Many thanks to those of you who joined us for Sunday’s True Story Book Club event. This month’s pick, Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman, has us considering the classics. Namely: What qualifies as a “classic” novel, and which are among our team’s favorites? Read on to find out!

Nicole Blair:

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy left a big impression on me. Not sure if I can say it's my favorite classic novel, but it is an absolutely tragic tale with a resilient (and vengeful) lead female character. I think the commentary on Victorian society, and most especially the male-female power imbalance was really important. It is at times a difficult and infuriating read, but I loved that while Tess was struck down over and over again, she was always trying to take back some agency over her own life and story.

Angie Sanchez:

Beloved by Toni Morrison is my favorite because it is masterpiece and it was also the only piece of required reading in my high school that wasn’t written by white person.

Emma Kiely-Hampson:

Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Many may not think of this book as a “true” classic but it is one of those books that marks the beginning of the Victorian era of writing, with all the mystery nuances of a Sherlock Holmes story with the clear indications of what it is like to be a woman. This is a book I recommend to everyone who enjoys mystery. A classic that keeps you riveted to the end.

Shannon McCarthy:

I recently became utterly obsessed with Jane Austen’s Persuasion. The quiet yearning of Anne and Captain Wentworth’s (abandoned? forgotten?) love story was such a balm to me in the midst of last year’s chaos. I was so inspired, in fact, that I’ve taken up collecting copies of the novel that I discover in used and indie bookstores!

Abby Bennsky:

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes with me knows how much I love Wuthering Heights. Brooding men, a family torn apart by revenge, and, of course, the moors. Who doesn't love a good moor? I originally picked up the book a few summers ago, before going to England for grad school, mostly because I'd recently read Jane Eyre and that it was good. What I didn't expect to find in Emily Brontë's only novel was an example of prime reality tv, with the two families fighting over class, money, marriage.

And, of course, it has one of my favorite lines of literature ever put to the page: "Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same." What better words to describe that overwhelming feeling of infatuation and admiration that comes with young love, but yet could also describe a relationship after years together? And it's made even better in context, where Cathy, our doomed heroine, assures our narrator, Nelly, that she and Heathcliff are made to be together simply due to the fact that they're both complete jerks. What could be more #iconic.

Ally Kirkpatrick:

I don't know that I have a favorite classic novel, or exactly what qualifies as "classic" - could 1960s era writing be considered classic? Or should I think back to my English class days from college to pick one? Sometimes I think of "classic" as code word for "required reading." The sorts of books you studied in school, novels that were of their time and place and said something about that history, about society. What comes to mind for me now, though, wasn't required reading. It was a book a teacher slipped me one day in class, a book she thought I'd like because I wanted to be a writer.

That book was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I read somewhere online where it was referred to as "the original YA" - so classic, in its own sense. When my 7th grade English teacher handed me a copy of The Outsiders I gobbled it up. At first The Outsiders felt like just another boy story, I had read lots of those. When my teacher told me it was written by a girl just a few years older than me? I re-read it, feverishly. A girl wrote this! A boy story? I can't say this is my favorite classic, but it was a formative one. It showed me a young authors imagination come to life on the page. That fact alone was a resounding inspiration.

Jen Cheng:

It may be an unoriginal choice, but it's the honest one: Pride and Prejudice is my favorite classic novel. I'm under the spell of Jane Austen's gem-like prose and Lizzy Bennet's spirit and wit every time I reread it. We have several editions in stock, including the popular Penguin Classics clothbound edition and the fun novelty edition with letters that you can remove and read separately. We also have a jigsaw puzzle and board game.

However, if you've read any Austen, you've read Pride and Prejudice, so I'm also going to put in a word for my second favorite Austen novel, Persuasion. Persuasion was Jane Austen's last complete novel. Generally considered to be less polished due to Austen’s illness and death during its composition, it is nevertheless considered the best Austen novel by many an English professor and Austenite.

Persuasion is not as brilliant, sparkling, and sublimely polished as Pride and Prejudice, but it is more subtle, and it offers a different display of Austen’s skills as a mature novelist. It is the most interior (by which I mean, so much of the action occurs in the thoughts and emotions of the main characters) of Austen’s novels, and has the most intensely emotional climax (yes I'm talking about Wentworth's letter) of any of her works. Yet the same heroine, Anne Elliot, who has "the power of loving, when all hope is gone" is also one of Austen’s most self-controlled heroines.

If you are reading an Austen novel for the first time or re-reading, I strongly recommend the particular paperback editions of Austen's novels that are annotated by scholar David Shapard. His annotations are easy to read and not at all stuffy, and my understanding of context was enriched by his insights and references.

Blog contributions by Nicole Blair, Angie Sanchez, Emma Kiely-Hampson, Shannon McCarthy, Abby Bennsky, Ally Kirkpatrick, and Jen Cheng.
Photos by Nicole Blair and Shannon McCarthy.
Edited by Shannon McCarthy.