The Classics Club

The Classics ClubThe Classics Club was founded in March 2012 with the aim of encouraging more people to blog about classic literature.  Members are invited to create a list of at least 50 classic titles they intend to read and blog about within a maximum of five years.  With characteristic over-enthusiasm, I originally set myself the goal of reading the 50 classics listed below between 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2018.   I have now amended my end date goal to 31st December 2021, although I hope I may finish before then. I add links to my reviews once I have read them.

When constructing my list, the personal definition of “classic” I used is a book published more than 40 years ago, i.e. anything published before 1976, although most of the books on my list are a good deal older than that.  I also decided to concentrate on two categories: women writers; and the works of John Buchan (one of my favourite authors who I believe is much underrated).

Women Writers

  1. Gothic Tales – Elizabeth Gaskell
  2. Memento Mori – Muriel Spark
  3. Good Morning, Midnight – Jean Rhys
  4. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
  5. The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Armin
  6. The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
  7. Lady Susan – Jane Austen
  8. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
  9. A Garden of Earthly Delights – Joyce Carol Oates
  10. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson
  11. Carol (The Price of Salt) – Patricia Highsmith
  12. The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
  13. The Flowers of Adonis – Rosemary Sutcliffe
  14. Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather
  15. The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
  16. All Passion Spent – Vita Sackville-West
  17. The Town House – Norah Lofts
  18. Katherine – Anya Seton
  19. Heat and Dust – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
  20. Invitation to the Waltz – Rosamond Lehmann
  21. The Dark Tide – Vera Brittain
  22. The Crowded Street – Winifred Holtby
  23. Gaudy Night – Dorothy L Sayers
  24. The Bell – Iris Murdoch
  25. The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
  26. Youth and the Bright Medusa – Willa Cather
  27. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers
  28. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
  29. I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
  30. The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck
  31.  In a German Pension: 13 Stories – Katherine Mansfield
  32. The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  33. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont – Elizabeth Taylor
  34. The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood

John Buchan

  1. The Power House
  2. Sick Heart River
  3. A Lost Lady of Old Years
  4. Witch Wood
  5. Mr. Standfast
  6. Castle Gay
  7. The Half-Hearted
  8. The Watcher by the Threshold
  9. John Macnab
  10. Greenmantle
  11. Sir Quixote of the Moors
  12. John Burnet of Barns
  13. A Lodge in the Wilderness
  14. A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys
  15. The Last Secrets
  16. Homilies and Recreations