My Favorite Classic Novels (Top 10)

[@Johanna_reads]

Excellent list! I’ll never forget the way East of Eden made me feel. While I understand why the critics considered the book’s themes on-the-nose, Steinbeck’s character work added so much depth to how they were portrayed. I’m looking forward to reading several of the books on your list!

[@CinematicGalaxy]

Great list! The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite book of all time, although East of Eden is next on my to-read list. I agree about the plotting of Monte Cristo; some find the middle portion boring, but I love how intricately and mysteriously the revenge is set up. I love how thematically rich these works are.

[@virginiaramirez8385]

"A Pair of Blue Eyes" Thomas Hardy, "Northanger Abbey" Jane Austen.

[@caewing85]

My favorite classic is The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. It’s adventure, romance, and mystery all wrapped into one short lovely book.

[@OnlyTheBestFantasyNovels]

Cool list. I loved The Pearl and Of Mice and Men from Steinbeck, I'll have to try East of Eden the next time I'm in the mood for a classic. If I had to pick 3 classics without even trying they'd be Dracula, 20K Leagues Under the Sea and Edgar Allan Poe's everything. I feel like reading those as a kid helped push me towards becoming a lifelong SF, mainly F reader. For non-SFF, I'd have to go White Fang, Macbeth and the complete Sherlock Holmes.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Oh yes, if you've enjoyed both of those by Steinbeck, definitely press onward! Dracula was my #11 when I made my list.

[@MarionHill-vq2xu]

The Pearl is my favorite Steinbeck novel.

[@veronicagarcia2025]

Great List!!. I can not say that my list will consider as a Classic per se but I think that will pass the test of time (5 of them are Russian -I"m not very objective-😬) : 1) Anna Karenina (or War and peace, I can not decide) by Leo Tolstoy, 2) Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 3) A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 4) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 5) The master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, 6) Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, 7) Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell 8)The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato 9) The red and Black by Stendhal 10) Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry....I need to read East of Eden.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I hope you love East of Eden when you get to it!

[@sandraelder1101]

Woman in White made me burn through a pile of Collins in short order! So good.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I've only read two by him so far but will definitely read more.

[@ethanwimsett]

Apocalypse Now is one of my favourite films so I'm keen to check out Heart of Darkness! Thanks for the recommendations

[@RedFuryBooks]

Awesome - I hope you enjoy it!

[@alynam82]

Strangely enough, I own all the books mentioned here but only read one of them, which was East of Eden. I read that last July, and was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I haven't read many classics, but here's my favorites amongst what I have read: - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - East of Eden John Steinbeck - Centennial by James Michener - Dracula Bram Stoker - A Study in Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle

[@RedFuryBooks]

Dracula was my #11, and I LOVE A Study in Scarlet - easily my favorite of all the Sherlock Holmes stories.

[@heathercumbo.y9332]

My absolute favorite is Wuthering Heights. I have read all of Jane Austen, George Eliot, and E.M. Forster.

[@RedFuryBooks]

My next Jane Austen will be Emma - probably later this year.

[@curtjarrell9710]

I've never made a list, but if I did the #1 author for me would have to be Willa Cather on the strength of several powerful works including My Antonia, One of Ours, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Shadows on the Rock, and The Song of the Lark.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I've never read Willa Cather - I need to remedy that oversight.

[@QuiltinRI]

Death Comes for the Archbishop would be in my top ten, possibly my top five.

[@sandraelder1101]

Death Comes for the Archbishop was wonderful & quite moving!

[@databloom70]

Yes! Couldn't agree more with your assessment of Charlotte Bronte and her monumental work. First time reading Jane Eyre altered my literary sensibilities in a big way. I remember in college some arguing that her sister's work Wuthering Heights was in many ways superior. I read WH before reading JE, and while I enjoyed WH, I just didn't think it was in the same ballpark.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I agree 100% with the Jane Eyre vs. Wuthering Heights argument.

[@BrianBell7]

I always learn something from your videos and this one is no exception. I've only read two of these (To Kill a Mockingbird and Crime and Punishment). Seems like I need to add some classics to TBR Mountain! (quick edit.. thank you very much for getting Les Miz soundtrack stuck in my head now.)

[@TerryJ950]

I read East of Eden as a young adult, and almost 50 years later, I’m rereading it right now. One of my favorite classics, judging by how many times I’ve reread it, is The Razor’s Edge. Larry Darrell, the main character, is someone I would like to be friends with.

[@angelaholmes8888]

Here's my picks 1. East of eden by John Steinbeck 2. Pride and prejudice by jane Austen 3. Persuasion by jane Austen

[@sandraelder1101]

All 3 fantastic!

[@verosnotebook]

I’ll join you for Jane Eyre and Count of Monte Cristo. My Dickens would be Dombey Son. As for the rest, I’d have The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell, Middlemarch by George Eliot, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and all 6 Jane Austen novels. I do want to read the Russian novels you mentioned and East of Eden 😊

[@RedFuryBooks]

I love the Woman in White! Honestly compares favorably with Dickens. And the narrative voice(s) in that one may be even stronger.

[@sandraelder1101]

Loved both Woman in White & Dombey and Son.

[@andrewheim9481]

Excelent list, Josh. Love all 10 on your list. My top 5: A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway. An American Tragedy, Drieser. David Copperfield, Dickens. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald, and Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck.

[@wheelz1325]

1984 what's the far Superior book for me but that's because I live in Canada and it scared the shit out of me how close we are to living in that book

[@WordsinTime]

Your top 2 are on my TBR. I haven’t read that many classics but my favourite is The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[@heidi6281]

Have you seen the tv show Penny Dreadful, that Dorian Gray is amazing!!!

[@WordsinTime]

@@heidi6281 I haven’t, but that sounds cool!

[@Zivilin]

@@heidi6281 I started watching that show a few weeks ago and already am liking it from the first couple of episodes i've seen.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Dorian Gray made the short list!

[@thefantasythinker]

Excellent! For me, I'd have to put A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Iliad, Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, and The Lord of the Rings as my top 5. Can I count Shakespeare, Homer, and Tolkien as classics? Crime and Punishment and Animal Farm would make my top ten most likely.

[@RedFuryBooks]

We can all count whatever we want, as "Classic" is a pretty generic term!

[@FredaM]

My favourite of the Brontë sisters is Anne! I loved the Count of Monte Cristo and it’s on my re-read list. Jane Austen is my absolute favourite author of all time. George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy are right up there with Austen for me. I don’t hear much about Anthony Trollope, but he’s so prolific and has a great style and very engaging commentary on social and political issues in Victorian era.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I haven't read any Anne Bronte but must do so. And Anthony Trollope has been on my TBR for literally decades - I really need to get to him!

[@MarionHill-vq2xu]

Excellent List Josh! Thanks for making this video. I will split my favorite classic novels into two categories: Before 1900 & Before 1975 (defined as a modern classic since the book was published more than 50 years ago). Published Before 1900: 1) David Copperfield by Dickens(1850): This is my all-time favorite before 1900 classic. Dickens said publicly this was his favorite novel and after reading it…I believe him. Need to reread this one. 2) Madame Bovary by Flaubert (1856): One of the best novels I have ever read about adultery and psychological damage it can cause by the person who commits it. Also, Flaubert uses a 2nd person perspective in the story that was unique for its time. 3) The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis (1881): One of the classics of Brazilian Literature and the most modern of the classics I have read. A dead man is a narrator and a very interesting character. Published Before 1975: 1)Invisible Man by Ellison (1952): This is the most important novel I have read and one I will read for the rest of my life. Ellison’s unflinching look at racism from his unnamed protagonist shows how invisible one can feel in a society that doesn’t respect him. 2) Snow Country by Kawabata (1948): This is the most unusual love story I have ever read. However, Kawabata’s economy of language and subtlety was a delight to read. 3) The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by Le Carre (1963): The best spy novel I have ever read. Le Carre’s third novel put him on the map as a master of espionage fiction and elevated it to literature. The ending is heartbreaking. 4) Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury (1953): One of the modern classics of science fiction, Bradbury’s novel was prescient and still relevant today. 5) Sula by Morrison (1973): Morrison’s 2nd novel is the best novel I have read about female friendship. Sula doesn’t get mentioned as one of Morrison’s best novels….but it should! 6) The Man in the Maze by Silverberg (1969): Silverberg is my favorite old school sci-if writer and the one I have read the most over the years. The Man in the Maze was published during his most prolific period of 1967-1976. Silverberg published his most mature work during that time and Man In the Maze deals with the theme of alienation. Worth reading. That’s my list. Good video, Josh.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Thanks for the list, Marion! When I mentioned in my video that objectively A Tale of Two Cities isn't Dickens' best (merely my favorite), I was thinking of David Copperfield, which I feel is the best of his that I've read. Although it seems Bleak House gets the most critical acclaim, so I look forward to that one in a few years. I very distinctly remember reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison my senior year in high school, and it really opened my eyes, and it was probably the first time I really had a glimpse of understanding into what my black friends experience. Thanks for your list!

[@MarionHill-vq2xu]

Welcome Josh. I have only read 3 Dickens novels: David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, & Great Expectations. Copperfield was my far away of the three. I would like to read some of more his work in the future especially American-themed novel, Martin Chuzzlewit and Pickwick Papers, his 1st novel. Glad you read Invisible Man. It’s not an easy book to read but Ellison tells a very important story that should be read by all serious readers

[@RedFuryBooks]

Martin Chuzzlewit is my next read of Dickens (next summer). I read the Pickwick Papers and FYI is my least favorite so far.

[@ev3261]

Wonderful list, thank you! I've just started "Jane Eyre" today, I hope I like it as much as you do. I have 2 other classic on my shelf waiting (for years) that I read them "American Tragedy" by Theodore Freiser and "The Forsyte Saga" by john Galsworthy, but I've just added all the books from your list that I haven't read yet, first among them - "The count of Monte Cristo"!

[@RedFuryBooks]

I hope you love Jane Eyre!

[@elainedejong2806]

I’ve read half of them, and own then all so I have 5 to add to my TBR!! Thanks for sharing your list with us.

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

Read Count of Monte Cristo for the first time this year. A great book. Best wishes with what you choose to read and with your channel.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Thank you!

[@DebbieHeim-fv6yx]

Wow, you and i are on the same page! I also loved Travels with Charley! So glad I found your channel 😊🎉

[@Fianna1775]

A sophisticated list, Josh. Hmmm, I would have to include…. Animal Farm The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Great Expectations The Call of the Wild Tales of the Alhambra Take of the Heike Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Farenheit 451 Herodotus’s histories Black Beauty (the first novel that truly captured me heart and soul) Happy Reading!

[@RedFuryBooks]

Glad you liked the list!

[@cynthiafialka]

I’ve only read To Kill a Mockingbird on your list. Most of the classics I’ve read I was “forced” to in high school. I’d like to become a more well rounded reader so I do plan to pick up more classics. I definitely want to read East of Eden.

[@Wouter_K]

Thanks for this list. I'm not that read up on classics so I'll definitely read some of these the coming years. Jane Eyre however is one of the cornerstones of my love for reading. Ik accidentally picked it up in a cottage during a vacation, when I was 17 years old. I could not put it down. It was beautiful and swept me away to a fascinating new world.

[@Danny_Matson]

Very nice list! I read East of Eden last year and loved it. Will be reading several of these in the coming years. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my personal favorites.

[@dannyletcher5873]

I'm about to start Monte Cristo for the first time! Very excited ^_^

[@RedFuryBooks]

I hope you love it!

[@Dylan13Collins]

I loved this list! I'm looking to read more classics outside of science fiction. I've read a lot of poetry in college but overall, I'm lacking a ton of classics. I'd love any recommendations anyone has of where I should start. I'm currently reading David Copperfield and I'm loving it! 1. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin 2. Dune by Frank Herbert 3. Slaughter House 5 by Kurt Vonnegut 4. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand 5. Moby Dick by Herman Melville 6. Paradise Lost by John Milton 7. Henry V by William Shakespeare 8. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

[@RedFuryBooks]

I'm glad you're enjoying David Copperfield! Probably Dickens' best work of character, which is saying something because he's very good.

[@esmayrosalyne]

Well oopsies, I guess I have some catching up to do because I have read none of these! Classics just don't tend to call to me too often, so I haven't read too many of them. By default, my favourites are The Picture of Dorian Gray and Frankenstein, but I doubt that they will be pushed off my favourites list if I read more classics because I genuinely adore those stories! Thanks for sharing, Josh ☺

[@RedFuryBooks]

So many books, so little time! Both Dorian Gray and Frankenstein made my short list!

[@fithfath3615]

This is an excellent list Josh. I know my top 3 for sure, but after that I'd need to have a long think to order them. 1. Of Mice And Men 2. The Last Of The Mohicans 3. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest after that there is White Fang, War Of The Worlds, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, The Iliad, 1984, Animal Farm, 47 Ronin

[@Shelf-Esteem]

Man, fantastic list!! Been wanting to read all of these - Count Of Monte Cristo is such a masterpiece, as are Mockingbird and Crime & Punishment! I read East Of Eden back in high school, but would love to read again with a fresh perspective. Thanks for sharing these man!

[@RedFuryBooks]

Glad you liked it! :)

[@Thecatladybooknook_PennyD]

Some of my top fav classics and modern classics: -Jane Eyre -Pride and Prejudice -Crime & Punishment -Anna Karenina -The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy) -East of Eden -Daniel Deronda (George Eliot) -Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset is shaping up to be one of my top favs (currently reading) -The Snow Storm by Alexander Pushkin (more novella) -Count of MC -The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

[@RedFuryBooks]

A great list, Penny!

[@sandraelder1101]

Loved Tenant of WH!

[@BooksWithBenghisKahn]

I can’t wait to read some of these classic French and Russian books!

[@binglamb2176]

My list is nearly the same as yours, great minds and all that! Shockingly, I have yet to read Dostoevsky so when I do, he will likely make my list.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Oh awesome - and I hope you love Dostoevsky!

[@ArtBookshelfOdyssey]

I love A Tale of Two Cities! It’s definitely my favorite Dickens novel.

[@cipriansirbu3699]

That's funny,the only classic that I've read from this list is East of Eden,last week and throughly enjoyed it. I can't make a top 10 because I haven't read 10 classics so far,I only started reading classics last year.Between my absolute favourites are: East of Eden,Fahrenheit 451,The Sea-Wolf,Flowers for Algernon,Dracula. I hope to get to The Count of Monte Cristo this year.

[@heidi6281]

Here are two classics that may be off your radar: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: expose of the meat packing district circa 1905. 🥩Really unforgettable & you might want to become a vegetarian afterwards as my friend did. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles: It is about a disgraced woman, supposedly abandoned by a French ship's officer in the 1850’s but Josh it is much much more than that!! 😉 Josh check out Time magazine’s 100 novels chosen by Lev Grossman and some other guy!!

[@RedFuryBooks]

Thanks, Heidi! I think I saw a movie The French Lieuntenant's Woman at some point.

[@scottferris2686]

Really good list. On my list, I would have to include a Christmas Carol, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, to kill a Mockingbird, gone with the wind, call of the wild, any of the Sherlock Holmes, Huck Finn.

[@DarranUaM]

Great list! The only recommendation I'd have in return is Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Illiad. It's quite close to the Ancient Greek and shortens it by roughly 1/16 of the standard length by removing sections modern academics consider unlikely to have been authored by Homer.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Thanks!

[@marcweber8509]

In no particular order (haven't read too many classics as of yet tbh, most of them I read in school): The Count of Monte Christo - Alexandre Dumas To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov Faust - Johann Wolfgang Goethe Dr. Faustus - Thomas Mann The Hound of Baskerville - Arthur Conan Doyle Das Parfum - Patrik Süskind

[@RedFuryBooks]

I'm kicking myself for forgetting The Master and Margarita!

[@marcweber8509]

@@RedFuryBooks Glad you read it! I love that book!!

[@AnithaGadeReads]

Fantastic list. I read only one in this list that's the Count of Monte Cristo. The rest are on my radar. Looking forward to reading them.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Awesome - I hope you find some great ones!

[@dubhmoore575]

Awesome video Josh, I went through my classic period in my 20s as they were cheap to buy! I love a lot of the same books as u, the Brontes are my favourites though, with special mention to the Count of Montecristo. I have never read the Russian authors though so u have encouraged me to pick up 2 of those now 😎🥳

[@RedFuryBooks]

I hope some of the Russians work for you!

[@jayhowden2933]

A lot of food for thought here, as I haven't read an awful lot of classic literature, a fair amount didn't work for me. Of those you mention, I've read both Dickens and Dostoevsky (Hard Times and Brothers Karamazov respectively), so may need to try out A Tale of Two Cities and Crime and Punishment. In terms of my own favourites that I've read so far, they include: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 1984 - George Orwell Brave New World - Aldous Huxley Brighton Rock - Graham Greene In Cold Blood - Truman Capote In the future, I want to try and read Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Around the World in 80 Days and HG Wells to name a few.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Yeah, I agree that a lot of classics didn't work for me either. But more worked than didn't thankfully.

[@sandraelder1101]

No particular order… Puddinhead Wilson Jane Eyre Woman in White Our Mutual Friend Macbeth Lord of the Rings Confessions of St. Augustine (not a novel, but def a classic) East of Eden & Mockingbird, and too many others to list

[@paulwilliams6913]

Ha! I have FOUR copies of Crime and Punishment on my shelf! Imposing a limit that a text must be at least 50 years old to be a classic, and not entirely in order, here I go: 1) Crime and Punishment (I could almost easily list Brothers Karamazov or The Idiot, but C&P was the first classic I felt I loved) 2) A Wizard of Earthsea 3) The Iliad 4) Anna Karenina (some days it’s War and Peace, but today I’m picking Anna) 5) Jorge Luis Borges’s Collected Fictions 6) Don Quixote 7) One Hundred Years of Solitude 8) Hamlet 9) in Memoriam (Tennyson) 10) Eugene Onegin (Alexander Pushkin; James Falin translation) 11) Dune 12) As I Lay Dying 13) The Master and Margarita 14) Beowulf 15) Middlemarch

[@RedFuryBooks]

I guess I need to buy another copy of Time and Punishment! And I'm kicking myself for forgetting the Master and margarita!

[@paulwilliams6913]

@@RedFuryBooks my best friend has a PhD in Russian. He says the Oliver Ready translation of C&P (Penguin Deluxe Classics) is the best. I should also note that I read the Catherine O’Connor translation if M&M, which he said is light years better than the Pevear/Volokhonsky.

[@RedFuryBooks]

@@paulwilliams6913 I have the P&V, McDuff and Garnett translations - it looks like Ready will be next - thanks!

[@paulwilliams6913]

@@RedFuryBooks I’m just thrilled to have found a fellow enthusiast for Russian lit! They have the best stuff :)

[@willman85]

Jane Eyre, 1984, Ubik, Little Women, Brave New World, Breakfast at Tiffany's, David Copperfield, This Side of Paradise, Casino Royale, Of Mice and Men (I haven't read any of Steinbeck's others).

[@RedFuryBooks]

Great list, and lots of Steinbeck ahead for you!

[@BookishChas]

Awesome video Josh! Most of these I haven’t read. Tale of two Cities was so rough for me lol.

[@RedFuryBooks]

All books can't work for everyone!

[@sherryelmer2739]

For many years, my favorite book was Crime and Punishment. East of Eden was my favorite for several years after that. I know that I will eventually read them again, and they will probably go back to the top of my list, but at the moment, they are not. It is interesting to see how life experiences and passing years can modify my Favorites list. Ten is a painful number, as it cuts out too many fantastic books. But I will list just 10. The book that I think is the most perfect novel ever written, and sadly somehow fails to appear on any lists i read, is Cry, The Beloved Country. This Alan Paton novel is perfection. Nine other favorites, in no particular order, are: War and Peace; Robinson Crusoe; Jane Eyre; Pilgrim's Progress; Little Women; Kristin Lavransdatter; To Kill A Mockingbird; Giants in the Earth; and My Antonia, which I am allowing to edge out Les Misérables only because I think Willa Cather deserves far more attention than she receives.

[@sherryelmer2739]

I would add that there are several books that might have made my list, (Middlemarch being one), but I don't allow myself to put a book on my top ten unless I've read it at least twice. So the list is always subject to change. 😊

[@RedFuryBooks]

Yes, these lists definitely change through time! I'll likely update my own in a few years.

[@bigaldoesbooktube1097]

Great list, plenty on here for me to get to 😎

[@barbaralin3053]

My top 10 classics: 1. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy, (I didn't like Anna Karenina)2. Brother Karamazov by Dostoyevsky, (Crime and Punishment was my first book and first full novel in English) 3. Wuthering Height by Emily Bronte, 4 pride and Prejudice by Austen, 5. My Cousin Rachael by Du Maurier, 6 Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, 7. Power and Glory by Graham Greene, 8. Black Box by Amos Oz, 9. Washington Square by Henry James, 10.Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Have you thought of talking about top five less well-known or new authors' books?

[@RedFuryBooks]

I've never heard of Tolstoy's resurrection, so I'm adding it to my list - thank you!

[@SheWasOnlyEvie]

My favorite classics are Persuasion by Jane Austen, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Frankenstein (1818 edition) by Mary Shelley, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I remember adoring The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux when I read them in high school, but I have not re-read them to know if they’d hold up in my estimation as a current reader.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I've never read The Phantom of the Opera, but I think for me the musical will ruin it for me! (Kind of the opposite of my Les Miz experience)

[@SheWasOnlyEvie]

@@RedFuryBooks I'm pretty sure I read the book before watching the musical (albeit the musical film), and I thought it was interesting the creative choices in the adaptation process.

[@RedFuryBooks]

@@SheWasOnlyEvie good to know!

[@LucasEGC]

added a couple of books to my tbr! surprised that theres not Frankenstein nor Dracula, and as an argentinian i would recomend Borges (my profile picture), Cortazar, Juan José Saer, Sara Gallardo, Silvina Ocampo, great top10!

[@Zivilin]

I feel like i haven't really read a lot of classics as i probably should have, and i hsve a few on my tbr list for when i get in the right mood for it. So my list might be subject to change in the future. - The d'Artagnan Romances by Alexandre Dumas - White Fang by Jack London - The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes - Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (my favourite changes between this and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea depending on my mood, today this won out) - Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

[@RedFuryBooks]

Treasure Island is near the top of my list of classics I haven't read yet.

[@Zivilin]

@@RedFuryBooks it was one of the first books i read and i still love the story. 😃🥰

[@bardcatalog]

Philip needs to release his secret 4th book, East of Edan

[@RedFuryBooks]

🤣🤣🤣

[@mattkean1128]

I've been wanting to pick up Conrad's Nostromo again lately. AK is a masterpiece. I have fonder memories of W&P though. I was really living with that wider cast of characters for a while there. I love the Brontes. I think they represent the bridge between Austen and the 20th century. Dostoevsky is great of course. I only have Brothers K left of his major works. East of Eden is the major Steinbeck I haven't read yet. Other classics I would plug are the works of Henry James and Virginia Woolf. Flaubert's Bovary of course stands up. But there's so much out there.

[@Maximus0623]

Two of my favorite classics that aren’t on your list are Dracula and Brave New World. Also, I agree that Animal Farm is better than 1984.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Dracula was my #11.

[@duffypratt]

It’s funny, a number of your books I don’t think are the best by those authors. My favorite Conrad is The Secret Agent. I prefer 1984. I like The Three Musketeers and Queen Margot more than Count of Monte Cristo. I like War and Peace more than Anna Karinina. The Brothers Karamozov more than Crime and Punishment. Quatre Vignt Treize more than Les Miserables. Little Dorritt and several others more than A Tale of Two Cities. As for my own top 10, I don’t know how I would start. Off the top of my head: Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace, Jane Eyre, Far From the Madding Crowd, Moby Dick, Ulysses, Within A Budding Grove by Proust, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Last Chronicle of Barset, and Under Milk Wood. That would probably change radically if I were to do the list again tomorrow. (According to my Goodreads, I’ve read 425 classics, and that doesn’t include classics from genre fiction, like Raymond Chandler, or Tolkien, or Shirley Jackson etc…)

[@RedFuryBooks]

Yeah, that's the thing, some of these authors have s many great works, it's hard to agree on what's best!

[@duffypratt]

@@RedFuryBooks About Tale of Two Cities, I will say that it has probably the best depiction of depression of any book before Infinite Jest. The characterization of Carlton is just astounding.

[@julien4327]

A few things to add to the TBR then... 😅 I'm actually stuck @40% in A tale of two cities... Looks like I really need to push through it then... Bram Strocker's Dracula and Jules Verne's Vingt mille lieux sous les mers would be on my list, but really my top 1 would be _A door in the wall_ from HG Wells. It's a short story, but worth it.

[@ToddsBookTube91]

Nice video!

[@RedFuryBooks]

Thanks!

[@Abuamina001]

Kudos. This is an excellent review. Please examine and criticise "Hadji Murat" by Leo Tolstoy, "Death and the Dervish" by Mese Selimovic, and “My Name is Red” by Orhan Pamuk.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Thank you for the recommendations!

[@DanExploresBooks]

The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite book of all time. 🙂

[@TomOrange]

My favorite would probably be Tom Sawyer

[@Christine5280CO]

I also love Steinbeck and East of Eden is my favorite Steinbeck novel. Have you read the biography of Steinbeck that came out a couple of years ago? It was great, “Mad at the World: A Life John Steinbeck” by William Souder.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I've not read that one, but just added it to my TBR - thank you!

[@Christine5280CO]

I hope you enjoy it!

[@dougsundseth6904]

Hmm, in no particular order, and using an idiosyncratic definition of "classic", citing the use of Animal Farm as precedent 8-): The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas Run Silent, Run Deep, Edward Beach The Good Shepherd, C.S. Forester The Barack-Room Ballads, Kipling (not a novel, nor even prose, but there you go) A Princess of Mars, Burroughs The Man Who Sold the Moon, Heinlein

[@This_is_me_2024]

Although I've read most of the classics, I like adventure: The Illiad, The Odyssey, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Ivanhoe, Le Mort d'arthur, Last of the Mohicans, 20,00 Leagues, Anything by Lovecraft and RE Howard.

[@entredeuxhistoires341]

Great list! East of Eden is also my favourite classic, along with One Hundred Years of Solitude and A Farewell to Arms. As you seem to like french lit, have you by any chance read any Emile Zola? I think you might enjoy it.

[@RedFuryBooks]

I've not read Zola - do you have a recommendation for a good entry point?

[@entredeuxhistoires341]

The Beast Within is a very good one. I'd also recommend Germinal.

[@RedFuryBooks]

@@entredeuxhistoires341 thank you!

[@akellerhouse83]

Most of the classics I read were in high school and college, and that was a LONG time ago now. Lol. I recently read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, tho. I liked 1984 better. I remember really liking Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Great Expectations in school. I'll have to use your video as a classics tbr for future reading.

[@RedFuryBooks]

Yeah, I didn't like most of the classics assigned to me in school, although I have liked a few when it was my personal choice to read them later.

[@jobuckley2999]

Lonesome Dove is in my top 10 as well as The Brothers Karamazov. Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden also would be included. Empire of the Sun knocked my socks off. I enjoyed North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell more than Anna Karena and I would Have to have Moby Dick as a top 10. The language was epic and Biblical. There are lines and ideas in that novel that are unsurpassed by any author I have ever read.

[@Fianna1775]

Have you seen the 2004 mini series adaptation of North and South? Blew me away.

[@jobuckley2999]

I have not seen the mini series. Thanks for the recommendation.

[@angelamccollister]

Ugh! I had to read Heart of Darkness twice, once in high school and then again in college. The high school teacher explaining it helped but I still hated it. After I reread it in college, we had to watch Apocalypse Now.

[@grahamguy4656]

I loved to kill a mockingbird, written as it was it was in the day not tip toeing around language and speech we would never write book like this no we would offend too many people there was some I would l love to count of monty but far too long I am not a fast reader it would probably take me 2 months to read it 👍

[@garypotter5569]

What, no Piers Anthony?🤭

[@RedFuryBooks]

Ha! I haven’t read Piers Anthony since high school.

[@zackattack366]

I thought Animal Farm was better than 1984 as well. It's shorter and the message seems punchier.

[@Jdmcclaran05]

What book would you recommend for someone trying to get into Dostoevsky?

[@RedFuryBooks]

That's a really tough question - I've only read 3 by him, and wouldn't consider any of them entry-level books. Only because Dostoevsky is a bit more challenging than some other Russian writers. If I had to choose one, I'd say Crime and Punishment. But I'd likely read some other Russian works first if you haven't, just to get comfortable with the naming conventions.

[@Jdmcclaran05]

@@RedFuryBooks oh ok, thanks

[@tommyclay6922]

Do you read Hebrew literature, namely the Bible?

[@RedFuryBooks]

I read a lot of the Bible when I was younger, but nothing recently.

[@tommyclay6922]

@@RedFuryBooks You should check out Robert Alter