All the Classics I’ve Given 5 Stars

I was inspired by ‪@Fortheloveofclassics‬'s recent video and decided to take a look at the classics I've given 5 stars to on Goodreads. Do these books still deserve that rating? That's what I intend to find out.
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[@kristineredmond5196]

I recently found your channel and I could listen to you talk about books all day...especially classics. 😃Thanks for the great inspiring and informative videos...I've been binge watching😅 Currently reading a Wilkie Collins thanks to you.

[@johnmoeller8654]

She's a lovely soul, we lost a great person sadly.

[@Tolstoy111]

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is flawless. A miracle.

[@SheepandOak]

"Going into this year I really did want to rate enjoyment higher ... The books that I think stay present in my mind the most are the ones that I really enjoyed and was emotionally invested in. And I feel like I give a lot of classics 5 stars based on their writing. Which is a key part of my enjoyment a lot of the time, but it's not the only thing that I'm looking for. I find that a lot of times when I rate something 5 stars for the writing style, it's not a book that remains with me in my memory that much." Taking this philosophy with me in the new year. Love and miss you, Jennifer.

[@Fortheloveofclassics]

I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for the shout out 🎉It’s really funny how our rating method changes over time. Thank you for showing your favorites 😊

[@Kevin-Kii]

Congratulations again on the 7k!

[@Lu.G.]

👏🏻 I love this! Currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo (my 2nd attempt) and I'm taking my sweet time! 🤓 My 5 star Classic picks are: Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, The Divine Comedy, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Cranford, The Way We Live Now, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride & Prejudice/Mansfield Park/Persuasion, Rebecca, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Woman in White, The Importance of Being Earnest.

[@richardrose2606]

Good to see Mansfield Park. Criminally underrated.

[@lee_rayyy58]

The importance of being Earnest is such a underrated 5 star! Cracks me up and it’s just so incredibly witty!

[@Faye_L]

Totally agree about Heart of Darkness, and the same can be said of the rest of his work. I'm not stingy at all with 5 stars. To me it means I really really enjoyed a book and wouldn't change much if anything about it, and that's true of a lot of classics for me. I do occasionally bump books down a star on reread (100 Years of Solitude comes to mind) either because they no longer sit well with me or the novelty has worn off.

[@muhlenstedt]

Finally a booktuber that is not crazy about Jane Austen!!!!!!I had to subscribe. Your videos are great.Thank you

[@sandirichmond385]

I am shocked that you do not have any Tolstoy titles on the list - Anna Karenina and War and Peace are two of my favorite classics. I recently read The Woman in White, and it truly is an unforgettable story that deserves 5 stars. The Count of Monte Cristo is also one of my favorites. Rather than Great Expectations being my favorite Dickens, that definitely belongs to David Copperfield. I am going to be reading The Divine Comedy soon - thanks for your recommendation of the Mark Musa translation. It reads like a very understandable translation. I appreciate your sharing this list, and look forward to watching other videos by you.

[@anjakuemski]

Now you made me want to reread the Count of Monte Christo. 😄

[@katrinaKJB1611]

I'm always glad to hear someone sing the praises of Ivanhoe! Not many people seem to love it. It is in my top 3 all time favorites. This is a book is one I'd definitely recommend on audio. What a fun journey!

[@MariaLuisa-nc4uu]

I also really enjoyed Ivanhoe. What I found quite interesting is that you can absolutely tell that it is written around the Napoleonic wars because of all the slander against the Normans 😂

[@katrinaKJB1611]

@@MariaLuisa-nc4uu Good point, I never thought about that. I was more focusing on the prejudice the Catholics had against the Jews.

[@duffypratt]

You asked for it. My 5 star classics: In Our Time by Hemingway, Apology and Crito by Plato, John Caldigate by Trollope, Rebecca, Autobiography of Malcolm X, Little Doritt, Green Eggs and Ham, Paterson by William Carlos Williams, Les Laies de Marie de France, Ayala’s Angel and Can You Forgive Her by Trollope, 1984, Invisible Man by Ellison, Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, The Great Gatsby, Rachel Ray by Trollope, Dubliners, Night by Ellie Wiesel, The Last Chronicle of Barset by Trollope, Perceval by Chretien de Troyes, Quatrevight-Treize by Hugo, As I Lay Dying, Phineas Finn by Trollope, The Importance of Being Ernest, As You Like It, Men Without Women by Hemingway, The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, A Midsummers Night’s Dream, Far From the Madding Crowd, I Capture the Castle, A Confederacy of Dunces, The Long Goodbye, Vanity Fair, The Sound and the Fury, Farewell My Lovely by Chandler, The Tempest, Spring and All by William Carlos Williams, Middlemarch, Henry V, The Oastures of Heaven by Steinbeck, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Age of Innocence, The Plague by Camus, Red Harvest by Hammett, Animal Farm, Cyrano de Bergerac, King Lear, Ulysses, Alice in Wonderland, James and the Giant Peach, Moby Dick, Anna Karinina, This Side of Paradise, Great Expectations, A Treatise of Human Nature by Hume, Mansfield Park, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sense and Sensibility, Heart of Darkness, Marion Fay by Trollope, Lord of the Rings, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, Dracula, Sons and Lovers by Lawrence, Twelth Night, Daisy Miller, The Mill on the Floss, Les Liasons Dangereuses, The Prime Minister by Trollope, Washington Square, The Stranger, Tess of the Durbervilles, Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, Emma, The Secret Agent by Conrad, A Farewell to Arms, David Copperfield, Swann’s Way, Frankenstein, War and Oeace, The Small House at Allington by Trollope, The Guermantes Way by Proust, Jude the Obscure, Notes from Underground.

[@duffypratt]

That’s 91. Goodreads shows that I have 420 on my classics shelf, for 22 %. Overall, I have 2090 books I’ve read and given ratings to. Of those, 204 get 5 stars, just under ten percent. Of the non-classic books, the rate is just below 7%. That means I’m three times as likely to love a classic as a non-classic, which strikes me as about right.

[@alkirehomevideos]

Stumbled upon your channel as I am about to start reading Dante’s Inferno and wanted some context prior to my journey. From your Inferno video I was then recommended this video. HAD to comment because I too was a HUGE Lost fan and back in high school when it was still airing made it a goal of mine to read every book mentioned in it! Didn’t get anywhere close haha but might someday. Had never run into someone with the exact same niche Lost themed goal! lol

[@maryfilippou6667]

So glad you love Ivanhoe as I'd mislaid my copy moving and Friday I found larger edition in a Free Little Library! Yay! I love the unexpected. And a Jared Diamond NF too! I've been wanting

[@KellyannMitchell]

The classic I'm reading for this month is The Count of Monte Cristo and I agree, even though I haven’t finished it as yet, it's a fantastic read 🙌 I have Moonstone and The Woman in White from Wilkie Collins on my bookshelf and I'm excited to get to it by years-end. The Divine Comedy is truly a masterpiece and it deserves every star available. I enjoyed paradise lost but I think because I didn't fully get it my first time reading I only rated it three stars, on my re-reading as I'm a little more mature now I believe my rating will go up. 😊 Lots on your list I have on my TBR to eventually get to, great video as always 💕

[@SpringboardThought]

I am in the waiting room for Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad. Knowing that it was going to be 5+ years long, after reading her translation of The Odyssey I’m confident it’ll be worth it~ (I also really loved the newer translation of Beowulf) I feel like I’m way harder on classics than anything else, holding them to harsh standards maybe, even. This was really interesting! Loved it!

[@wordfullyyours]

I listened to the audiobook for Inferno. I was very surprised to find that there was one 😅It was interesting.

[@Runamoinen]

I can still see myself as a freshman English studies student reading Marlowe's Faustus the night before the Renaissance drama exam, haunted by all those hours of procrastination. Lente, lente currite noctis equi... I would still give it 5 stars.

[@dqan7372]

Fun and interesting video! I am often surprised and appalled by my GR ratings. I think book sites should let us score them daily and have a running average. I have quite a few books listed twice and it's quite obvious that I had very different thoughts at different times, unfortunately I didn't write reviews, so I don't know what those differing thoughts are.

[@andreagaisser4981]

I too gave Paradise Lost, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Watership down five stars. My most recent five star ratings are for Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and Demian. And my next book purchase is going to be The Glass Bead Game, also be Hesse. From there I may just decide to read everything by Hesse.

[@maritzelcastillon1969]

Northanger Abbey is my JA fave as well!

[@clarepotter7584]

'Heart of Darkness' gets 5 stars from me. For anyone who hasn't read it, give it a go as it's short and if as a reader you like the style, the irony, you will love it. It's a European perspective but not pro colonial, for its time, a remarkable book. As soon as I read the description of the Romans working their way up the river, looking at the savage Britons, I knew I was going to love it and I did.

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

I saw Lives of Artists at my used bookstore, but I didn't buy it. I rate purely on emotions, but it takes a lot for me to rate anything lower than three. You're the second person who has made me want to reread The Count of Monte Cristo. You also reminded me I need to pick up Paradise Lost and Divine Comedy again. I have started both, but put them down.

[@frankmorlock9134]

Hi, Rachel, It seems to me you aren't really inclined to change many of your 5 star ratings to a lesser grade .But I don't blame you for that. I've read most of the works on this list with the exception of Valperga, The White Horse, and Watership Down and the 3 DuMaurier novels.(I've read other DuMaurier novels, The Glassblowers, and the one about the man with the double, but I forget the title.) Oh, and The Fairy Queen. I don't disagree with your High ratings for the rest, although I'm not so enthused about The Great Gatsby.(I do not regard it as the Great American Novel but certainly it is a fine work.) Similarly, with The Picture of Dorian Gray I have a very high regard for the book, but I felt when reading it the author was expressing an amazing amount of self loathing--which wasn't pleasant. But, there seems to be an absence of plays, Russian novels, Greek Tragedy, and a few works from China, Japan and India. But I'm sure you weren't creating an all time favorites list here, just reviewing ratings you had ;previously given out. Oh, and as far as Scott is concerned, I think Scott's Heart of Midlothian is far more powerful than Ivanhoe, and if you want something really dark Old Mortality would do nicely, The only one rating I would dispute with you is As You Like It. That's a definite 5 star in my book. Cheers.

[@stephenn3727]

Thank you! Love the channel.

[@mrsfruity76]

This was such a fun video. I loved Northanger Abbey! I've DNF'd every other Jane Austen that I've attempted to read. I read through chapter 5 in the Picture of Dorian Gray and had to put it down. I may go back to it one day. I'm currently reading Frankenstein and thoroughly enjoying it!

[@pixieh.5597]

Thank you for that video. I have to say though that I seriously dislike The Picture Of Dorian Gray. It's simply not good enough for me. Picks up a bit the last third, after the murder, but too late, too late😊

[@RoadReads]

I loved watching this!!

[@melissahouse1296]

This video is *everything* 🤗Only been on GR's 2/3 yrs 🤔 already need to change alot of ratings😅How much a novel resonates emotionally is far more important to me now than any ‘intellectual objectivity’. Intrigued re HODarkness & feel like Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’ & ‘Barbarians’ often illicit a similar reaction / explore similar themes (?) . Gosh im *100%* the same re Austen (still not read P&P tho); generally romance / ‘the marriage game’ is just not my jam 😕Weirdly actually prefer both Burney & Radcliffe (NAbbey ref) & Persuasion is my fave so far so.. 🤷‍♀ Want to re read The Iliad (Alexanders & Lattimore's translations on shelf) might be the ticket?! 🧐& i can’t wait to experience TLOTArtists ,Valperga, Dorian & Frankenstien (former two on shelf)..🤓Thanks for Chesterton rec!👍💝

[@kurtfox4944]

I liked your review of this list. I am quite stingy in my ratings with my average (even after researching a book before reading it) is around 3 stars - even though I expect most to be at or above 4 stars Good distinction of ratings of "merit versus enjoyment" ... and those are only two (of several) aspects to consider. Your whole video / conversation of revisiting the 5 stars books shows that views change as you read more works, but also the "stick-to-the-brain" aspect of a book, If you had formerly rated a book as a 4 (or even a 3) star, if you are still thinking about a book 10 years after you have read it, you might reconsider that 3 or 4 star rating. Conversely, if you rated something a 5 star book but can no longer say what it was about, then perhaps you should lower the rating. Literary / prose merit (eg. The Picture of Dorian Gray), intellectual merit - something to make you think (eg. Frankenstein, The Heart of Darkness), historical (whether political or social) impact (eg. Common Sense or The Grapes of Wrath), literary impact (eg. Ulysses), pure enjoyment (eg. The Count of Monte Cristo, or Lord of the Rings), etc. While a book may rank 5 stars on one category may rate low on another. Obviously it could rate high in several, but flop in one. I think you should also have stated of what you consider a "classic" - I have seen so many different ideas of what is considered a classic. Some think Harry Potter and Twilight are 'classic's. Some say 50 years, some say 100 years.

[@joshbryant6366]

my cousin rachel 5 star ending! amazing book!

[@apollonia6656]

Audio probs 😥

[@bipolar_kitty]

Romeo and Juliet gang gang

[@Ninaofthe90s]

So..."every" Daphne du Maurier book got 5 stars except Rebecca? 😁

[@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace]

I didn't know you were a fan of Watership Down 🥹 I like your description- "It's about bunnies" LOL! It's so engrossing, though, seriously unputdownable.