topfivebooks.com.au

A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Kim Kingston — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 22:00:10 +0000

Can a novel published in 1980 count as a classic? I say yes, when it’s a good as this one. Hilarious and unforgettable.

The post A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Kim Kingston — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 05:41:10 +0000

Reading this book again as a adult, rather than a adolescent, I realised what a prick Heathcliff is. And Catherine is also quite a nasty piece of work. But the point is that they’re so well suited, and you can’t beat Wuthering Heights for atmosphere. Unforgettable.

The post Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Kim Kingston — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 03:37:06 +0000

If the Brontes taught us high school English students how to love with passion, Jane Austen taught us how to choose our great loves with intelligence. Eliza Bennett chooses Fitzwilliam Darcy with her head before her heart, after freeing herself of pride and prejudice. This one stands up to multiple rereads because it’s thick with irony and humour and brilliant characters. Classic. And if you hanker for more, try Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld – a worthy modern update.

The post Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Kim Kingston — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 03:28:43 +0000

”Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am souless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you, and full as much heart. And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!” -Jane Eyre.

Ah, what fourteen year old heart could fail to be moved by this impassioned speech? Perhaps we love the Brontes because they taught us how to love, or at least gave us an ideal to strive towards and a sense of self worth. No matter how poor, obscure, plain and little we were, sweltering away in our high school classrooms a world and an age away from the Brontes’ damp parsonage on the Yorkshire Moors, Jane Eyre gave us the possibility of grand love if we stayed true to our own sense of right and wrong, while the life of its author and her sisters showed us that great passion and imagination can exist in lives that are outwardly ordinary.

And if it turns out our true love has a mad wife in the attic….well, the course of true love never did run smooth. But have faith, because it will all work out in the end. Jane Eyre is a classic, for a reason.

The post Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Kim Kingston — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 05:47:23 +0000

It’s a classic for a reason – profoundly good, unexpectedly funny and unforgettable. If you were unfortunate enough not to encounter it in your early teens, read it now. But whatever you do, don’t read the appalling Go Set a Watchman afterwards. That book should never have been published. It makes me so mad I could spit. Enough said.

The post To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.