Back to the Classics Challenge 2017

This will be my first year participating in this, but I’m excited. Here are my ideas for this year! Wish me luck!

 

 

1. A 19th century classic: Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (1820). Dawn Duran told me I need to read this, stat. Plus, I haven’t read any of the Waverley novels, and I know they were Charlotte Mason’s favorite.
2. A 20th century classic: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (1945). I like everything I’ve read by Lewis, but I haven’t read this one yet. Plus, there will be a forum discussion.
3. A classic by a woman author: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852). I got my copy of this something like 15 years ago. I, uh, still haven’t read it. Another discussion book.
4. A classic in translation: Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1830). I know nothing, but we’re discussing it on the forum.
5. A classic published before 1800: Book I of Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene (1590). I’m pretty excited. Everything I’ve heard about this says reading it will be a happy experience! Yet another discussion, too!
6. A romance classic: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (1811). I just finished Northanger Abbey with some friends and we’re thinking of this one next.
7. A Gothic or horror classic: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844). I need to carve out the time to just read this one, dang it. It keeps moving between my to read pile and my current reads pile. I just need to start over.
8. A classic with a number in the title: Richard III by William Shakespeare (1592). I’m planning to read all three parts of Henry VI beforehand, and then lead a discussion on Richard III. I also watched a version with Benedict Cumberbatch and it was amazing. So I’ve got to read it.
9. A classic about an animal or which includes the name of an animal in the title: Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851). Another forum discussion.
10. A classic set in a place you’d like to visit: Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald (1879). This is set in Scotland! And it’s a forum discussion.
11. An award-winning classic: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931). Another book discussion. What can I say, I’m a addict.
12. A Russian classic: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1880). I found a copy and some friends recommended it.