# Classic novels that have aged well. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599 "2007-09-26T21:09:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/1 "2007-09-26T21:09:08Z")
I want to become a more well-rounded reader, my current diet of sci-fi/fantasy literature is fun to read, but doesn’t make for great chat at cocktail parties. 😛 So, name me some books that are considered “classics” of fiction (or non-fiction) that aren’t agonizingly dry or outdated. If it’s an entire author’s set of works, try and pick the best “starter” book if you can. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/2 "2007-09-26T21:24:07Z")
To my great surprise, I found Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray” to be a great story in an accessible voice, despite being written in 1890. And it’s a nice way to ease into classic literature while still keeping a foot in the sci-fi and fantasy you enjoy. Similarly, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is an enjoyable read. It’s a little more outmoded, being released in 1818, but it’s not something you feel like you’re slogging through. I’ve found that for reading classics, ones originally written in English are hit-and-miss, just as they are for current releases. You’re either going to like the author’s voice or not. If it’s a translated text, get thee to the bookstore, and read the first page or two of every different translation they have. I thought I couldn’t enjoy Homer’s “Odyssey” because every edition must have been written by a stuffy Classics professor unconcerned with readability. I’d suffered through a few throughout school. But I have a verse translation originally released in 1990 that is an absolutely compelling read (trans Allen Mandelbaum). Modern translations are a godsend. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/3 "2007-09-26T21:25:36Z")
And here I thought classics remained classicss because they are time-less. If you have a history of sci-fi, maybe you should read the works of Goerge Orwell and H.G. Wells? Not quite ‘cocktail’ literature, but as good a start as any. _e_ I agree with the choice of Dorian Gray. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/4 "2007-09-26T21:29:40Z")
Dickens: everything but start with A Tale of Two Cities or Oliver Twist or A Christmas Carol. Austen: everything but start with Pride and Prejudice. Swift: Gulliver’s Travels. ---
**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/5 "2007-09-26T21:33:20Z")
**Only Mostly Dead** sort of hit it on the head in terms of what I’m looking for. A lot of classic literature may have great stories and such, but many times they are buried under bloated prose or other impediments. The main example that’s coming to mind for me is “Crime and Punishment,” which I thought would have been absolutely phenomenal if it was only written about 150 pages shorter. 😛 In terms of sci-fi, I’ve probably already read most of it, classic or otherwise, so I’m mainly looking for stuff outside of those conventions. Dorian Grey sounds good though, I’ll mark it down. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/6 "2007-09-26T21:34:54Z")
Dumas: _The Count of Monte Cristo_ and _The Three Musketeers_. Dickens: Nothing. The man was and always will be a hack. The latest translation of _Beowolf_. Marquez: _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/7 "2007-09-26T21:38:17Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Swift: Gulliver’s Travels. [/QUOTE] Sorry, but I have to torpedo that one. A random grab (as in, I grabbed my copy off the shelf and this is the first paragraph my eye fell upon)\*: > [@](#): > > I stored the boat with the carcasses of an hundred oxen, and three hundred sheep, with bread and drink proportionable, and as much meat ready dressed as four hundred cooks could provide. I took with me six cows and two bulls alive, with as many ewes and rams, intending to carry them into my own country, and propagate the breed. And to feed them on board, I had a good bundle of hay, and a bag of corn. I would gladly have taken a dozen of the natives, but this was a thing the Emperor would by no means permit; and besides a diligent search into my pockets, his Majesty engaged my honour not to carry away any of his subject, although with their own consent and desire. It’s a good story (set of stories), but a casual read it is not. \*Mods, if posting a paragraph out of a 180 year old book that is now in the public domain is a problem, feel free to excise. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/8 "2007-09-26T21:40:23Z")
**Dracula** holds up well, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/9 "2007-09-26T21:46:40Z")
Maybe this should be old books that hold up well. I’ll nominate **Dangerous Liaisons**. In either French or English translation (because those are the only versions I’ve read), I find it holds up remarkably well. The 18th century French aristocracy were even more debauched than we are today, or so it seems. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/10 "2007-09-26T21:47:49Z")
[QUOTE=Dunawake] A lot of classic literature may have great stories and such, but many times they are buried under bloated prose or other impediments. [/QUOTE] Alas, the “other impediments” are usually what, in the long run, separate classic literature from old books. If you’re serious about becoming a more well-rounded reader, I suggest putting behind you the notion that your time is too valuable to waste letting the author tell his story his way. ---
**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/11 "2007-09-26T21:58:39Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] Alas, the “other impediments” are usually what, in the long run, separate classic literature from old books. If you’re serious about becoming a more well-rounded reader, I suggest putting behind you the notion that your time is too valuable to waste letting the author tell his story his way. [/QUOTE] It’s not so much that my time is “too valuable to waste” than it is just that I want to find classic books that grip you enough that you are still reading at 2AM. The quote posted above from Swift is a great example, verbosity that seems to be very common in older novels and only seems to slow down the narrative rather than develop and expand it. What I’m hoping to find here is the exceptions to that style. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/12 "2007-09-26T22:03:38Z")
I remember H Rider Haggard’s [King Solomon’s Mines](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2166) as being perfectly modern. And Hope’s [The Prisoner of Zenda.](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/95) Both have a veddy British tone, but are easy reads and ripping yarns. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/13 "2007-09-26T22:05:39Z")
I find Steinbeck pretty gripping. East of Eden or Grapes of Wrath for full-length novels, The Pearl if you want something short. The Diary of Anne Frank is good. Not a lot of guys have read it, it seems. But having read it, if you’re a guy, will make you stand out at cocktail parties. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/14 "2007-09-26T22:15:07Z")
Steinbeck, _Of Mice and Men_ Conrad, _Heart of Darkness_ [del]Hemingway, _The Old Man and the Sea_[/del] Nin, _Delta of Venus_ ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/15 "2007-09-26T22:17:06Z")
[QUOTE=Only Mostly Dead] It’s a good story (set of stories), but a casual read it is not. [/QUOTE] The OP didn’t ask for casual reads. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/16 "2007-09-26T22:33:40Z")
I’ll recommend two by Wilkie Collins _The Woman in White_ and \*The Moonstone \*. They were “sensational” in the 1860s and remain very readable today. _The Moonstone_ is considered the first English language detective story. Saki (H.H. Munro) wrote some very funny and macabre short stories - there are plenty of complete collections available. I trust you’ve read Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories? Perhaps not to everyone’s taste but PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories are a hoot - they are generally frothy and light, but there’s a fine mind behind them. ---
**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/17 "2007-09-26T22:36:17Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] I’ll recommend two by Wilkie Collins _The Woman in White_ and \*The Moonstone \*. They were “sensational” in the 1860s and remain very readable today. _The Moonstone_ is considered the first English language detective story. Saki (H.H. Munro) wrote some very funny and macabre short stories - there are plenty of complete collections available. I trust you’ve read Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories? Perhaps not to everyone’s taste but PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories are a hoot - they are generally frothy and light, but there’s a fine mind behind them. [/QUOTE] I’ve read some of Poe’s stuff, but is hasn’t been since HS/college that I’ve touched them, so might be worth another look. I’ll take a look at Wodehouse’s work, I almost always tend to lean towards humor in whatever genre I’m reading. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dervish\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Dervish\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervish_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/18 "2007-09-26T22:48:32Z")
How about different Russians? Solzhenitsyn is great; start with _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_. Mark Twain is also wonderful. Try picking up a book of his essays, or _Roughing It_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/19 "2007-09-26T23:03:03Z")
Frank Norris’s **McTeague** reads like it was written today. It’s very modern in style. ---
**Author:** ![RedRosesForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599/20 "2007-09-26T23:04:18Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] **Dracula** holds up well, I think. [/QUOTE] I came in here with **Dracula** in mind. I read it a looong time ago, when I was about 14, but it was one of those couldn’t-put-it-down books. Good suspense, even knowing the basic story, and I also enjoyed the now cliche, but at the time probably quite ground-breaking, method of telling the story through the different character’s diaries. Awesome book. I’ll also second giving some of Poe’s short stories a try. **The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher**. He has a ton of stories, you should be able to find some to your liking. I really would love to recommend Nathanial Hawthorne, but can’t. I struggled through **The Scarlet Letter** in school, and couldn’t even finish **The House of the seven Gables**. I really wanted to like him, but he suffers from the verbosity and tedious story-telling you’re trying to avoid. (Useless trivia- Hawthorne was related to the Judge Hathorne of Salem witch fame, but added the “w” to his name to distance himself from that) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-novels-that-have-aged-well/420599.md?page=2)