The best classic?

Question

What is the best classic novel?

Answer 1

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Dickens has a real gift for creating people that irritate you, yet gradually you come to love them - just like folks in real life. If you never have read Dickens, come and see one of his greatest characters. You'll find that your impressions of David from the brief snippets by critics, teachers, reviewers, professors and know-it-alls completely different than the Real Thing.

P.S. and who can forget Dickens evil, chilling character in this story - Uriah Heep.

Answer 2

Hard question to answer with finality. I don't really believe that we can single out any one novel as the best of its era.

However, I'm a fan of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. The novel was still a very new form when Fielding wrote the story, and the chapters of action alternate with chapters *about* the story, sort of a commentary about "what is this thing that I'm writing and you're reading?" It can be a lot of fun.

If you want to blow your mind, try reading Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. Sterne, too, was writing when the novel was a relatively new thing, and Sterne hilariously violates all of the "rules" about what a novel is, back when the rules were just barely getting worked out.

Two more conventional favorites of mine weren't written in English. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a beautifully told story of a young woman who is so in love with the idea of love that she destroys her own life and the lives of those around her. It's a great antidote to romantic illusions, since it shows what happens when a person can't modify her fantasies to exist in the real world.

The last book I would suggest, for it's sweeping story on both a historic and personal scale, is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

As you can see, I really mean it when I say I have a hard time choosing just one book at the "best." I'm an author, and some of my works have been named the "best" horror story of the year or the "best" collection of fantasy stories of the year, and while it's nice to be honored, I don't really think that my stories or books are better than all the rest that were published that year. The process of trying to choose the best of anything can lead to interesting thought and discussion, but ultimately I don't think there is a "best" in art.

Answer 3

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is not only undeniably a "classic novel," but an amazing piece of literature.

Dickens has so many great classics. David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Bleak House, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, A Christmas Carol...he's undeniably one of the best authors of the English language.

Answer 4

I would like to veer away from anglophilia for a moment and suggest "To Kill a Mockingbird" as the all time American classic novel- I reread it a couple of months ago and was struck again by the simplicity of the writing- you feel love and anguish come off the page in one chapter, and then laugh out loud the next. Just a wonderful, wonderful book that you will enjoy as much when you are 80 as when you were first forced to read it in junior high.

PS: Think I read somewhere this was chosen by American librarians as the all time "must read" book.

Answer 5

I would have to say the best classic would be Point and Counterpoint by Aldous Huxley.
The story telling is my favorite style of writing, he tells the story of several people in the same timeline, kind of like Pulp Fiction.
The way he captured the charector of the 1920's high society is painstakingly detailed, down to there thoughts, nevervous habits, and lets their free will run wild.

Answer 6

I really liked The Mayor if Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. But Then,, I liked all of Thomas Hardy's novels: Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, etc

Answer 7

I like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It's got everything! A crazy lunatic locked in an attic, melodrama, a governess, disfiguring scars, a plain girl that makes good, a broody leading man, love, love lost, and love regained!

It's like a soap opera for the 1800's!

Answer 8

Depends on whether you're looking for readability, or wisdom. Or both.

Rabelais, Gargantuan and Pentagruel is a nice compromise with a lot of deep laughs.

Balzac's Droll Stories also qualify in that regard, though funnier, still.

Answer 9

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Answer 10

I actually agree with the first comment - the Bible is simply too much of everything. The problem is, it is very archaic in style.
But in my opinion, one of the Best Classics has to be "The Wind in the Willows". I don't know why but I really like it.
It's peaceful, it is adventurous and it's character-orientated so therefore very funny. Toad is the best animal character in fiction in my opinion!!!
But I'm sure there are loads and I would have to think hours to decide - if I decide.