Classics Club Spin Revolves Again
The Classics Club Spin is beginning again and I almost missed it but am hoping that, since the team that runs this is five hours ahead of me, I can just squeak in at the last minute. It’s a good way of pushing me to make progress on my list without having the pressure of a challenge. Last time around I ended up with Henry James and Washington Square/Daisy Miller which I wasn’t looking forward to but appreciated in the end. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed I get something good this time around.
The rules for Spin Number 9 are the same as before:
- Pick twenty unread books from your list. Here’s my classics club list
- Number them from one to twenty
- A number will be drawn
- That’s the book to read by 15th May
I’m going to mix things up a little by adding my own rule: My 20 books have to be from my TBR pile (i.e., I already have them in my possession). That way I get to clear some space in my bookshelf … or floorspace.
So here is my list. Many of them are re-reads – books I read when I was much much younger and feel I didn’t fully appreciate or understand at the time. These are marked **
- Vicar of Wakefield – Oliver Goldsmith 1766
- Mansfield Park – Jane Austen 1814**
- Old Goriot – Honore Balzac 1835
- Can You Forgive Her – Anthony Trollope 1864**
- The Way we Live Now – Anthony Trollope 1875
- Dr Thorne – Anthony Trollope 1858
- Adam Bede – George Eliot 1859**
- The Fortune of the Rougons – Emile Zola 1871
- Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy 1873-77
- Daniel Deronda – George Eliot 1876 **
- A Parisian Affair and other stories – Maupassant 1880
- The Diary of a Nobody – George Grossmith 1888
- The Voyage Out – Virginia Woolf 1915
- Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton 1920
- Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf 1925 **
- Frost in May – Antonia White 1933
- The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 1939
- The Pursuit Of Love – Nancy Mitford 1945
- Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton 1948
- Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1985
Which one do you think I would enjoy the most?
The symbol ** means I have read them previously
Update: I fixed my terrible spelling of the Balzac title thanks to an eagle eyed reader
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Oops, I completely meant to take part in the next Classics Club spin but missed this happening entirely. I must keep a closer eye out next time. Also I’m only halfway through the CC read I started in February so maybe right now isn’t the best time to take on yet more!
There’s some great books on your list. I love Virginia Woolf and Nancy Mitford. Hope you enjoy whatever the roll of the virtual dice landed you with.
I almost missed it too. I ended up with Austen.
my preference is R.S not Dylan, something about his poetry strikes at my core.
I would choose either the Balzac or the Marquez, both are great writers & both would appear to be new reads, meaning that you would be introduced to new literature which is always a plus. I’ve just checked out your site & in honour of your Welsh declaration here is a wonderful poem by a wonderful poet.
Countering ~ R.S. Thomas
Then there is the clock’s
commentary, the continuing
prose that is the under – current
of all poetry. We listen
to it as, on a desert island,
men do to the subdued
music of their blood in a shell.
Then take my hand that is
of the bone the island
is made of, and looking at
me say what time is it
on love’s face, for we have
no business here other than
to disprove certainties the clock knows
How kind of you to share the poem. R S Thomas is certainly wonderful – sadly overshadowed of course by the other Thomas of course.
My favourite Wharton is probably The house of mirth, but I do love The custom of the country too Guy. How can you not like the name Undine Spragg!
I agree with your additional rule, Karen, I’d do that too. As for your list, of those I’ve read, I’d of course say the Austen, but not everyone likes that one I know. I did enjoy Daniel Deronda a lot when I read it, and I adored Cry, the beloved country. I have no idea how it would stack up now but it’s not a long book comparatively speaking. I’d also say any of the Trollopes, particularly The way we live now. Of those I haven’t read, the one that I’d put high in the list for me would be Front in May, mainly because I don’t know much about Antonia White and have been eyeing this book off for over two decades now! One day, perhaps.
What a glorious name, wonder how she came up with Undine (I do pity the person who actually got landed with that for real though. She probably went through life being mocked).
The Age of Innocence absolutely–based on the fact that you enjoyed the short (excellent) James novels so much. I mean, there are a lot of good titles there, but that’s where I’d place my money.
I read House of Mirth some years ago and enjoyed that one so hoping that Innocence lives up to that experience Guy.
My fav. Wharton is Custom of The Country.
going to have to look that one up since I’ve not heard of it
The Grapes of Wrath! Reread this one last year–one of the very best books ever published, in my opinion! 🙂 Good luck!
looks like i need to bump this one up the list if it doesn’t get chosen in the spin
Good luck with the spin! All of the books I listed are books I own too 🙂
what are you planning to read from the list Jessica?
I got The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling 🙂
I can’t decide if I read that or only think I did