Thoughts on reading classics

And seven of my favourites to get you started...

In his book Why Read the Classics? Italian writer Italo Calvino defined classics as ‘books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.’

While I’m not here to debate what exactly qualifies a book as a classic (for the purpose of this article any classic I refer to will have been published at least 50 years ago) what I do want to speak to is my relationship with them. And how I grew from a reader who once went out of my way to avoid them, to someone who counts many-a classic among their favourite books.

I was a bit of a late comer to the classics party. While I studied English Literature throughout school and university, a lot of what we read was written by modern-day writers. As a recent graduate, fresh out of university, I hadn’t touched any Austen, nor had I read any of the Gothic classics, and I hadn’t even come close to the Russian greats.

But I began to want to read beyond the bounds of my comfort zone, to be able engage in conversations about the most-lauded of literature. And most of all? I wanted to understand why certain books had such great impact, and held such huge sway over readers.

And so I went on a quest to make friends with classics, by reading my way through the BBC Top 100 Books (many of which were written pre-1950). There were some I hated (Ulysses, I’m looking at you), a few I simply didn’t get (Austen just doesn’t do it for me, as much as it pains me to say so), and then there were those that made me realise that some of them really are as good as everyone says (To Kill A Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, A Christmas Carol).

Classics often get a bad rep - they’re sometimes deemed as irrelevant books written by old, white men, that are laborious to get through. Which, I suppose, is true. But, on the flip side, they do offer timeless insights into human nature and society, and there’s a reason they continue to resonate decades - and sometimes centuries - after their first publication.

There are many I still want to read (Don Quixote and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to name but two), some I one day want to go back to, and others I press into the hands of fellow readers at every opportunity I can.

And if you want to try a classic or two but don’t know where to start, here are a few of my favourites, for your reading pleasure…

Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

As someone who grew up on a literary diet that comprised almost entirely of books by Judy Blume, Ann M. Martin and Francine Pascal (of Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High fame respectively), I never had a book by Dostoevsky down as a future favourite of mine. But it is, and so here we are. C&P is the story of the destitute and desperate Raskolnikov, who wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder. Eminently readable, it’s about guilt, remorse, morals, and redemption. A pacy, propulsive read, Crime & Punishment is the ultimate psychological thriller, way back before it was even a genre.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

God did I love this book. While I was rather put off by its heft (the edition I own has 1037 pages), I developed a swift and rabid obsession with Rhett Butler while knee-deep in Margaret Mitchell’s only published novel. I was so bereft when it finished that I took to my bedroom like a Victorian spinster in need of smelling salts, and locked myself away for a couple of days while I tried to recover from the ending. A gorgeous, sweeping saga, with—quite arguably—the biggest heart throb ever depicted in literature, it’s a true work of art.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

If I was a late-comer to classics, I was an embarrassing late-comer to Baldwin, something which was thankfully rectified a couple of years ago when the writer Cole Brown told me to read him. I started with Giovanni’s Room and flew through it. Set against a heady Parisian backdrop, it’s a short, succinct, and powerful book about the failure of love, passion, promise and despair. It examines an impassioned affair between two men searching for happiness and offers a grim portrayal of the subsequent catastrophic ruin both of them face.

Native Son by Richard Wright

Native Son is not for the faint of heart, but it's an important read nonetheless. When Bigger Thomas commits a crime—albeit an accidental one—he finds himself heading for jail. Though— as the story goes—perhaps time behind bars was always his fate. It’s a story about poverty, hopelessness, and the Black experience in America, following Thomas as he becomes ensnared in a downward spiral from which he can't escape. Utterly unputdownable, alarming, and horrific, it's a difficult book that everyone should read.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The shortest—but saddest—of my favourite classics is Steinbeck’s much-loved and lauded Of Mice and Men. I first studied it at school and have since re-read it a handful of times. It’s a story about two displaced migrant ranch workers - George and Lenny - who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States. Despite being just over 100 pages, this novella has it all: breathtaking prose, touching characters and a heart breaking ending. Who said only lengthy novel can make an impact?

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

I wrote my dissertation on the depiction of Black men in Black women’s literature, which meant I spent a glorious year reading every single book that Toni Morrison had ever written. The Bluest Eye was my favourite. Based on a true story, it follows eleven-year-old Pecola in post-Depression Ohio, who longs for her eyes to turn blue. An astounding debut, it offers a searing look at the intersection of racism, self-hatred, poverty, and sexuality, and is narrated with poetry-like prose and Morrison’s achingly beautifully writing style.

Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier

I love everything I’ve read by Du Maurier—and while The Scapegoat is my favourite of hers, and Rebecca is the one that had the biggest impact on my life—Frenchman’s Creek is one I revisited recently, and a book that I think everyone should read. A swashbuckling story of love and betrayal, it tells the tale of a woman in a stagnant marriage who falls in love with a French pirate. A true masterclass of romantic suspense, it’s Du Maurier at her absolute finest and I could read it again, and again, and again.

Do you have a favourite classic? Is there one you’ve been eager to read but haven’t gotten around to yet? And which classic did you first fall in love with?