The Classics (and Classic Horror novels)

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

carrie's younger brother

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2012
5,428
25,651
NJ
I've read most of the books mentioned. I'll also add The Phantom of the Opera. I've read this 3 times or so. It's an easy read; not very long. Having only known the movie versions of the story, it's a fascinating book. The Phantom's backstory in the book is something I never knew about from just seeing the various movie versions. Very interesting.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
The picture of Dorian Gray. While not horror, it's a terrific story.

The Hound of the Baskervilles. (also, not so much horror..)

The Call of Cthulhu.
I look forward to Dorian Gray very much. I'm a major Conan Doyle fanatic (an ancestor of mine created the very first Sherlock Holmes fan club. But I like Conan Doyle for other reasons, too), and Hounds was terrific, though not horror. I loved Call of Cthulhu.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
I love me some crazy Edgar Allen Poe - but I'm a short story buff - so he's an easy read for me.
I loved The Lottery & The House on Haunted Hill by Shirley Jackson.
For some reason Ghost Story by Peter Straub feels like a classic to me, but it's not really that old.
Actually, you mean The Haunting of Hill House, I think :), and I agree, it was really great, as was The Lottery.
 

Walter o'Dim

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2010
59
42
36
Michigan
I've been putting off reading classic novels for years because they sound good but I don't want to be confused by the language.

These are the books I've been thinking of getting..

a Tale of two Cities
Great Expectations
Frankenstien
Picture of Dorian gray

I was kind of put off by classics because the first classic I ever read was Moby Dick. which was the most boring book I've ever read.

any other classics that people like? they don't have to be strictly horror I was going to change that in the title of the thread and forgot.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
I've been putting off reading classic novels for years because they sound good but I don't want to be confused by the language.

These are the books I've been thinking of getting..

a Tale of two Cities
Great Expectations
Frankenstien
Picture of Dorian gray

I was kind of put off by classics because the first classic I ever read was Moby Dick. which was the most boring book I've ever read.

any other classics that people like? they don't have to be strictly horror I was going to change that in the title of the thread and forgot.
Just altered the thread title for you now, Walter O.
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
The Brothers Karamazov...The Idiot (which is interesting for what it says about pre-revolutionary Russia...there was this attitude of hate-all-things-Russian...so familiar, here in the States as the same attitude prevails at times...hate all things American...too...but I better not spoil it for you...some great scenes on a train) I think these two are much better than Crime & Punishment, that I've also read. I can't recommend Dostoyevsky enough.

Don Quixote...Cervantes story might be more than four-hundred years old, but it is story...thoroughly enjoyable. There's a line or two in this one I've remembered: Virtue is persecuted by the wicked more than it is loved by the good. Nothing's changed. Friend to friend no more draws near and the jester's cane has become a spear. Sounds grim, but there is a great deal of humor in this story.

Anna Karenina, Tolstoy...maybe you've seen the movie? another good long read.
Anything by George Eliot. Her stories have as much psychological realism as Dosty's...if not more. The Mill on the Floss...Middlemarch...Silas Marner
Ibsen.
The Bard...but if you can find recordings that is so much more enjoyable as you get more than just his words...you get feeling, context, tone.

Give the Brothers K a shot...if you don't like that, ignore the rest of what I've said.
 

Angelo Bottigliero

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
764
3,103
Rotterdam
I've been putting off reading classic novels for years because they sound good but I don't want to be confused by the language.

These are the books I've been thinking of getting..

a Tale of two Cities
Great Expectations
Frankenstien
Picture of Dorian gray

I was kind of put off by classics because the first classic I ever read was Moby Dick. which was the most boring book I've ever read.

any other classics that people like? they don't have to be strictly horror I was going to change that in the title of the thread and forgot.
I have this Ira Levin double: A kiss before dying and The boys from Brazil. Both excellent.