The 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
- Gothic Tales – Elizabeth Gaskell
- Memento Mori – Muriel Spark
- The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Armin
- The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
- Lady Susan – Jane Austen
- Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
- Where Stands A Winged Sentry – Margaret Kennedy
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson
- Carol (The Price of Salt) – Patricia Highsmith
- The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
- The Flowers of Adonis – Rosemary Sutcliffe
- Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather
- The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
- The Last of the Wine – Mary Renault
- There’s No Story There – Inez Holden
- Katherine – Anya Seton
- Heat and Dust – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
- Vanish in an Instant – Margaret Millar
- The Dark Tide – Vera Brittain
- The Crowded Street – Winifred Holtby
- Business As Usual – Jane Oliver & Ann Stafford
- The Bell – Iris Murdoch
- The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
- Youth and the Bright Medusa – Willa Cather
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
- The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck
- In a German Pension: 13 Stories – Katherine Mansfield
- The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont – Elizabeth Taylor
- The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood
John Buchan
- The Power House
- Sick Heart River
- A Lost Lady of Old Years
- Witch Wood
- Mr. Standfast
- Castle Gay
- The Half-Hearted
- The Watcher by the Threshold
- John Macnab
- Greenmantle
- Sir Quixote of the Moors
- John Burnet of Barns
- A Lodge in the Wilderness
- A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys
- The Last Secrets
- Homilies and Recreations
- The Gap in the Curtain
- A Prince of the Captivity
- The Magic Walking Stick
- The Long Traverse