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Favorite Classics

Classic literature is on my mind a lot lately. All the talk about The Great Gatsby, which will never be a book I like, is part of it. Mostly though it is because I'm rereading so many in preparation to teach my High School English classes next year. So this month's Favorite Things list is dedicated to my favorite all time classic novels.







 In making this list I thought of so many Shakespeare plays I wanted to add that I decided to do a whole list just for him. Coming in July...

What about you? Do you have any classic novels you love to reread? What are the ones you don't like at all?

Comments

April said…
Wow-I am surprised by Vanity fair. I don't know why; just am surprised it's a favorite. My all time favorite classic is Crime and Punishment.
Brandy said…
I love Vanity Fair, great characters and so many layers.

I have always avoided Russian literature. The only one I've ever read is Anna Karenina.
April said…
Oh, you should give Crime and Punishment a try-it is so good. I read something last week where someone called Dostoevsky an atheist socialist and I wanted to find them and smack them-they obviously know nothing of his history! While he had a brief affair with a utopian socialist group, he parted with them because he did not like their plite to destroy all religion. Then, after serving a prison sentence for circulating documents that spoke against the Russian Orthodox Church, he wrote this: "I believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly and more perfect than the Savior;...If anyone could prove to me that Christ is outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not the truth."

And upon that and his experience in prison he wrote Crime and Punishment-it is a beautiful story. But, it does have a lot psychological theorizing and agony, so that may not be your thing.

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