English Literature Classics

Surely every high school student has had to read at one time or another one of the interminably long and dry books that English teachers love to call "classics" and make a class read agonizingly slowly over a period of months. Something like, oh, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations comes to mind. There's nothing wrong with the book, except that it is too long and too dry and too often read in English classes. It is not any more impressive the second time it is required than the first, either. Perhaps the problem is that teachers spend too much time psychoanalyzing the main characters.

At any rate, there do exist classics that have well-paced plots and interesting stories to tell, however few and far between. The primary feature of such interesting books seems to be that they introduce relatively surprising plot twists that serve to carry the momentum of reading. Second, they have interesting characters that the reader learns to truly care about as they go through the events of the book. Third, they realistically and accurately depict an era of history, by being set either in the era of the author, which is still historical to a modern reader, or further back in history than the author. Highlighted here are three classics that possess each of these features.

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

In case it seemed that way by the criticism of Great Expectations, for the record there is nothing wrong with Dickens himself. In fact, he wrote one of the best classics of all time, A Tale of Two Cities, which is a heart-wrenchingly accurate story set during the French Revolution about two men who look almost identical, and the heroic sacrifice of one of them. The two cities are London and Paris, and the two men are Charles Darnay, a French nobleman, and Sydney Carton, an English lawyer. While the opening statement, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." is one of the more famous quotes from English literature, the ending is just as memorable. However, it is generally only known by those who have read the book. No spoilers here. Wade through Dickens' rambling text and uncover a gem of a story.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

If you are interested in the French Revolution and think A Tale of Two Cities is accurate, take a look at The Scarlet Pimpernel. Not only is the setting accurate, but Orczy wrote about people who actually existed. The Scarlet Pimpernel itself is the code name for an English aristocrat who is smuggling refugees out of Paris during the Revolution. The book is crafted as a mystery, so that even the reader is not told the the identity of this man until at least halfway through the book, because he is extremely clever at hiding his identity and pretending to be much less clever than he really is. Throw in some romance, betrayal, and disguises, and get a really captivating story. Orczy originally wrote the story as a play, which became very popular. She also went on to write a series of sequels about the Scarlet Pimpernel and his family, but only the original book is very commonly read.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

This book is an early form of the modern detective novel. Walter Hartwright meets and rescues the "woman in white" of the title on the way to a new job working for Mr. Fairlie. When he arrives, he is extremely surprised to meet Mr. Fairlie's beautiful niece Laura, because she closely resembles the woman in white. Add insanity, deceit, an unwanted betrothal, and multiple shifting points of view to produce a very interesting plot that unwinds slowly, with several surprising twists.

There are others, as well, but these three are a good place to start. Further reading might include some of the Scarlet Pimpernel sequels, or perhaps some French or German literature.

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