Classics for Beginners discussion

I was wondering whether anyone knows of or really loves a novel because it although it's prose it's highly poetic at the same time. For instance I like a lot of Edgar Allan Poe's work because it is both prosaic and poetic. Also the one major thing I appreciate about The Great Gatsby is the poetic nature of how Fitzgerald writes. Are there any other classic books you could think of like that and recommend for reading? Because I'd like to read more like that.

I find Thomas Hardy's prose just lyrical.

I agree with Poe and Thomas Hardy - both renowned poets. Especially Hardy, from A Pair of Blue Eyes take for example;

These eyes were blue; blue as autumn distance, blue as the blue we see between the retreating mouldings of hills and woody slopes on a sunny September morning. A misty and shady blue, that had no beginning or surface, and was looked into rather than at.

Hardy is worth reading just because of his poetic prose. And I also would like to read more of the same.

I gave Hardy a try once but I was forced to give up because I was pressured for time. But I vowed to myself I'd go back and give him a proper read. I'd love to hear other suggestions from the classics too though because the best writing I've ever read is lyrical, particularly in description. Shakespeare is exceptionally poetic but many find him hard to read.

I don't know if poetic is the word, but I find Oscar Wilde's writing very beautiful. I'd recommend reading him if you haven't yet.

I'm not sure how lyrical the prose is, but the images conjured up when reading about "Dead London" in The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and in The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham is wonderfully bleak and scary.

Ah The Day of the Triffids is a to read.

Jonathan wrote: "Ah The Day of the Triffids is a to read."

I really enjoyed it. I had always thought it was a short story that inspired a hokey Twighlight Zone episode then a semi okay sci-fi movie.

Once I read it, I found it was a very good Dystopian novel, in keeping with H.G. Wells "Time Machine" and George Orwell's 1984. In fact, I liked it better.

It took the same kind of look at civilized man and scociety but offered some hope for redemption. I also found it much easier to read than the other two. That era (1984 and Day of the Triffids) with English writers yeilded some of the most wonderful lyrical, poetic or symbolic prose (1950s and 60s).

Wyndham's style turned out to be my favorite (as is his book).

I'm finding currently that in many aspects T.H.White's The Once and Future King is very lyrical. However he waxes and wanes more because he also throws in large chunks of description at times along with amusing and witty elements and humor. Very entertaining and a nice flow to the writing.

Definitely Lord Dunsany.

Interesting thread. Admittedly, I haven't read many "lyrical prose" books because I always seemed to have an affinity for fast-paced adventure instead. (I've recently started reading slower books that pack more elegance than punch, like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but I digress).

I wonder if we should post quotes, if any of us have copies? Lord Dunsany especially--he's gotten more praise than any other author I've heard of from my friends for his prose.

The following is somewhat atypical of Dunsany in subject matter (being about a real, contemporary city, if to take one away from it), but the style will immediately strike you as something today lost-

"When one has seen Spring's blossom fall in London, and Summer appear and ripen and decay, as it does early in cities, and one is in London still, then, at some moment or another, the country places lift their flowery heads and call to one with an urgent, masterful clearness, upland behind upland in the twilight like to some heavenly choir arising rank on rank to call a drunkard from his gambling-hell. No volume of traffic can drown the sound of it, no lure of London can weaken its appeal. Having heard it one's fancy is gone, and evermore departed, to some coloured pebble agleam in a rural brook, and all that London can offer is swept from one's mind like some suddenly smitten metropolitan Goliath."

- from The Field, in the collection A Dreamer's Tales

I suggest "Bull From The Sea" by Mary Stewart. She gives a realistic description on how Theseus may have defeated the Minotaur and performed his other heroic deeds (accomplishments of a capable man, but not a superhero demi-god). Her prose is considered a work of poetic art by many admirers; but not only that, the story is compelling as well.

John wrote: "I suggest "Bull From The Sea" by Mary Stewart. She gives a realistic description on how Theseus may have defeated the Minotaur and performed his other heroic deeds (accomplishments of a capable ma..."

John,
That book is by Mary Renault not Mary Stewart. It sounds interesting. I think I'll check it out.

Danielle The Book Huntress (Self-Proclaimed Book Ninja) wrote: "I don't know if poetic is the word, but I find Oscar Wilde's writing very beautiful. I'd recommend reading him if you haven't yet."

Danielle, I completely agree with you. When I first read The Picture of Dorian Gray it was the beauty of the prose that sucked me in rather than the actual story.

Ray Bradbury is another author who writes lyrically, but in a sparing way with no wasted words.