Absolutely. Building your own opinion first on something many people have opinions on is the best way to appreciate them. You can then get into discussion with your own point👌
I wholeheartedly agree about going into classics blind. I feel I tend to enjoy them more and have a better experience when I don’t know anything about them when I start reading
Because of your pep talk about big books in the beginning of the video, i am now not afraid to read Les Miserables that has been on my side table for almost a year. 🤣
I think Les Miserables is daunting to a lot of people, me included. I was hoping to get into it during Lockdown but sadly it still taunts me from the bookcase 😃
If you like Tale of Two Cities and books that are set in that period, I recommend picking up the Scarlet Pimpernel. It's often confused as a French classic, but the author was a Hungarian that lived in England and never considered herself to be French... She possibly considered herself an English author, but never French. The Scarlet Pimpernel is actually the first book in a series about the French Revolution. Highly recommended if you like reading about that period.
In this video you say you haven't read any Dickens- fast forward to this month, February 2021, when you are starting the first Dickens book of a 4 year Dickens vs. Tolstoy journey! This is why I love watching your older videos :)
I love Charles Dickens, a few years ago in a second-hand bookstore I found a New York first edition copy of his whole collection, there's I think like close to 20 books, I'd have to count them again but they adorn my bookshelves and oh gosh I just treasure them so much. That's one thing I love about thrift stores and second-hand book stores are not only can you find classics but many times antiques and first edition copies! So love it! Now, if only I can get the whole collection of Edgar Allen Poe, Jane Austen, and the Bronte Sisters, I'll be happy! :)
@@emmiereads I think you should read 1.The Metamorphosis 2.The Castle 3.The Judgment and other books of Kafka and after that read that book I read most of the Kafka books but my favorite one is the Metamorphosis😍 By the way loved the haul😀👍
I love going to second hand bookshops. You never know the treasures that you can find there. I love finding classics in these books. The city that I lived in while I was going to school had a huge classics section and was divided by nationality. There was a lot of English classics, but you found a lot of French (very rare in my part of Canada that was historically anti-French) and Greek and Roman. I found a lot of the Arthurian classics by going to this shop. The thing is that there are many college and university students that don't realize that you can go to a secondhand bookshop and buy your books for cheap than what you find at the campus bookshop. Many university students expressed surprise and outrage at the fact that they had to buy an overpriced book when they could have spent money on a used copy that was way below the price that the university wanted. Unfortunately, bookshop owners can't advertise at the schools for their books. But eventually, students find their way to these shops.
War and peace! One of my favourite classics😍 The story and the characters are great (especially pierre and andrei), though the "war" parts can be hard to get through. I hope you'll love it as much as I did! I also recommend the BBC 2016 miniseries - actors' Russian is terrible, but the performances are still great and engaging 🥰
My copy of War and Peace either was a misprint and was missing paragraphs or was a mistranslation and somebody Russian came in and glued pieces of paper into the book with the correct translation because that copy is a mess and I don't know if it was a misprint or a mistranslation and somebody got angry, lol. I can't remove the pieces of paper to see, either. They are glued onto the paper and will rip the page if I do. I have a theory that it was a misprint, but my Ukrainian friend said that it sounds like an angry Russian came in and got insulted with the translation and put their own into the book...
I found out your yt channel, and I immediately fell in loved in classic lit. After I finished the books that I'm reading- I will be switching it through classics!
I still haven’t read A Midsummer Night’s Dream even though it’s been on my shelf for months. And I LOVE Macbeth. I haven’t read any other Shakespeare play but I still think it’ll always be my favorite. Edit: Oh, I’m currently reading Hamlet
Dickens is phenomenal! The best place to start is Great Expectations or David Copperfield. Nobody creates characters like Dickens. A master! My favorite!
I *LOVE* Charles Dickens. He’s my favorite classic author. I love him so so so much!! I really hope I’ll get to do my masters thesis about him!! If not my PhD but I’ll probably do something else for it... phew that’s still so far away!!😂😂
Tips for reading War and Peace: 1) don’t google up family trees or who is related/married to who - many people suggest this, but I ended up spoiling the whole book 200 pages in 2) try reading it in bigger sections - most people say to read it little by little, but it is way easier to forget it that way 3) try to have a goal in mind when it comes to larger classics - for me, I really wanted to watch the 1956 Audrey Hepburn movie, and it was the main reason I picked the book up in the first place. So, a movie or show can help you achieve your goal of reading such a massive book Hope this helps x
Dickens is hard but Great Expectations is so well known and not as long as his other books . You will be fine with that book. It's one of the books people recommend for those new to the Classics.
It’s truuuuueee classics are always at the thrift store!! 💜💜 wow Kafka’s diary entires is such a cool find!! Great expectations is my favorite dickins can’t wait for you to read it!! 💜💜
I tried liking Dickens, but I didn’t as much. He was my assigned author in high school literature class, so I read Oliver Twist and Great Exceptions and didn’t like them. I Sparked Noted the heck out of his books. I thought maybe it was because it had been forced on me, but I tried reading Bleak House on my own and could not, sadly.
I Loved Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. You should start there. It was darkly humorous and easy to read and page after page of action and/or misfortune. 📖
I'm sure you will love War and Peace as much as Anna Karenina, because Tolstoy created very strong and realistic characters... I also recommend Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy was a great admirer of his :)
I just recently listened to Lady Windermere’s Fan and it was incredibly delightful and surprisingly funny. It just made me fall in love with Oscar Wilde more. 😭
Bonjour Emma ! I'm French and I love your videos. I've been reading classics books lately and I love following your reading :) Could you make a video on your French classics books ? That could be very interesting ;) Bisous de France
I've read Great Expectations and it is very accessible and the prose is simple. If you were able to get through Anna Karenina (which I'm currently reading) you will breeze through Great Expectations.
Oscar Wilde wrote some beautiful children's tales. I cry at the end of the selfish giant,and the happy Prince is adorable l. The man was pure great. Much maligned and yet so precious.
I discovered your channel a few days ago and I'm really enjoying your videos so I thought I should comment. Your videos are the reverse ASMR to me : a soft way to wake up. When I wake up from a nap I just watch one of your videos and it's just the perfect way yo wake up
Ahh... Cicero and Seneca... My two biggest enemies from Latin class 😅 his works are beautiful, but they are sooo hard to translate, at least for an amateur like me
I've read both Anna Karenina and War and Peace, loved Anna but sadly I wasn't as fond of War and Peace (maybe a reread will change my opinion) but I hope you have a better reading experience with it. One classic I want to read is The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I’m currently reading War & Peace (about 60% in) it has taken me a month because I don’t want to rush it. I want to enjoy it and have time to digest it because is the last Tolstoy read that I have left so I feel sad that my journey with him is ending 🥺. But I’m so excited to hear your thoughts about it! I find that Tolstoy is not very popular on the BookTube community 🙏
Awe don't think of it as your journey with him ending, really it's just beginning! Once you've read all of someone's work, there's nothing to be done but go back and read all of their work again which is sometimes an even better experience
Did you ever read Great Expectations? Liked your video. Props for showing off your Greek: An Intensive Course textbook. It's the one we used when I took greek (just one semester, I ended up taking it pass fail after I got a "see me" instead of a grade on the first exam).
Great Expectations is awesome, hope you enjoy it! In 2018 I finished The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (he‘s my fave) and it was the best decision of my life. :D I also just discovered your channel and instantly subscribed. Keep up the good work. :)
You are definitely not alone in not reading Dickens - I feel like it's just not something I would enjoy - but will look forward to hearing what you think! Macbeth is my favourite Shakespeare play so I hope you enjoy it! I wish the thrift stores over here had as good a selection as yours.
hey there! it's so cool seeing you pick up titles like war and peace as well as cicero & seneca's works. would love to know your opinions on them, especially seneca's plays since i've been eyeing that for a while. glad i found your channel. cheers!
I haven't got into the Iliad , Odyssey or anything else like that. I don't understand them . I have got a gem but just haven't got into them . Will not give up though.
I have read Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and I loved them. The first Charles Dickens book I read was Great Expectations. I think you'll like it and even if you don't, no problem. Also, I am so glad that you uploaded. I hope you have a nice day and keep being awesome! :)
Hello, I didn’t catch the title of the book you mentioned when you said you were not afraid of War and Peace anymore because you’ve read _________ which was really really long. I’m really interested to know what that other book is. Was that Anna Karenina? Thank you 😊
To think that I knew the Chinese name of the Lady of the Camilles forever but for a moment didn’t recognize that title in English... I’ve only seen the opera but not read the book, so that must be my excuse.
I love these videos ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧ they are so insightful and great. Great Expectations is an interesting read, I would say. However, I think is not one of his finest works but it has some intriguing passages and characters, like Pip 🌸 Looking forward to hearing your opinions on it 🦉 Macbeth is my favourite play ☠️ Have a good day Emma ❤️