Read classic literature

Yippeee! I’m working on Portrait of an Artist and Brave New World, even though it’s straying from my American Lit focus. I want to check off a few books, but leave room for studying Contemporary Art. Brave New World is short, and the pick for Classic Lit Meet-up. I’m half way through Portrait of an Artist.

I read a Portrait of a Lady, all 500+ pages. Since then, I decided to first focus on American Literature, and later, decide which books from outside the United States will compliment these selections. Here’s a list of American Literature that I’ve read in the past & remember, and what I read this year with this goal in mind.

Currently I’m reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin & Sula for Black History Month. I read Clarence Thomas’ autobiography, too, but won’t put it on “the list” because it’s not fiction, and not even great writing.

The Flowering of American Romanticism from 1820-1865
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
The Scarlet Letter
Rappaccini’s Daughter (2/09)

The Writings of a Continental Nation, 1865-1900
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Little Women

The Writings of 1900 through the 1920’s

The Writings of 1920-1945
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

The Writings of 1945—To The Present
Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
Death of a Salesman
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
The Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice and Men
Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)
“The Geranium”
“A Good Man is Hard to Find”
“The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
“Everything That Rises Must Converge
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
Sister Outsider: Poetry is not a Luxury

So far, I’ve “Jane Eyre,” “Wuthering Heights,” and a few others under my belt. “Jane Eyre” has been, by far, the best, and it’s on my list of all-time favourite books.

I am going to read the following..
Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
1984, George Orwell
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Illiad, Homer
Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Read “Catcher in the Rye.” Am now reading “King Lear.” I read them after my son reads them for school, then we talk about them.

-Dr Jekyll and and Mr Hyde
-Great Expectations
-The Great Gatsby
-Catch 22
-The Catcher in the Rye
-The Bell Jar
-Slaughterhouse-Five
-Treasure Island
-Gulliver’s Travels
-Moby Dick

Yeah, I like to think of myself as a deep, intellectual, artsy, theatre geek (theek), which I definitely am on some levels. But I need some Faulkner and Hemingway to bond with!

I know there is a lot a lot of very boring classic literature. Do you guys know anything I can read that is simply fabulous?

I just finished Wuthering Heights! woohoo!

I’m about a third of the way through the book (it’s been a busy week for me), but goodness, it is getting GOOD! That Heathcliff is something else!!!!

Will continue to check in…

I just finished Anna Karenina! I’m SO excited! :) It was a great book and I definitely have a feeling that I’ll be reading it again at some point. I love the way Tolstoy writes-- I did not think that it was too long at all- it was definitely worth all of the pages that I read!