Recommendations for Classic Reading

I've recently decided that I want to try and read some older classical novels, but I'm not sure where to start. I've already read the Scarlet Pimpernel, Swiss Family Robinson and the Prince in the Pauper. I'm looking for something with adventure in it that doesn't end with mass death of the main characters at the end. You know, a feel good read of sorts. Any suggestions?

Update: I'm still open to hear suggestions, but oh my goodness I'm just thrilled at the response from everyone! I have a rather large reading list now thanks to ya'll. Ya'll rocks!

The Count of Monte Cristo is pretty good, Treasure Island, Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and let's say Journey to the West. All worth ready and full of adventure.

I'm might be getting confused with terminology but "classics" I love are Iliad and The Odyssey(not sure how it is in English). If you want literary depth I just don't think its possible to find something better. Metaphors from the Odyssey are used everyday because of how potent it is, just yesterday I was discussing commitment devices and "present bias" with a professor and he mentioned the sirens in the Odyssey. If you perfectly remember these two stories I think you can pretty much credibly conjure them in every conversation in the form "Oh its like when {insert specific adventure from the Odyssey or Iliad here}". The lessons are just that numerous and general :P.

Hmmm tis a tough one. Most of the classical stuff I have read is kind if dark... Dickens etc. And the russians can be fairly bleak too. But if you dont mind a bit of that, I reccommend Ana Karenina by Tolstoy. It's about a fancy lady and her fancy affairs, which might sound kind of boring but it is really quite incredible.

Edit - and oh shir I cant believe i didnt think of the count of monte cristo and don quixote as someone recxommended above, that's probably exactly what you are looking for!

A feel-good piece of classic literature... Uhh, most classic literature is pretty dark. That's probably some kind of incredibly deep commentary on human nature right there. Even classic children's literature is pretty freaky most of the time. Hans Christian Anderson, Mark Twain or A.A. Milne might have something you're looking for.

You really need to ask this question somewhere that's not a video game forum.

@sinusoidal: you are right there =) Reddit is prob a good place to get some decent recommendations.

I add a vote in for Treasure Island. Straightforward adventure but well done. I found that to be pretty entertaining.

I really like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It has larger aspects to it and isn't' all cheery, but I like it as an adventure book.

I would also recommend Heart of Darkness on a more darker note. There are some adventure aspects... though that's hardly the best part. Your requests seem to say you aren't looking for that, but I'm a big fan of that book.

I think my personal favorites don't tend to be as positive so I don't have a ton of recommendations.

Anything by Jules Verne, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I'm going to ignore for a second your need for a happy ending and recommend 'Gone with the Wind'. Most of the main characters do survive the story, but they aren't exactly where and how they'd want to be. They're anti-heroes on the wrong side of a war, but if you can accept them as products of their culture, you still end up rooting for them and you feel satisfyingly brokenhearted at the end.

Seriously, people think Gone with the Wind is a romance or something. It's not. It's an epic end-of-the-world apocalyptic survival/adventure in a detailed historical setting with an amazing synergy between polarizing characters with complex relationships.

Like most book to film adaptations, the movie is just trash in comparison. Don't judge it by the movie, and don't see the movie first if you haven't seen the movie yet. Also, if you do read it, prepare to be really bummed that the author never published any other books.

Not exactly classic reading or any kind of high brow literature, but if your into adventure on the high seas, foreign and exotic places and cultures a bit of history and even some romance thrown in? I read through the 3rd sequense of the courtney series by Wilbur Smith a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed them. The books follow the exploits of a succesion of (young) men from the Courtney family line, starting in 1667 and ending up in 1911. The series runs through a number of novels:

Birds of Prey

Monsoon

Blue Horizon

Triumph of the sun

Assegai

Don't know if this is exactly what you wanted, but I would encourage you to at least try the 1st one and see how you like it, and then go from there. I read them out of sequence but that didn't matter that much as each novel has it's own seperate protagonist and story.

anyway hope I can turn other people on to these books I really enjoyed them.

The Count of Monte Cristo sounds awesome, I remember watching the movie of it in French class years ago. Granted I know the movie isn't the same as the book in most cases but if it's even close I'm bound to enjoy it. Gonna try and check out all the recommendations here. =) Ok so I know most old school novels are a bit dark in some sense, but what I was meaning was for example like 'Oh hey the main characters all died. Then end.' That's not something I enjoy reading. Sure people get jacked up in old stories and that's fine...but I'd like to there to be SOME sort of silver lining at the end. Also I don't use reddit but thanks for the advice! =D I really appreciate everyone's help.You guys rock!

Was just about to recommend that.

@artisanbreads: I'll check it out for sure. When I was a teen I used to really enjoy Edgar Allen Poe's works (cept the fall of the house of usher as it was just weird with the sibling stuff) so I can handle darker stuff as long as the ending is justified. I'm just not looking for something that's soul reason is to make you cry. Like I really dislike sappy girl romance novels like the Notebook.

@killer2m8o: Is it the same as the movie? Or is it one of those deals where the movie changed a ton from the book?

@naoiko: You should avoid some Victorian novels that are more in that style. Very melodramatic.

I think you should definitely check out Heart of Darkness then. Glad to see support of it. I think it's a really complex book even if it's not too long. I find it more critical and attacking of colonialism than many even credit it. It's just not as straightforward of an adventure book. If you are willing to dig into some deeper themes there's a lot there that's interesting I find.

And if you really like Poe... maybe stretch to Lovecraft? Might be someone you like too. And I also will throw a left field recommendation in for the Conan stories. If you like darker fantasy (they call Conan classic "low fantasy") they are really fun pulpy adventure. I think some of those stories are so great and very worth reading. The author of those stories was a friend of Lovecrafts and I think his fantasy has an inspiration from Poe, Lovecraft, and that vein of writing. He fills out a universe story by story in a way similar to Lovecraft but the stories have great pacing and are full of great action.

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass maybe? Certainly classics, and certainly light-hearted if that's what you're looking for.

'The Sound and The Fury' by William Faulkner is one of my favorite books. Just stick with it through the first chapter. Each chapter is written from a different perspective and the first chapter is written from the perspective of a person who is developmentally delayed. It's a really clever book and very memorable.

I agree to all the above, and will add Farenheit 451 and The Long Ships (which is more of a classic here in Sweden, but still)

Edit: Oh, feelgood stories *Glances at bookcase* Sorry, can't help you.

Hmm, this is a tough one.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, while a satire and parody, is also a pretty great adventure story. I read it in college and then I read it again for fun a few years later. Most editions, including the one that I own, have footnotes so that you can know what the satire is actually lampooning. Still, beyond that, it's a fun read just for the story itself.

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini is a more recent "classic" but fits right in with books like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. This is kind of what Assassin's Creed Unity could, or should, have been.

Have you read Watership Down by Richard Adams? Don't be put off by the main characters being rabbits, it is a hell of an adventure story. Lots of excitement, danger, characters to root for and hate. It's awesome. I have read it probably 10 times. It's that good. Right up there with The Hobbit for my favorite adventure-type fantasy story.

I will admit, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head at the moment. But those are a few that I have really enjoyed.

@artisanbreads: I think I've heard of Lovecraft before...Was that the guy who wrote the book Scientology is based off of? I honestly can't remember off hand... The Conan Books and Heart of Darkness sound good, I'll add em to my list! Thanks duder! =)

@jasonr86: I'll look into it =) Thanks!

@stryker1121: I totally forgotten about those! I will have to add them to my list for sure, thanks!

@christoffer: It's all good dude. Thanks for at least trying =).

@jadegl: Oh man I have actually read Watership Down. I remember crying for those poor rabbits and the crap they went through.

@naoiko: Lovecraft is a horror writer mostly known for Cthulhu. I highly recommend The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories.

@corevi: Ah! So that's why I'd heard his name before.

Yeah what he said! It's like sci-fi/fantasy horror and very influential.

If you want to class 19th century stuff as classics then make some space for Dostoevsky, even more than Tolstoy. His books are a great insight into the minds of those living in 1800s Russian cities. Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, & The Idiot are all novels well worth reading and utterly enjoyable.

But I've only just noticed you want books which aren't dark in the OP. Oops. I guess Dostoevsky is a bit dark. The Idiot is certainly a sad book about a very naive and well-intentioned man, the eponymous Idiot.

If you haven't read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass yet you are missing out. They are must reads (and my favorite two books ever written).

I would also recommend stuff by HG Wells, like War of the Worlds, The invisibile man and Time Machine being among my favorites (ha, they were mentioned recently on a quick look coincidentally). I love HG Wells, but some of his books may be difficult to get through (especially war of the worlds which is really dry).

Anything by Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hide.

Obvious one for classic literature, but Charles Dickens wrote a ton of great stories. You can google his works- almost all of them are worth reading (he was a great author).

Lastly I would recommend all of Philip K Dick's work. He was a strange man, and that translated to his work, but most of it was adapted to films you may have seen. His books are all amazing if only because he saw the world so differently from most people, but not only that you could argue he predicted the world we live in now.

Anyway, those are some of my suggestions.

My favorite "classic" work (also one of my favorite books) is "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. I've read it literally every October since I first read it my senior year in high school which was...well...let's just say it was a while ago.

@toastburner_b: I second Dracula. It is a great book. I remember it starting a little slow, but it really picks up quickly.

I really dig epistolary novels too.

@naoiko: If you read Count of Monte Cristo (or listen to the audiobook since it's crazy long) definitely go with the unabridged version. Robin Buss' translation is really incredible and the stuff that got cut from some earlier is amazing. Literally entire characters and their storylines are gone in earlier translations. I've never encountered a piece of fiction that so completely wraps up characters so well at the end. People who are literal pieces of shit for 1400 pages really get whats coming to them. It's amazing. It's also $1 on kindle, so there's that. http://www.amazon.com/Count-Monte-Cristo-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449264

@toastburner_b: Is it the book that Nosferatu the old black and white movie was based off of? Or is that entirely different book?

@waterfallsuite: Oh snap that's for the heads up. Yeah having people and storylines cut out is not cool. I'm game for a crazy long book as long as it is well..good. =)

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even though they are huge classics, I had been kinda reluctant to check these stories out for some time, maybe because Sherlock Holmes is so ubiquitous in pop culture, maybe I thought they would be boring, dry and dated. But recently I decided to give it a try, and am I glad I did, because they are BRILLIANT.

If you like the sort of creature horror of Lovecraft I'd recommend Algernon Blackwood's The Wendigo. It's super short (and in the public domain so you can get it for free). I read it on my phone during the lunch breaks at driving school.

I really like The Catcher in the Rye, and I'd definitely recommend seeking out (read: pirating it because it was never released publicly) the short story The Ocean is Full of Bowling Balls if you also enjoyed it. It centers around Holden's older brother and other family members. It's also interesting considering it was written before Catcher was.

Yup, that's the one! I'll admit I haven't watched the watched Nosferatu (been meaning to), so I don't know how close to the book it is. Like @jadegl said, the opening can be a bit slow, but once it gets into gear it's really good. If you prefer audio books, Audible has a pretty good performance of the book on sale for 99 cents at the moment. It's how I did my Dracula fix for October last year.

Depends on how far back you want to go, but this is the list that I have been working on for a while:

• Paradise Lost (my personal favorite novel)
• Age of Innocence
• The Brothers Karamazov
• Divine Comedy
• Frankenstein
• The Idiot

@naoiko: No problem. Monte Cristo is far and away my favorite book of all time. I mean at it's core it's a revenge story, and it delivers 100% on everybody getting exactly what they deserve. The unabridged version also has Edmond( the main character) going around doing piratey/brigand stuff for a while which is awesome. He is quite literally a proto-Batman. Ultra-super-mega rich beyond your wildest dreams (basically a trillionaire) and is super smart-having absolutely everything figured out ahead of time. It is also a bit dry in some parts, and can get repetitive (it was published in a newspaper in chunks), so it's not without faults. I do love it though.

I don't think I'm ready to live in a world where a guy who died 2 years before I was born is counted as a classic man. I'm just not ready. (But you're right that Dick is utterly fascinating, one of the real greats of sci-fi/genre fiction)

White Fang and The Call of the Wild by Jack London are great books which seem to fit what you're looking for.

I second (or third or whatever) Charles Dickens. I love his writing. Read anything and everything by him. But if you have to chose one, David Copperfield is a classic dor a reason.

War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It's a big read but it hardly ever feels like a chore. The story is that good. It does take commitment though as there's so many characters and so much going on.

Be sure to read some of Victor Hugo's books. My favorites are Les Misérables and The Last Day of a Condemned Man. If everybody read those books, we'd all be a little more humane. Also, Dickens' A Christmas Carol, as familiar as it is to everyone already, is still well worth reading. It's one of the greatest books of all time if not the greatest.

Edit: Oh, and Wuthering Heights. I freaking love Wuthering Heights.

I came in here to suggest The Call of the Wild. It will hopefully be exactly what you want. If you don't know much about it, it's from the perspective of a dog, and it's so fresh and ahead of its time (ya know, for a classic). It was recommended to me once upon a time by a very smart man, and I almost always suggest it to people who ask for old book suggestions. Do yourself a favor and read it.

@forkboy: I don't think I'm ready to live in a world where a guy who died 2 years before I was born is counted as a classic man. I'm just not ready.

I get what you're saying, but keep in mind HG Wells died in 1946. That means there are still people alive who were born around the time he died.

I consider classic literature any author that is a must read. There are fewer and fewer these days- even from the 90s there isn't that many (for example I love Stephen King but I wouldn't say anything he has written is a "must read" in the same sense that I would HG Wells, Lewis Carroll, or Charles Dickens). Maybe it is because a lot of them are still alive, but- for me at least- I feel it's more about the significance of their work.

It's the same for William S Burroughs (who died in 1997), Isaac Asimov (1992), Douglas Adams (2001), or Ray Bradbury (2012) for me. I consider their work very significant and prolific in the world we live today (even if sometimes we don't realize it).

But ya, I can see why you would say that. It starts to make you feel old when you realize that some more prominent authors lived and died within our life times (keep in mind, though, that most these guys were born around the 1920s, even Philip K Dick- the exception being Douglas Adams who died very young relative to the others I mentioned).

Robinson Crusoe, considered the first novel, is still an excellent read.

I don't know what your criteria for "classic" is, but most of my favorites are from the 20th century and later. Burroughs, Bukowski, Joyce and Beckett.

Course nothing beats Emerson's essays on Nature and Self-Reliance, or Thoreau's Walden.

Oscar Wilde is another favorite of mine, Salome in particular (very progressive for it's time!)

Sorry... English major over here. I'll just show myself out.

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was awesome. I also loved Voltaire's Candide, Albert Camus's The Stranger, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, Earnest Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea and Jack Kerouac's the Dharma Bums. These are all relatively short, too which maybe why I liked them so much.

The Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid are all really bizarre and entertaining experiences and are classics by definition. When I was reading the Iliad, it distinctly reminded me of the very specific and blatant tales you'd get out of a Dwarf Fortress play-through. For example, "did Ajax really just stab that dude through the nipple, exiting through his shoulder blade?". It's amusing to me that those tiny, gory and unnecessary details are littered throughout the entire story and have been retained for thousands of years. These details don't detract from the fact that they all have a good depth and endearing characters. They all feel legitimately epic in scale, which is hard to replicate.

Apart from that, the only real "classics" I can recommend from what I've had experience with are Russian 19th century novels. Specifically The Brothers Karamazov and War and Peace. Those novels, if you have the patience to get through them, might actually change your perspective on your existence, or at least provide you with a deeply emotional and philosophical experience.

Dostoevsky is dark. That being said, there are some very uplifting moments in his novels, and most of the characters are pretty damn lovable despite all of their troubles and faults.

The movie wasn't bad, it wasn't trash, it was just trash compared to the book. I don't remember that much of it and have no desire to watch it again. In contrast, I'd gladly read the book again. The four lead characters draw you in because you can relate to each of them in a different way, while the world they knew is being completely destroyed and they have to experience that and survive it. A movie can't effectively communicate thoughts and motivations like a book, so that connection to the characters is lost in the movie, while it's one of the best parts of the book.

A book has to be well written for me to get into it. For example, I loved 1984, cuz Orwell was a really good writer. But I didn't like Fahrenheit 451 or a Brave New World that much even though you could say they have interesting stories that might appeal to 1984 fans, because the writing and character development just isn't there. Gone with the Wind is very well written.

Who knows though. My tastes might not be what you're looking for, my favorite books off the top of my head, in case you've read any so you can judge my tastes:

1. Gone with the Wind - Epic apocalyptic adventure
2. 1984 - Dark dystopian future
3. Catch-22 - The funniest book I've ever read
4. The Great Gatsby - A tragedy of misguided souls, funny in the driest way
5. Starship Troopers - I don't even know man what the hell is happening here?
6. The Stand - Another epic apocalyptic adventure
7. Oryx and Crake - ...and yet another...
8. Life of Pi - A happy parable
9. Ender's Game - A sad parable

Blood Meridian.

@getz said:

I always think people are lying when they say they like Joyce. I'm not saying you're lying, I'm just saying...I read a bunch of pretentious janky gibberish that you were supposed to like if you were smart, and it had his name on it. Probably the truth is you are smarter than me and have a better sense of humor, so you have a capacity to enjoy his work that I do not have.

Heart of Darkness, Frankenstein, L'Etranger and Paradise Lost come to mind. If you're not limited to fiction I might also recommend Common Sense just because some of the reasons Paine gives for why the 13 Colonies should be freed from Britain were pretty fucking funny. I mean, he made some important points, but a few segments of it actually made me laugh out loud.

If you read Finnegan's Wake, then don't worry no one likes that book. It's literally unreadable. He's definitely a frustrating writer, especially if you don't have a strong stomach for wild experimentation in your literature. It's not that you need to be intelligent, patient is more the word. Once you break through that wall though, man Joyce can blow your mind.

He's a lot like Monster Hunter that way