As the weather becomes colder, staying inside and reading a book sounds so peaceful. I always love curling up in bed with a book, and classics are such a great way to kickstart any reading obsession. So, here are my all-time top five classic novels!
- to the lighthouse– Virginia Woolf
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This book was incredibly profound and bittersweet with the way it was written. The story follows a British family, the Ramsays, residing in the countryside of Britain during the 1910s right before World War I, and how they live their lives. The story is broken into parts where the family is introduced and the son, James, asks if the family can take a trip to the lighthouse. Throughout the story, the family faces various obstacles preventing them from ever reaching the lighthouse. As time passes by, the family experiences the workings of life as they piece together their lives in the aftermath of World War I. The story is beautifully written because it mentions themes such as death, loss, and pain in the seemingly normal lives of the Ramsays.
- Candide – Voltaire
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Voltaire was a prolific Enlightenment writer famous for his philosophies on rational thought, reasoning, free-thinking, and freedom of speech. In Candide, the main character, Candide is caught kissing CunĂ©gonde, the daughter of the Baron, and is exiled from his nation. The story chronicles Candide’s journeys as he visits different lands each with their own tests and experiences. As the story continues, the characters deal with themes such as idealization, the human condition, and realism. The audience follows Voltaire’s work and how he is able to emulate these themes in the lives of Candide and CunĂ©gonde, exhibiting the depth of his work.
- Wuthering Heights – Emily BrontÉ
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This is a classic work by BrontĂ© and describes the story of Catherine and Heathcliff. Some people call this a love story but it’s so much more than that. There are parts of course that can be considered reminiscent of a love story, but what I love about this novel is how it is able to show the development of the characters over time, examining Catherine as an individual.
- Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
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Frankenstein has been long proclaimed “the greatest ghost story ever written” and it lives up to its name. This story starts when Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley were competing to see who could write the best ghost story. From there, Frankenstein was born, and of course, won the contest. As you read Frankenstein you start to become unsure of who the monster is, and both Victor Frankenstein’s and the creature’s perspectives are dissected. The language and description of the unraveling of all the vents make the story that much more suspenseful and interesting to read. If you haven’t read it before, I definitely recommend it.
- Grapes of Wrath -John Steinbeck
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This book takes place during the Great Depression. It is a story that focuses on an impoverished family who is moving to California to escape the Dust Bowl and find prosperity. The novel focuses on the experiences they have as they make their way to California and depicts the highs and lows of packing up your entire life to move someplace else. As they reach California, they realize it is not all what it’s cracked out to be and the characters experience themes such as optimism and strife, as the family tries to make their way in the wake of the crisis of the Great Depression.
Overall, these are some of my personal favorite classic books. I really loved getting a glimpse into the writing of that era and how these novels still remain an essential part of literature. Happy reading!!
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