It’s here again! I haven’t participated in the last couple of Classics Club spins, but I don’t have any other challenges going on at the moment, so hopefully this time I will succeed. Normally I try to organise them by theme or genre, but on this occasion I have used the very straightforward rule of “books I reasonably believe I could read between 18th September (when the number will be announced on the Classics Club site) and 30th October” – by which point I will need to have read and reviewed the selected pick if I can consider myself to have “won” the spin, something I have achieved exactly once. At least, most of them are books I think I could read in that time – I have my doubts about the George Eliots, but I had run out of quick reads by the time I added them, and I did at least leave Crime and Punishment off the list… So, in chronological order by publication date, here are my twenty possible options for the Classics Club spin:
- Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
- The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
- The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
- The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
- Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald
- The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany
- Passing by Nella Larson
- They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
- Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh
- The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
- Up at the Villa by W Somerset Maugham
- The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
- The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
- The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor
- The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende
- Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
- Red Sorghum by Mo Yan
I think I’d be happy with pretty much any of the books on this list – but personally I am rooting for some genre fiction, be it science fiction or mystery or fantasy. We shall see on Sunday!
louloureads 
I didn’t put Daniel Deronda on my list because it’s so long – opted instead for a much shorter take by her. They Came Like Swallows I read a long time ago but have yet to review ( so far behind with reviews now )
My (admittedly limited) experience with Eliot is that I flew through Middlemarch when I read it despite its length, so I’m hoping this would be similar if the spin picked it. Although admittedly I was about twenty when I read it and was able to devote quite a lot more of my time to reading than I can now!
At the glacial reading pace I seem to have now it would take me more than a month to read something this length.
Lots here I haven’t read but a few I have. Did you ever read The Princess and the Goblin as a kid? I read all of George MacDonald’s kids books and some of his adult novels but I have a soft spot for that one. I have an illustrated version I’ve read with my girls.
I’ve never read it, no. It went on the list because I know Lewis and Tolkien were both very inspired by it and I’m curious. I’m glad to hear you like it as I don’t actually know much about it!
I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts. I was introduced to MacDonald via Lewis too and since I read the book as a kid I still have a soft spot for it. But even back then I remember thinking that Lewis and Tolkien were much better writers!
I’m rooting for Larsen, whose novellas I enjoy. Another classic that is shorter is Camilla, the vampire book that inspired Dracula. Hawthorne had some novellas, too. I needed to reread him. Best of luck! Did you ever find your Kindle?
No, I never found my kindle! I have a theory that it has fallen into the depths of my (falling-to-bits) sofa. I’m hoping to get a new sofa some time before Christmas, and when I do I will probably pull the old one apart to see if my kindle’s there, since the sofa is already third hand and probably beyond a fourth lease of life.
One of those sofas that are so raggedy that you’re just crossing your fingers that its previous life was spent in a nunnery, right? LOL
LOL. I knew the family who gave it to me and they knew the family that gave it to them – it floated around my old church for a long time being passed from household to household as needed. Second-hand things have never skeeved me out like they do some people, so it doesn’t bother me! It’s served me well for about seven years, but it definitely needs replacing at this point.
Hahahaha, I forgot to add the context: I grew up in a college town with a big state school, and people would dumpster dive for couches, etc, so any raggedy looking used couches was assumed, uh, USED.
Oh dear, isn’t The Betrothed quite massive?? It’s on my TBR and my CC list and I’d love to read it at the same time as you and compare, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fit it in. I have a ton of review copies I must read before the end of the year. So I shall cheer you on from the sidelines and hope you enjoy it so much you encourage me to pick it up soon!
The Betrothed is pretty big (around 720 pages I think) but after the first chapter or so I’m flying through it! Maybe it’s a very modern translation or something but it doesn’t seem as slow as some other novels of the era.