Classics for Beginners discussion

I am looking for some help to compile a list of books. With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 just passing I was a little curious about books. I am looking to compile a list of books that came from OTHER tragedies or wars. I am looking for well known classics here that have become a sign of that time, tragedy, and the people who where there to deal with and survive it. Again I am not looking for 9/11 books I am looking for other times for example: Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, World Wars, Civil War, etc. Can anyone help me?

How about "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom or The Diary of Anne Frank?

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour
One of my all time favorite books.

Also, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Oops ... these are new. "modern" classics, maybe? Sorry, I'm tired. :-)

Heidi wrote: "How about "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom or The Diary of Anne Frank?"

Absolutely this one!

And I'd add, a book or two of Rudyard Kipling stories. Kipling isn't thought of as a War Story Writer, well not in a traditional sense, but his poems "Charge of the Light Brigade" for example (...Into the valley of death rode the 600... Or something like that, my memory fails).

Still Kipling spent much of his life in, and wrote many stories about the British Empirical Forces trying to keep a hold on their "India" Colony with a growing sense of rebellion and restlessness, and anger against the English Yoke.

How about "Gunga Din?"

To get an idea of how his work (and the work of others) affected how the outside world looked at English Rule of India, simply watch one of the best Action/Adventure movies of all time:

"Gunga Din" Staring, Harol Flynn and Douglass Fairbanks Junior, and whoever played the irascable old Master Sargent that kept the Regiment alive at all costs! (possibly Clarke Gable, and/or equal possibility that Rock Hudson had an appearance in this film too, though I think the "Rock" would have been too young, and Gable to engaged in other projects.)

(my point is not that this is how it was. It's that this is how Kipling's and the literrary work of others has affected how the outside world viewed things and shaped opinions beyond the borders the colony. Accurate view or not, Kipling tended to be, if not fair to the people of India (a people who had lived in the region long before Hamurapi and Mesepotnaia, and had once held some of the longest lasting dynasties on earth) , more fair than others writers and historians of his time and he appriciated beauty of wildest Southern Asia from it's peoples, their rich history and beautiful terain. This is where Winston Churchill learned how to wage war and make no mistake. If not all out war, there was plenty of conflict, skulldugery and Mayhem that included some very large battles between humongus armies and long campaigns against the enemies of the crown, like the legendary Cult of Thugi!

War's War... it doesn't need 2 W(s) with a romen numeral in the title count.

Not sure how many of these will be considered as classics, but here are ten titles that I think are possibles for this list.

The 1857 Indian Rebellion: The Siege of Krishnapur
The Glencoe Massacre: Corrag
Naploeonic wars: War and Peace
First World War: The Road Back, Regeneration
Second World War: Sophie's Choice, The Dark Room, Life and Fate
Korean war: The Surrendered
Chlorea epidemic: The Plague

The Sharpe series was set in the Napoleonic Wars as well. There are several in the series ... here's a link to a set. Set of 11 Books: Sharpe's Rifle; ...Eagle; ...Gold; ...Company; ...Sword; ...Enemy; ...Honor; ,,,Regiment; ...Siege; ...Revenge; ...Waterloo

John Jakes wrote many books set during war times ... both American Civil war (North & South, Love & War, Heaven & Hell) and American Revolutionary War (The Bastard and several others in that series).

Hugh - Tennyson wrote the 'Charge of the Light Brigade' - half a league onward into the valley of death rode the 600 etc.

Kipling wrote the less well known 'The Last of the Light Brigade', the first verse:

There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.

Tennyson's poem was contemporary with the Crimian war, and glorified the Charge into the public's imagination. Kiplings was written some 20 years later, and it is about the hardships faced by the returning soldiers; it seems to me to ever so slightly mock Tennysons poem.

Now I thought this thread was started to delve into those stories centering on the human suffering and the human condition that these tragedies inflict, and the different ways people find, or don't as if often the case, to struggle through them. My posting concentrated on this from the books I have read. Maybe the Sharpe novels do this, but I had the impression that these were more about the actual drama of battle, and the manuvering's of war. Certainly there would be many a good war story, that whilst describing the hoors of battle, do not really go into the turmoils and emotions faced by the people more generally affected.

Hence I would applaud Kipling's mention, and good as Tennyson's poem is, I think Kiplings would be the most fitting of the two.

Jimmy wrote: "Hugh - Tennyson wrote the 'Charge of the Light Brigade' - half a league onward into the valley of death rode the 600 etc.

Kipling wrote the less well known 'The Last of the Light Brigade', the f..."

I stand corrected, Jimmy, you are right. Tennyson wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade and that is associated with a different campaign all together. (There's a History Channel Documentary about the Crimean Wars that referenced Tennyson a lot. I need to watch it again.


I'm going to go in my book before I try to pull something off the top of my head next time.

And, I'm with you. as much as I love Tennyson, I applaud Kipling for actualy "seeing" the people around him and what was happening to them. He gets my vote.

In addition to what's been mentioned already ...

Civil War - The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Pearl Harbor - From Here to Eternity by James Jones

World War I - Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

Napoleanic Wars (French invasion of Russia) - War and Peace by leo Tolstoy

French Revolution - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

There is a some Shakespeare like Henry V

I'd definitely suggest:

War: All Quiet on the Western Front

Tragedy: Macbeth and Hamlet for sure. And also Ethan Frome
For a children's tragedy there's Bridge to Terabithia

Conflictual Circumstances: The Crucible The Great Gatsby and the Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe