Please recommend a "classic" that would be good for a book club. (novel, edition)

[krichton]

Beowulf
Call of the Wild
Frankenstein
Where the Wild Things Are

[MsMcQ LV]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned my perennial favorite - Lord of the Rings. If you do as many discussion/reading groups do and limit the number of pages covered at one sitting, this can keep your club occupied for months!

[Huckleberry3911948]

tale of 2 cities.

[hutch5]

Of course it depends on your taste and on what you consider a classic.

I recommend anything by Thomas Hardy for example if you don't mind 19th century English.

[kevxu]

Consider reading a classic from somewhere other than the US or Europe:

Things Fall Apart - Nigeria
The Makioka Sisters - Japan
Riders in the Chariot - superb Australian book

[Ketabcha]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

tale of 2 cities.

I second A Tale of Two Cities. It's an interesting book and actually very exciting, too.

[Aconite]

If it's a women's book club, what about something by Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Dorothy L Sayers, one of the Brontes, or another notable female writer (besides Jane Austen, who's been done to death)?

[BlueWillowPlate]

I will 3rd A Tale of Two Cities.

Also:

Little Women

Rebecca (Dumaurier)

It is not a classic, but it is almost a modern book club classic:

The Stone Diaries

[StarlaJane]

Originally Posted by Ketabcha

I second A Tale of Two Cities. It's an interesting book and actually very exciting, too.

And great if read with, "The Scarlet Pimpernel," which gives an alternative perspective of the revolution.

[plaidmom]

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) by Stendhal

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald


These are all written by males, but have themes that I think a women's reading group will enjoy discussing.

I could also compose a list of "contemporary classics" by female authors.