Fall is also a good time for me reading classics since I’m in a kind of more serious book mood in fall. So, here are some classics I wanted to read for so long but always postponed. Check out the Part 1 of my Fall TBR.
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. I loved Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and was longing to read more of his creations. Can’t wait to get to it.
Middlemarch by George Eliot
It was George Eliot’s ambition to portray a whole community; tradespeople, middle classes, country gentry, in the rising provincial town of Middlemarch.
I’ve been planning to read this for so long since it’s one of the greatest English classics among Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice but I was avoiding it since it’s such a thick book.
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Les Miserables ranks among the greatest novels of all time. In it, Victor Hugo takes readers deep into the Parisian underworld, immerses them in a battle between good and evil. The novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption.
Again, I was eying this book for so long but couldn’t make myself commit a thousand page long novel. But I’m inspired and I’m ready to do it!
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the industrial town of Milton in northern England. Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her relationship with the mill-owner, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction. In Margaret Gaskell creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature. I love the TV series with Richard Armitage, this is the time I finally read the book.
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
Set in the industrializing England. Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines. One is the shy Caroline Helstone and the vivacious independent Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention. Shirley is Brontë’s most feminist novel, where she creates a new form of power, equal to that of men, in a confident young woman.
My favorite Charlotte Bronte’s novel (and I’ve read them all!) and my 4th time of re-reading it. I just love the still and cozy atmosphere of the village in this novel along with the amazing characters.
