A Classics Challenge – Sign-up
Having just finished reading Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair, a very fun novel about the protection of the classics, I am inspired to find more time this year to read classics.
To help me achieve this goal I am signing up to the 2012 A Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine @ November’s Autumn.
The challenge goal is to read at least 7 classics during 2012 and respond to the question/discussion held at Katherine’s blog on the 4th of each calendar month as often as possible.
The seven classics I have in my sights for this challenge, many of which I have had sitting on my Kindle for an embarrassingly long time already, are:
The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
First published in 1868, Moonstone is considered the first modern English detective novel.
A Room With A View – E M Forster
This Edwardian social comedy explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England.
The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Gaston Leroux
This classic work of French detective fiction was much admired by Agatha Christie. As a connoisseur of the detective story she said this was one of the best.
The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman – Laurence Sterne
At once endlessly facetious and highly serious, Sterne’s great comic novel contains some of the best-known and best-loved characters in English literature–including Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Parson Yorick, and Dr. Slop–and boasts one of the most innovative and whimsical narrative styles in all literature.
The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
In this, his most famous story, Kafka explores the notions of alienation and human loneliness through extraordinary narrative technique and depth of imagination.
The first of Trollope’s ”Barsetshire” series concerns Mr. Harding, elderly warden of Hiram’s Hospital and Precentor of Barchester Cathedral.
The Beautiful and the Damned – Francis Scott Fitzgerald
First published in 1922, The Beautiful and the Damned followed Fitzgerald’s impeccable debut, This Side of Paradise, thus securing his place in the tradition of great American novelists.
* Book information courtesy of epubbooks.com