52 Classic Books For 2023

[@franniecamden]

I wish you did this every year!,! Loved it! Thankyou!

[@nanno8483]

This was just lovely! Please do this every year

[@a-room-with-a--shrew]

I came across this channel as a result of deciding this will be a year of classics for me. And I’m so glad I did! After watching some of your videos, I have reconnected with something in myself I had sort of forgot about. WHY I love books! I have read Heart of darkness, Fathers and sons, Anna Karenina, Lord of the flies, Crime and punishment, and all of these are reads that stuck with me, remembering the experience of reading them more than details from them. Great litterature stays with you, not just as stories, but as something more. Thank you for making these vlogs. I have a strange feeling of ‘coming home’. My current read is Rebecca.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

What a beautiful comment! Thank you so much Marian for taking the time to express yourself so kindly and eloquently. You are on the button when you say that great literature stays with you. Classics are classics because they connect ourselves with ourselves, knowing what it is to be a human. I wish you the best in your reading endeavours through the coming year and look forwards to seeing more of your comments.

[@Noa-cc9ur]

i admire every indevidual who can finish this reading challange in a year! i cant imagine reading books like middlemarch and swan's way etc. in a week

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Totally agree. I could never accomplish this list. And yet, amazingly, there are some who can!!! 🤯😃😂

[@dianalong5738]

I have read all but 6 on the list so far. Thanks for putting this list together.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

That's great 👍

[@zibilanna]

Thank you for this! I have read a number of these in my late teens (the red and the black was my novel for French final exams) others I have only heard of. Your synopsises are really wetting my apetites! A hundred years of solitude is on my reading list for 2024 and I have just bought a brand new notebook to start a quote collection as you suggest in an other video.

[@amyremington381]

You are an absolute delight! I am not at all surprised by Watership Down being in the top three. One my my absolute favorites! Thank you for the list!!! I've go to go get reading.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Wow, Amy! Ta very much for such a day-making comment. May I say, that you are a delight and a gem also. Watership Down is a beauty. It has been so long since I visited it though, that I really ought to go back to it again. Here's hoping that you inherit a mansion from a mysterious relative and to hearing your positive voice around these parts again.

[@carlabrown6849]

This is an enjoyable list! I reread Wuthering Heights in ‘23 and first read Huck Finn and Fahrenheit 451. They’re really wonderful.

[@WombatofDOOM53]

I read Peter Pan for the first time this year and, boy howdy, is that different from the Disney version and the play starring Mary Martin. Some pretty intense scenes. Glad I found your channel this past week as my TBR list is growing by the minute.

[@victoriacostina9596]

Thank you for such a brilliant video... Will tick of the books that I aim to get hold of and read.

[@redcreekfarm4305]

I adore this list. My public school literary education was ahem, shall we say lacking so I often don’t know what I missed out on. Will work on getting thru these-Goals! 🙌🏻

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thank you ever so much for taking the time to comment. I know what you mean about school literary ed. Its a shame that there are exams, as it makes reading about a formula of 'correct ' answers rather than the exciting journey of discovery. Which of these books catch your eye? If you are interested, I will be reading 12 definite classics this year which I will then be doing in depth analyses of on this channel. Those 12 are on another video. I wish you joy in your reading. And please feel free to make suggestions or ask questions on this channel. 😃❤🎩

[@bunnygirlerika9489]

Well sadly that's becoming more common in school and colleges as a lot of classic's and ancient classic's are pulled from schools cause of the whole 'I'm offended by everything' culture that's going on.

[@apollonia6656]

Read 41 of the 52 novels. The Barry Hines ;Jean Rhys; Proust; Stendhal; E.M.Forster; Samuel Butler; Ray Bradbury; Alexandre Dumas; Ernest Hemingway; William Golding; C.S.Lewis; novels are ones I have not read. So, of those not read I must read seven of them. Brilliant channel, my favourite and so enjoyable. Regards from Chester.

[@CalamariAtari]

I love this! And I love your very unique channel, Sir Tristan

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thank you everso much! I'm actually preparing another one of these for 2022.

[@CalamariAtari]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 I’ll be waiting with bated breath!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

@@CalamariAtari The new 52 books list is up for you. Enjoy!

[@Logoslover]

I’ve read many of these and I’m currently reading the count of Monte Cristo!! Not in a week! I didn’t read Anna Karenin or Don Quixote in a week. Am I just a slow reader? Great list. ❤I have read 25 of them.

[@missioncardiac7599]

A great list I must say. I have read most of them, and supplemented them with the adaptations. So I forgive you the big mistake in your Rebecca synopsis!

[@lenoraberendt750]

Awesome variety of books. Thank you!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Pleased you liked it 😀

[@muhlenstedt]

Great channel, new subscriber here. I admire your way of thinking, the deep of it without sounding arrogant. Besides that, you speak so clearly , so good for my foreign ears, thank you!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Wow, that is a genuinely heart melting comment. Thank you so very much. I hope you win the lottery😅❤🎩

[@radiantchristina]

WOW - a classics bonanza! I grabbed myself a cuppa and enjoyed the book porn lol. I'll be saving this video for reference later in the year after I get through what I've got to read and am looking for more classics. Thank you for your great content! Happy 2021!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Oh I am delighted that you liked it. Jolly decent of you to say so, too. Which books have you got your targets set upon? Any rereads? Any new authors? 😃❤🎩

[@radiantchristina]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 i am taking a short term outlook on my 2021 reading plans so as to not get overwhelmed, but i can say that i will be rereading Middlemarch. I reread it every 4-5 years. I am reading it feb-march and this time reading My Life in Middlemarch along with it :)

[@victoriabergesen6775]

A tour de force. I have read them all except for A Kestrel for Knave, but I plan to read them all again. Thanks for the reminders.

[@GuiltyFeat]

That's as challenging a year of reading as I can imagine. Probably worth reading Jane Eyre before tackling Wide Sargasso Sea to avoid spoilers. Thanks!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thanks for taking the time to comment, it really means a lot. And thanks for the tip regarding Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. As for the list, it is a beast, what? I made it for those who wanted a wide variety of authors and ideas. I myself am not reading every one of those books this year :) I have already read some of them and there are other books which have precedence for me this year. If anyone does manage this list though, I shall fall down at their feet and pay homage. :) Do you have any books which you hope to read this year?

[@GuiltyFeat]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 Just planning to continue making my way through Trollope, currently working on the Palliser books. I picked up a copy of Cranford which I will get to at some point as well as Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. And I keep promising myself that I'll read Bleak House and more of the Dickens books I haven't read yet. I also have a couple of Russian works lined up including Spring Torrent by Turgenev and some minor Tolstoy work. Cheers.

[@rebeccabsomanybooks3558]

Wonderful. Read many of these. I love 19th century classics. Great channel. New subscriber.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

The 19th century was the songbirds tuxedo for literature. The poetry and tenor was majestic. And each story was an exploration. Do you have a favourite author?😃❤🎩 And thank you Sooooo very much for subscribing. Please feel free to make suggestions of video ideas or anything else. I need as much help as I can get.😅❤🎩

[@maltohi]

Love these lists. 😊 Slowly getting through your classics lists while also taking very brief sojourns in contemporary fiction. But the classics are just soooooo good. 👍

[@donnagartshore9345]

Rebecca is the name of the late wife. The current Mrs. DeWinter is never named. I do love your videos and enthusiasm for the classics. Thanks for the recommendations!

[@jennic1684]

I'm glad someone else picked up on this!

[@ntebalengtwala875]

Thank you for the list. I will get some of the books. I hope you get to cover them on your channel 😊

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Hello again Ntebalang Twala, thank you again for taking the time to comment. Which of these books catch your eye? There is a definite twelve books that I will be reviewing, if you are interested. You can find them on one of my other videos. I will be looking at plenty of others but I'm not sure which ones yet.😃❤🎩

[@bluesgirl410cg]

What a wonderful list!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Ah thank you Chris. Kind of you to say. Do you have any favourites?😃❤🎩

[@bluesgirl410cg]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 I actually read The Picture of Dorian Gray, A Study in Scarlet, The Great Gatsby, and The Stranger in 2020. All of them were great! I’ve recently started reading more classics and I am really enjoying them. I have many more on my TBR for 2021. Fahrenheit 451 is one I read a few years ago and I loved it.

[@charmainesaliba5546]

I have read 11 from the list, Jane Eyre and North and South being my favourites. It is a very interesting list. I would like to read Crime and punishment and Middlemarch this year. I am currently reading Hester by Margaret Oliphant and enjoying it so far.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Pip pip Charmaine. Delighted to make your acquaintance. Thank you everso much for taking the time to comment, I truly appreciate it. I am looking forwards to reading Jane Eyre this year. As I mentioned most shame-facedly in another video, I have not read this extremely popular piece of work. Crime and Punishment really is a masterpiece. The more one meditates upon it, the more its aura grows. As for Middlemarch, it has the distinction of being voted the Best Book Ever Written, by the largest poll of authors.😃❤🎩

[@charmainesaliba5546]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 I am glad that I found your channel and to make your acquaintance too. I love classic and I am always looking forward to find more Classic to read. Hope you'll enjoy Jane Eyre it is really good. I must say that also Villette by Charlotte Bronte is a good one both are on my favourite top 10 classics. Oh must read Middlemarch, it is quite a long time that I want to read it but somehow I have never read it.

[@nedludd7622]

A good list with only about two or three that I didn't appreciate having read nearly all. That's not to impress, but I am pretty old and most of them were over a few years when I was young. It is also good that several foreign writers are included. A word about pronunciation, Le Carré is "le car-A" and Camus is "Ca-MU". In French the last syllable is stressed and the final consonants are most often not pronounced, though Proust was correct. Among my favorites are "Catch-22", "The Scarlet and the Black", "Grapes of Wrath". Many of my favorite authors are on the list, though I would have chosen other books by them. On the other hand, who considers Proust to be even greatest French author of the 20th. In my mind that is Céline.

[@fangirl1981]

I've read 17 and have 3 on my TBR shelf

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

That's brilliant. Which 3 are on your TBR?

[@fangirl1981]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 The Great Gatsby, Catch-22, & Crime and Punishment

[@Mateo-et3wl]

I own all of these books and enjoy looking at them on my shelves

[@tokyochemist]

I've read 26 of these and it's a great list but would require rotating between longer and shorter books. Some books even need clarification. The entirety of In Search of Lost Time? Or just Swann's Way? The entirety will certainly take more than a week; it's such a dense read. The Chronicles of Narnia: the entire series? Or just the most famous ones? In any case, a great list and props to whomever can complete all of these in a year.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Your not kidding about the rotating, it would take a determined character to undertake the challenge. As for Proust, I did mean just The Swann's Way. The whole lot is about 5000 words isn't it? As for Narnia, I appreciate the need for clarity. I read the whole Chronicles straight through, but I didn't make that clear. This is why I appreciate everyone's comments so much, it helps me a lot. Do you have any authors whom you particularly like?😀👍

[@tokyochemist]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 Within the classics my favorites would have to be French authors. Can't put down a Dumas or Victor Hugo!

[@taaptee]

yay, thank you for the list and the short descriptions. i've not read a lot of these so this should be exciting! i hardly have time given my studies etc but i'll try my best. love your locution as well x

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Wow. Studying and trying to get through a heap of Classics. Props to you.😀 Don't feel you have to read a book a week though. I do not put myself under that pressure either. This list is for those who wish to try a challenge. Thanks for commenting. I appreciate having such a positive and encouraging person around.

[@taaptee]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 trying my best!!! and yes i understand ❤

[@TheAnarchitek]

Nice list, missing only a couple large tomes, like Gone With the Wind (1,034 pages), Gravity's Rainbow (760 pages), Moby Dick (635-927 pages, US-UK editions), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (940 pages), To Kill a Mockingbird (281 pages), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Ulysses, Optomicron, and the all-time winner, In Search of Lost Time, by Proust. I've read all the good ones, skipped the others.

[@apollonia6656]

I have got no luck with James Joyce and his four main books ; read them...(if that is the right term for FW) so, what chance would I have with Gravity's Rainbow ?

[@TheAnarchitek]

It was a slog, took me four tries to finish, still not sure where Pynchon was going with it.@@apollonia6656

[@jaynefederici9140]

I have read three of these. 1984 I think should be read by everyone. I have read Jane Eyre and A study in scarlet. There are a few here that I started and didn't finish. I want to read Perfume, Lord of the flies and crime and punishment.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thanks Jayne. Sorry for replying so late. I hope to read Perfume soon. As for Crime and Punishment ... Goodness, it's a great book.

[@jaynefederici9140]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 I am reading perfume now and enjoying it.

[@yarntalesbythesea5310]

Ah, The Woman in White, one of my favs

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Bravo. You have good taste. It was such an authentic and revolutionary book. Have you read the Moonstone by Collins?🎩❤😃

[@yarntalesbythesea5310]

Yes I have and I really enjoyed that one as well. I love his style of writing.

[@apollonia6656]

Before reading any novels by Wilkie Collins I think the two that should be read first are: The Woman in White , then The Moonstone. I loved both but TWiW is special,so special 💘

[@shabirmagami146]

Great list 💕

[@sandraelder1101]

Woman in White & Watership Down!!! 🥰

[@Oenloveslife]

I prefer tabula rasa. Therefore I don't prefer your synopsizing. I only listened to one of your synopses, for a book I've already read -- Tess; and this confirmed my concern that by summarizing in this way, you are unfortunately draining some of tge magic out of the experience of first time readers. It's why I don't read book reviews for example. On the other hand, thank you for alerting me, for the first time ever, to a book I had never heard of till now and which I shall now go get from inter-library loan and read: Kestrel for a Knave!

[@jonathonglover6488]

That would be one heck of a reading year! Some of these books need time to really engage with. A quick count through and I have 30/50. But there are some that I am keen to jump into.

[@gregorymckinney8600]

You mention that The Way of All Flesh was Samuel Butler's only book. Didn't he also write the book Erewhon? I very much enjoyed reading The Way of All Flesh when I was younger.

[@brentwilliamson8642]

This is a beautiful list, but I worry whether one could get anything out of them if trying to do one a week :)

[@apollonia6656]

Tristam, Please tell me why The Great Gatsby is so loved ? I read the book twice and honestly cannot see anything special to warrant the praise heaped upon it ! It must be me 🤔 Thank you.

[@Oenloveslife]

Also, am I wrong or is there really no one in the world that could read (and enjoy) all 52 of these books in a single year?

[@madhulikaP]

One minor correction- Atticus does not choose to defend the black American but he gets assigned to the case by the judge.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thank you. You are absolutely correct. Atticus' willingness is laudable.👍😃

[@ТатьянаГубина-и1и]

I learnt that very few people in England read books! And tat with beautiful classics!!!😰😰😰

[@ТатьянаГубина-и1и]

I would add "NOTRE Dame de Paris" by V. Hugo here.

[@adellajones9887]

Also, Rebecca - the book/movie - gives off a Jane Eyre vibe. Both have a young naive female falling in love with a wealthy older man with a mysterious past.

[@ТатьянаГубина-и1и]

And what about " The Gadfly" by E.L. Voinich?

[@gregoryross.303]

You say that Samuel Butler wrote only one work, The Way of All Flesh. Ummmm.... Not only are you wrong, you are QUITE wrong. He wrote the novel 'Erewhon', and also 'Erewhon Revisited', among other of his published works you seem to have missed in your summary. It's okay, you've read so many books and reviewed so many authors, you're allowed a glitch now and then.

[@stephencharlton2024]

Your best

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thanks Stephen. That means a lot.

[@apollonia6656]

My number one is your number one: Pride and Prejudice....it has always been my favourite book ever since Mummy bought it for me when I was 14 years old. My goidness, I must have re-read it about 7 times ! My second favourite is Great Expectations and my third is Hamlet. Since my tbr list is getting longer and longer, I feel I am getting older and older by the minute !

[@TheNutmegStitcher]

Depth or breadth -- always the reader's dilemma.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

I prefer depth. This video was for the voracious readers.😀

[@reaganwiles_art]

Anna Karenina in a week?

[@apollonia6656]

I can read Dostoevsky in a week but not Tolstoy.; I wonder why ! One week is some accomplishment 👏

[@normanmikalac739]

Book lists are so ridiculous, since each person has different experience and therefore stories will have significance based on these experiences. Even for one person, as he or she gains experience, his or her evaluation of stories will change accordingly.

[@lauratorchio1541]

I read The tenant of Wildfell Hall, but didn't like it. I found it boring

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Whatho again Laura. I know what you mean about Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It is not exactly a book in which much actually happens. My appreciation for it is because of the acute observations that Bronte makes about the dreadful nature of young boys moral upbringing. No wonder so many men turned out to be rogues when they were allowed to indulge every vice as children. Do you have any favourite authors or books?

[@lauratorchio1541]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 Thanks Tristan for answering so quickly. You are right, the observations of the author are good and deep. My favourite author so far is Charles Dickens, David Copperfield at the moment, but I did not read all of his books. I like victorian authors: The woman in white was difficult to put down! And Forster: my favourite is Passage to India, like a dream. But there are many many classics that I haven't read yet. I am Italian but wish to read them in english, and so it takes more time. I love when I read a novel that sounds like a piece of poetry. Could you talk about David Copperfield deeply, and also about victorian writers?

[@apollonia6656]

Laura, I finished the book yesterday and actually liked it. Preferred Anne's writing to Emily's.

[@lauratorchio1541]

@@apollonia6656 I read Anne's books and also Wuthering Heights. I haven't read Jane Eyre yet, but will soon. Have you read it?

[@apollonia6656]

@Lauratortchio Yes I read it and enjoyed it. Here is a question re: TToWH. What happened to Arthur's little 🐕 Rover ? 🤔 Lawrence should have had him or even the giver, Markham ! No wonder I cannot read Agnes Grey or Moby Dick....animal cruelty 😕😥

[@janetsmith8566]

Is there a person alive who could read all these in 52 weeks???😅

[@marijoe19]

Possibly someone retired who listens to the audiobooks due to bad eyesight like my grandparents and deeply love literature. Plenty of people I think. 😉

[@mr555harv]

Tristan is brilliant, but his taste is very British, and frankly old school, His would not be an American framework. Perhaps he lives in a bubble that originated in a prior century.😊

[@dandelves]

Or perhaps it's because being British, he naturally reads primarily British authors or maybe you live in a bubble and don't understand that

[@arekkrolak6320]

wow, a man spent over half an hour of his life reading book synopses...

[@johnhsin5549]

Ivan Turgenev' into its individual sounds "eye" + "vuhn tur" + "gay" + "nyef"