Classics

I love classic novels.  I spent my teens and early twenties immersed in many classics and they have stayed with me throughout my life.  Below I have collected the reviews of Classic Novels that I have reviewed since starting this blog in 2007.  I feel that I have not been reading as many classics as I would like, so I have joined the Classics Club to have a five year challenge to get me moving on the classics that are still on my "to read" list.  What are your favorite classic novels?  Many of mine you won't see here as I read them before starting this blog, but I would still love to discuss them!

Laura's Favorite Classics:  From Austen to Dreiser
Old Chevy on the Prairie:  Our Journey to Visit Little House Sites 
Top Ten Pioneer Books 

Classic Short Story Collections

Haunted Tales Edited by Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger (contains tales by Oscar Wilde, HG Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf, etc.)

The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter edited by Jessica Harrison

 

Alcott, Louisa May
Christmas Treasury
Little Men 
Little Women

Little Women (2025 reread)

Aldrich, Bess Streeter
A Lantern in her Hand

Angelou, Maya
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (2025)

Asimov, Isaac
The Robots of Dawn

Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale

Austen, Jane

Emma (Blackstone audiobook, narrated by Nadia May)
Emma (British Classic Audio, narrated by Alison Larkin) 

Emma (British Classic Audio, narrated by Alison Larkin, 2021 Review)

Emma (Naxos Audio, narrated by Juliet Stevenson, 2022 Review)
Lady Susan
Mansfield Park (Blackstone audiobook, narrated by Johanna Ward)
Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey (Blackstone audiobook)
Northanger Abbey and the History of England (British Classic Audio, narrated by Alison Larkin)
Persuasion
Persuasion (audiobook narrated by Juliet Stevenson)
Persuasion & Poems (audiobook narrated by Alison Larkin)  2nd Review.

Persuasion (audiobook narrated by Juliet Stevenson) 2nd 2021 Review

Persuasion (audiobook narrated by Greta Scacchi)
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice (Blackstone audiobook, Carolyn Seymour narrator) 
Pride and Prejudice (Cover to cover audiobook, Irene Sutcliffe narrator) 
Pride and Prejudice (British Classic Audio, narrated by Alison Larkin)
Sense and Sensibility (audiobook narrated by Juliet Stevenson) 
Sense and Sensibility (Blackstone audiobook, narrated by Wanda McCaddon)

Sense and Sensibility (audiobook narrated by Alison Larkin)

Sense and Sensibility (audiobook narrated by Rosamund Pike)

The Watsons (finished by Joan Aiken)

Babbitt - Natalie
The Search for Delicious


Baldwin, James
If Beale Street Could Talk

Barrett - Eaton Stannard

The Heroine

Baum, L. Frank
The Wizard of Oz (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)

Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451

Bronte, Anne

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Bronte, Charlotte
Jane Eyre (Blackstone audiobook, narrated by Wanda McCaddon)
Jane Eyre (Dreamscape audiobook, narrated by Anna Bentinck)

Bronte, Emily
The Complete Poems
Wuthering Heights

Buck, Pearl S.

The Good Earth

Sons

Burnett, Frances Hodgson

The Secret Garden

Butler, Octavia E.
Kindred


Capote, Truman

A Christmas Memory

A Christmas Memory (2021 Review)

Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


Carson, Rachel
Silent Spring

Cather, Willa
Alexander's Bridge

Christie, Agatha
4:50 from Paddington 

The ABC Murders

After the Funeral
And Then There Were None

Crooked House

A Deadly Affair

Death Comes as the End

Death on the Nile

Death on the Nile (2023 Review)

Destination Unknown

Elephants Can Remember

Endless Night

Evil Under the Sun

Five Little Pigs

Hallowe'en Party

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Lord Edgware Dies

The Man in the Brown Suit

Midwinter Murders

The Moving Finger

A Murder is Announced

The Murder on the Links

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Murder on the Orient Express

The Murder at the Vicarage

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mystery of the Blue Train

Ordeal by Innocence

Partners in Crime

A Pocket Full of Rye

The Secret Adversary

The Seven Dials Mystery

The Sittaford Mystery

Sparkling Cyanide

Taken at the Flood

They Do It With Mirrors

Third Girl

The Thirteen Problems

Three Act Tragedy

Towards Zero

Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Collins, Wilkie
The Woman in White

Cooper, James Fenimore
The Last of the Mohicans 

Conrad, Joseph
Heart of Darkness


Dahl, Roald
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Danny Champion of the World 
Fantastic Mr. Fox and Other Animal Stories
Matilda
Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts
The Twits, The Minpins, and The Magic Finger 

The Twits

de Saint Exupery, Antoine
The Little Prince

Dickens, Charles
Christmas Classics: Stories for the Whole Family (audiobook)
A Christmas Carol (Audiobook narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart)
The Old Curiosity Shop 

The Old Curiosity Shop (2023 Review)
Oliver Twist

A Tale of Two Cities

Dickinson, Emily
A Brief Biography of Emily Dinson by Cynthia Dickinson, The Emily Dickinson Museum
Selected Poems 

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
The Sherlock Holmes Theatre  

Dumas, Alexandre
The Count of Monte Cristo

Du Maurier, Daphne
Jamaica Inn

Rebecca  (2024 reread)

Eliot, George

Middlemarch

Silas Marner

Ferber, Edna
So Big

So Big (2024 Review)

Fitzgerold, F. Scott
The Great Gatsby

Frost, Robert

Mountain Interval

Gaskell, Elizabeth
Christmas Storms and Sunshine (short story)
Cranford

North and South

Graham, Winston
Ross Poldark
Demelza Poldark
Jeremy Poldark

Hardy, Thomas

Far From the Madding Crowd

Hawthorne, Nathanial

The Scarlet Letter

Heller, Joseph
Catch 22

Hemingway, Ernest
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Old Man and the Sea


Heyer, Georgette
A Christmas Party
The Convenient Marriage
The Corinthian
Cotillion
Frederica
The Masqueraders

The Nonesuch
Powder and Patch
Regency Buck 
Sprig Muslin 
Sylvester 
Sylvester (2019 Review)

The Talisman Ring
These Old Shades
The Toll-gate 
Venetia 

Hinton, S.E.

The Outsiders

Hurston, Zora Neale
Their Eyes Were Watching God

Ishiguro, Kazuo
The Remains of the Day  

Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House

James, Henry

The Portrait of a Lady

Knowles, John

A Separate Peace

Lane, Rose Wilder
Young Pioneers

Lawrence, D.H.
Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lee, Harper
To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird (2022 Review)

L'Engle, Madeleine
A Wrinkle in Time

Leopold, Aldo
A Sand County Almanac

London, Jack
The Call of the Wild

Lowry, Lois
The Giver

Maugham, W. Somerset
The Painted Veil

Maxwell, William
So Long, See You Tomorrow

McCarthy, Cormac
The Road

Milne, A.A.
Winnie-the-Pooh

Mitchell, Margaret
Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind (2022 Review)

Montgomery, L.M.

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne's House of Dreams 
Anne of Ingleside 
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
At the Altar:  Matrimonial Tales 
The Blue Castle
Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories 

The Story Girl

O'Brien, Robert C.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Petry, Ann

The Street

Potter, Beatrix

Peter Rabbit and Other Stories

Pym, Barbara

Excellent Women

Rhys, Jean
Wide Sargasso Sea

Scott - Sir Walter

Waverly

Seton, Anya

Katherine

Shakespeare, William
Julius Caesar
Macbeth 
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Othello
Richard III 

Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein

Short Story Anthologies
American Short Stories of Irving and Hawthorne
Classic Women's Stories by  Katherine Mansfield, Kate Chopin, Virginia Woolf  

Smith, Betty
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Steinbeck, John
Flight (short story)

The Grapes of Wrath

Stevenson, Robert Louis
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Treasure Island 

Stewart, Mary

Rose Cottage

Taylor, Theodore
The Cay

Trollope, Anthony

Christmas at Thompson Hall & Other Christmas Stories

Van Doren Stern, Philip
The Greatest Gift

Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon

Walpole, Horace

The Castle of Otranto

Wharton, Edith
Madame de Treymes and Three Novellas  

White, E.B.
Charlotte's Web 
Stuart Little
The Trumpet of the Swan

White, T.H.
The Sword in the Stone (audiobook)
The Sword in the Stone (audiobook - 2019 Review) 

Wilde, Oscar

The Importance of Being Earnest

Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Little House in the Big Woods (2011 Review)
Little House in the Big Woods (2016 Review)
Little House on the Prairie (2016 Review) 
On the Banks of Plum Creek 
By the Shores of Silver Lake
The Long Winter
Old Chevy Truck on the Prairie:  Our Journey to Visit Little House Sites  

Wilder, Thornton
The Bridge of San Luis Rey