A great book can change your life, and that’s no exaggeration. It allows your imagination to flourish, which can sometimes birth new ideas that are worth exploring.
With more than 129 million titles in existence, finding a good title would be like looking for a diamond in the rough. So, to help narrow down that lengthy list, users from Mumsnet gave their book suggestions you can check out.
You will find many classics on this list that you’ve likely already read, but you may also come across a few that may pique your interest. And if you’re not an avid reader, this may just turn you into one.
#22
Donna Tartt is right up there too imho. See The Secret History and Goldfinch.
yy to these lists. They didn’t get to be classics because they’re rubbish.
Virginia Wolf, Jane Austen & George Elliott are my comfort reads.
There’s loads of humour in Middlemarch. It’s a brilliant piece of work.
yy to these lists. They didn’t get to be classics because they’re rubbish.
Virginia Wolf, Jane Austen & George Elliott are my comfort reads.
There’s loads of humour in Middlemarch. It’s a brilliant piece of work.
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9points
#23
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald is almost perfect. Or as close to perfect as any book I’ve ever read.
Anything by Camus is wonderful but the First Man, his unfinished novel is just sublime.
Anything by Camus is wonderful but the First Man, his unfinished novel is just sublime.
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9points
#24
Anthony Trollope is very readable for a 19th century novelist, The Palliser novels, Barchester Chronicles, and also The Way We Live Now and He Knew He Was Right.
Also Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence is great.
Also Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence is great.
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8points
#25
Opinions all my own - feel free to disagree!!
Steinbeck - East of Eden is brilliant, The Grapes of Wrath is even better - if you struggle with it, the chapters alternate between the story of the Joads and broader more philosophic/political so if you just want the narrative it is possible to halve the length of the book!
Flaubert - Madame Bovary is very readable, but unfortunately my copy is in a very small font so I found it difficult.
George Eliot - particularly Silas Marner
I liked Gaskell's North and South, but shockingly can't get on with Dickens (Three failed attempts at Great Expectations!)
Bram Stoker - Dracula is genuinely scary
D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover is dull, and mostly about religion
EM Forster - A Passage to India and A Room with a View are very readable
Jane Austin - Emma is my favourite
Thomas Hardy - Read The Mayor of Casterbridge because I had to, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles because I wanted to then didn't feel any desire to read more.
More modern
Catch 22 - cannot get past page 52
Wild Swans was compelling, but back in the 90s I was the only person I knew who got through it!
Wolf Hall - took effort to get into Mantell's style but was worth it
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell took two goes because its long and complicated and you need to read it consistently - don't put it down and expect to pick it up a month later - but I loved it.
Steinbeck - East of Eden is brilliant, The Grapes of Wrath is even better - if you struggle with it, the chapters alternate between the story of the Joads and broader more philosophic/political so if you just want the narrative it is possible to halve the length of the book!
Flaubert - Madame Bovary is very readable, but unfortunately my copy is in a very small font so I found it difficult.
George Eliot - particularly Silas Marner
I liked Gaskell's North and South, but shockingly can't get on with Dickens (Three failed attempts at Great Expectations!)
Bram Stoker - Dracula is genuinely scary
D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover is dull, and mostly about religion
EM Forster - A Passage to India and A Room with a View are very readable
Jane Austin - Emma is my favourite
Thomas Hardy - Read The Mayor of Casterbridge because I had to, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles because I wanted to then didn't feel any desire to read more.
More modern
Catch 22 - cannot get past page 52
Wild Swans was compelling, but back in the 90s I was the only person I knew who got through it!
Wolf Hall - took effort to get into Mantell's style but was worth it
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell took two goes because its long and complicated and you need to read it consistently - don't put it down and expect to pick it up a month later - but I loved it.
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8points
#26
Germinal by Emile Zola
I also thought like others East of Eden was phenomenal.
I also thought like others East of Eden was phenomenal.
8points
#27
I enjoy a lot of classic novels, but I often think ones that were considered a bit trashy/risque in their day can be more fun for a modern reader:
The Monk
Dangerous Liaisons
Lady Audley's Secret
Fanny Hill
Dracula
OF more modern classics, I love Stefan Zweig (Chess, Impatience of the Heart), Nabokov (especially Pale Fire), Orwell (perhaps avoid A Clergyman's Daughter), and one of my favourite novels ever is The Name of the Rose.
The Monk
Dangerous Liaisons
Lady Audley's Secret
Fanny Hill
Dracula
OF more modern classics, I love Stefan Zweig (Chess, Impatience of the Heart), Nabokov (especially Pale Fire), Orwell (perhaps avoid A Clergyman's Daughter), and one of my favourite novels ever is The Name of the Rose.
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8points
#28
I liked The Catcher in the Rye
Wolf Hall was good but dense going.
Wolf Hall was good but dense going.
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8points
#29
All the Brontes and Austen. Dickens too, although he goes on a bit.
7points
#30
Bleak House, Dickens
The Gree Mile, Stephen King
A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell
The Quincunx, Charles Palliser
The Gree Mile, Stephen King
A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell
The Quincunx, Charles Palliser
7points
#32
I’m going to add Barbara Pym, since she’s been called a modern Austen.
The Enchanted April is my comfort book.
The Enchanted April is my comfort book.
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7points
#33
I sometimes think when reading 19th-century literature that the author really needed a good editor who would take their blue pencil to whole pages, if not chapter! Dickens, Tolstoy...
Having said that, "A Tale of Two Cities" is gripping once they actually get to France (the first third is a bit slow and turgid).
A great alternative to Dickens, and much underrated in my opinion, is "The Odd Women" by George Gissing.
Having said that, "A Tale of Two Cities" is gripping once they actually get to France (the first third is a bit slow and turgid).
A great alternative to Dickens, and much underrated in my opinion, is "The Odd Women" by George Gissing.
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6points
#34
A Suitable Boy by Virkram Seth
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
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5points
#38
Someone else mentioned it earlier. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. It's very long but completely immerses you. I didn't enjoy the TV adaptation but the book was (imo) brilliant.
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4points
#39
The Age of Innocence
Please don't stop there with Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth is also wonderful. And Ethan Frome, although extremely bleak, is one of my favourite novels (although it probably only really qualifies as a novella).
Speaking of American female novelists, Carson McCullers is also very much worth reading, especially The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
I am fond of sagas of families in decline. I haven't got around to Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, but I would particularly recommend (all translations from German/Italian):
Buddenbrooks - Thomas Mann
Radetzky March - Joseph Roth
The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Please don't stop there with Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth is also wonderful. And Ethan Frome, although extremely bleak, is one of my favourite novels (although it probably only really qualifies as a novella).
Speaking of American female novelists, Carson McCullers is also very much worth reading, especially The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
I am fond of sagas of families in decline. I haven't got around to Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, but I would particularly recommend (all translations from German/Italian):
Buddenbrooks - Thomas Mann
Radetzky March - Joseph Roth
The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
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3points
#40
If they’re not worth reading, they’re not great, imo.
I love George Eliot and Mrs Gaskell, while loathing Thomas Hardy and Dickens.
I love George Eliot and Mrs Gaskell, while loathing Thomas Hardy and Dickens.
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2points
