Need some help finding good classical books

[HwaRang777]

Hey guys

My mom has been ranting about how I should read more (yes, teens can actually read). For my age I've already read a lot of old stuff. I've read Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, Troy, the Oddessy, Pride and Prejudice, etc.

I was wondering if you guys could help me out finding some "classical" literature. I'd like something that's actually entertaining and nothing that has flowery language (it makes me really confused). I'm into anything with mythology. I'm trying to find a book on the story of Prometheus (Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gets his liver eaten by Zeus' eagle) but please send me some recommendations. The intensity of content doesn't bother me that much (Romeo & Juliet is really dirty!!) So long as there's no homosexuality or is slow in the beginning, middle, and/or end I'll read it. So please send me some of your suggestions

[Puritan]

Hmmm. Depends on your definition of "classic". For really old books, I found Beowulf and the Odyssey to be interesting, but you've already read one of those. Bulfinch's Mythology is a classic resource about general mythology, but I am unsure about any other books which cover Greek and Roman mythology well. For somewhat younger classic books, I would suggest Pilgrim's Progress, Dante's Inferno, most books by Robert Lewis Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling, almost anything by Jules Verne, and anything by Mark Twain.

For slightly more modern (~ 1950's-1960's era) books considered classic I would suggest Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell (1984 definately has some dirty scenes but is never the less excellent), Farenheit 451 and the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (also has dirty scenes, but excellent as well), Starship Troopers (the book is excellent, although I am told the movie is terrible) and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (The Moon... has some weird ideas about families and society, but is a really good book), A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr., and The Once and Future King by T. H. White.

[HwaRang777]

yeah, well my mom generally means anything from europe before the 50's. It's kind of depressing how she thinks that shakespeare is the greatest author that ever lived. Note that I said author, not playwright, poet, etc., but author. Shows how much my mom "knows" about literature. But please post some more.

[Lynx]

great expectations by charles dickens! actually he's a good author, there's a thread about him in the book section if i remember correctly

[Maledicte]

I'd recommend The Scarlet Pimpernel and Scaramouche, both novels dealing with the French Revolution. Fun romps.

Also, Frankenstein and Dracula, if you haven't already.

[mitsuki lover]

*Dracula
*Macbeth
*The Merry Wives Of Windsor
*Henry V(everyone needs to read Shakespeare)
*A Conneticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
*Pudd'nhead Wilson(everyone also needs to read Twain)
*The Aeneid
*Beowulf
*The Song Of Hiawatha
*The Divine Comedy
*The Imitiation Of Christ

[Sai]

I read the first book of Don Quixote and found it really entertaining.

[Lynx]

*Macbeth

Macbeth is a wonderful play, perhaps my favorite shakespearian play, but it is in old english, im not sure if that's what you mean by "flowery language".

[HwaRang777]

well see, the thing is if my "shakespeareanese" isn't that good and when I meant by flowery, I ment like Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

[Puguni]

Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - I don't know what you mean by bad content, because I didn't really find Romeo and Juliet THAT dirty, but the Scarlet Letter revolves around adultery, but you can tell it's largely frowned upon.

Not really a classic, but Frederick Douglas' autobiography is very good.

[Technomancer]

What's good that hasn't been written yet?

The Epic of Gilgamesh
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
The Seafarer
The Wanderer
The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam
Hamlet
Faust (by Goethe)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Faculty of Useless Knowledge by Yury Dombrovsky
The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

There are plenty of excellent contemporary novels as well by the way, such as "The Tiger Claw" by Shauna Singh Baldwin or "The Songs of the Kings" by Barry Unsworth.