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Post by spookysen on Dec 10, 2011 15:51:25 GMT -5
I was wondering what everyone's favorite classical books (or movie/tv adaptations of them) are.
I'd have to say my favorite classic novel is Pride and Prejudice. I saw the newest movie version of it and sort of fell in love with all the pretty. My love for it grew when I wrote a critical paper with it about marriage. I just love Elizabeth Bennet's character and her search for happiness and how she wouldn't settle for less, despite her circumstances and time period.
My second favorite is Jane Eyre. I'll admit, I did not like it as I do now the first time I read it. It grew on me. It was hard for me to see Jane and Rochester as realistic characters. Plus, I wasn't going for the... otherworldly feel I got from it. But then I read Wuthering Heights, and was like, "wow, this is far superior," lol. And then watching adaptations of it really helped me see the characters better.
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Post by obsessive24 on Dec 10, 2011 17:28:38 GMT -5
Does Gone With the Wind count as a "classic"? Cos that was the one that immediately jumped to mind. ;D Both the book and film. Scarlett is just such an unforgettable character.
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Post by legoline on Dec 10, 2011 19:52:49 GMT -5
I love Jane Eyre and Pride & Prejudice ;D One of my favourite classics is Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton. I've only seen the BBC adaütation of North & South and I love that one, and the book's been sitting on my shelf for a while--can't wait to get the time to read it. My favourite classic tale, albeit I never warmed up to the book, are various adaptations of The Three Musketeers, though I wouldn't poke the recent one with a stick. I also love Black Beauty.
I'm also a huge Anne of Green Gables fan--do these books count?
However, my very favourite classic tale also happens to be my number one story of all tine--Dickens's A Christmas Carol. I love that one dearly. I should probably reread it ;D
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn ;D
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Post by icepixie on Dec 10, 2011 20:50:04 GMT -5
I'm a Modernist at heart, and my favorites are A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Mrs. Dalloway. I'm also very, very fond of Orlando and Ulysses. (I took a Joyce class in grad school. It was amazing, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading that behemoth and that every word was necessary and wonderful. Although it did not make me want to attempt Finnegan's Wake. Maybe someday.) I just love, love, love how Joyce and Woolf manipulate language and time and memory and consciousness, and create these full-figured personalities in Stephen Dedalus, Clarissa Dalloway, and Leo Bloom. These aren't always considered classics, but I think they should be, because they are fantastic: East of Eden, A Passage to India, and Brideshead Revisited. legoline, I read Mary Barton in a Victorian novel class I took, and it was definitely one of the better entries on the reading list, though I admit that by the end we were all giggling at the "clemming babbies." I saw the BBC version of North and South and liked it a lot; it was gorgeously shot. I have an entire tag labeled "austen hate" on my LJ, which should probably tell you my feelings on her right there.  That was right after my undergrad forced me to read Persuasion, which I still loathe, but I've mellowed toward her since then. I really like Emma, and Mr. Bennett goes a long way towards making Pride and Prejudice tolerable. |
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Post by spookysen on Dec 10, 2011 21:19:31 GMT -5
Nicky- I think it does. lol, I'm a little ashamed to say I've never read the book or seen the movie. Does that make me a bad person? legoline- North and South is soo pretty. I wish they'd release the score. I have to say one of my favorite films of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo with Jim Caviezel. It's still kind of competing with the new Pride and Prejudice. I used to be really fascinated with the theme of revenge, and the lengths people/characters will go to exact it because of what was done to them has made them less of what they are and therefore capable of things they previously were not. I'd really like to read some non-fiction type stuff on the psychology of it. I took my grandmother to see the new Three Musketeers movie, and... while she loved it (and possibly is more senile than I thought), I haaaated it. I think I hated Orlando Bloom's hair the most. icepixie- I enjoyed Mrs. Dalloway-- did you ever read To the Lighthouse? I remember when I was reading that, that the way that book was structured/written really floored me. I haven't been brave enough to attempt any Joyce yet, except for what I read in Irish Lit and Brit Lit ("Araby" and.. one other short thing). I'd like to someday. Maybe I'll start a book discussion club or something, hehe. And aww, what about Austen's writing do you hate? Persuasion is probably *not* the best choice to start with. It's very... Idk, the heroine is almost helpless. That's why I won't attempt Mansfield Park. But Northanger Abbey is really cute and witty. ITV did a really decent adaptation of it in '07. It's more lighthearted like Emma. 
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Post by icepixie on Dec 10, 2011 22:02:19 GMT -5
I'm a little ashamed to say I've never read the book or seen the movie. Does that make me a bad person? I'm right there with you! I seem to have missed a lot of classic movies most people see by the time they finish college, and I've been trying to catch up in my twenties. Haven't gotten to GWTW, though. I gave it a try once, but never finished it. /o\ That was before grad school, though, so I think if I tried again, it might take better. I wrote my very favorite paper (aside from my thesis) on her early novel The Voyage Out and its relationship to transformations in ballroom dance taking place in the 1910s, with a coda on how those transformations were enacted in one of the Astaire/Rogers movies. (I...am nothing if not predictable.) The Voyage Out isn't bad, but I don't know that I'd recommend it unless you've already read her more canonical works. It's much more rooted in the Victorian tradition than her later work. Was it "The Dead"? That one always gets assigned. I'm not really big into short stories, but I love that one. The ending is so beautiful. Portrait really doesn't take much bravery! Once Stephen figures out language a few pages in, the going is relatively smooth. Ulysses...yeah, I wouldn't have done that without a class, but it was totally worth it. The man was a stylistic virtuoso. Her characters! P&P was actually my first (and Darcy pissed me off to no end), but Persuasion made me hate her for a long time, because seriously, Anne? You're going to nearly faint because this dude you rejected for not being rich enough back in the day called you competent? Really? Argh. And the one interesting character in the book, Louisa, got knocked out of commission for half the book, which was a big bummer. Basically, Mark Twain and I agree on her work. Also, I get that the point is how constrained her characters' lives were, but the claustrophobia and the limited options get to me. I just want them to get out of their little town and spend a few days in London, is that so much to ask? *sigh* I have a couple friends who are very into Austen, and they've basically forbidden me to ever read Sense & Sensibility or Mansfield Park because they don't want to listen to me complain. I've heard that Northanger Abbey might be more readable to me; I think I even have a copy lying around somewhere... |
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Post by spookysen on Dec 10, 2011 22:31:55 GMT -5
Yes, it was The Dead! Epiphanies all around  And haha, yeah, I know Mark Twain pretty much despised her as well. That's a lot of hate. Sounds almost like old time fandom wank. His writing is sooo bitter at times, though. Have you read The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court? I'd need happy drips in my vein or something to get me through that again. Yet I really really liked Huckleberry Finn. *shrug* I'm so glad they're looking out for you, hehe. |
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Post by icepixie on Dec 11, 2011 2:05:58 GMT -5
I read Connecticut Yankee when I was maybe ten or twelve, and I remember very little of it. I don't remember finding it depressing, but I probably just wasn't old enough to appreciate it. Huck is such a lovely book. I think it might actually have been the book that made me want to be an English major. One of my high school English teachers used it to illustrate the competing styles of Romanticism and Victorian Realism, and it was the first time I really thought about a novel in terms of how it fits into the long, long tradition of literature. I'm sure my paper on it just regurgitated what the teacher had to say, but it was the first little spark of, "Hey, literary criticism is cool!" that I had. |
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Post by legoline on Dec 11, 2011 3:11:55 GMT -5
spookysen The soundtrack is simply gorgeous. I love it so much. Someone on the internet ripped it from the series and it's actually not that bad quality-wise. This is my favourite piece: I can listen to this for hours. Such a shame the OST was never properly released; it's one of the best the BBC ever had composed for one of their shows. icepixie: I took a class on Women Writers and that's when we read Mary Barton. I remember the ending was a bit cheesy but I prefer Gaskell over Dickens when it comes to the "Look at all the poor people in their misery" - writing (I know these types of books have a name but it escapes me). I like Dickens but he has usually so many plots and subplots going on I eventually lose track of them. *failboat* (But I do like Hugo's Les Misérables.) I took a class on Joyce too, once! We only read excerpts of Ulysses, but we did read Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners and I really liked them. Stream of Consciousness FTW! ;D One book I just could never get into was Frankenstein. I honestly tried. Three times. It just didn't work for me, even though I know it is a good book. I think I always got as far as the second narrative before I gave up. Oh dear, when I made that post last night I knew I'd forgotten something! I absolutely love and worship and adore both The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huck Finn. I even tend to compare other fictional characters to Tom and Huck. I keep meaning to read more of Mark Twain; he was such a genious. Will go put some of his stuff on my amazon wshlist now. His essay on the German language I do know, by the way--it's hilarious and so true
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Post by icepixie on Dec 11, 2011 12:30:25 GMT -5
legoline, oh, that N&S soundtrack! I recorded the music that plays over the DVD menu when I had the DVD out from Netflix, I was so in love with it. I was so glad to find the version someone else put up. There's something about that melody that's really addictive. Gaskell vs. Dickens: Oh, yes, Gaskell, no question. Dickens I actively dislike, in part because of the cast of thousands. Gaskell's smaller canvas is so much more effective. Aw, that's too bad. Frankenstein is my go-to example of how much more badass Romantic literature was than it's commonly perceived. But I read it for the first time right after I read the snoozefest that is Dracula, so maybe it looks better because of the circumstances in which I first encountered it. I really liked the Diaries of Adam and Eve. They're so sarcastic and satiric and generally hilarious. Plus there are illustrations!
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Post by legoline on Dec 11, 2011 14:43:52 GMT -5
There's something about that melody that's really addictive. Ohgodyes. By the way, I went to Edinburgh for a day this autumn and me and my friends spent half our time looking for the filming locations ;D Gaskell vs. Dickens: Oh, yes, Gaskell, no question. Dickens I actively dislike, in part because of the cast of thousands. Yes. Thank you. I was beginning to feel really bad because I actually have a Master's in English lit and I'm very passionate about it, but Dickens...he's at his best when he describes the living conditions of the poor folk, but he always has so many plots going on I tend to lose interest at some point. I don't think I ever fully got the ending of Oliver Twist. Aw, that's too bad. Frankenstein is my go-to example of how much more badass Romantic literature was than it's commonly perceived. But I read it for the first time right after I read the snoozefest that is Dracula, so maybe it looks better because of the circumstances in which I first encountered it. See, I'm really into the Romantic period, both novels and poetry. I wrote my thesis about Gothic novels and had my oral exam on Romantic poetry (and Anglo-Saxon poetry and Metaphysical poetry--oh, John Donne!), but Frankenstein...I know it's good. I really, really do. I went to see the play that had Benedict Cumberbatch earlier this year and loved it. I think it's the narrative structure. That three-layered narrative that Shelley has going on is too tiresome for me, I guess  I really liked the Diaries of Adam and Eve. They're so sarcastic and satiric and generally hilarious. Plus there are illustrations! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand it goes on my list! |
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Post by icepixie on Dec 11, 2011 15:24:07 GMT -5
By the way, I went to Edinburgh for a day this autumn and me and my friends spent half our time looking for the filming locations ;D Awesome! I was in Edinburgh about a year before I watched the miniseries, and I spent a lot of time while watching it going, "I remember that spot!" See, I think having MA's in English gives us the authority to declare even classics crap. I mean, it's not like I've found anything else useful to do with mine. Hee, I was just going to ask what you did your thesis on. We read The Italian in my Romantics class. Fun times. Isn't Romantic poetry wonderful? And for oral exam purposes, it's nice that they spent so much time writing essays about what they were doing that one could just summarize. The Metaphysicals and I don't really get along, but John Donne is the exception. OMG so brilliant. |
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Post by spookysen on Dec 16, 2011 21:07:07 GMT -5
I LOVE that song. It's one of my favorites of all time. Thanks for posting it *Needs to read Frankenstein again.* I had this one prof who pretty much thought romantic fiction was pointless and crazy, and I ended up taking just about all his classes and not so much of the other profs' classes. I didn't get a whole lot of romantic fiction. Anybody read Tess of the d'Urbervilles? You guys sound so professional and well-versed. I keep getting on poetry kicks lately, but I end up just more re-reading poems I already like because when I try to read something by the same author, I'm almost sort of... disappointed. If that makes sense. Will you recommend some poetry for me to try out? |
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Post by icepixie on Dec 16, 2011 23:16:19 GMT -5
*Needs to read Frankenstein again.* I had this one prof who pretty much thought romantic fiction was pointless and crazy, and I ended up taking just about all his classes and not so much of the other profs' classes. I didn't get a whole lot of romantic fiction. Awww, that's too bad! Romantic fiction like Frankenstein and Rob Roy was what first convinced me that old novels could be page-turners rather than just something to write papers about. The craziness was the selling point! I haven't read Tess, but I've read The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure. Despite the utterly depressing content of much of his work, I actually find Hardy to be kind of hilarious, mostly because I picture him sitting at his desk cackling and going, "How can I make my characters' lives even more miserable?" Eliot is my favorite Victorian novelist, though. The Mill on the Floss is fantastic. In my case, I can assure you it's entirely a sham. The further you go in higher ed, the more you realize you don't know. YES! I don't know your field, so these may be familiar to you, but these are my favorite poets and poems. Eavan Boland - I wrote my thesis on her, specifically on her poetic "maps" of Ireland. She's an Irish poet who began publishing in the late 60s and is still putting out collections today. She was/is at the vanguard of feminism in Irish poetry, and her poetry is often concerned with making women subjects rather than objects of poetry, as she contends poetry (and Irish poetry in particular) forced them to be up until the last couple decades of the twentieth century. She also writes a lot about landscapes, history, and language. Her twin goals are often to give voices to overlooked feminine figures in history and to write about the domestic/suburban in the same way that she claims the public, urban, and rural have been the constant and sole subjects of Irish poetry. My favorite, and a good introduction to many themes of her work, is " That The Science of Cartography Is Limited." Other favorites: " Patchwork," "Mise Eire," the "Outside History" sequence, "Lava Cameo," and "In Which the Ancient History I Learn Is Not My Own." Edna St. Vincent Millay - I think Millay is actually my favorite poet. If you forced me to choose, I'd pick her. She wrote during the Modernist period (her career was quite long, but she was most famous during the teens and twenties), and had many Modernist tendencies, from her use of time to her shocking subject matter, but she often chose to write in verse forms such as the sonnet, which made her a bit of a persona non grata to people like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. They especially came to dislike her in the 40s because she wrote some pro-Allies propaganda poems. But who cares what they say? " What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" might just be the most beautiful poem in the English language. I fell in love with her as a teen when I read " Renascence," which is just sort of perfect to read when you're sixteen; it's Wordsworth's "spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling" brought to almost Technicolor life, and yet made manageable by the couplets. I also love " Recuerdo" and " Journey." W.B. Yeats - Who probably needs no introduction. He convinced me I loved poetry when I was but a little tween, and I spent a good chunk of my college career writing about him. "Innisfree" and "The Wild Swans at Coole" are my favorites. W.H. Auden - Another poet most people seem to run into in school. I don't love everything he did, but " The More Loving One" knocks me breathless every time I read it. (Some of Frost's best work has the same effect.) Adrienne Rich - The most direct progenitor to Boland. " Diving into the Wreck" should be required reading for any course that includes American poetry of the later twentieth century and onward. Elizabeth Bishop - Bishop is perhaps the most mysterious poet in my personal canon. I can never quite put my figure on what a poem by her means, though I always feel like I come very close. She constantly manages to hold something back, which makes her work fascinating. I like " Filling Station" and " At the Fish Houses" best. Seamus Heaney - Another Irishman, this time from the north. His career is largely contemporaneous with Boland's, and they get compared and contrasted a lot: she's a suburban woman from the Republic, he's a rural man from the north, they both write about history and Ireland. They are...not really doing the same thing, so the comparison is IMO somewhat unfair, but it's also inevitable. He tends to write sequences of interconnected poems; my favorite is the "Clearances" sequence about his mother. T.S. Eliot - Despite what I said above, I actually do like Eliot's work. There's "Prufrock," of course, and "The Wasteland," and I'm also very fond of "Little Gidding" and "Burn Norton" in The Four Quartets. Billy Collins - One of the most famous contemporary American poets out there. He manages to be funny and piercingly observant about so many things--not in a social commentary sort of way, but in a more mundane way that, while the touch is very light, still has immense gravity. I like so many it's hard to name them, but " Nostalgia" might be my favorite. Here are several. |
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Post by legoline on Dec 17, 2011 2:25:56 GMT -5
icepixie: have you read Heaney's translation of Beowulf? He did it in verse and it's fantastic  As far as poets go I'd also like to throw in Blake. I love him spookysen Thank you but as icepixie pointed out, it's all just a sham
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That was right after my undergrad forced me to read Persuasion, which I still loathe, but I've mellowed toward her since then. I really like Emma, and Mr. Bennett goes a long way towards making Pride and Prejudice tolerable.
