# A classic read only by you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292 "2005-09-19T00:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/61 "2005-09-19T21:35:09Z")
How 'bout Alexandre Dumas? Lots of people (I hope) have read his big-name books like _The Three Musketeers_ and _The Count of Monte Cristo_, and maybe _The Man in the Iron Mask_. But what about his other books? The other Musketeer books, for example: _Twenty Years After_, _The Viscount of Bragelonne_ and _Louise de la Valliere_. Or what about _The Black Orchid_? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/62 "2005-09-19T22:11:14Z")
> [@MacSpon](#): > > How 'bout Alexandre Dumas? > > Lots of people (I hope) have read his big-name books like _The Three Musketeers_ and _The Count of Monte Cristo_, and maybe _The Man in the Iron Mask_. But what about his other books? The other Musketeer books, for example: _Twenty Years After_, _The Viscount of Bragelonne_ and _Louise de la Valliere_. Or what about _The Black Orchid_? I am working on Twenty Years Later. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/63 "2005-09-19T22:38:05Z")
A lot of people, particularly here at SD, have read many, if not all, of L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” books, but I’ve yet to come across anyone else who’s read [The Magical Monarch of Mo](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16259/16259-h/16259-h.htm), let alone heard of it. And in fact, several of the characters who appear in later Oz books are based on characters that first showed up in Mo (particularly the Tin Man). And The Scarecrow of Oz actually has parts that take place in the Valley of Mo. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/64 "2005-09-19T23:15:17Z")
> [@G.B.H. Hornswoggler](#): > > And _Three Men in a Boat_. But, **JerH** , have you read _Three Men on the Bummel_, the sequel? I’ve read _Bummel_, but not _Boat_. I picked up a copy of Bummel in Poland; it was great entertainment. Picked up a copy of Don Quixote in New Delhi a few weeks before i went to Spain and finished it while travelling there, which seemed appropriate. I didn’t know much about it before reading it, so I was surprised at how “postmodern” and self-referential it was. Another one I seldom encounter other readers of is Twain’s _Roughing It_, a semi-fictional account of his first trip West and his early days in the Nevada silver mining region. A neglected gem, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/65 "2005-09-19T23:33:00Z")
I am working my way through Thoreau’s _Walden_ but it doesn’t really fit the OP because I know at least one other person who I am sure has read it. It’s slow going for me BTW. I was thinking about starting a thread to ask people to help me appreciate it more. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/66 "2005-09-20T00:32:01Z")
Didn’t EVERYONE read Walden in 11th Grade? ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/67 "2005-09-20T01:07:40Z")
I’ve read some of the ones already mentioned, including _Walden_ (and _Civil Disobedience_), _Dracula_, _Frankenstein_ and _Jekyll and Hyde_. Also: _The Twelve Caesars_, Suetonius _A Journal of the Plague Year_, Daniel Defoe _The Debacle_, Emile Zola A bunch of classic plays, including: _The Trojan Women_, Euripedes _Antigone_, Sophocles The longest Shaw play, _Man and Superman_ The unfunny Oscar Wilde play, _Salome_ I’ve met one other person who had read _Cyrano de Bergerac_. My mother is the only person I’ve met who had even heard of, much less read, _Lorna Doone_. She tried to get me to read it when I was a kid, but failed. I don’t know if \*The Last Days of Pompeii \* should count as a “classic” or not. I do know why Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s name was used for a bad writing contest. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/68 "2005-09-20T01:15:09Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > I’ve met one other person who had read _Cyrano de Bergerac_. My mother is the only person I’ve met who had even heard of, much less read, _Lorna Doone_. She tried to get me to read it when I was a kid, but failed. I’ve read the box the cookies come in. Does that count? And Cyrano is fantastic. I’m a huge fan. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/69 "2005-09-20T01:21:54Z")
> [@Plynck](#): > > Novels and short stories by Jean Rhys, such as _Wide Sargasso Sea_ and _Quartet_. > > Novels and short stories by Muriel Spark, such as _The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie_. I had to read Wide Sargasso Sea and Miss Jean Brodie for class (two different classes, not the same one). Didn’t particularly enjoy either. Have you read The Driver’s Seat, by Spark? :eek: Pure insanity, that. ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/70 "2005-09-20T03:56:42Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve read a lot of these. My vote is for What Katy Did, a children’s 19th century classic. I’ve read all three books in the series. **Lissla** , there are 4 books in the series–and if you’ve missed one of them, you’ll really want to find it! There’s _What Katy Did_, _What Katy Did at School_, _What Katy Did Next_, and _What Clover Did_. I couldn’t pick a favorite out of those, because they’re all absolutely delightful. Lessee–I’ve read many of the books mentioned in this thread, but that has a lot to do with my being a rabid reader and quite the literature geek. I haven’t noticed anyone mentioning _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. It’s one of my favorites, as is anything written/translated by Chaucer. I also read and really liked _The Consolation of Philosophy_ by Boethius, and couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve used quotations from that in papers and, in one embarrassing circumstance, a thank-you note to my best friend. Re Dante’s _Comedy_, I can’t remember which books she translated (I know she didn’t do the whole thing), but if you can find Dorothy L. Sayers’ translation, it’s excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/71 "2005-09-20T04:19:16Z")
> [@zagloba](#): > > Another one I seldom encounter other readers of is Twain’s _Roughing It_, a semi-fictional account of his first trip West and his early days in the Nevada silver mining region. A neglected gem, IMO. I agree. _Roughing It_ is one of my favorites. It’s extremely well-written, it provides an interesting sense of what life was like in the American West back then, and, as an added bonus, it tells you all about the events that made Samuel Clemens become Mark Twain. The embellishments just add to it- it wouldn’t be Twain if it weren’t embellished. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/72 "2005-09-20T12:06:14Z")
> [@marque elf](#): > > I’ve also read Howard Pyle’s _Robin Hood_. I’ve never met anyone else who has. I have! A reminder from **Miss OP** (that’s me) - books you read for school don’t count. You have to had read work in question of your own free will. You had to stretch out your hand willingly to pull that copy of Thomas Carlyle’s **Sartor Resartus** off the bookshelf. Or was it **Tristam Shandy**? Or perhaps Theodore Roosevelt’s **Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail**? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/73 "2005-09-20T13:53:01Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > _The Debacle_, Emile Zola I’ve read a lot of Zola but not this one, yet. I love his stuff, especially The Earth, Germinal, Therese Raquin, and The Dram Shop. Didn’t care much for Nana, but by the time I started it I had already read The Dram Shop and had fallen in love with her mother, who Nana treated very badly. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/74 "2005-09-20T16:09:50Z")
I’ve read a bunch of these, but I’ll just contribute another one (if it was mentioned before, I didn’t see it; apologies!) Plutarch’s _Roman Lives_. ---
**Author:** ![mojave66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mojave66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojave66)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/75 "2005-09-20T17:48:20Z")
John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and “The Grapes of Wrath.” In the subcategory “classic queer literature” I’ve read “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin and Radclyffe Hall’s “The Well of Lonliness” whose prose is so purple it’s ultraviolet. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/76 "2005-09-20T17:54:17Z")
Has anyone else read Graham Greene’s _The Power and the Glory_? (I assume so, but have never met anyone else who has.) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/77 "2005-09-20T19:35:22Z")
**Rootabega Stories** , or is it Tales? --Carl Sandburg **A Choice of Enemies** --George Higgins. This guy handles characters even better than Elmore Leonard or Larry Mc Murtry. Riveting. I read the collection of Hemingway short stories called **The Snows of Kilamanjaro.** I was bored and repelled. I read **Frankenstein,** but it took a long time. I identified with the monster, and I got so depressed, I had to set it aside. After I saw **Young Frankenstein,** I finally could finish it. I dunno about you, but **Prizzi’s Honor** and the rest of that series by Richard Condon are classics to me. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/78 "2005-09-20T19:41:49Z")
Of books already mentioned, I’ve read: Hans Brinker The Mayor of Casterbridge Don Quixote Martin Chuzzlewit A Christmas Carol Hard Times _and_ Our Mutual Friend Anna Karenina The Last of the Mohicans Walden Salome Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (O.K., that one was for school) Of Mice and Men The Grapes of Wrath Lorna Doone I’ll add to the list two more from Dickens: _The Cricket on the Hearth_, and one of my favorites, _Bleak House_. And I’ll be shocked if anyone else here has read _Zuleika Dobson_ by Max Beerbohm. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/79 "2005-09-20T22:24:54Z")
I’ve read; Hans Brinker Tale of Two Cities (twice, once for school and once because I couldn’t believe it was as bad as I remembered----wrong) Ivanhoe (in 8th grade for Og’s sake, what were the Nun’s thinking?) Anna Karenina (loved it) Three Men in a Boat All above for fun except for Ivanhoe, which I tried to read again later to see what I missed the first time, couldn’t get past the first chapter. :smack: Read many of the others mentioned here but only because of school requirements. How about War and Peace, I read it about 10 years ago, and am currently about 1/3 of the way thru it again. My son told me then that I had a bad translation. I didn’t believer him, but damn if he wasn’t right. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292/80 "2005-09-20T23:12:20Z")
We got us a good crowd here! We got people who read Elizabeth Gaskell, Emile Zola, and obscure Thomas Hardy. We got someone (besides me) who read The Kreutzer Sonata, by golly! Anyone for **Middlemarch** by George Eliot? How about **The Pilgrim’s Progress**? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-classic-read-only-by-you/322292.md?page=5)