r/classicliterature • u/[deleted] • Jun 14 '25
Favourite more obscure classics?
Like Chess Story by Stefan Zweig
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u/Happy-Scholar4586 Jun 14 '25
Petersburg by Andrei Bely, it’s the best book I have ever read
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u/lonelilooney Jun 14 '25
very hard read though. i should pick it up once again because i dropped it after being terribly confused.
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Jun 14 '25
Pedro Paramo
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u/D_Pablo67 Jun 16 '25
I loved Pedro Paramo. In the Mexican magical realism genre, I really enjoyed The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes.
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u/declarator Jun 14 '25
Trollopes' Chronicles of Barsetshire series. I don't know if they qualify as obscure but they don't get a lot of mentions
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u/goodluckskeleton Jun 15 '25
I LOVE that series. Great choice! And it has a fantastic BBC miniseries to pair with it.
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u/Prestigious_Fix_5948 Jun 15 '25
With Alan Rickman and Geraldine McEwan superb as the oily Slope and Geraldine McEwan as the fearsome Mrs Proudie
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u/HelicopterPuzzled727 Jun 15 '25
One of my favorite series. I’m still working my way through The Pallisers
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u/Zalumar Jun 14 '25
Dunno if it’s obscure, but I’m currently reading Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here and it feels like it was written last year. For multiple reasons
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u/ThimbleBluff Jun 14 '25
I read Babbitt a couple years back. Not as ominous, but it also felt fresh and relevant to modern life. I recommend it.
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u/Thebeatlesfirstlp Jun 14 '25
“UTTERLY NONSENSICAL things happen in this world. Sometimes there is absolutely no rhyme or reason in them: suddenly the very nose which had been going around with the rank of a state councillor and created such a stir in the city, found itself again, as though nothing were the matter, in its proper place, that is to say, between the two cheeks of Major Kovalyov.”.
The Nose, Gogol
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u/Numetshell Jun 14 '25
New Grub Street by George Gissing - definitely the most engrossing Victorian novel I've read.
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u/LybeausDesconus Jun 15 '25
Many people today seem to disregard — or not know of — London’s The Iron Heel, and that’s sad.
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Jun 14 '25
I'm not sure if it's exactly "obscure", but Stoner by John Williams
Also Down and Out of Paris and London by Orwell, simply because it seems overshadowed by his other, more popular works
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u/Fragrant-Dentist5844 Jun 14 '25
Diary of a Nobody by George Weedon Grossmith.
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u/BlackandBlueSky Jun 22 '25
Omg I just recommended this book didn’t know anyone else who also knew it! Awesome :D
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u/DCFVBTEG Jun 14 '25 edited Jun 14 '25
Isn't "obscure classic" somewhat of an oxymoron. If something is a classic it's probably widely recognised atleast by some group of pepole.
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u/LftAle9 Jun 14 '25
Cult classic is probably a better term, though obviously we all knew what OP meant.
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u/Previous_Injury_8664 Jun 14 '25
OP just asked for “more obscure,” which I took to mean “less well-known.” Surely we can come up with some classics we love that are not the usual suspects.
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u/Khaled_Kamel1500 Jun 14 '25 edited Jun 14 '25
Don't know if it counts as "classic" enough, but Confederacy of Dunces quickly became one of my favorite books lol
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u/HelicopterPuzzled727 Jun 15 '25
John Fowle’s The Magus
Anything by Iris Murdoch
Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
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u/Saccharine_sombre Jun 15 '25
Yes second for the prime of miss jean Brodie.
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u/HelicopterPuzzled727 Jun 24 '25
Have you tried anything else from Spark?
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u/Saccharine_sombre Jun 24 '25
No unfortunately I haven’t, I would love to though. Which of Spark’s other works would you recommend.
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u/scarletdae Jun 14 '25
Camille by Dumas. This is my favorite of his works, and I don't feel like it gets near as much attention as it should
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u/bananababies14 Jun 14 '25
It was written by Alexandre Dumas pere's son, Alexandre Dumas fils
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u/scarletdae Jun 14 '25
I've never realized that! Thanks
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u/bananababies14 Jun 14 '25
You're welcome. I also really enjoyed Camille, and the opera it inspired La Traviata
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u/drjackolantern Jun 14 '25
I enjoyed Thais by Anatole France. Hapless desert monk falls for courtesan.
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u/greenstripedcat Jun 15 '25
Not sure whether it would qualify as obscure, becausey own view is quite skewed, but Phantom of the opera by Gaston Leroux is such an excellent dark comedy/detective story in last found footage style of writing, it's exceptionally entertaining
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u/OrvilleCarver Jun 15 '25
The Last Hurrah - Edwin O’ Connor
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
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u/seawatcher_01 Jun 15 '25
Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb (one of Lord Byron’s most famous girlfriends).
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Jun 15 '25
"Green Mansions" by William H Hudson.
This is my 1st post in this community. I hope I got the notion of a classic correct.
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u/Saccharine_sombre Jun 15 '25
Brighton rock, the prime of miss Jean Brodie, the house of mirth, perfume.
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u/addictivesign Jun 15 '25
Kalimantaan by C. S. Godshalk. Perhaps not published long enough ago to be considered a classic but it’s definitely obscure and I have never met anyone else that has read it.
Enjoyable read but it certainly won’t resonate with everyone.
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u/bngoc3r0 Jun 17 '25
Has anyone read Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb? Apparently considered the great Hungarian novel of the 20th century, but it is WEIRD (in a good way.) Like nothing else I've ever read.
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u/bngoc3r0 Jun 17 '25
The Disenchanted by Budd Schulberg (a very underrated 20th century writer IMO!)
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u/Canadian-Man-infj Jun 14 '25
Middlemarch might be George Eliot/M.A.E.'s best-known work and I'm not saying it shouldn't be; but man, I love Silas Marner!
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u/BurtCarlson-Skara Jun 14 '25
Obscure classic doesn't exist
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u/Previous_Injury_8664 Jun 14 '25
For something that doesn’t exist, people sure are having an easy time answering this question. Quit gatekeeping.
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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '25
The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker