You know what I like reading? Your Substack. And that's the ultimate compliment because no-one reads long things on the Web unless they're doing troubled toilet business.
I also did Eng.Lit and have since dropped any pretence of loving large books with illustrated posh people on the cover. Looking forward to the Hummus reviews vol.2.
Based on Rebecca & The Yellow Wallpaper & The Bell Jar... I think you'd love Shirley Jackson. Her novels We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Sundial, and The Haunting of Hill House are all gripping and really poignant somehow too.
This reminds me of the time I told a Film Studies tutorial that my favourite film was Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. It was… not received well.
Thank you for this post, I enjoyed it very much!!!! Fun books 4eva xx
That is so baller I love it. and also totally legit - would be so interesting to do an academic deep dive on what makes romy and Michelle such a bonafide classic. Should be no difference between classics and Classics!!!
Thank god I had one lecturer (media at Sydney uni) who set us an essay on whether Sex and the City was a feminist text. I was like PHEW I HAVE BEEN SO BORED
As someone whose favourite book (that's favourite book, not guilty pleasure) is Daisy Jones and the Six, I am wholeheartedly on Team Books Should Be Fun. Or, not always fun, sure, but in some way enjoyable. Plus, can we please all agree that reading The Classics in school is somewhat flawed concept? I don't think all books are meant to be read when we are young. We just don't appreciate them at that age. My mum gave me The Beautiful and Damned when I was 13 and I didn't get it at all. Now it is one of my favourite books. I also recently read 1984, LOVED IT and was in part ashamed that it's taken me this long, but in part also happy because now I can understand it in a whole different way. Not sure what I am suggesting, some kind of mandatory reading in adult age?
No classics in school is such a good idea. Like, ease them in ffs. Get them excited about reading before you smash them over the head with dense stuff they don’t understand
Im in my mid-30s and only now I can analyse literature in meaningful way. I find it amazing people are able to do it in their undergrad when they're 18-21
Loved all of this very hard. I did a masters in English Literature and so feel I have read my allotment of worthy classics for this lifetime. Now make a point of almost exclusively reading what my professors would have called ‘pap’. Basically if there’s a chance it could make the Booker long list it’s not for me.
I did recently read Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrot which was written in 1925. It’s not a ‘classic’ but if it had been written by a man it probably would be. Really enjoyed it, about a divorcee in New York and everyone’s fucked up but nobody talks about it they just get plastered.
Ack the Dracula thing matches my undergraduate experience of it exactly. Mind kind of drifted off reading it, so for my essay i just ended up making a very tenuous connection to the Alien films, wrote about those for a few thousand words and then got the best mark of my entire degree. LEARN FROM ME KIDS, THIS IS HOW YOU LIT
love this. to be fair to durham, a few of the lecturers were always trying to encourage us to think outside of the box and i just think i didn't have the balls to introduce alien. If i did the degree now i'd write about nothing BUT alien
One time I told my English Lit A Level teacher (Ms Greensmith) that I had just read some trashy chick lit novel (or some equally self-deprecating description) in the summer hols and she got a bit cross with me and said something like it's not trashy if you enjoyed it!! I may be paraphrasing but I think of it often. Also the worst classics book in the history of classics books is Jude the Obscure which now I think of it I'm pretty sure Ms G made us read. Maybe that was her whole point.
Oh my god I hate it so much. I read a lot of depressing books but it is so relentless. There is no joy. I know that's probably the point but I still hate it. In fact I think any book on an Eng Lit syllabus that is making a bigger societal point or whatever is already on a hiding to boring.
I like Jane Eyre but it is at least 40% too long (general issue with 19th century lit tbh, none of those authors had a proper editor)! If you ever give it another go would recommend skimming the beginning and also the extremely boring St John Rivers section near the end and basically just read the bits where she's at Mr Rochester's house, those are fun and gothic and prob one of the main inspirations for Rebecca.
Love your list and the fact it's mostly women authors! Would also recommend anything by Angela Carter, Shirley Jackson or Patricia Highsmith for more modern classics with unsettling gothic vibez.
Also I read a big chunk of Bleak House at some point and then fatally 'took a break' and never got round to picking it up again but this has made me think I should give it another go! Btw Great Expectations also slaps and is less intimidatingly huge.
YES everything is 40% too long for the modern brain!! Sort of like old plays. I just want to attack them with a red pen. But I also respect that it was a different time etc etc - I might give great expectations a whirl!
Do it!! Also very important Q: have you watched the North and South TV adaptation with Richard Armitage? I have not read the book but that series is ICONIC
Also funnily enough I am currently reading the who killed the sexy lady at the hunting party book 👀 like you I'm a former literature student and leaning into enjoying 'trashy' books guilt-free has been such a source of joy in my adult life! Keeping readers hooked and entertained is a real skill and I have huge admiration for commercial fiction authors, especially women who write unapologetically for women and therefore are way too easily dismissed. Think it's also good to read a wide mix of things including some classics and contemporary lit fic and not be put off by thinking those genres are only for a certain kind of highbrow hyperserious hyperintelligent person – books become classics/win literary prizes etc for a reason and a big part of that is enough people genuinely enjoying them. Totally agree though that academia and literature snobs can be gatekeep-y and make it seem like certain books are for 'the right kind of person' 🤮
If you like books about rich/posh Americans then I would recommend The Age of Innocence or almost anything by Edith Wharton. She’s brilliant. I loved Vile Bodies (rich/posh British people) by Evelyn Waugh when I read it in my twenties though wonder if I would still like it so much now.. I don’t love historical fiction but I do think classics are classics for a reason so I do dip my toe in from time to time. I think with books you are reading to be entertained but if it brings more than that (an allegory, insight, noticing a theme) then it’s giving you more than just a good story, so even though sometimes I’ll plough through something fluffy I generally want a well written book that I get a bit more from. I was a science student btw, could never write critical assessments of books or plays or poems though I love reading and have now set up my own book club..
Totally forgot about Evelyn Waugh!! And I remember reading house of mirth but have no recollection of whether I enjoyed it so I’ll give it another go! Thanks for this
To add to this: The Dud Avocado, Diary of a Provincial Lady (which the bookseller described to me as a 1920s Bridget Jones and she wasn’t wrong), and anything by Nancy Mitford
Handful of Dust was another big favourite of mine, in fact I put it above Vile Bodies. A friend of mine (who did study English lit and works in publishing) says that you should read your favourite books every decade. I need to make myself do that.
Ahhh this was brilliant. Was planning on reading Rebecca this month, now I’m excited! Mrs Dalloway is on my list, I remember reading To the Lighthouse at school and not loving it/getting it but want to try again with Virginia Woolf. As for recommendations I remember loving Wuthering Heights. And yay I haven’t read the Bee Sting yet but heard such good things, glad you’re loving it too.
I would second Wuthering Heights - I was not a fan when I first read it but just did a re-read and thoroughly enjoyed how unhinged they all are. Have you read any Angela Carter? It’s all batty, gorgeous magical realism, and slightly bonkers. I’d start with The Bloody Chamber (adaptations of fairy tales) or Nights at the Circus (about a woman with wings).
Little Women!!!!! I spent years believing I was thick cause I gave up 1/4th into Les Mis at 16 (this is what been labeled gifted and talented does to you!!!!). Flew through Little Women, albeit after Greta's film became my absolute fave.
Very funny, Stevie! The analytical bit of Eng Lit can be tedious. I quite like a book group, where you spend a few minutes on why you like or don’t like a book, then straight on to gossip and nibbles.
RELATE. I didn't do an English lit degree but I did work in a bookshop for 5 years and. Then worked in publishing for 5 years after that and you get the same wankers spouting shit about the classics... I do love wuthering heights though, it's got all the moody teenage angst, arseholes, rich people doing stupid shit (non-drama drama) and heathcliff loves her so much he digs up her dead body to hold her again. I hope someone loves me this much one day. also Of Mice and Men surprised me! I inhaled it after learning more about it on the podcast Educating Daisy 😂
Ohhhh I loved of mice and men too! I put wuthering heights down and forgot to finish it (like jane eyre) but I was 18 so maybe it’s time to give Cathy another go
You know what I like reading? Your Substack. And that's the ultimate compliment because no-one reads long things on the Web unless they're doing troubled toilet business.
I also did Eng.Lit and have since dropped any pretence of loving large books with illustrated posh people on the cover. Looking forward to the Hummus reviews vol.2.
ohhhh this is a lovely compliment. thank you!
Based on Rebecca & The Yellow Wallpaper & The Bell Jar... I think you'd love Shirley Jackson. Her novels We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Sundial, and The Haunting of Hill House are all gripping and really poignant somehow too.
This reminds me of the time I told a Film Studies tutorial that my favourite film was Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. It was… not received well.
Thank you for this post, I enjoyed it very much!!!! Fun books 4eva xx
That is so baller I love it. and also totally legit - would be so interesting to do an academic deep dive on what makes romy and Michelle such a bonafide classic. Should be no difference between classics and Classics!!!
Oh, absolutely!! Maybe I should… do that.
Thank god I had one lecturer (media at Sydney uni) who set us an essay on whether Sex and the City was a feminist text. I was like PHEW I HAVE BEEN SO BORED
i love that lecturer
His phd was on Kylie Minogue’s significance to gay men, imagine being a doctor in that 🙌🙌🙌🙌
As someone whose favourite book (that's favourite book, not guilty pleasure) is Daisy Jones and the Six, I am wholeheartedly on Team Books Should Be Fun. Or, not always fun, sure, but in some way enjoyable. Plus, can we please all agree that reading The Classics in school is somewhat flawed concept? I don't think all books are meant to be read when we are young. We just don't appreciate them at that age. My mum gave me The Beautiful and Damned when I was 13 and I didn't get it at all. Now it is one of my favourite books. I also recently read 1984, LOVED IT and was in part ashamed that it's taken me this long, but in part also happy because now I can understand it in a whole different way. Not sure what I am suggesting, some kind of mandatory reading in adult age?
No classics in school is such a good idea. Like, ease them in ffs. Get them excited about reading before you smash them over the head with dense stuff they don’t understand
Im in my mid-30s and only now I can analyse literature in meaningful way. I find it amazing people are able to do it in their undergrad when they're 18-21
Oh they absolutely can’t. The lecturers did and the students just blathered on in public school speak - except the odd truly gifted ones obvs
Loved all of this very hard. I did a masters in English Literature and so feel I have read my allotment of worthy classics for this lifetime. Now make a point of almost exclusively reading what my professors would have called ‘pap’. Basically if there’s a chance it could make the Booker long list it’s not for me.
I did recently read Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrot which was written in 1925. It’s not a ‘classic’ but if it had been written by a man it probably would be. Really enjoyed it, about a divorcee in New York and everyone’s fucked up but nobody talks about it they just get plastered.
Ex wife sounds right up my alley!! Thank you. And long live pap!
I really love this post
i really love u
Ack the Dracula thing matches my undergraduate experience of it exactly. Mind kind of drifted off reading it, so for my essay i just ended up making a very tenuous connection to the Alien films, wrote about those for a few thousand words and then got the best mark of my entire degree. LEARN FROM ME KIDS, THIS IS HOW YOU LIT
love this. to be fair to durham, a few of the lecturers were always trying to encourage us to think outside of the box and i just think i didn't have the balls to introduce alien. If i did the degree now i'd write about nothing BUT alien
One time I told my English Lit A Level teacher (Ms Greensmith) that I had just read some trashy chick lit novel (or some equally self-deprecating description) in the summer hols and she got a bit cross with me and said something like it's not trashy if you enjoyed it!! I may be paraphrasing but I think of it often. Also the worst classics book in the history of classics books is Jude the Obscure which now I think of it I'm pretty sure Ms G made us read. Maybe that was her whole point.
Good ol Mrs G for not being a snob! But also Jude the obscure is possibly the most depressing book I’ve ever read in my life. Good goddddddd
Oh my god I hate it so much. I read a lot of depressing books but it is so relentless. There is no joy. I know that's probably the point but I still hate it. In fact I think any book on an Eng Lit syllabus that is making a bigger societal point or whatever is already on a hiding to boring.
I like Jane Eyre but it is at least 40% too long (general issue with 19th century lit tbh, none of those authors had a proper editor)! If you ever give it another go would recommend skimming the beginning and also the extremely boring St John Rivers section near the end and basically just read the bits where she's at Mr Rochester's house, those are fun and gothic and prob one of the main inspirations for Rebecca.
Love your list and the fact it's mostly women authors! Would also recommend anything by Angela Carter, Shirley Jackson or Patricia Highsmith for more modern classics with unsettling gothic vibez.
Also I read a big chunk of Bleak House at some point and then fatally 'took a break' and never got round to picking it up again but this has made me think I should give it another go! Btw Great Expectations also slaps and is less intimidatingly huge.
YES everything is 40% too long for the modern brain!! Sort of like old plays. I just want to attack them with a red pen. But I also respect that it was a different time etc etc - I might give great expectations a whirl!
Do it!! Also very important Q: have you watched the North and South TV adaptation with Richard Armitage? I have not read the book but that series is ICONIC
i didnt even know there was a series. for shame. what a perfect cosy autumnal watch
Also funnily enough I am currently reading the who killed the sexy lady at the hunting party book 👀 like you I'm a former literature student and leaning into enjoying 'trashy' books guilt-free has been such a source of joy in my adult life! Keeping readers hooked and entertained is a real skill and I have huge admiration for commercial fiction authors, especially women who write unapologetically for women and therefore are way too easily dismissed. Think it's also good to read a wide mix of things including some classics and contemporary lit fic and not be put off by thinking those genres are only for a certain kind of highbrow hyperserious hyperintelligent person – books become classics/win literary prizes etc for a reason and a big part of that is enough people genuinely enjoying them. Totally agree though that academia and literature snobs can be gatekeep-y and make it seem like certain books are for 'the right kind of person' 🤮
If you like books about rich/posh Americans then I would recommend The Age of Innocence or almost anything by Edith Wharton. She’s brilliant. I loved Vile Bodies (rich/posh British people) by Evelyn Waugh when I read it in my twenties though wonder if I would still like it so much now.. I don’t love historical fiction but I do think classics are classics for a reason so I do dip my toe in from time to time. I think with books you are reading to be entertained but if it brings more than that (an allegory, insight, noticing a theme) then it’s giving you more than just a good story, so even though sometimes I’ll plough through something fluffy I generally want a well written book that I get a bit more from. I was a science student btw, could never write critical assessments of books or plays or poems though I love reading and have now set up my own book club..
Totally forgot about Evelyn Waugh!! And I remember reading house of mirth but have no recollection of whether I enjoyed it so I’ll give it another go! Thanks for this
I was going to recommend Evelyn Waugh. Handful of Dust was such a relief to read during my English literature a-level
To add to this: The Dud Avocado, Diary of a Provincial Lady (which the bookseller described to me as a 1920s Bridget Jones and she wasn’t wrong), and anything by Nancy Mitford
Handful of Dust was another big favourite of mine, in fact I put it above Vile Bodies. A friend of mine (who did study English lit and works in publishing) says that you should read your favourite books every decade. I need to make myself do that.
Ahhh this was brilliant. Was planning on reading Rebecca this month, now I’m excited! Mrs Dalloway is on my list, I remember reading To the Lighthouse at school and not loving it/getting it but want to try again with Virginia Woolf. As for recommendations I remember loving Wuthering Heights. And yay I haven’t read the Bee Sting yet but heard such good things, glad you’re loving it too.
I would second Wuthering Heights - I was not a fan when I first read it but just did a re-read and thoroughly enjoyed how unhinged they all are. Have you read any Angela Carter? It’s all batty, gorgeous magical realism, and slightly bonkers. I’d start with The Bloody Chamber (adaptations of fairy tales) or Nights at the Circus (about a woman with wings).
I haven’t read any Angela Carter! Ok thats settled I’m re reading WH for sure
Little Women!!!!! I spent years believing I was thick cause I gave up 1/4th into Les Mis at 16 (this is what been labeled gifted and talented does to you!!!!). Flew through Little Women, albeit after Greta's film became my absolute fave.
Very funny, Stevie! The analytical bit of Eng Lit can be tedious. I quite like a book group, where you spend a few minutes on why you like or don’t like a book, then straight on to gossip and nibbles.
RELATE. I didn't do an English lit degree but I did work in a bookshop for 5 years and. Then worked in publishing for 5 years after that and you get the same wankers spouting shit about the classics... I do love wuthering heights though, it's got all the moody teenage angst, arseholes, rich people doing stupid shit (non-drama drama) and heathcliff loves her so much he digs up her dead body to hold her again. I hope someone loves me this much one day. also Of Mice and Men surprised me! I inhaled it after learning more about it on the podcast Educating Daisy 😂
Ohhhh I loved of mice and men too! I put wuthering heights down and forgot to finish it (like jane eyre) but I was 18 so maybe it’s time to give Cathy another go