Classics! Oh, yes...
The category of Classics is such a wide and vast area. Various categories of the "Classics" include Classical Studies, Medieval Literature, Renaissance Literature, European Literature, British Literature, American Literature, and countless more which have their own sub-categories.
“What are my top ten classics is a very difficult question to ask...”
Here are my top ten which derive from a wide range of classics:
Frankenstien, Mary Shelley
"One to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart." - Mary Shelley, Introduction to Frankenstein 1831
I am a fan of Gothic Literature especially when it comes to Romanticism and the Romantic Period. Shelley's novel is one of the few novels in my lifetime where my very first reaction was, "wow..." It made me deeply reflect and think about the essence of human nature. The narrative is very complex with the epistolary, its layers of narrators, and their reliability.
2. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
"All hope abandon, ye who enter here." - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
As far as epics go, this is my favorite! I remember my first experience reading this while at a metro-park. The further the Poet travels through hell with Virgil, the colder my surroundings became outside while reading this. As I was reading, I too, felt I was there with the Poet and it made my first time experience with this classic most memorable. I suppose this has more sentimental value but still a classic!
3. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
"I hope she'll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
It is difficult for me to choose a favorite from this author, but The Great Gatsby executes well in capturing the spirit of The Roaring Twenties. Funny enough, this novel did not do well when it was published in 1925. It was not as well received as Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise. Now, it's considered as a classic and heavily studied in American Literature scholarship. One of the things that draw me to this novel is how Fitzgerald uses this work as a Roman à clef. For example, the quote I used above is from Zelda Fitzgerald. In 1921, Zelda gave birth to their only child, Frances "Scottie" Fitzgerald. Scott used Zelda's reaction to the birth in The Great Gatsby when Daisy states her reaction to the birth of her daughter.
4. "The Black Cat," Edgar Allan Poe
"Yet mad I am not... And very surely do I not dream." - Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat
Let's get spooky again! Poe is of course one of my all time favorite writers, but as far as short stories go, this is my all time classic. My favorite line from this story is: "But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan" (Poe 11). Definitely, chills my spine. What stands out for this story is how "The Black Cat" illustrates the capacity of the human mind to observe its own deterioration and the ability of the mind to comprehend its own destruction without being able to objectively stop its deterioration. The narrator is also aware of this deterioration and at certain points, he identifies a change occurring within him. He does all he can to do something about this change in him, but he actually reverses into madness.
5. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know as we know you." - Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
This novel contains everything I would hope for in a slow burner. It has adventure, romance, betrayal, and revenge! From an academic point of view, I am fascinated by Edmond Dantes who illustrates manifestations of the Byronic Hero. Dantes is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. For example, Dantes is essentially a lonely, rebellious and brooding hero that does not possess "heroic virtue" in the usual sense. Dantes grows as a character from an innocent man who had a great future to being accused of a Bonapartist traitor. Dantes sent to prison changes him drastically and he develops traits such as being ruthless, arrogant, and intelligent. He becomes more dedicated in pursing matters of justice over legality. He did not care about the costs for seeking revenge and obtains the power to control others in his life. Hmm... This sounds like a nice academic debate?
6. The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe
"Do you believe your heart to be, indeed, so hardened, that you can look without emotion on the suffering, to which you would condemn me?" - Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe is a rare gem. During the 1790s as a female author, she made a huge impact on Gothic Romance and the gothic genre overall. It is difficult for me to choose which of her classics to place on this list because I adore them all. What impresses me the most about her writing is her description and how she utilizes language to harness dread. Radcliffean narratives such as Udolpho are characterized by an emphasis upon psychological suspense over bodily gore, by an omnipresent sense of mystery and obscurity over fast-paced action, and by hints and suggestions of ghostly activity over fully realized manifestations of the supernatural. This technique is known as "explained supernatural" to whereas her competitor of the time, Matthew Lewis's The Monk utilizes gore. This establishes two different distinctive traits of the gothic, terror and horror which characterizes different categories of the Gothic known as the Female Gothic and Male Gothic.
7. Macbeth, William Shakespeare
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes." - William Shakespeare, Macbeth
I do not need to discuss what entails this play as a classic. There are many Shakespeare plays and even his Sonnets that I love which are considered as classics! It is hard to pinpoint which of Shakespeare's works I consider the top as a classic for this list. Before Covid, I indulged myself at the Great Lakes Theatre Company and watched all the Shakespeare plays they would perform and throughout my academic career, there are Shakespeare courses that remain dear to me. Macbeth has to be my most favorite Shakespeare play and this is why it is on my list. What makes it my most favorite is the academia I have written about this play for several classes. Such a class is a Shakespeare and Freud class where many graduates learned about psychoanalysis. Also, I saw this play at Playhouse Square where the stage was converted as an Elizabethan stage. I was fortunate enough to sit upon the stage and observe the play. This experience made Macbeth more memorable for me. What are your favorite Shakespeare plays or sonnets?
8. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee
"I am a doctor. A.B.... M.A.... PH.D... ABMAPHID! Abmaphid has been variously described as a wasting disease of the frontal lobes, and as a wonder drug. It is actually both. I'm really very mistrustful." - Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Some and perhaps many are familiar with this one because of the movie version. Actually reading this play, however, was quite the experience. I admire Albee for his craft in writing dark comedy and humor. Think about it... There's The Zoo which has a disturbing twist at the end, and The Goat... Which is... Well, where the main character has particularly "different" tastes in his sexuality.... Ahem! Anyway... This play has to take the cake as a classic on my list out of those two plays I've mentioned. The motif of reality versus illusion is key throughout this play because each character has their own illusions. Martha says that she is indeed, the illusion their son sustains George and Martha's tempestuous marriage. George takes it upon himself to "kill" that illusion when Martha brings it too far into reality. It is difficult to see what is fact and fiction with the story about their son. Nick and Honey's lives are based on illusion as well. Nick married for money, not love. He is strong and forceful, but Honey has been deceiving him by using birth control to prevent pregnancy. Perhaps, Albee believed that a life of illusion is wrong because it creates a facade for life, just like George and Martha's empty marriage revolves around their "son." Any thoughts on Albee's intentions?
9. Dracula, Bram Stoker
"There are darkness in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights." - Bram Stoker, Dracula
There is so much to say about this novel... This is indeed a classic, but it is not the very first vampire tale. There are other vampire stories worth mentioning that lead up to Stoker's masterpiece. I would like to point out John Polidori's short story, "The Vampyre" (1819), the first published modern vampire story. That vampire story was conceived at the same time as Shelley's Frankenstein when Lord Byron proposed a ghost story writing competition. It was a dismal, rainy summer's night when the ghost story competition was set with Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and Polidori. Byron did not care to finish his story, "A Fragment." Instead, Polidori based his vampire tale on this fragment while Mary Shelley set out to write her first novel. Another worthy vampire story, is Carmilla an 1872 novella written by Sheridan Le Fanu. This story entails a female vampire preying upon a female protagonist which is quite interesting on its own. This novella is twenty-six years before Stoker's Dracula.
10. Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory
"The very purpose of a knight is to fight on behalf of a lady." - Thomas Malory
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight came close to this list, but I had to go with Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. There is so much richness in the composition of this medieval text. There are vast influences of King Arthur which derive from The Mabinogion, Chrétien de Troyes, Geoffrey of Monmouth and his History of the Kings of Britain. Malory compied, rearranged, interpreted, and modified mateiral from various French, Welsh, and English sources such as mentioned. Written in prison, this book was published in 1485 towards the end of the medieval English era by William Caxton. There are modern editons under various titles which tackle various changes in spelling, grammar, and pronouns for readers of modern English, however, I have had the pleasure of reading this work in Middle English prose. There are also two key versions to this text which include the Caxton and the Winchester Manuscript. Arguably, the differences between these two versions are that the Winchester version is believed to be closer on the whole to Malory's original and does not have book or chapter divisions which Caxton takes creditability in his preface.