Haha thanks 🤣 granted I felt pretty comfortable in the others. Im used to talking in front of a camera 😅 I’m not a nervous or anxious person by nature. Haha gotta love the Loeb’s!
Oh I loved this! I could listen to you talk classics all day! I’m really new to classics and wanted to start reading them. I’m so glad I found your channel. ☺️
Love love love this video!! I've read a few classics but not enough where I'm dying to pick up one often over other books. So I'll definitely use this as a guide to my reading of classics and work my way up. I have read Wuthering Heights and really liked it....I also want to reread some I read I'm high school.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed this video! I hope you end up liking some of the ones on this list! I liked Wuthering Heights when I read it too, but I really should reread it now that I have way more classics under my belt. I also need to reread some of the ones I had to read in highschool.
Alana, yes, I came to watch another video. You've convinced me to read Anne Bronte. She's someone who's been lingering on the perimeter of my reading sphere. Oh! I just bought Emma! "Your boy, Will!" HA! Love! Okay! Now I REALLY want to read Julius Ceaser as well! Others on my list that you mentioned: Hardy, Dickens, Stoker. Excellent video!
Thank you for watching another and subscribing! I really appreciate it! ❤️ Love Anne! I hope you enjoy her - she has this dry humor that her sisters didn't really have in their novels. Emma is sooooo entertaining; I hope you enjoy! Hahahah "Will!" Like I know these people 😂 So many times throughout Julius Caesar had me going "PREACH!" out loud! Hope you get to them all soon!
Jane Eyre is such a great lace to start 🥺 Crime and Punishment was my gateway classic, but I can understand recommending others over that for beginners 😂
OH MY GOSH you said gateway classic too! Hahaha I've never heard anyone use that term before 😂 Great minds! Mr. Harrison's Confessions by Gaskell is very short and a complete delight. Highly recommended for beginners. I'm still getting to know English classics tbh 😂
@@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace oh, Marx is suuuper creepy. His poetry is 💀. Ooo I haven’t heard of that classic by Gaskell! And loool yes great minds do think alike!
Girl! You're out here naming all my favorites: Jane Eyre, Julius Caesar, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Woman in the White!! :D Not enough love is giving to The Woman in White so I love the shout out you gave it here. Marian Halcombe is one of my literary queens
I'm so late your comment! Yaaaaas! So many good ones! Marian Halcombe is the MVP of that novel lol. Same - Jane Eyre is what made me realize how readable a lot of classics are! Oooo I haven't read either of those. I'll scope them out - thank you for the recs! AH! Interesting. I've heard other people say that about Japanese fiction. I'm actually venturing to some of their classics next year! And thank you!!!
Great video! Great list, there is not one you name that I havent already read or is not on my shelf in line to be read. I actually started my classic reading with Wuthering Heights and agree, not the recommended place to start. Its a great novel but I would recommend to read after you have a few good other regency or victorian classics are under your belt. My favorite authors are Thomas Hardy and all 3 Bronte sisters. Im currently reading Shirley by Charlotte Bronte and enjoying it. I agree The Tenant of Wildfeld Hall reads very modern, this would be a good place to start or East Lynne by Ellen Wood also very readable and a great novel, one of my all time favorites, holds a special place in my heart for sure. Oh and The Mayor of Casterbridge by Hardy is a good place to start., IMO very different from his other novels (the main character is a man not a woman in this one) and readable not to mention my favorite Hardy 😉
Thank you! Yes, I think Wuthering Heights is a bit… convoluted Hahaa. I need to reread it now that I’ve read waaaaaaay more complex pieces of fiction since the first time I read it. I need to read Shirley - I’ve had it on my shelf forever. I haven’t read Ellen Wood! And I need to read more Hardy! I have Casterbridge on my shelf as well!
Hi fellow nerd 😊 This list has some of my all time favourites: Jane Eyre, Tenant, Austen, Dracula, Woman in White, Gaskell (N&S but also Wives & Daughters), Wilde, etc. Both Russians and French masters ‘scare’ me a bit. I’d still recommend Count of Monte Cristo (very easy and a page turner). Also, A Christmas Carol, and anything by Arthur Conan Doyle. 🤓
Fantastic recommendation list! I'm actually about to start The Woman in White for my exam reading, so now I'm extra excited to pick it up. "My boy Chuck talks too much." Truer words were never spoken. 🤣 Wuthering Heights was my gateway book into classics, but I don't think it's a great place for most people to start. It's too love it or hate it. Jane Eyre is definitely a better one to pick up first. And I completely agree that the fin de siècle works are some of the most readable Victorian fiction. Sherlock Holmes and Jekyll and Hyde are also good starters.
Thank you! Ah!!! So excited for you to read The Woman in White - it’s so fun! I do enjoy Dickens, but he is a piece of work 🤣. Agreed - Wuthering Heights it’s too polarizing haha. I really need to reread it now that I’ve read more complex pieces of fiction since the first time I’ve read it. Oooo I was thinking about reading Jekyll and Hyde this year! Richard Armitage has a narration of it!
@@alanaestelle2076 Okay, I'm about 150 pages into The Woman in White and I am loving it! Wilkie Collins is just so much fun. Have you read The Moonstone? It was my first by him, and I had such a good time. And Richard Armitage has a narration of Jekyll and Hyde?!?! Oh my god, I need it.
First part of Dracula is the best! Very creepy. I wasn't sure if he was gonna make it... but I knew he had to or there would be no plot. I'm not a fan of the 5,000,000 perspectives. Felt redundant after a while. I heard the same exact thing from three people sometimes.
You should write a book from the Monster's POV. Lol. You're so funny. Especially now, with fairy tales being rewritten. Jane Eyre is the reason why I did English at uni (I switched to theatre later, but, the point is, it's a good, and truly inspiring book). I've tried reading Dorian Gray so many times; friends of mine say it's their favourite book and yet, I cannot get into it. IDK why. I love Hamlet; the only Shakespeare I've read for fun. 9Olga Tokarczuk won the Nobel prize for lit. I wonder what you'd think of FLIGHTS. It's a really strange book.) I will try approach Hardy again after this review. You made it sound a tad interesting. And I think Charles Dickens and Willkie Collins are the reason why women were finally considered persons under the law. I think sometimes it's easy to forget that in the 19th century women were till considered male property (and children too). Sorry for the lengthy reply,' I'm just really passionate about this issue. I'm seriously thinking of doing my master's in all this. but, it's pricey (you've spoken about bills before so you know).
Hahahaa that would be a fun writing project! Ooooh Olga T. Is on my list. One day! Oooh didn’t know that about Dickens and Collins! Haha and I know what you mean - super expensive 😩
Jane Eyre was my first classic and i absolutely fell in love with it. I've never read a book with such strong religious themes, are there any similar books you recommend?
It feels like this is exactly the video I needed :) I would love to read more classic novels. And you are absolutely right: Jane Eyre and Emma are great 🤗 My next project is Anna Karenina. Have you read that? :) I will definitely check out the other recommendations thank you! 😊
Yay! I’m glad and thank you for watching!☺️ Yes, love Jane Eyre and Emma! I have read Anna Karenina and really enjoyed it. It can be slow going at times, but so worth it. Let me know how you get on with some of the others on this list, when you get around to them! 🤗
Ugh, Dorian Gray, that's the one they made us read in high school, so I remember it well... when I wasn't sleeping through it, that is. Yeah, sorry if you or anyone else liked that book, but I just found it so boring. I don't really know what it is about fiction, to me, but it just seems like I can never quite get through it and it's just a slog, every time. Now, that's actually kind of contradictory, in a way, because, at the same time, I feel that fiction is actually easier to read, just cuz I don't really feel like I _have_ to pay attention to anything. You know, it's a made up story, it's not like I necessarily have to understand what's going on, I can just kind of cruise through it and if I missed something about it -- that's fine, as long as it was an enjoyable read... but it almost never is, ahaha... ^^; I guess, for me, it's kind of like fiction is easy, but boring, whereas non-fiction is interesting, but difficult. Like, even the classics! I can get through stuff like Iliad pretty quickly, because I don't feel guilty about only half paying attention and skimming parts of it. Maybe that's not the best way to do it, but I dunno... I've just always done it like that. Even with movies or series and things like that, I just kind of watch and don't think too hard about anything, because I feel like it's meant to be fun. I'm not really there to "understand" or "interpret" anything-- ah, of course, they made us do all kinds of assignments on Dorian Gray, so that was a bit of a different story. :p
Haha yes I know people who don’t like Dorian Gray and I also have friends who just can’t get into fiction and prefer non fiction. I always say if we all like to read the same things, life would be incredibly boring. And depending on a fictional topic I’m reading about, I will often supplement it with non fiction sources to get the historical background and then use that to analyze how things are portrayed fictionally and why. I personally love analyzing fiction - a lot of the time, things that are seemingly benign are very significant. So, my books are annotated to oblivion 🤣 it’s like music for me, or watching a tv show/movie - I will study it and analyze it. Fast forward rewind and rewatch and pick up on nuances, compare/contrast etc. It’s like a puzzle for me. Like the time I spent an entire year analyzing the music of Swan Lake and comparing the different versions. I love it 🤣
Finally, you are really comfortable in your shoes doing this video! You aren't nervous or anxious! I see the Loeb's peeking out from the corner ;-)!
Haha thanks 🤣 granted I felt pretty comfortable in the others. Im used to talking in front of a camera 😅 I’m not a nervous or anxious person by nature.
Haha gotta love the Loeb’s!
Oh I loved this! I could listen to you talk classics all day! I’m really new to classics and wanted to start reading them. I’m so glad I found your channel. ☺️
Thank you so much Robin! So excited for you getting into the classics! They are so much fun!
Love love love this video!! I've read a few classics but not enough where I'm dying to pick up one often over other books. So I'll definitely use this as a guide to my reading of classics and work my way up.
I have read Wuthering Heights and really liked it....I also want to reread some I read I'm high school.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed this video! I hope you end up liking some of the ones on this list!
I liked Wuthering Heights when I read it too, but I really should reread it now that I have way more classics under my belt. I also need to reread some of the ones I had to read in highschool.
Alana, yes, I came to watch another video. You've convinced me to read Anne Bronte. She's someone who's been lingering on the perimeter of my reading sphere. Oh! I just bought Emma! "Your boy, Will!" HA! Love! Okay! Now I REALLY want to read Julius Ceaser as well! Others on my list that you mentioned: Hardy, Dickens, Stoker. Excellent video!
Thank you for watching another and subscribing! I really appreciate it! ❤️ Love Anne! I hope you enjoy her - she has this dry humor that her sisters didn't really have in their novels. Emma is sooooo entertaining; I hope you enjoy! Hahahah "Will!" Like I know these people 😂 So many times throughout Julius Caesar had me going "PREACH!" out loud! Hope you get to them all soon!
I laughed so hard watching the “Frankestein” rant!😂
Btw, I also liked the monster.
Maybe he wans’t the real monster after all.
hahahaha! The monster is the BEST ONE
Jane Eyre is such a great lace to start 🥺 Crime and Punishment was my gateway classic, but I can understand recommending others over that for beginners 😂
Bahaha about Karl Marx "THE MAN IS CREEPY" 💯
OH MY GOSH you said gateway classic too! Hahaha I've never heard anyone use that term before 😂 Great minds!
Mr. Harrison's Confessions by Gaskell is very short and a complete delight. Highly recommended for beginners. I'm still getting to know English classics tbh 😂
Yes love Jane Eyre! 😍 woah Dostoyevsky is a serious gateway 🤣
@@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace oh, Marx is suuuper creepy. His poetry is 💀. Ooo I haven’t heard of that classic by Gaskell! And loool yes great minds do think alike!
Girl! You're out here naming all my favorites: Jane Eyre, Julius Caesar, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Woman in the White!! :D Not enough love is giving to The Woman in White so I love the shout out you gave it here. Marian Halcombe is one of my literary queens
I'm so late your comment! Yaaaaas! So many good ones! Marian Halcombe is the MVP of that novel lol. Same - Jane Eyre is what made me realize how readable a lot of classics are!
Oooo I haven't read either of those. I'll scope them out - thank you for the recs!
AH! Interesting. I've heard other people say that about Japanese fiction. I'm actually venturing to some of their classics next year!
And thank you!!!
Brilliant video, Alana. Loved your insights. My gateway to classic novels was David Copperfield, yes Dickens!!
Thank you!! Ah yes, David Copperfield is a good one!!😍
Great video! Great list, there is not one you name that I havent already read or is not on my shelf in line to be read. I actually started my classic reading with Wuthering Heights and agree, not the recommended place to start. Its a great novel but I would recommend to read after you have a few good other regency or victorian classics are under your belt. My favorite authors are Thomas Hardy and all 3 Bronte sisters. Im currently reading Shirley by Charlotte Bronte and enjoying it. I agree The Tenant of Wildfeld Hall reads very modern, this would be a good place to start or East Lynne by Ellen Wood also very readable and a great novel, one of my all time favorites, holds a special place in my heart for sure. Oh and The Mayor of Casterbridge by Hardy is a good place to start., IMO very different from his other novels (the main character is a man not a woman in this one) and readable not to mention my favorite Hardy 😉
Thank you! Yes, I think Wuthering Heights is a bit… convoluted Hahaa. I need to reread it now that I’ve read waaaaaaay more complex pieces of fiction since the first time I read it. I need to read Shirley - I’ve had it on my shelf forever. I haven’t read Ellen Wood! And I need to read more Hardy! I have Casterbridge on my shelf as well!
Great list! I have read many and have added the rest to my TBR!
Thank you!! Please let me know how you get with some of these! Would love to know your thoughts! ☺️
Jane Eyre and Julius Caesar are great beginner classics! They were some of my favorites when I was getting started!
Yes they are good ones and get better with age! 😍
Hi fellow nerd 😊 This list has some of my all time favourites: Jane Eyre, Tenant, Austen, Dracula, Woman in White, Gaskell (N&S but also Wives & Daughters), Wilde, etc. Both Russians and French masters ‘scare’ me a bit. I’d still recommend Count of Monte Cristo (very easy and a page turner). Also, A Christmas Carol, and anything by Arthur Conan Doyle. 🤓
Yes! You've got some good ones listed here for sure!!
Fantastic recommendation list! I'm actually about to start The Woman in White for my exam reading, so now I'm extra excited to pick it up.
"My boy Chuck talks too much." Truer words were never spoken. 🤣
Wuthering Heights was my gateway book into classics, but I don't think it's a great place for most people to start. It's too love it or hate it. Jane Eyre is definitely a better one to pick up first. And I completely agree that the fin de siècle works are some of the most readable Victorian fiction. Sherlock Holmes and Jekyll and Hyde are also good starters.
Thank you! Ah!!! So excited for you to read The Woman in White - it’s so fun!
I do enjoy Dickens, but he is a piece of work 🤣.
Agreed - Wuthering Heights it’s too polarizing haha. I really need to reread it now that I’ve read more complex pieces of fiction since the first time I’ve read it.
Oooo I was thinking about reading Jekyll and Hyde this year! Richard Armitage has a narration of it!
@@alanaestelle2076 Okay, I'm about 150 pages into The Woman in White and I am loving it! Wilkie Collins is just so much fun. Have you read The Moonstone? It was my first by him, and I had such a good time.
And Richard Armitage has a narration of Jekyll and Hyde?!?! Oh my god, I need it.
@@elizabethaliteraryprincess glad you’re loving it!! I haven’t read The Moonstone yet, but it’s on my list!
You've sold me on the woman in white
It’s fantastic! I hope you enjoy!
First part of Dracula is the best! Very creepy. I wasn't sure if he was gonna make it... but I knew he had to or there would be no plot. I'm not a fan of the 5,000,000 perspectives. Felt redundant after a while. I heard the same exact thing from three people sometimes.
It is a bit repetitive. Some of it could definitely have been cut out haha
Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
You should write a book from the Monster's POV. Lol. You're so funny. Especially now, with fairy tales being rewritten. Jane Eyre is the reason why I did English at uni (I switched to theatre later, but, the point is, it's a good, and truly inspiring book). I've tried reading Dorian Gray so many times; friends of mine say it's their favourite book and yet, I cannot get into it. IDK why. I love Hamlet; the only Shakespeare I've read for fun. 9Olga Tokarczuk won the Nobel prize for lit. I wonder what you'd think of FLIGHTS. It's a really strange book.) I will try approach Hardy again after this review. You made it sound a tad interesting. And I think Charles Dickens and Willkie Collins are the reason why women were finally considered persons under the law. I think sometimes it's easy to forget that in the 19th century women were till considered male property (and children too). Sorry for the lengthy reply,' I'm just really passionate about this issue. I'm seriously thinking of doing my master's in all this. but, it's pricey (you've spoken about bills before so you know).
Hahahaa that would be a fun writing project! Ooooh Olga T. Is on my list. One day! Oooh didn’t know that about Dickens and Collins! Haha and I know what you mean - super expensive 😩
@@alanaestelle2076 I have a feeling you're an excellent writer. I do think it would be a great project
Jane Eyre was my first classic and i absolutely fell in love with it. I've never read a book with such strong religious themes, are there any similar books you recommend?
@@wisdomencouraged9326 I highly recommend Villette by Charlotte Brontë as well if you loved Jane Eyre.
It feels like this is exactly the video I needed :) I would love to read more classic novels. And you are absolutely right: Jane Eyre and Emma are great 🤗 My next project is Anna Karenina. Have you read that? :) I will definitely check out the other recommendations thank you! 😊
Yay! I’m glad and thank you for watching!☺️
Yes, love Jane Eyre and Emma! I have read Anna Karenina and really enjoyed it. It can be slow going at times, but so worth it. Let me know how you get on with some of the others on this list, when you get around to them! 🤗
Hey, Darla!
"My boy Chuck," love that, and yes he does talk too much!
Haha Dickens was definitely a character 🤣. He is long winded but I do enjoy him all the same lol
Ugh, Dorian Gray, that's the one they made us read in high school, so I remember it well... when I wasn't sleeping through it, that is. Yeah, sorry if you or anyone else liked that book, but I just found it so boring. I don't really know what it is about fiction, to me, but it just seems like I can never quite get through it and it's just a slog, every time. Now, that's actually kind of contradictory, in a way, because, at the same time, I feel that fiction is actually easier to read, just cuz I don't really feel like I _have_ to pay attention to anything. You know, it's a made up story, it's not like I necessarily have to understand what's going on, I can just kind of cruise through it and if I missed something about it -- that's fine, as long as it was an enjoyable read... but it almost never is, ahaha... ^^;
I guess, for me, it's kind of like fiction is easy, but boring, whereas non-fiction is interesting, but difficult. Like, even the classics! I can get through stuff like Iliad pretty quickly, because I don't feel guilty about only half paying attention and skimming parts of it. Maybe that's not the best way to do it, but I dunno... I've just always done it like that. Even with movies or series and things like that, I just kind of watch and don't think too hard about anything, because I feel like it's meant to be fun. I'm not really there to "understand" or "interpret" anything-- ah, of course, they made us do all kinds of assignments on Dorian Gray, so that was a bit of a different story. :p
Haha yes I know people who don’t like Dorian Gray and I also have friends who just can’t get into fiction and prefer non fiction. I always say if we all like to read the same things, life would be incredibly boring. And depending on a fictional topic I’m reading about, I will often supplement it with non fiction sources to get the historical background and then use that to analyze how things are portrayed fictionally and why.
I personally love analyzing fiction - a lot of the time, things that are seemingly benign are very significant. So, my books are annotated to oblivion 🤣 it’s like music for me, or watching a tv show/movie - I will study it and analyze it. Fast forward rewind and rewatch and pick up on nuances, compare/contrast etc. It’s like a puzzle for me. Like the time I spent an entire year analyzing the music of Swan Lake and comparing the different versions. I love it 🤣
Wuthering Heights. GAG. Wuthering Heights.
🤣🤣🤣