Where to start?

[u/Available_Scheme5848]

I recently bought a collection of "classics" of kindle, but I have no idea where to start. I usually read fantasy, but I thought I'd mix it up a little. What would you recommend out of these?

Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice

Austen, Jane: Emma

Balzac, Honoré de: Father Goriot

Barbusse, Henri: The Inferno

Brontë, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Brontë, Charlotte: Jane Eyre

Brontë, Emily: Wuthering Heights

Burroughs, Edgar Rice: Tarzan of the Apes

Butler, Samuel: The Way of All Flesh

Carroll, Lewis: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Cather, Willa: My Ántonia

Cervantes, Miguel de: Don Quixote

Chopin, Kate: The Awakening

Cleland, John: Fanny Hill

Collins, Wilkie: The Moonstone

Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness

Conrad, Joseph: Nostromo

Cooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the Mohicans

Crane, Stephen: The Red Badge of Courage

Cummings, E. E.: The Enormous Room

Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Crusoe

Defoe, Daniel: Moll Flanders

Dickens, Charles: Bleak House

Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: The Idiot

Doyle, Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Dreiser, Theodore: Sister Carrie

Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers

Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo

Eliot, George: Middlemarch

Fielding, Henry: Tom Jones

Flaubert, Gustave: Madame Bovary

Flaubert, Gustave: Sentimental Education

Ford, Ford Madox: The Good Soldier

Forster, E. M.: A Room With a View

Forster, E. M.: Howards End

Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South

Gogol, Nikolai: Dead Souls

Gorky, Maxim: The Mother

Haggard, H. Rider: King Solomon’s Mines

Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The Scarlet Letter

Homer: The Odyssey

Hugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Hugo, Victor: Les Misérables

Huxley, Aldous: Crome Yellow

James, Henry: The Portrait of a Lady

Orwell, George: 1984

[u/Fun_Guest_8248]

I love the Count of Monte Cristo. I reread it every decade or so. Les Misérables also. I think, especially coming from fantasy, you will appreciate how these two books are entire worlds. But keep in mind that just because this is a lifetime worth of classic literature doesn't mean it all will speak to you. Take it slow and if it doesn't do it for you, pass on to the next one.

[u/juliashxx]

I would advise starting with less long and complex works. Think about what you'd like to read more about, what theme interests you most.

1984: For example, if you want a dystopia (which is a little closer to fantasy than typical novels), a book about freedom, and how the state can destroy truth, individuality, and the very ability to think independently.

Jane Eyre: Jane Eyre is a beautiful novel about love, resilience, self-respect, and staying true to yourself even when life gives you every reason not to. Wuthering Heights: Wuthering Heights is a dark, powerful novel about obsessive love, revenge, and the lasting impact our choices can have on ourselves and others. It's haunting, emotional, and unlike any typical romance.

Little Women: Little Women is a gentle and heartwarming novel about family, sisterhood, growing up, and finding your own path in life. It's comforting, wholesome, and feels like a warm hug in book form

Sister Carrie: Sister Carrie is a compelling novel about ambition, social mobility, and the pursuit of happiness. It explores how success and material comfort don't always bring the fulfillment people expect

Perhaps, if you tell me what exactly you would like to read about at the moment, I will tell you in more detail, for example, you want a story about love, adventure or freedom) Happy reading! I hope your introduction to the classics will be successful and enjoyable))

[u/rory_twee]

1984 and My Antonia are my favourites out of those. They are also relatively easy to read.

I love Great Expectations as well but you might be better off building up to that one.