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"You ask yourself how did i not like this" is the best feeling as you understand how much your mind, your intelect has expanded

Hi Ben Wuthering Heights is and always will be,a very special read for me.Having been lucky enough to have my mum studying it college,when I was twelve.She gave it to me to read and we sat for many hours analysing it.I have read it countless times more over the years and it will always sit,in it's multi-faceted glory in my heart.I am a published poet and have just begun,what promises to be a very exciting degree with the OU on Eng Lit and creative writing,and am very much looking forward to your enthralling talks.

My answer: Severus Snape. Most fascinating, complex, deeply layered character ever.

Catching up on my watch later list now I have retired! Very interested in your comments about Russian Literature especially as I am aiming to read at least 3 this year. I started with Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak and was totally immersed. Should I try the Brothers karamazov or do you recommend something else? Really enjoyed your video and agree that as you age your appreciation of great literature increases. Interesting comments.

No Shirley Jackson.... hmmmmm.

My family will listen to an audiobook together at dinner time and will listen to a chapter or two together. Its very fun to experience it together with my kids

- For sheer poetry: Lombardo (4.5/5) is my favorite from this list. (Naturally "Speak, Memory" makes me think of Nabokov, which gives his work bonus points.) He definitely look poetic license, but it's poetry after all. Even if it's not "close to the Greek" at times, I don't care one bit: his translation really grabs me by the lapels and I want to read on. - For a closer translation: I'm really enjoying Peter Green (5): it's great poetry that wields out language well, it reads smoothly, and it's well-typeset with great notes. - For a prose version: I've really enjoyed both Rieu's (4) Iliad and Odyssey in the Penguin Clothbound Classics editions. Very smooth prose with subtle bits of aliteration, rhythm, etc which makes for a gently poetic reading which I like better than some of the more overt attempts. Also, there are some great little notes that don't distract from the text. Bottom of the list for me were Fagles and Wilson (2)-Pope (2.5) and Chapman (3) even beat them out in my ranking this time. While there's nothing wrong with Wilson and Fagles, they're just boring-which in a way is the worst wrong one can do with poetry. Odd though, I remember enjoying Fagles when I read him in college, but maybe it was his clarity. A decade later, I guess my tastes have changed. In any case, both are incredibly clear and I feel I understand the story very well, but it doesn't strike me as "poetry": they're water instead of wine, which is still refreshing in its own way.

Hi, I am reading my first English book, while learning the language with the Count of Monte Cristo. I hava read it so many times in Spanish that I almost know the dialogues of the story. I was watching your video about your book edition recommendation,and is the same Penguin&Robin Buss and that gave me some tranquility about my choice about the book. All this because it is not so easy to find the book en English, unless in latioamerica countries where I have been.

Wow! This was great! In fact, I don’t know if you marked each reading on this video, but I want to rewatch this and also to randomly pull each reading out of sequence. I want to do this several times. I already own 3 translations, which is too much for my level of reading.

So good I discovered this channel! I just read East of Eden and I really want to understand it deeper and want to learn more about John Steinbeck and all the symbolism in his books. This is my first Steinbeck’s book that I’ve read as I’m from another country originally and English isn’t my first language. I’m so excited to learn more!

Such an amazing video! Thank you

I looked up this set on the internet and found out it was worth 2.5 lakh (I live in India). I am 16 and started classics recently. 2.5 lakhs is like 1/3 of my father's annual salary. My father earns mediocre income but I hope that I will be able to buy this and Harvard classics when I grow up.

rasholnikov

The only problem I have with Blood Meridian, is what to read next. How does one follow that? Wow. Fantastic read.

There have been 2 characters that seemed so real in my life that I feel head over book in love. The first was Prince Andre, the second was Jamie Fraser. Not even Mr Darcy was able to do that.

Jake Barnes, The Sun Also Rises

I just finished reading this! And as usual with literature I go to your video of it to know all the surrounding things about the book. Marvelous and thanks for the vid, as always! I really enjoyed the book. I felt the power. I may not be as emotionally drawn into it as I expected, but it doesn't change the fact that this book is epic and will always be a classic.

I bought a copy on Kindle translated by your third choice Seidensticker with minor corrections, the price was right, no idea when I will get to it, enjoyed your video. Clarissa could have used a good editor, but I'm happy I read the letters, but I'd be lying if I said the redundancies did not irritate me.😂 Most interested in learning about old Kyoto, long before the Shogunate. Thank you, enjoyed it.❤

Ben is there a way I can talk to you about some possible affiliate marketing for a literature course?

Let's not forget FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE by J. Barzun😛😛

I ALSO read Frankenstin every year!

Well, as a Spaniard I always hope that Don Quixote and Sancho are on these lists, but I will add another couple that I really like, Sinuhé and Kaptah his servant. Excellent novel that I recommend to everyone (Sinuhé, the Egyptian).

I could watch him talk all day, for the rest of my life.

I loved reading the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories, but although they are very entertaining, there is virtually no humor in them. I assumed that Arthur Conan Doyle simply did not have much of a sense of humor. But then I read the Brigadier Gerard stories by Conan Doyle. What a great, funny character Gerard is, basically a cross between Napoleon and Pepé Le Pew. This character wasn't popular enough with the reading public to justify including him on a list like this. But he's definitely in my top 20, along with Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, who are two of the funniest and popular characters of the last 100 years.

70 percent are in English. Every day I thank God for the existence of english. I also thank god for their ability to write, clearly superior to that of the rest of us, and his objectivity, especially for his objectivity, an attribute that the people of the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and other English speaking countrys put on display every chance they get. Long live England and God save the queen ❤

You have no idea, how much I adore listening to you.

Behemoth (cat) is my absolute favorite. 😄

Best thing to do is to get a bunch of different translations and read the same passages in each translation side by side. See which one works best for you. It doesn't have to be the most popular translation or the most scholarly translation. All that can come later. What you want now is simply a way into the author or work, in this case Homer. I've known many people come to Homer (and other great authors) in translations most would deem subpar, yet the translation worked for them, and brought them to Homer, and they fell in love with his works. And they went on to read Homer in several other translations because they enjoyed him so much. A translation is like a host or guide to help bring you to Homer and Homer to you. The host or guide doesn't have to be the most popular or academic host guide, the most stylish and eloquent or intelligent, or the one everyone else seems to vibe with, but simply someone who can help you meet and greet the great writer. Later on you can find other hosts and guides if you like. But for your first encounter with the great author, go with whichever host or guide or translation you find can bring you to Homer. Even if it's Butler. 😉

As for East of Eden, my favourite characters were Charls and Cathy !! Perhaps an unpopular opinion...! I was fascinated by Cathy's story too much and I wish we would see more of Charls! I personally didn't care for Adam's story that much xD Still a great read nonetheless!!

"The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it." William Blake. One of my favorite things about Don Quixote is how nearly everyone in Part II has read Part I, and comments on it. For great characters, I would vote for Hazel Motes from Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood

I read Pride and Prejudice in high school didn’t quite get it … Few years later …. Read it again …. Saw a movie And it blew my mind ….. I’m 66 my children all love pride and prejudice … Watched the 1995 series … Read the book out load together I then made costumes for all four children including my 6 year old son who was of course Mr Darcy 3 girls swapped parts according to their moods I now read this fabulous book every time we travel any long distance And or listen to the audio ….. With 8 grand children ….. the costumes are at the ready ♥️

Coolest classic novel ever?

Going through Washburn's version right now, via the audiobook. I love it! I agree that his style is quite modern.

Please can you explain the rivals by Sheridan

Some of the best advice that could ever be given. Whole heartedly agree.

I just recently signed up for the LOA subscription and got the Steinbeck series. Beautiful, quality copies that lay nicely on my hands as I read them.

This is a large part of why I have resumed literary studies as a middle aged man, part of my own reconstruction of a faith that works for me as a person.

Aunt Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield. In her own way, she shows the orphanned Davy what love means.

Please read Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Hello,I am listening to your lectures to more fully understand how to study the wonderful books that I read in the past, about sixty years ago I read the Brothers Karamazov and reading to me was pick the book off the shelf and read it. No deep reading involved.I look forward to the challenge presented by your thought provoking lectures. Thank you

Agatha Christie's ms marple and the detective with the best mustache ever, Mr poirot❤

I love Severus Snape ❤

11:15 😢

Cute. Interesting, no Fitzgerald at all by now. I find him very surprising. I read this duo of competing friends - Hemingway and Fitzgerald - in middle school (along with La Comédie humaine). All of Fitzgerald's characters drove me crazy. He was obviously a great talent, because not everyone can evoke such an emotional response. I just hated all of them :D Zelda is also interesting. Sometimes I will compile a list of women who were too intelligent for society and went crazy :)

I admire your passion for the subject. As a teenager in the seventies, I was more interested in football , motorbikes etc than reading and I think the education system at the time was facing significant change and challenges. I have mild attention deficit and find reading a book a bit difficult. Talking books are good for this, can listen to chapters several times. My character is 'william Brown' from the Richmal Crompton books.

Great insight in geat characters ,indeed,but i have an uneasy feeling that you avoided Joyce 'characters because that would be mainstream!! Keep on challangig us with the nuances of lierature!!!

As an INFP myself, I think I have to go with Levin as my favourite character 😆🙌, but I also love characters from the world of Austen and Tolstoy in general. They're my absolute favourites!

I marvel that in 4th grade, we read- and understood- The Red Pony, The Pearl, and The Old Man And The Sea. I'm 63 now, and I am so grateful my teachers didn't judge our abilities by our income brackets and exposed us to great literature at such a young age. 🎁 What a precious lifelong gift.

I just finished The Count of Monte Cristo and have now moved on to Moby Dick. As my copy is not annotated--Why not, Penguin?!--I very quickly went looking for some kind of annotations online. I found the Power Moby-Dick website and it has been extremely helpful. Just passing that along for anyone else trying to get through this book and wanting a little assistance.

It's that long?? So all I've been seeing r heavy abridgments