The Top 10 Classics on my TBR

[@soniajohnson8878]

Yes please to a top 10 of modern classics on your TBR

[@booksnotlovers]

As a Norwegian, and self-proclaimed nerd, I love that you want to read the Elder Edda. I would also greatly recommend Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, for a simple, more straightforward approach to the Norse Gods. If you want to venture into Norwegian and Scandinavian Fairy Tales I would also recommend Asbjørnsen & Moe, because there is a lot of culture to unpack in those stories. And of course. The Kings Saga by Snorri. Which is less fantastical and fairy tale, and more an adapted history of the Norwegian Kings. I'm going to stop my rambling now, I just get super hyped when people are interested in Norse myths and cultures!

[@kialazyeyereader1822]

Yes yes yes to all of this! 😁👍

[@veliana7958]

I am definitely screenshotting your comment for future reference! Norse culture, history, and mythology are fascinating!

[@murakamireads]

I actually study peter pan for my masters and PhD - the timeline is; - little white bird (peter pan in Kensington garden is the tiny peter pan section from the full length novel - I think LWB is wonderful and worth the read though!!) - the play - the novel Hope this helps!! Peter pan is fascinating and my literary love so I always adore seeing people talk about it or discover it for the first time 🥰

[@sophiaz.1083]

Classics on the top of my tbr: - Jane Austen (I set myself the goal to read every jane austen book next year after reading pride and prejudice and ADORING it!) - Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart - Virginia Woolf: Orlando - Daphne Du Maurier: Rebecca - Shirley Jackson: Things Fall Apart - Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre - Oscar Wilde: Picture of Dorian Gray - Theodor Storm: Der Schimmelreiter (German Classic, in english called "The Rider of the White Horse") - James Baldwin: Giovannis Room - Sylvia Plath: Ariel

[@oana-mariauliu5828]

I liked Pride and Prejudice best and Northanger Abbey second best, then Emma, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. I need to finish Trollope's Can You Forgive Her? by the end of the year. I loved The Way We Live Now, too. Much Ado About Nothing is one of my Top 3 picks when it comes to Shakespeare. I love Benedick and Beatrice.

[@sarahhall4107]

Hi Jean. Kidnapped is my favourite Robert Louis Stevenson. I read an abridged version when I was eleven when my school librarian realized that I really liked adventure stories. Then 're read it but in the full version when I was fifteen. I loved it. I must do another read. I have not was Catrina but have read Treasure Island and loved that too. Happy reading!

[@ReadABookGem]

I love Much Ado About Nothing, it is one of my favourites. The Kenneth Branagh film adaptation is a lot of fun too 😊 Good luck with all these books, you have a great selection to look forward to.

[@kialazyeyereader1822]

Oh Much Ado About Nothing is my favourite! And if you can get your eyes on the adaptation featuring David Tennant and Cathrine Tate, then you are in for a treat ^-^ And also you are warming my little Danish heart 😁🥰👍

[@suzannahdarcy6903]

I too saved Pride and Prejudice for last, and although I'd seen so many adaptations of it, I was still blown away by it. SOOOO good. It's been my favourite book ever since.

[@JeansThoughts]

Eeeh I’m so pleased to hear this!

[@Tinahgirl83]

Sense and Sensibility always competes with Pride and Prejudice for my favorite Austen. It’s actually hilarious, and Marianne’s dramatics, especially, make me laugh every single time. I enjoy it so much. Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite and I love the film adaptation with Denzel Washington, Emma Thompson and Kenneth Brannaugh.

[@bethmw28]

Yes! S&S is so underrated! P&P is actually quite far down the list of favorite Austen's and S&S gets higher every time I read it 😂

[@sophiaz.1083]

i definetly want to see top 10 (or more!) of your modern classics tbr.

[@ReadToMeAtMidnight]

I really need to push myself to read more classics, since leaving school I've just been reading modern texts and your channel is helping with the recs!

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

Castle of Ortranto and fairytales?? YES 👏🏻👏🏻

[@booksvsmovies]

I actually just studied the Bacchae by Euripides a few weeks ago for school. The play was so much fun to read and I loved learning about Dionysus and Maenads. I'm currently studying the Icelandic epic Grettir's Saga. It's very far our of my comfort zone but one thing I like about uni English courses is how it exposes me to so many different kinds of stories.

[@ScullyPop]

I enjoyed listening to you talk about ancient literature.

[@panikiczcock2891]

Super curious about that modern classics TBR!

[@Horriyuo]

I loved Frogs when I studied it I used it in so many essays haha, it was especially fun because I helped out backstage when the classics department did a production of it in which we turned it into a musical. I remember studying Orestes as well but I barely remember it, all the house of atreus plays really blended into one in my mind. Antony and Cleopatra is also great, everyone loved doing it at a-level.

[@LadyJaneBooks]

Sense and Sensibility is one of my all time favorite books! Awesome picks! 👏

[@GavinReadsItAll]

I’d also love to read Castle of Otranto! Have you read The Italian by Ann Radcliffe? Much better than Mysteries of Udolpho by her and she is my fav classic Gothic writer of all time!

[@Xenu]

I wrote down a classics TBR list not too long ago. On that list was Jane Austen. I just began reading "Mansfield Park" yesterday. Great minds think alike, Jean. I've never read Robert Louis Stevenson aside from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" but that was enough for me to fall in love with the extraordinary beauty of his prose. I would love to read a second book of his sometime soon.

[@booksoverbreakfast]

I love how varied your list is!

[@juliettet.5133]

As someone who loves classics that reference ancient mythology, I reccommend Jean Racine’s plays! Especially Phaedra. :) I would love to get to Hans Christian Andersen’s stories too (plus, there are so many gorgeous editions of his work🤩)

[@JeansThoughts]

Ah thank you so much I’ve never read any of their work!

[@josefineslot7937]

The nightingale by H.C. Andersen is so wonderful. I’m danish and have read most of his fairytales, it is my absolute favourite.

[@BunsBooks]

For Germanic studies I would really recommend Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Poetic Edda (and his KZbin channel), his work is probably the most approachable out there. As well as the Anthony Faulkes translation Snorri Sturlusons Edda, it’s considered by many scholars to be the most accurate English translation. If you want something chunky and delightful there’s also The Sagas of Icelanders published by Penguin

[@SparklesBooks]

I've wanted to read Sense and Sensibility for a while. I also love Emma, it's one of my favourite classics.

[@GunpowderFictionPlot]

Kidnapped was my favourite book as a teenager, but I've never read it as an adult, I've been meaning to get around to it and see if it stands the test of time it not.

[@CoynieReads]

"Women at the Thesmophoria" *flashes back to my A Level Classical Civilisation lessons* What a trippy play 😂

[@bookedonafeeling]

Yes to the 20th century/modern classics video too!!

[@evastrange]

Kidnapped is honestly one of my favourite novels of all time. As a coming of age story it has some really big and poignant messages about compassion and unlikely friendships and trying to see the world from the point of view of somebody who comes from very different and maybe less privileged circumstances than yourself. And it's just an incredibly suspenseful story, too, and has a very memorable and very lovable second protagonist. I'm alwys trying to get more people to pick it up. :) I'd also like to see a modern classics tbr, please!

[@JeansThoughts]

I think you’ve sold me stronger on kidnapped than I’ve ever been before!

[@OverstuffedShelf]

Much Ado About Nothing is wonderful! Beatrice and Benedick are reLaTiOnShiP GOaLz

[@accidentalspaceexplorer]

I love Much Ado About Nothing! I've seen about a billion adaptations of it and love basically all of them, in addition to the actual play itself. I hope you enjoy it!

[@cds614]

Yes please on the idea of the 20th century classics list too

[@ResOwOnance]

This video actually reminded me that I want to start to read some of Euripedes's work, especially after playing so much of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, so I went ahead and bought one of the collections (Orestes and Other Plays) on Kindle after this video was over haha

[@jacquelinemcmenamin8204]

Sense and Sensibility 🥰💕❤️ Just get the audio book and watch the Emma Thompson version .

[@jazzavalon]

I've recently read Peter Pan also because of Jen's video!

[@Shamrockbabe]

Much Ado is my favorite Shakespearean play. It’s so witty and fun. The Kenneth Branagh movie is wonderful because it’s so ahead of its time in that it has such a diverse cast in a time when the movie industry was not conscious of diversity back in the early 90s. Its refreshing to see Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves play brothers and no one thought anything of it.

[@AnniesBookNook]

I want to read a lot of classics that have been on my TBR since forever, especially the rest of Jane Austen, including Sense & Sensibility, and I feel like I should really read Peter Pan as well. My Shakespeare play for 2021 will be Twelfth Night ✨

[@inanimatecarbongod]

Ontranto is, I think, really only of historical interest, but if you want to know where a substantial part of the literature of the last couple of centuries comes from, then this is where to go. Not sure how influential it actually was, cos the gothic trend didn't really take off until the 1790s, but still, it's where that sort of thing started. Valancourt Books (a small US press for whom I am a bit of a fanboy) have a largish collection of original gothics from the late 1790s up to the 1820s, although most of theirs are much less well-known titles (some of them never reprinted since their first publication). I approve of reading the Elder Edda. I need to read more of the Scandinavian stuff myself. I have Scottish ancestry myself and somewhere in the remote past I feel some sort of connection to the old Vikings, who owned a fair amount of Scotland for a long time. A lot of the old sagas can usually be hand in Penguin Classics these days, and there's the big Sagas of Icelanders collection too. I started a project of reading all of Shakespeare's plays (or rereading the ones I'd previously read). That was... nearly five years ago. Still nowhere near finished. And I've got the entire BBC Shakespeare (1978-85) to watch too... eep.

[@audreyapproved]

I remember reading Aristophanes' Frogs for an elective class in college and was amazed how funny it was. I guess I had the impression that all ancient Greek writing was dry and serious.

[@JeansThoughts]

This is so important! Got to break down that stodgy reputation aha

[@actual-spinster]

i love much ado about nothing! i hope when you get to you you enjoy it - i definitely found the play peter pan quite, intense so will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!

[@KayleighReads]

Other than what I read in school, I’ve never read a classic! But I have a desire to collect hardbacks of them. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Jane Austen novels

[@ts_editor]

Yes. Hattie Morahan is MY Elinor Dashwood.

[@ramblinganna]

I read The Castle of Otranto a couple of years ago, the introduction to my copy called it “ludicrous and unreadable” and I’m not going to lie, that made me want to read it more 😂 I quite liked it and I really want to visit Walpole’s house in London. Have you read Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho? That is the book Catherine Moreland is reading in Northanger Abbey, and it is a brilliant Gothic Novel, albeit long. I definitely need more Norse mythology in my life, I’m going to check out that collection.

[@JeansThoughts]

I confess udolpho was the one I never finished aha. I love the sound of ludicrous and unreadable though 😂

[@GreenGretel]

I'm surprised you haven't read your fellow Scot J.M. Barrie yet! Given your interest in mythology/fairy tale-type writing, I think you're gonna love Peter Pan! There are dated aspects to it, of course (although weirdly, I don't remember the novel being as offensive as the 1950s Disney adaptation...but it's been a _long_ time since I read it), but so much of the story/prose is really magical and transfixing...

[@sarahm4534]

I thought Sense & Sensibility was a good read but I love the Emma Thompson movie version which is quite a close adaptation of the book. Persuasion is my favorite of the Austen I’ve read. I finally read Emma this year and it was a struggle. I love the mini series with Romola Garai and the book was just lacking in comparison.

[@bethmw28]

The Emma Thompson adaption is great isn't it! ♡

[@lynbaines2756]

I,'ve read the RLS novels & Catriona is the sequel to Kidnapped so you need to read Kidnapped first! Really enjoyed both of them, but Kidnapped is definitely the more rip-roaring story, really exciting.

[@JeansThoughts]

Oh I hadn't realised that - thank you so much!!

[@kristenhoughton4891]

It’s been ages since I’ve read Greek tragedy’s but I did love them, should try to find copies again.

[@artbyandia]

Maybe lower your expectations for "Sense and Sensibility". I think it's the one Austen wrote first and so far is the only one that bored me. I still haven't finished it and was only 2 or 3 chapters in when I put it down for a while. I liked the movie. "Much ado about nothing" was pretty good as far as I remember.

[@bethmw28]

Northanger Abbey (my favourite) was actually written first I think, just published last, S&S was published first though! I only really enjoyed it on my second read and it's now my 3rd favourite, even above P&P 😂😂

[@artbyandia]

@@bethmw28 oh I liked northanger abbey fine and didn't know it was written first. I still don't like or remember it as much as I do "Pride and Prejudice" or "Mansfield Park" so I guess the author improved for me. I still haven't read the others but I am planning to do it soon.

[@ronnietopper4915]

Yes please, 20th century classics.

[@bookedonafeeling]

Have you read Lysistrata?

[@JeansThoughts]

I have ☺️

[@nicoletamargarint1037]

are you saying “satire” in relation to the Euripides plays? 😯 I’ve never ever heard it pronounced like that

[@jaclynsutherland4327]

From what I understand it's actually "satyr" in this context, though I believe there is a connection between satire and satyr in the theatre tradition (I taught some Greek tragedy in a World Literature course this fall and that's what I got out of my research).

[@nicoletamargarint1037]

@@jaclynsutherland4327 oh that makes sense, thank you! I was confused for a minute there, as a non-native speaker

[@JeansThoughts]

Aha yeah someone got there first but all the tragedians followed their tragic trilogies with satyr plays :).

[@nicoletamargarint1037]

@@JeansThoughts thank you, Jean! thought I was missing something 😉 your videos have been very comforting to watch this year, thank you 💓

[@stellaisteeth]

If I remember my Latin authors correctly, the Romans had a particular fondness for satire because they credited themselves with "inventing" the genre. Horace and Juvenal (very much sides of two different satirical coins) were the most famous satirists, even though aspects of satire had existed for centuries prior, such as social/political criticism through ridicule, like Aristophanes's depiction of Socrates in The Frogs.

[@CrazySinger4Ever]

When is an update on your PhD coming?:)

[@JeansThoughts]

I did a general life update a few months ago and mentioned I don’t want to do another dedicated PhD video until I’m finished now which should hopefully be next year - it’s just very difficult to quantify without knowing how it’s all going to wrap up aha.

[@michaelsommers2356]

Brekekekex koax koax.

[@erikuslatinevivit348]

Haha, did you realise and then tried to hide your armpit hair at 13:08 ? Even if you didnt it looked really cute. I’ve always wondered, do you read ancient greek?

[@JeansThoughts]

Ahaha no way - I’ve literally posted pictures of my armpit hair in instagram ;) nothing wrong with body hair. And I do although I wouldn’t say it’s the think I’m the best at... 😅

[@erikuslatinevivit348]

@@JeansThoughts I actually wouldnt have thought you were one to be ashamed of it, but it looked funny in the video. Actually, I dont know how, but it really suited you, but then again you do have beautiful hair in general I must admit. I see, did you ever learn to speak it? And what about latin?

[@ashrafzaman7997]

I would like to study you why are you so beautiful .