I like Oliver Twist. It's amazing how rich in language this book is, and the descriptions are vivid. It is a sad book, but I think I like the book more than the movie. "Please sir, can I have some more?".
Several years ago I read through the Charles Dickens writings. I would like to return and read them again. Bob
This list could be long for me. I love poetry and Jerusalem Liberated is an overlooked book. Does Lotr count as a classic yet. The Consolation of Philosophy is big as a Road to Serfdom and Escape from Freedom but both are only about 75 years old.
If Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience qualify as classics, those two are high on my list. Thoreau quoted the Bible many times in Walden. And Civil Disobedience contains thoughts which seem particularly apropos in the current situations.
To be fair, I love some brazilian authors like Machado de Assis and Graciliano Ramos. Specially the "Vidas Secas" (Dried Lifes) from Ramos is a magnificente story about a family that lives in the brazilian northeast backlands and have to run away from the hunger and killing that destroys the region. From Assis I recommend "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas" (The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas) and "Dom Casmurro", both are beatiful and ironic stories, typical of Assis's humor. PS.: I don't know their titles in english, but I'm sure that they aren't difficult to find.
I am a fan of the Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper. He is often cited as the first significant American novelist. In the next sentence his writing is often derided as overly flowery trash akin to a slow paced dime novel. It is then that I realize the literary critic has never visited upstate New York or any of the places that Cooper described in great flowery detail. Cooper's novels are not masterful critiques of society, which seems to be the faddish definition of great literature. There is an aspect in which Cooper's saga is a morality tale. I find it fascinating that he did not write them consecutively. Rather, the chronology jumps around as if he thought from time to time, "I've left a gap in the tale that I can fill in." My personal favorite is The Prairie. It presents the mountain man trying to live nobly and consistent with his principles as he nears death.
I would second the recommendation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy... One of the greatest works of literature from antiquity, had a lot of impact on me, and is very applicable to Christians today
I love Boethius. I would rank the Consolation of Philosophy up there with St. Augustine's Confessions. For myself, there are so many that have impacted me in one way or another: Seneca's Letters, Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero's speeches and Dialogues, and, of course Plato.
Dickens is great. I adore A Christmas Carol, even though it's one of his simpler works. For Christian works - Augustine's Confessions has got to be on the list. Others I'd recommend are Dante's Divine Comedy, and if you have the patience for good books that can be a bit of a slog; More's Utopia and Milton's Paradise Lost. For fun I'd say 100 Years of Solitude, Don Quixote, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Robinson Crusoe, Pride and Prejudice, Les Miserables (that being the Hugo book, not the Musical, although that's great too), Moby Dick, War and Peace. These just came to mind from looking at my bookshelf, but I feel like there's plenty I'm missing. For a break from narrative fiction I'd recommend Marcus Aurelius's Meditations and Livy's History of Rome (if you have the patience read it, but otherwise this might be one you want an audiobook for). Also if you're interested in politics; Plato, Cicero, and The Prince are all worthwhile.
I also love Dickens - someone recently described his writing as bringing the universe alive through his descriptions. He is such a vivid observer of humanity in all its glory and all it's fragility. At this time of year A Christmas Carol is actually rather a deeply moving read. Zola features highly on my list as another wonderful observer of humanity and its struggle.
I also like Narnia, even as an adult. To be honest, I think the movies just ruined the book . I like Italian/Petrarchan sonnets, even if I don’t understand them, I think it’s the beauty and aesthetics of the lines, and poetic devices that make it enjoyable. I was deeply touched by <Gerhard Manley Hopkins> and his poem “Felix Randal” about the dying farrier who listens to the priest as he dies.
When I was a boy I was greatly entertained by the tale A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It's my favorite of Mark Twain's many novels.