Tuesday, August 9, 2016

10 Classic Pieces of Literature I Recommend

Since it's time for back to school, I've been thinking about my favorite pieces of classic literature. If you're ever interested in going back and reading some classics, I'm a bit partial to the titles on this list. In fact, just listing them makes me want to go back and retread them. It's been many years since I've read some of them.

Novels
1. Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain (Hint: it's an antebellum version of The Prince and the Pauper.)
2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (Hint: read it backwards, it's the same story told by different points of view and varying intellectual and emotional levels.)
3. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (Synopsis: the price of risk, of attempted happiness, mixed with the sharpest irony. Caution: you may never go sledding again.)
4. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (Synopsis: story of a woman who can't find peace in the life expected of her.)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Hint: think Hunger Games + Divergent meet in a dystopian future where Henry Ford's assembly line approach is gospel.)

Plays
6. Agamemnon by Aeschylus (Hint: most interesting main character is a murderous, adulteress, lying woman.)
7. Medea by Euripides (Synopsis: man leaves wife; she takes shocking revenge.)
8. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (Synopsis:great wait for gentleman caller doesn't quite work out as planned.)

Epic poetry
9. The Metamorphoses by Ovid (Hint: it's a version of the creation story but with significant twists.)
10. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Synopsis: oldest known piece of literature that explores the divide between humans and gods.)

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