If you’ve read any of my other articles, you’ll know that I love reading, especially classic works. I love learning about different time periods and cultures, delving into intriguing philosophical questions, and carefully unfolding the meticulously placed details within classic works that make them so potent. Reading classics has truly changed the way I think, create, reason, and perceive the world; I would not be the person I am today, in short, if I hadn’t decided to pick up a classic of my own volition. So, in this article, I want to discuss some (only a very, very small handful) of my favorite classics and why they are so fascinating and hopefully persuade anyone perusing this article to read them!
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
The more time that has passed, the more I see this novella in my life. This work’s sentiment is extremely pervasive; you can find its meaning in almost every interaction and experience. Not surprisingly, the work is centered around the death of a man named Ivan Ilyich, who is an exceedingly self-centered, materialistic individual who prances through life without a real care for anyone in the world. He is not the sole egotistical maniac in the novella, however; nearly all of its characters exude artifice and possess an insatiable avarice. I won’t spoil how the novel ends, but you can be sure that Tolstoy, lover of eureka moments, includes his signature big moment of insight. I feel strongly that this is a work everyone should read (and it’s only about 50 pages).
False. Everything by which you have lived and live now is all a deception, a lie, concealing both life and death from you.
Leo Tolstoy
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre is one of my favorite novels; it is a beautiful, complex story with innumerable plot twists and layers of meaning. The novel is written from the perspective of the titular character, a lonely, reserved orphan girl, who desperately longs to find a family and a sense of identity. This novel is another 10/10 for me; I highly recommend it. Read my article on Jane Eyre to find out more about the novel.
I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.
Charlotte Brontë
The Master and Margarita By Mikhail Bulgakov
The devil and his entourage arrive in Moscow to wreak havoc, exposing the arrogance, foolish self-assuredness, and questionable philosophical beliefs prevalent in early 20th-century Soviet society. This is one of my favorite books ever; it is wildly imaginative (there is literally a giant talking anthropomorphic cat), extremely witty, and carries a very potent message. It portrays what life was like in the Soviet Bloc, highlighting the fear, suppression and propaganda Stalin used to maintain power and control the populace.
But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings.
Mikhail Bulgakov
Crime and Punishment By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment was the first Dostoevsky novel I read. This is the book that sucked me into the vortex of classic literature and made me fall in love with Dostoevsky’s work (as I write this, I have read this novel three times). I cannot imagine what my life looked like before this book, honestly; it completely altered me as a person, and I am forever grateful for it. It provides an in-depth psychological analysis of the main character, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, to demonstrate the debilitating effects of guilt and the purification one may achieve through suffering.
It wasn’t you I was bowing to, but the whole of human suffering …
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov By Fyodor DOstoevsky
This is my favorite book ever. No other book has affected me as much as this one. It is utterly breathtaking; many, including myself, deem it Dostoevsky’s finest work. The novel’s vivid, complex characters and its passionate, almost desperate writing are spectacular. It will make you question everything while simultaneously resolving all of the many quandaries that gnaw at you. I would highly recommend this to anyone and everyone (and have, if you know me).
This is my last message to you: in sorrow, seek happiness.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brave New world By Aldous Huxley
Brave New World, like the works of Orwell, is something people generally tend to love or hate; of course, I fall into the former. Brave New World is startling in its far-seeing ability; its warning has only grown more alarming with the passing of time. While I will say I struggled with Huxley’s perhaps far-too-detailed description of the inner scientific workings of the futuristic London society at the beginning of the novel, once you move past the first chapter or so and begin to better understand how his civilization operates, the novel becomes significantly smoother. This novel is incredible, and I would strongly recommend that more people read it.
I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.
Aldous Huxley
The Trial By Franz Kafka
Imagine: you wake up one morning and are immediately arrested; you inquire after the justification for your arrest and receive none. You begin the trial process, which consists of innumerable unnecessary steps; you’re still unaware of the reasoning behind your conviction, and you’re powerless to defend yourself or return to your normal life. This is the very situation the main character of the novel, K., an unremarkable banker, finds himself in. I love this novel; it is an utterly fascinating existentialist work and commentary on bureaucracy. I highly recommend this work and Kafka’s other pieces.
… “it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.”
“A melancholy conclusion,” said K. “It turns lying into a universal principle.”
Franz Kafka
Notes from a dead House By Dostoevsky
In 1849, Tsar Nicholas I ordered Dostoevsky to be arrested and sentenced him to death for participating in the Petrashevsky Circle, a radical reading circle that disparaged the Russian government. The tsar set up a mock execution, in which Dostoevsky and several of his fellow Petrashevsky Circle members were led before a firing squad, before informing the writer that he had reduced his sentence to four years at hard labor in Siberia, followed by four years of military service (Leigh). Notes From a Dead House is the semi-autobiographical novel Dostoevsky wrote to describe his experience at hard labor in Omsk, Russia. This is an extremely compelling work; it illustrates the horrible conditions — the loneliness, the confinement, the hopelessness — of Russian exile camps and reveals the psychological impact prison has on an individual. Of course, with all things Dostoevsky, I highly recommend this novel.
“Every man, whoever he may be and however humiliated, still requires, even if instinctively, even if unconsciously, respect for his human dignity. The prisoner himself knows that he is a prisoner, an outcast, and he knows his place before his superior; but no brands, no fetters will make him forget that he is a human being.”
Dostoevsky