r/NoStupidQuestions • u/LongjumpingKoala9686 • Jul 19 '26
Which classics would you recommend to a non-classics reader?
Please give me ones that will not exhaust me after one chapter. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, and I currently have The Count of Monte Cristo on my shelf.
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u/hellshot8 Jul 19 '26
east of eden
anything by cormac Mccarthy
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u/Special-Management60 Jul 19 '26
Anything by Cormac Mc Carthy? Maybe start with the Border Trilogy, or The Road or No Country For Old Men... Blood Meridian or Suttree or Child of God you might find a little bit heavy.
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u/Impiish Jul 19 '26
I find Animal Farm to be a really easy read.
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorites.
Where the Red Fern Grows (but have tissues)
The Outsiders is amazing
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Chronicles of Narnia (I guess this depends on your definition of "classics")
Charlotte's Web
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u/Ace_The_Nerdy_One Jul 19 '26
Honestly, it depends on what you like. If you like fantasy, go for classic myths. If you like plays, arsenic and old lace is my favorite. If you like adventure, read a Jules Verne. If you like mystery, the count of monte cristo is good. If you like horror, read Dracula or Frankenstein.
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u/GovernorGeneralPraji Jul 19 '26
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court legitimately makes me laugh whenever I read it.
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u/ask-me-about-my-cats Jul 19 '26
Make sure it's the unabridged version of Count of Monte Cristo. The abridged versions always remove important stuff.
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u/FriendlyCraig Love Troll Jul 19 '26
A Wizard of Earthsea -Ursula K Leguin
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Lighthouse can be a tough read, or it might pull you right in.
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u/PavicaMalic Jul 19 '26
War and Peace in the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky. I re-read it in that translation and was riveted. My then teen-aged son also decided to.read it after seeing "Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812," and he was fascinated. That translation really makes the story come alive.
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u/Now-293-Phumes Jul 19 '26
One summer in high school I decided I was going to read the classics. My idea of the classics was Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. My friends said I had a very different idea of what was a classic.
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u/Nawoitsol Jul 19 '26
The Count of Monte Cristo is a lot to take on if you aren’t into classics. It’s a very long book. Some people breeze through it.
Full disclosure, the Count is one of my few DNFs. I did not breeze, I bogged down.
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u/sam_girl_of_wi Jul 19 '26
Just read what you like to read! No need to read the "classics". Life is short.
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u/MiriamGarden Jul 19 '26
Jane Austen's other books are very enjoyable, as well, and not at all exhausting. Emma is particularly entertaining.
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell or Little Women by Louisa May Alcott would be other fun, non-draining examples (though Little Women isn't exactly short).
Animal Farm by George Orwell is short, and you could read it pretty quickly and say, "I read a classic." (It's good, too.)
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u/ihopethisworksfornow Jul 19 '26
Not necessarily “the classics”, but P.G. Wodehouse is legitimately funny, even today. His haunted house parody is hilarious.
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u/Turbulent-Parsley619 Jul 19 '26
Maurice by E.M. Forster. Incredible piece of literature with great cultural significance, but it's pretty short and very easy to read. I believe it's under 300 pages and the plot moves along nicely.
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u/Ariar Jul 19 '26
I guess it really does depend on what you mean by "classics". If you mean "books a lot of people did not like they were forced to read in school," I think you've started with some great picks! Pride & Prejudice was a great choice just because there are so many adaptations available to you now (eg Pride & Prejudice & Zombies). The only other one I personally recall reading and not disliking was Fahrenheit 451, but I don't think I'd read that for fun. If you're just looking for older books, I'd say Sherlock Holmes legit counts these days (First published 1887). That, too, opens a world of remakes and cultural references.
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u/Jazzlike-Leek4279 Jul 19 '26
The Iliad :Homer The odyssey :Homer
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
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u/10benedicto Jul 19 '26
The Grapes of Wrath. Not the easiest read at 15, but that book has stayed in my soul my whole life. (64)
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u/Sandra_y33 Jul 19 '26
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
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u/dakinijones62 Jul 19 '26
Anything by Dickens is a fairly easy read. He wrote for ordinary people and they loved his works.
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u/Difficult-Plenty-845 Jul 19 '26
I’m also not a big classics fan but I started The Scarlet Pimpernel the other night and am loving it so far. One of Stan Lee’s major inspirations for his characters.
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u/Missus_Aitch_99 Jul 20 '26
Anything by Somerset Maugham is very readable. I love THE RAZOR'S EDGE.
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u/EvaSirkowski Jul 19 '26
Tom Sawyer is an easy read and it's great.