Karen at Books and Chocolate is hosting the Back to the Classics Challenge again in 2015, and I'm all in! Love this challenge and she has opened the rules up considerably. Twelve categories, but none are required, and they are great categories...allowing me to wallow in comfort as well as stretch my reading legs a bit. However, Karen is being a stickler about her definition of a classic--nothing published within the last 50 years (that's 1965) unless it was written earlier than that but published posthumously.
1. A 19th Century Classic - Framley Parsonage, by Anthony Trollope - yes, I am working my way through the Barset series and this novel is next in line.
2. A 20th Century Classic - The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. An amalgamation of Arthurian legends, but really about the rise of fascism in the 20th century.
3. A Classic by a Woman Author - Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym.
4. A Classic in Translation - I opted for Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, since I wanted to read it for my Reading Italy project.
6. A Classic Novella - Washington Square, by Henry James - I'm ready to give James a try...again.
7. A Classic with a Person's Name in the Title - David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens - another reread, but it's been over 20 years since the last reading. Fond memories and it's still my favorite Dickens.
8. A Humorous or Satirical Classic - not sure what will strike my fancy here.
9. A Forgotten Classic - Happy Christmas by Daphne DuMaurier.
10. A Nonfiction Classic - I finally read Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, which was published in 1962.
11. A Classic Children's Book - Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott and/or Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
12. A Classic Play - Henry VI, part I, by William Shakespeare (the Colorado Shakespeare Festival is doing a reading of this in the summer, so I will be going to that and probably rereading it before hand). I ended up reading Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, though I didn't do a post on it.
I'm having fun making my list. Doctor Thorne is on it, as I'm also working on the Barsetshire Chronicles. I will look forward to reading of your progress.
ReplyDeleteYou have some great books lined up! I love Framley Parsonage & have been thinking about reading it again. I am hoping that 2015 will be my year for Middlemarch. I didn't get too far the first time I tried it. I also like that you're leaving room for inspiration :)
ReplyDeleteIt seems that everyone is reading through the Barsetshire Chronicles! I just started the last book, The Last Chronicle of Barset .
ReplyDeleteI am also read David Copperfield this year. I will not be reread for me but it will be the fixing of a glaring omission.
I am curious as to what you will pick for the forgotten classic. I am also looking to read your thoughts on all these books.
Happy reading!
Some great books on this list. If you haven't read Tom Jones or Tristram Shandy for a while, those are both a hoot and might make good choices for the humorous/ satirical classics. Or something by Saki?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendations--I read TJ decades ago, and never read Tristram Shandy, though I have it.
DeleteI'm curious about which Zola you would pick after Germinal...
ReplyDeleteDavid Coppoerfield is one of my favorites from Dickens, hope you'll like it.
Good luck! :)
I'm hearing good things about The Ladies Paradise, so that might be it!
DeleteWhat a great list! I'm on Framley Parsonage too. And I can't wait to read Testament of Youth. I just have to fit it in somewhere. For humour I recommend either Three Men in a Boat or The Diary of a Nobody. Both are hilarious!
ReplyDeleteHappy reading!