Top 10 Favorite Classic Books

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. To learn more about Top Ten Tuesday or see the list of future topics click here.

Today's Top 10: Favorite Classic Books

The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis This may be my favorite classic of all time. The entire story is just such a wonderful surprise as the three stories rather effortlessly flow in and out of each other, each one sensationally Gothic in nature. Abounding with monks, nuns, secret passageways, cold corridors, nasty weather, soul-selling witches, prurient interests, superstition, and the occasional dead body, The Monk has a perfectly eerie feel. 

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins The plot is complicated without being pretentious, the atmosphere is downright immersive, and the issues dealt with are varied and thought-provoking. Two thumbs up. You can throw my big toes in there too actually. At almost 500 pages, the book is a chunkster but it reads like a novella: quick and exciting.

House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky What Dostoevsky has done is create a portrait, a multidimensional complex image of life in prison.  He moves from event to event from person to person, offering a snapshot of individual instances and inmates, that when combined, form a comprehensive whole that is rather powerful. Reading like a well-lived man recounting memories, The House of the Dead is a beauteous philosophical ramble that will stay with me for a long time.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway Two words come to mind after reading this novel: broken and bittersweet. The people in this novel are broken, leading superficially frivolous lives. But the tone, to me, is not one of judgment or condemnation, but rather bittersweet in its treatment of this group who have been made empty. A definite need to re-read this one.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov What a read. Seriously, what a read. What's strange is that the most striking feature of this novel is not the illicit, pseudo-incestual relationship between Humbert and Lolita, what captures the imagination the most is the language. The way Humbert speaks (aka the way Nabokov writes) is ingenious. He artfully plays with words, the structure of sentences, the use of allusion, the creation of new words. Humbert's voice is everything in this novel.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton An atmospheric tale of a husband unhappy in his marriage to a hypochondriac, a too-much-money-spending nag, and all around bitchywoman who finds love in an unexpected and inappropriate woman. Ethan is poignantly heartbreaking, truly tortured.  Already married and dedicated to caring for those he has responsibility, Ethan's dilemma comes across remarkably sincere.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins The Moonstone contains some of the most intriguing characters I have ever read. From the humble servant Gabriel Betteredge to the prissy and self-righteous Drusilla Clack to the opium-addicted Ezra Jennings, these are people you want to know about, and they speak directly to you as The Moonstone is an epistolary novel with multiple characters recounting firsthand events in their unique tone of voice.

Inferno by Dante Alighieri What a great freaking book! The story is beautifully unique, thematically deep, and artfully written. And we have to remember, of course, we are talking about Hell here, so it is also wonderfully interesting in a macabre sort of way.

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier  Rebecca is a beautifully told story. Du Maurier's descriptions of the setting, the events, and the fantasies of our narrator are vivid and poignant. The fantasies leap off the page for me. The narrator constructs scenarios in her head continuously, revealing her deep-seated fears and her expectations. She invents future scenes where she is embarrassed, hurt, or ignored. It was an exceptional way to reveal the narrator's personality.

Middlemarch by George Elliot Unfortunately I do not have a review of this book on the blog, and it's been over a decade since I read Middlemarch; however, this is an absolutely fantastic read - that much I remember. If you haven't yet had the pleasure, I strongly suggest reading this as soon as possible.