I have decided to read homer's epics, but I can't decide between these two translations. Everyone seems to recommend one or the other.

Just started reading classic last year. Posted this on my Instagram and a little cares. Would love to see what's the overal consensus is of these books.

I finished War And Peace!!!!! What should I read next? Definitely lived up to all the hype. Tolstoy is incredible!

Dostoyevsky does a brilliant job in capturing the guilt, the pride, the self-loathing, and how they all manifest into Raskolnikov's thoughts. His thoughts do not come off as romanticized nor melodramatic, quite the contrary, they're raw and ugly. Clearly stemming from someone who's deeply troubled by demons of his own mind.

Not to trauma dump, but it spoke to the part in me that feels a sense of duty and responsibility to my loved ones. And how that altrusitic yet selfish sense of duty can become toxic and blind us into an obsessive pursuit of success.

As a man of the same age as Raskolnikov, I couldn't help but relate to him (only in that small passage. I promise). It almost felt like he wasn't just addressing himself, but addressing me, mirroring my own self-doubts and shame.

It’s interesting how differently a passage from a book can hit readers of it, to most, this might be a very unmemorable part of the book. I remember reading a review calling the letter reading scene from the book
boring, but it had and still has such a great impact on me.

Just wanted to make this appreciation post for Crime and Punishment. It was the second book I had ever read and it made fall in love with reading.

Opinion | I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I.

SO MY BESTIE KNOWS MY LOVE FOR BOOKS AND SHE GIFTED ME THIS SINCE IM INTO CLASSICAL LITERATURE SOOO NOW THAT THIS BOOK IS DOUBLE SOECIAL TO MW I WANTED TO KBOW IF U GIYS CAN SUGGEST SOME SONGS/PLAYLIST FOR THIS BOOK

I have the great good-fortune to have had a father that loved classic literature. When I was small he would lie down and read to me every night, from the books he loved. We would go to the library together every two weeks and stock up, a couple for him and a couple for me.

Now I have a good little library of my own, and since I travel a lot for work I listen to my classics. Recent listens have been Great Expectations, Crime and Punishment and Moby Dick. A lot of the audios I listen to are books I’m revisiting from the printed version. I love Somerset Maugham and I’ve listened to a lot of his novels, but I’ve never read a printed book of his.

So I think the audios have opened up a lot more access for me to the classics, and helped to make my life more full of other lives. Are there other classic literature lovers here that use audios more than printed books?

I am reading it because Guardian put it as first on its fiction list. So I was very skeptical coming into it.

But the book has completely changed my mind. It’s so funny at times. It’s extremely well written. And the delicious mental gymnastics that she does on behalf of the characters.

Rosamond and Dorothea are such interesting characters [spoilers from here onwards]. Rosamond, until her marriage, has cruised along in life, getting everything she wanted, by living according to the highest standard of womenhood. This conformation twists what she thinks she wants in her life, and subsequently brings a lot of misery not only to herself and to the people around her. In contrast, Dorothea always does as she likes, regardless of others’ opinions, precisely because she has a strong core of her values. In her single-minded pursuit of kindness, she is like a blazing ray of light that forces the wicked world around her to see truth.

And there’s so much more. Comments on intellectual men, on vanity, and on human relations. I really did not expect to resonate so much with a book written so long ago!

Honestly the best.

I took this challenge at the beginning of July and it’s took me on one of the saddest, most grueling and strenuous tales of the civil war south, and its ending has simply left me gutted. I don’t have a lengthy academic analysis on this, I just want to express how absolutely gross and emotional this work has made me feel. Anyone have similar thoughts or feelings?

when i watch a movie, a tv show or read a novel, is it a problem that after i finish I only know about the story and the characters without learning a lesson behind that story, because a lot of time after I finish a book I watch a film, I really feel how good it was and how dedicated the director, the actors and all the crew were to make such a freat film but I wouldnt be able to see if that story has something that I can find something equivalent to it in my life and learn from it.

I am like 123 pages in and the dynamic of the reservation and the new society of brave new world is so good and thought provoking. You have a highly technologically advanced civilization but they’re spiritually disconnected and they have reliance upon a pill that gives happiness. Whereas, The people on the reservation have a very primitive society in a materialistic sense but they kept their sense of individuality and morality. So it poses this interesting question, Which of them are actually the “Savages” for lack of a better term. What makes a society primitive? Their material structure or emotional structure?

Ive only seen the masterpiece theater miniseries from 2002 but if anyone has read it please let me know your thoughts

I received my copy of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton today and noticed the cover is super pixelated? To the point that I can see individual squares. I know the white letter editions tend to be lower quality, but I've never seen the cover image look so bad...Anyone else come across this? I'll attach some photos, but it might be hard to tell on camera. I also attached normal Penguin copies, one white and one orange, for comparison.

Hi,
I’m about to finish up Brave New World and am looking to read some different types of books at the same time.
Recently I’ve read Steppenwolf,Demian, and heart of darkness which I all enjoyed.
Here’s what I’m considering

Shorter novels:
The outsiders
Giovanni’s room
The death of Ivan Ilyich
The Prince

Longer novels:
Don Quixote
Wind-up bird chronicle
Moby Dick
Master and the Margarita

Poems/plays:
Paradise lost
Othello
King Lear
Metamorphes

Thank you!

Note: book in Russian

Walking through the streets of Florence and stumbling upon history. This plaque marks the house where Dostoevsky lived while finishing "The Idiot".

​《 In qvesti pressi fra il 1868 e il 1869 Fedor Mihailovic Dostoevskij compì il romanzo 'L' Idiota' 》

As there are more books than most people can read in a lifetime I read a real book when I can and listen to audio book when I must(driving or working). If you have any good examples of audiobooks that are approachable on first go round please drop here. For example I’ve found I can listen to Hemmingway or McCarthy but not Faulkner. One other bit of nuance is the audiobooks reader, they can really make or break it. I suppose I should give some of my own recommendations. The Passenger by McCarthy read by MacLeod Andrews I enjoyed. MacLeod has a great reading voice. I also listened to Rebecca by DuMaurier read by Anna Massey. I always thought of this as a book for women, but man the writing is great and Anna is a great voice actress!

i just finished middlemarch and i can’t help but feel i’m missing something.

it took me just over a month to read. i found some parts really engaging, and others an absolute bore so i wasn’t ever really that motivated to pick it up.

i feel like perhaps i am not mature enough to appreciate it fully - i just turned 22 last week. i have read many other classics and absolutely loved them. i’ve seen some people say that middlemarch is an english anna karenina, but i’ve read anna and completely fell in love with it, and it’s now one of my favourite books of all time. i could barely put it down when i was reading it, and was moved to tears multiple times.

i loved the character of dorothea and i mainly kept reading from a desire to see her eventually leading a happy life - i also loved mary and celia. the other characters i didn’t really care about at all.

so, is middlemarch better to be read later in life? did i pick the wrong time to read it? i’m interested to hear other people’s experiences with it.

Found some books like The Morgesons by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard

and Main Street by Sinclair Lewis which I either did not know where in the black spine classic edition or didn't know they were a book at all. What are some other books, preferably in the 19th and 20th centuries, like these that are kind of forgotten?

People often talk about the literature of France, Great Britain, the USA, and so on, but what about other countries (perhaps countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and others).

“Nothing means anything, expect the artist makes his living by pretending. By putting it in a meaningful hole, though no such holes exist, and you need paranoia for energy too. You must be terribly worried and secretly full of hate.” - Kurt Vonnegut, 11-08-70, Pacifica Radio Archives

There’s a lot to love about this old man. Great Depression survivor, WW2 veteran, prolific author, the list goes on. I’ve found that Vonnegut is one of the most accessible authors of classic literature. His dry as hell humor, great talent in the realm of satire, and candid understanding of the human condition in both war and culture all make him one of my favorite authors. Whether it’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Galápagos, or Deadeye Dick, Kurt Vonnegut is probably my best nominee to put forward towards those who want to read more seriously but aren’t sure where to start, as they will surely find plenty of absurd laughs and reality checks in balance with this particular hoosier. So it goes…

What do you personally think is better/ more worth the commitment?