Classic English Literature
Last updated: November 19, 2024
The Best Daphne du Maurier Books, recommended by Laura Varnam
Daphne du Maurier is one of the most overlooked writers of the twentieth century, says Oxford University’s Laura Varnam. As her best known-work, Rebecca, continues to attract new movie adaptations and du Maurier enjoys a critical renaissance, Varnam explores the books which highlight this novelist’s sheer range and brilliance—from biography and fiction to history and horror.
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Return of the Native (Illustrated)
by Clare Leighton (illustrator) & Thomas Hardy -
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Moby Dick (Illustrated)
by Herman Melville & Rockwell Kent (illustrator) -
3
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (Illustrated)
by Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë & Fritz Eichenberg (illustrator) -
4
Persuasion (Illustrated)
by Jane Austen & Joan Hassall (illustrator)
The Best Illustrated Novels, recommended by Rosalind Parry
The Best Illustrated Novels, recommended by Rosalind Parry
The craze of the 1930s and 1940s was for beautifully illustrated editions of the great Victorian novels, affordably priced to take pride of place in a middle-class home. Lecturer and author Rosalind Parry recommends five outstanding editions whose illustrations are as striking as their stories.
The best books on Hemingway in Paris, recommended by Wai Chee Dimock
Paris in the 1920s was a creative melting pot, the haunt of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce. The Yale English professor gives us a feel for what it was like to be there
The Best Samuel Beckett Books, recommended by Mark Nixon
Samuel Beckett remains one of the most significant writers of the twentieth century. Ruthlessly experimental, his plays, novels, and poems represent a sustained attack on the realist tradition. Dr Mark Nixon looks at the mutating nature of Beckett’s literary style and explains why he didn’t choose Waiting for Godot.
The Best American Poetry, recommended by Elisa New
With the help of a good anthology and a heaping dose of American classics, anyone can be converted to being a lover of poetry. Elisa New, Harvard scholar and host of the PBS series Poetry in America, recommends her favorite American poets, from Emily Dickinson to Elizabeth Bishop.
The Best African American Literature, recommended by Farah Jasmine Griffin
An ever-growing body of authors are writing about the reality of what it means to be black in America, says Farah Jasmine Griffin, director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. Here she recommends five works of African American literature, from greats like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison to lesser-known gems by Ann Petry.
The best books on Personality Types, recommended by Merve Emre
Since its birth in the early twentieth century, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has become the most popular personality test in the world. Here, Merve Emre, author of the new book The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing, recommends five books that reveal how the language of ‘type’ has seeped into the marrow of American civic institutions and social life—from Fortune 500 companies to Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
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Red Shift
by Alan Garner -
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The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
by Neil Price -
3
Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs
by Rane Willerslev -
4
The Annotated Collected Poems
Edward Thomas (ed. by Edna Longley) -
5
The Poems of Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë (ed. by Derek Roper)
The best books on Witches and Witchcraft, recommended by Diane Purkiss
The best books on Witches and Witchcraft, recommended by Diane Purkiss
For centuries, the witch has been an index not only of what we fear most in others, but also what we cannot cope with—the powerfully abnormal, strange and often irrational elements—in ourselves. And the best way to understand the history of witches and witchcraft is to first understand the supernatural, according to Diane Purkiss, Professor at Keble College, Oxford and author of the lauded book The Witch in History.
The best books on The Gothic, recommended by Nick Groom
‘The Gothic’ can refer to ecclesiastical architecture, supernatural fiction, cult horror films and a recent subculture. Here, Nick Groom—who is professor in English at the University of Exeter and is also known as the ‘Prof. of Goth’—recommends five of the best books on the Gothic, showing how this term remains central to the way we think of our identities today.
The best books on Sex in Victorian Literature, recommended by Claire Jarvis
We often assume the Victorians had puritanical attitudes to sex, but this was far from the reality. From familiar classics to neglected gems, Claire Jarvis—Stanford academic and author of Exquisite Masochism: Sex, Marriage and the Novel Form—selects the best books on sex in Victorian literature.