need suggestions of SHORT classics!

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need suggestions of SHORT classics!

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1mabith
Apr. 3, 2012, 9:16 am

I had the foolish notion to start an online book discussion group with some Livejournal friends (and their friends). It's quickly become apparent that they're all a bit lazy and don't even want to nominate books for us to read (this is a bad sign for the group, I know).

They all seem to have jobs and social lives and such things so we're focusing on shorter books, mostly classics/modern classics, but with some general fiction thrown in as well.

I'm going through my recently read lists for shorter books, but felt I needed some extra help!

In case any of you would like to join the group, here it is: http://the-bookies.livejournal.com/

2extrajoker
Apr. 3, 2012, 6:54 pm

Are you considering short stories at all? Saki's a good one. Here's the complete text of "The Open Window":

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/OpeWin.shtml

And Roald Dahl did some great twist-ending short stories.

3mabith
Apr. 3, 2012, 6:58 pm

Saki is certainly wonderful, I've got a great old edition, but we're really looking to focus on novels. I'm not looking for 100 page novellas or anything, just shorter classics (and felt asking was easier than looking up titles at random and checking their page counts).

4BTRIPP
Apr. 3, 2012, 7:41 pm

You might want to page through the Dover Thrift Editions ... http://amzn.to/HIkwLT ... I buy these all the time both for catching up on stuff I didn't read back in college, and pushing up an on-line order to over $25 for free shipping. Most of them are just a couple of bucks, and under 100 pages.

5nessreader
Bearbeitet: Apr. 12, 2012, 7:33 am

Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth is amazingly short, especially for her - it was a regional novel before Walter Scott kicked off his Scottish/historical series. (The dialogue done in phonetic accents is a pain, mind)

Cranford by Gaskell might be an easy sell since it's been televised with Judy Dench in by the BBC - it's episodic, funny, warm and women character centred.

Jane Austen's juvenalia includes some little known novellas that might be new to your group, and she's always readable - Catherine or Love and Freindship might be worth a go.

Sorry, in a hurry, so this is off the top of my head.

ETA: all kinda girly picks above, which is what I read for choice - maybe also Stalky and Co (also episodic and funny, a school story about poshos written for adults, Kipling as ever v imperialistic which can set hackles up but then again, makes for discussion)
Aspern Papers is short and not as convoluted sentences as James can be. Um. My sentences could use some improving, yes.

Yellow Wallpaper is a feminist classic, going girly again, is avail cheap from dover classics as mentioned above. Creeping madness, v unsettling.

Modest Proposal is nonfiction, is all repressed rage and sneaky horridity, dover thrift, cheap edition available.

Flatland is a bizarre mathematical fantasy. Warning; all the characterisation is two dimensional.