Classics R Good

[primsong]

Just thinking on how pleased I am that my three teens are reading at this time
Pride and Prejudice, (with plans for Sense and Sensibility)
The Three Musketeers (he just finished the Count of Monte Cristo), and
The Scarlet Pimpernel (she's going for 'The Elusive Pimpernel' next)

There's something that just fluffs my feathers about that. I grew up with an emphasis on books being classics 'for a reason' and usually being well worth a read, and they have rarely been disappointments.

A boy at my son's school sniffed at Musketeers and told him if he wanted to read a "real hard book" he should be reading Twilight - proof being when he held up his copy it was 'thicker' than Dumas' masterpiece. Heh. Of course, the effort to point out little details like size of type and width of margins was pushed aside. Oh well. I was pleased to find that class starting in on Kipling's Captains Courageous next - it has some gnarly, intense moments in it but I think those boys might enjoy a taste of a good, gritty sea story if they've been reading vampire fluff.

Comments

[meneleth.livejournal.com]

I love the Dumas and Pimpernel books, and Captains Courageous is marvelous. For some reason, however, I consistently find my opinion of all things Jane Austin to be "bleh". Both the books and movie adaptations leave me cold, which is odd because I generally like that style. Ah well, can't win all the time.

Until I remarked on it recently, my daughter didn't know that Captains Courageous, The Secret Garden, Mysterious Island and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea were from books. Argh! Obviously she's forgotten the reading list I made for her a few years ago! *What* are they reading in school these days..??

[primsong.livejournal.com]

It does make one wince a bit, doesn't it? Especially when so many movie adaptations are anything but true to their original works.

Yeah... some while back one of my kids noted the only thing she knew about Jules Verne were the references to him in Back to the Future - thankfully, this made her go read three of his books and now she just loves him, but how sad for those who stop there.

[iorhael94.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. Bob just finished "Count of Monte Christo" and "The Three Muskateers" played a very important part in Slumdog Millionaire. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read any of them. ;o

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Monte Cristo is one of the most intricate and fascinating webs of revenge ever spun, and Musketeers has such an awesome set of nearly-heroic (but not *too* perfect) friends with excellent bad guys. I recommend it! Man in the Iron Mask is the other Dumas often referred to, but I don't recommend that one as I found it quite depressing. :-P (well written, but a downer!)

Go Bob! I get my turn to go "huh?" because I haven't a clue what 'Slumdog Millionaire' is.

[iorhael94.livejournal.com]

Slumdog Millionaire is the favored movie for Best Picture at the Oscars Sunday. We saw it Saturday...its difficult watching in parts but it was great at the end...Its about a Muslim orphan boy growing up in India and he ends up on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" after a childhood full of the struggle to survive. The Three Muskateers plays an important part but I won't say anymore than that ;)

I have been considering reading Pride and Prejudice myself.

Oh, Slumdog Millionaire is based on a novel called "Q&A".

[thisbluespirit]

That's great. I love all of those, barring the Kipling. (I never seemed to get on with Kipling, no matter how I tried when I was young). As a teen, I decided (after reading Sense and Sensibility that all things labelled classics must be good.

This was one of the best decisions I ever made: so followed the Brontes, more Austen, Wilkie Collins (who I adore), Dickens, Hardy, Trollope... And I have a special place for The Three Musketeers. It's one of the core references in Fire and Hemlock, my favourite teen novel of all time. I was also intriguied because I guessed it wasn't quite like the cartoon... :lol:

Librarian. Don't get me started on books... ;-)

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Another librarian! There's a lot of them floating about online I'm finding. I am only an honorary one as I haven't had any 'real' training but I keep a church library, a preschool library and a small private school one as well. Call me Book-Dabbler. ;-)

I haven't read Collins or Trollope yet, but am now moving them into the queue on your recc, a bit of reading up on them does make them look intriguing. I went through a Dickens phase in college and literally read everything he wrote - there was the most magnificent set of his works in the college library, leather-bound 1890s with tissue insets over the illustrations. I had to separate some of the pages, they'd never been read! Ah, things that warm a booklover's heart.

I never cared much for Kipling either, but I did like this particular sea-tale. Then again, I very much enjoyed Horatio Hornblower's adventures and Patrick O'Brian's works so well-done sea stories seem to be to my taste.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, we Librarians get everywhere. :-D I'll allow you to be an honorary one, provided you have a basic understanding of the Dewey Decimal System. Heh heh.

Hmm, well Trollope is very real and I love him, but hard to know if someone else will. If you start with The Warden persevere, because the rest are all so much more interesting! I love that all his characters are various shades of grey and he manages real women (Yes, I'm looking at you, Mr Dickens) - even if he keeps apologising for it! And Wilkie Collins I really love. Where to start? The Woman in White and The Moonstone are just so great. But even his minor never-heard-of novels are excellent.

Thinking over it, I've never really tried any sea stories. Very remiss of me!

[thisbluespirit]

PS. Yes, The man in the iron mask: There are some things that should never happen in books. Definitely not my favourite Dumas either!!

[primsong.livejournal.com]

(Yes, I'm looking at you, Mr Dickens) So, so true! XD

Definitely going to be looking these up. As to sea-stories, by all means go for Forester's Horatio Hornblower series! Great fun, good adventure and it doesn't bog down in the technical stuff like O'Brian tends to.

[thisbluespirit]

I've requested the Forester. (The advantages of having access to 13 libraries...!!) ;-)

[tuilelindowen.livejournal.com]

I remember when I read the whole Dumas Musketeer series. It was as dry as dust and a real yawner, but then I tried a different translator who really got into all the French cultural nuance and humor and it came alive for me. I can't remember who the translator was, but I made sure all the Dumas I read from then on was his translation.