Classics Club: August Meme

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Jillian's Classics Club has taken on a life of its own, and now has a home to itself on the Web with all sorts of lists and suggestions and fun, and a whole group of moderators!  From now on they'll be hosting a monthly meme with a question to answer, and the first one is:

What is your favorite classic book?  Why?

Yeah, let's just make this first one easy, right?  Ha.  I'm not very good at coming up with favorites, except that of course Diana Wynne Jones is my all-time favorite ever.  You could certainly call her classic fantasy, but I'll try to come up with somebody else too.

Of course I love Jane Austen, and I think my favorite is Persuasion if I have to pick one, but all of them are high on the list, even poor unpopular Mansfield Park.  Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall are my Brontë picks.

I do have a thing for Arthurian literature, and have read most of the major works right up to T. H. White.  I especially love The Quest for the Holy Grail and all its crazy pseudo-Biblical history.  I had a professor who had us read Wace and Layamon, even...but I can't stand The Mists of Avalon.




I have many favorites among the minor classic authors: I just gave Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals to my older daughter, and that's one of my all-time favorite books ever, even though I don't much care for animals in real life.  Eleanor Farjeon, Elizabeth Goudge, P. G. Wodehouse, George Orwell, and C. S. Lewis are all favorites. 



Finally, I like Russian literature very much but have to move a bit slowly.  I'm absolutely loving the one I have going now.

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 9, 2012 at 5:59 AM

    Thank you so much for your support of The Club and its new home! I have been reading all of the answers to this month's meme question, and I'm not surprised with all the varied answers! It is a difficult question, isn't it! - Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 9, 2012 at 1:52 PM

    You have some great choices on here! I don't blame you for not being able to pick just one. I also love Austen, and I picked Jane Eyre for my favorite...if there is such a thing with books, haha.
    Cheers!
    Jenna @lostgenreader
    http://lostgenerationreader.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. AllieAugust 9, 2012 at 9:45 PM

    Yeah, this was a hard question. :) I almost wish I would have waited to post my response because I have thought of at least 10 other books I could have chosen! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. JeanAugust 9, 2012 at 10:22 PM

    That's OK, Allie, you can just write another one...

    ReplyDelete
  5. amanda @ simplerpastimesAugust 13, 2012 at 3:27 PM

    This sounds a lot like my answer (which I'm in the middle of writing)! I just simply can't pick a favorite--there are just too many good books. Like you, I can't really pick a favorite Austen even. Definitely not an easy question!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AmyAugust 14, 2012 at 11:10 AM

    I've got a soft spot for Persuasion, too, and I share your love of Orwell and Wodehouse. It's like Danielle's line in Ever After, when the Prince asks her to choose a favorite book: "I'd as soon choose a favorite star in the sky!"

    ReplyDelete

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