😂

[@TanaChiarantano]

Willow: apologies to Dostoievski, Tolstoi.. Me, a russian-classics girlie: oh no

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Hahaha I’m so sorry

[@apollonia6656]

I have always found Frankenstein a sad novel even as good as it is. North and South is waiting for me, after finishing "Cranford". As for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, except the ending....but I don't know why !

[@whatshername369]

It's a long, long read but I loved THE PROFESSOR by Charlotte Bronte. Definitely worth a try.

[@bunnygirlerika9489]

Try the book 'The iceberg hermit' by Arthur Roth. Would have to buy it used as its out of print but is pretty cheep to get. Its the book that got me into reading as a kid. Its very underrated and really deserves a re-release.

[@Bessie-On-Wheels]

I adore North and South and have just finished Frankenstien and I did wonder whether she wrote it because she was angry at Percy

[@erinh7450]

Monkey/Journey to the West! 🥰🥰🐒🥰 I was introduced to that book in a college course, read the Arthur Waley translation years later, now you say there is a new one? I think I'm going to have to read it again!

[@ericapoe]

Ugh you’re so luck to have gone to Transylvania.. always been my dream to go and visit Brahms castle. I also have the same copy of Frankenstein as you.

[@ericapoe]

*Bran

[@knitty781]

A great list of Classics. And I love how you feel bad neglecting Anne Bronte. There are so many gothic books pre-20th century that are amazingly disturbing and many young people don't read them. They are also books that reveal completely different ideas as you age, so are good books to read throughout your life.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

I’ve read her now though :)

[@bookofdust]

Knowing your love of Asian literature have you read The Pillow Book before? I’m about to read it after reading all the supporting material to help contextualize the story and give me a better sense of the cultural and political setting of the story. I haven’t seen any Booktubers talk about it, though there’s a group about to start Tales of the Genji on the 15th, but I became completely intimidated when I saw the length. I might read the truncated version myself and see how it intrigues me to read the full version.

[@ujjyaini332]

Just a random thought - the Monkey King do remind me of Hanuman who was also like a Monkey King in the epic Ramayana and Ramayana did travel east of India and their are different versions of it in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia etc and Hanuman is adapted very differently. Now to think about it maybe this is the Chinese adaptation it's hard to say. But there are too many myth of the Monkey King in the east for it to be too random and not be connected to Ramayana

[@camilakessler8888]

Thank you

[@WillowTalksBooks]

You’re welcome

[@goddessofgore]

I love your recommendations Willow! Plus you just sold me Monkey King 🐵 🖤

[@bex262]

have you read any wilkie collins? he is the king of epistolary,, especially the woman in white which is so campy i just think you'll love it

[@ChicaneryBear]

Thought I posted on this, but must have forgotten. I’d recommend the 1818 version of Frankenstein over the later revisions. The text is a lot rawer and the LGBT subtext comes through a lot clearer.

[@MarivoneAraujo]

The picture of Dorian Gray is my favorite. Even though the story line is a copy of The Portrait, by Gogol, still the whole content - and what he did to Gogol’s original idea - is of impeccable greatness. . Frankenstein comes right after it. As a black person, I was reading it and realizing how much of how people always treated me is so similar. Foreigners must feel the same way. And so on… She wrote that one for the outcast for sure. . Agnes Grey, by Anne, hit me really hard because there are parts way similar to my life. “Wuthering Hights” is so heavy, and amazes me that people still portrait Heathcliff as a white man. It’s just an insult the her story. . I’m gonna read the first one you mentioned. I had never heard of it!

[@heatherbocks]

Had to read Wuthering Heights in high school and hated it. May need to revisit it now ten plus years later

[@ArchiduquesaMA]

Jules Verne books are great

[@isoney]

I followed when you said Dragon Ball. I wouldn’t have put Monkey King on my list, but thank you.

[@krisprepolec5616]

❤

[@mikemason746]

I read Frankenstein recently just for curiosity. Very readable and compelling, but quite ridiculous.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

LMAO indeed

[@mikemason746]

@@WillowTalksBooks I wondered at the part where Viktor in a little boat is blown by a storm from the Faroes to Ireland, where the creature just happens to find him and dump his friend. I looked at a map and laughed.

[@nightcorebjork6576]

Have you read the uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Dunno. Just the one I bought in a bookshop

[@derrickcox7761]

Not bad.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

I’m so glad I got your approval. Had me sweating for a moment!

[@derrickcox7761]

@@WillowTalksBooks not bad is not the same as approval...it's was a compliment...but feel free to be a snot about it.

[@MriInterocitor]

Given your favorite book, would you say that this video is a sort of trunk containing not just three but ten volumes for the edification of all us outsider princesses hiding in the forest? Does this make you the (apparently prematurely aged) beloved guide to the ways of life? Or is it just that I need breakfast? Also, I’m now picturing all the gothics infused with science fiction, and vice versa.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

I don’t understand a single word of this :)

[@MriInterocitor]

@@WillowTalksBooks I was thinking of the books traveling with the Arabian princess and her trusty companion that the monster learns from.

[@estefaniaarellano3997]

You lost me at wuthering heights, but I appreciate the variety.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Shame

[@dragonrealmer4851]

Queer erasure isn't a thing, but queers seeing gay relationships in every male to male friendship of the past (and contemporary as far as fiction is concerned) is hilarious. Literally every historical pair, real or fictional, has had the homosexual label applied by the rainbow community.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Bet you’re fun at parties.

[@dragonrealmer4851]

@@WillowTalksBooks Depends on the company.

[@apollonia6656]

Deleted comment re: " Monkey King' ! 🤔

[@WillowTalksBooks]

I don’t know what that means 😊

[@apollonia6656]

I left a pretty long comment re: Monkey King and now it is gone. Maybe the comment was long and that is why it was deleted. A!as, it doesn't matter anymore.

[@Scrubjay001]

Something is wrong here

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Oh no! Well, please let me know what it is and I’ll see if I can get myself to care enough to fix it!

[@fashionearrings]

I hate hate hate Jane Eyre. Hate.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Ok