10 Summer Reading Classics

Here are my suggestions for some summer reading classics. We tend to focus a lot on the writers of the 19th century. With this list I tried to include an assortment of novels from other centuries. Amazingly, all are still available. The old really is new again.

I’ve listed them in alphabetical order but feel free to read them chronologically or mix them up.

Anna Karenina / Leo Tolstoy (1877) – This story has found new life thanks to Oprah and her book club. The story centers around Anna, a married Russian woman, trapped in a loveless relationship. In an effort to avoid an unhappy life she begins a secret relationship with Count Vronsky. 864 pages are coated with love, angst, anger, jealousy and guilt. All derived from affairs of family, affairs of society and affairs of the heart.

Canterbury Tales, The / Geoffrey Chaucer (1386-1400) – A collection of twenty five stories, or tales if you prefer, featuring such lively characters as a knight, a nun, a miller, a cook, a friar, a physician, a monk and many more. Each character or pilgrim has their own story that is told during their journey to Canterbury. Chaucer’s 528 page collection gives an interesting and sometimes comical look into fourteenth century English life.

Don Quixote / Miguel de Cervantes (1605) – The adventures of a knight, Don Quixote, and his suire, Sancho Panzo are the focus of this 1056 page literary classic. Translated many times over, this latest addition has been a pleasure for many Quixote fans.

Great Gatsby, The / F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) – Visit the decadence of 1920s New York. Jay Gatsby made himself fabulously wealthy to get the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately she married another man. Through a series of planned meetings they end up together but their relationship leads to devastating consequences neither could have predicted. A quick read at 180 pages.

Gulliver’s Travels / Jonathan Swift (1726) – Lemuel Gulliver is an adventurer with a love for the sea. On four separate excursions he encounters habitants not characteristic to every day life; the mini Liliputians, the giant Brobdingnags, the intelligent Houyhnhnms and the deformed Yahoos. Each though physically different have moral and philosophical representations to societal life. An entertaining 336 pages.

House of Mirth, The / Edith Wharton (1905) – Lily Bart is a New York socialite with little means other than her beauty and wit which have allowed her to live, for some time, off the attractions of wealthy suitors. She is quickly approaching thirty and realizes she will have to make a decision if she is to maintain the social standing she’s become accustomed to. A comfortable 352 pages.

Madame Bovary / Gustave Flaubert (1857) – Once considered notorious for it’s lavish content, it is now a bestseller. Emma Bovary is bored with her life, despite being married to a doctor and having a beautiful daughter. She begins a series of affairs to fill her time. 328 lustful pages.

Mrs. Dalloway / Virginia Woolf (1925) – What does one day in a life look like? Woolf shows the reader what happens in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares for a party and is constantly interrupted by people, events and her own thoughts. Another short read, at 216 pages.

Portrait of a Lady, The / Henry James (1881) – Isabel Archer is an American in London. Time has come to find a suitor. She unexpected comes into a nice fortune which makes her task all the more difficult. A rich story full of deceptions and secrets. 656 pages to keep you busy.

Utopia / Thomas More (1516) – Welcome to the fictional island of Utopia, where laws are few, no one goes hungry and equality just happens. This 176 page documentation delivered interesting concepts long before it’s time.

Have a great summer getting reacquainted with some classics.