Hello, I really need some help in deciding which classic books to read. I have already read a little Jane Austin, Dumas, and Stevenson and I want to know where to go next. When it comes to reading though I really try to stray away from sexual themes and bad language (even if it all "enhances" the book). What are some good classics without bad language or sexual themes? I am mostly into more modern classics right now, as in 1900-1950 but anything from the 1800s is ok too. I am looking for serious answers here so if anyone can provide me some good books please let me know, thank you!

Have you tried any Anthony Trollope? Barchester Towers is a good place to start. Rebecca is a modern classic, I suppose. And for a laugh, there's the world of P. G. Wodehouse.

Jane Austen and Stevenson is quite a wide spectrum, which makes it hard to make suggestions. I'm not really well informed on where to go from Jane Austen's romances*, but (following the Dumas/Stevenson thread) for historical fiction with an adventurous angle I'd recommend considering The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) by Baroness Orczy, Midwinter (1923) by John Buchan, The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope, and The Last of the Mohicans (1826) by James Fenimore Cooper. Also (not really great literature, but classic) the adventure stories of Rider Haggard and the science fiction of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. If you can manage Dumas, then perhaps you could tackle something like Sybil (1845) by Benjamin Disraeli.

(If you keep your account private, we can't tell what books you've read, or what you think of them.)

* Well, of course, there's Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights...

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Jun 30, 2009, 4:57pm.

Classics? Not knowing more about what aspects of the three authors that you mentioned you liked it is difficult to narrow it down to what you might like. Maybe try some of the Brontes works (not Wuthering Heights if you don't want sexual themes though I think you would be missing a good book) or maybeMrs Gaskell's Cranford; or you could try Sir Walter Scott maybe Ivanhoe. John Buchan's The thirty Nine Steps is possible if you want early twentieth century or you could try J.B Priestly.

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Jun 30, 2009, 4:43pm.

You might enjoy Kim by Kipling or The 39 Steps by John Buchan. If you like mystery with your adventure you might try The Maltese Falcon or others by Dashiell Hammett, any of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

Anything by Raymond Chandler.

Don't forget Jack London. The sheer act of reading him back in the day would convince people to travel west and seek out the frontiers - well, it still does to this day. Call of the Wild and White Fang are always good starts. If you enjoyed Robert Louis Stevenson, you'll enjoy London.

I'd also go down the path of Jonathan Swift and recommend Gulliver's Travels - it's much older, but a fun read.

I would put in some Charles Dickens perhaps A Tale of Two Cities to start though Nicholas Nickelby would be a great read. (Supplement by watching the RSC and the eight hour play) Then another unmentioned favorite that entertains would be Victor Hugo and Les Miserables

sIf you lke action & adventure, Sir Walter Scott The Talisman & Ivanhoe take place during the Crusades.
Jack London is more modern, his books about the gold rush days & the old west are action-filledThe Covered Wagon by Emerson Hough , for 20th century All Quiet on the Western Front about WW1, more books on WW1 Goodbye to all that Robert Graves, also
books by Laurence Durrell, George Orwell (he wrote more than 1984) Rebecca West, A.B. GuthrieThe Big Sky & The Way West

Out of the work I've read recently I'd start with Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Great Expectations or Of Mice and Men...........They are all great, thought the first and last are my favourites for totally different reasons......Happy reading

I second The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, he was a friend of Dickens and, in my opinion, he is the better of the two. I also agree with All Quiet on the Western Front.
I would highly recommend the books Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, its a very modern book as far as 19th century Russians go and it's very easy and interesting to read. If you like more spiritual themes I recommend The Journey to the East by Hesse. I haven't read it in a while so I'm not positive that there are no sexual themes but I can't recall any.

Hmm...Classics with few sexual themes...

Gilgamesh? Illiad? Odyssey? The Oresteia? The Bible? The Histories? The Ramayana? The Aneid? Confessions (pick one)? The Tale of Genji? The Divine Comedy? Canterbury Tales? Gargantua and Pantagruel? Gulliver's Travels? Candide? Tom Jones? The Red and the Black? Vanity Fair? Madame Bovary? Mrs. Dalloway or Orlando? Sons and Lovers? Death in Venice? The Sound and the Fury or As I Lay Dying? Ulysses????

I...CAN'T...THINK...OF...ANY...

(Actually, anything by Austen, Dickens, Tolstoy, Bronte Sisters, Trollope and Elliot are probably pretty tame.)

He might not be considered a classic author, but Howard Spring is a very good storyteller who stops at the bedroom door, so to speak ...

Pesky touchstones are playing up again!

What about Rebecca West? Her The Return of the Soldier is a near-perfect book.