52 Classic Books For 2023

hello my bookish friends out there in youtube land have i got a treat for you today 52 authors 52 books for 52 weeks of the year if you want to do the one book a week challenge so grab yourself a coffee get ready to listen to the quickest synopsis of each book and let's dig in captain corelli's mandolin weighs in at 520 pages it covers the story of dr yanis and his daughter pelagia on the island of kefalonia at the outbreak of world war ii when the italians invade they're led by captain corelli a sophisticated and cultured captain who brings a mandolin whenever he's greeted with how hitler he replies hail puccini pallagia and corelli engage in a love affair but how does one navigate friendships feuds prejudices and politics in a time of war read the book to find out the woman in white by wilkie collins weighs in over 700 pages it's his most famous work and begins when walter hartwright crosses paths with a woman on a moonlit night all dressed in white in an eerie ghostly scene the story will then unfold taking you through the drawing rooms and mansions of london high society all the way into the mad house a study in scarlet by conan doyle weighing in at 225 pages this is where watson first meets sherlock holmes he's totally bowled over as are we the reader when in moments of entering a murder scene holmes has worked out how tall the person was that did it their motive for doing it how they arrived at the scene of the crime and how they left all with impeccable logic the spy who came in from the cold by john le carr is 300 pages long it is called the finest spy story ever told and follows alex leia mass on his last assignment in the cold war he's seen many an agent murdered in a world full of politics and intrigue and now it could well be him what's amazing about this work is it's not a thriller in the sense of good guy bad guy but all of the characters on both sides are human and they are trapped in a malevolent world that they have no control over wuthering heights by emily bronte is about 400 pages long it features vengeance betrayal violence passion all on the backdrop of the wild and howling moors which are as untamed as the two protagonists catherine and heathcliff the book just brims with gothic atmosphere an atmosphere so dense it's normally reserved for the fates and greek tragedy the tenant of wildfowl hall by anne bronte about 550 pages long sees the woman helen graham move in to occupy wildfowl hall on the outskirts of a small english village with her only son and she's doesn't have her husband with her obviously gossip ensues and people are intrigued but we the reader are given the backstory of helen's past featuring domestic violence and abuse which she manages to rise above with a righteousness and a patience that is saintly and triumphs evil once and for all in a book it also sheds light on a very interesting theme of how young boys are educated and how that makes them turn out don quixote by cervantes is about 900 pages long and along with the bible the greek tragedies shakespeare cervantes novel makes the fourth pillar on which the great western canon stands considered to be the first novel as we would recognize it it follows the course of the errant knight don quixote and his friend sancho panzer through the bizarre comical and touching the very affecting adventures they go through catch 22 by joseph heller is about 520 pages long it follows bombardier yosarian as he's infuriated by the ever increasing number of sautes that he's supposed to fly at the end of the second world war but what is the catch-22 well if he chooses to accept to fly then he's insane and therefore he shouldn't fly but if he chooses not to fly then he must be sane and therefore has to fly that's a bit of a sticky wicket to be in the stranger by albert camus is about 185 pages long life without direction existence without meaning actions without motives this is a philosophical existential work um which explores the ever-increasing sensation of uncertainty in our own feelings when surrounded by a society that has a general norm of feeling heart of darkness by joseph comrade his most famous work it's about 130 pages long and focuses on marlow telling the story of how he went up the congo river in search of a renowned ivory hunter kurtz the book is claustrophobic and oppressive it's trapped by the jungle that surrounds the novel and they never depart from the boat is heart of darkness actually an anti-colonial message is joseph comrade saying that kurtz is king leopold of belgium who owned the congo as his personal fighter rebecca by daphne du maurier is about 430 pages long rebecca meets maxim de winter when she's on a trip to southern france oddly enough they fall in love and get married quite quickly but not long after the marriage maxim has a an inexplicable alteration in his personality and now rebecca is alone in this mansion terrified of a man she barely knows and everywhere she goes is haunted with the specter and shadow of the old madame de winter one flew over the cuckoo's nest by ken casey i think that's how you say it 320 pages long approximately the inmates of an oregon mental institute are held in subordination and in fear by nurse ratched she threatens them with electric shock therapy if they're disobedient they're kept submissive by being over medicated and that is until a new person is placed into the mental institute called murphy who sees what's going on and deliberately and with fern wants to challenge the nurse's regime this is all told through the eyes of the indian mute patient who's the narrator brighton rock by graham green is about 280 pages long and it focuses on the underworld of brighton itself where pinky decides to kill an enemy rival who has become an informer he thinks he's untouchable however what happens when someone is determined with righteous indignation to see that justice is done this is where you see how one crime leads to another and what happens to the psyche of a person who becomes amoral it's not just a psychological exploration but a rollercoaster read which you will zip through as if it was only 50 pages long now what about huckleberry finn by mark twain about 355 pages i don't think it needs a synopsis huckleberry finn and jim the slave escape on a raft down the mississippi river and encounter a whole host of people and incidents along the way have you read it north and south by elizabeth gaskell is a great work of 500 pages what does one do when one is personally attracted to a person but also disagrees with the social situation that that person is backing margaret hale moves to the north of england where she becomes acquainted with the suffering of workers at a mill she takes action against the man who owns the mill but not not always as it seems as she is strangely drawn to the mill owner how will all of this work out the grapes of wrath by john steinbeck 490 pages steinbeck's ability was to capture the human spirit this book follows the jode family as they all move west in search of a better future but a hope that is dogged by unrealization and dreams that fade in the california sun middlemarch by george eliot is 860 pages long it is called literature's finest work by a lot of people it's perhaps the most accomplished capturing of provincial life with all its myriad interconnectedness with its grand host of characters all ordinary in their own way all extraordinary in that they have individual lives this is the whole gamut of life on one stage in one novel a kestrel for a knave is a contemporary classic by barry heinzer about 205 pages billy casper grows up in a dreary mining village and his failure at school and his whole outlook is made of faded grey that is until he finds a kestrel that he names kez through kes through kes he finds joy inner strength resilience a reason for things this is a book for all ages brideshead revisited by evelyn war is about 320 pages and it captures a bygone age of upper class society before the war broke out it's the intoxicating draw of that upper class to be with them and the sha grin and the disappointment of not being an equal of someone you want to be around wide sargasso sea by jean reece is about 200 pages long set in colonial jamaica in the 30s a heroine antoinette causeway a white crayola woman marries a white man but soon after the marriage rumors fill the husband's minds with suspicion and antagonism towards antoinette jean reese said of this novel that she was trying to tell the story of the mad woman in the attic from jane eyre now that should be an incentive to read it in search of lost time the swan's way by marcel proust is 475 pages long he's considered the 20th century's greatest author the first person narration from an unnamed narrator goes through the the feelings of jealousy and love the sudden consciousness of beauty and art the desire to gain knowledge and wisdom he brings through digressions and through memories scenes of his family of growing up of the golden age of the parisian society pre-war and all of this comes back to him through the taste of a madeleine cake 100 years of solitude by gabrielle garcia marquez is about 400 pages long and it traces seven generations of the buendia family who have founded the village of macondo amidst the surrounding mountains of colombia the secrets of the town are encoded in a book which only aureliano wendia can decipher this is a mixture of politics realism and fantasy robinson crusoe by daniel defoe is about 350 pages long crusoe ignores his father's advice and sets to see he is sold into slavery escapes becomes a rich plantation owner in brazil before being washed upon a desert island for which he is well known for the resourcefulness of the individual person spirituality morality what truly matters in life is really dragged out through this story of one man trying to survive scarlet and black by standal is 350 pages long it tracks the humble origins of julian sorrell as he desires to improve his life in early 19th century paris he learns the hypocritical ways of the upper echelons and using them deceives everybody until he is allowed into the golden center of society itself however due to a crime that he commits his whole story in life begins to unravel at his own doing a psychological drama that gave birth to much of the psychological literature later on the diary of anne frank by anne frank is about 350 pages long it's the outlook of a 13 year old extraordinary girl in a malevolent and disgusting world when the nazis invaded the netherlands in 1942 anne frank and her family hid in a warehouse in amsterdam she caught she charts and records her feelings of the time and the relationships that she's got with people around her it abruptly ends in august 1944 as a sad and bone-chilling reminder that her family was betrayed to the nazis room with a view by ian foster is 350 pages long now what happens when a girl who has her life mapped out for her in rigid edwardian style goes to florence and finds a life full of zest and colour and beauty that's the situation lucy finds herself in engaged to marry a man who absolutely bores the pants off her she goes to florence where she meets a whole array of different characters who are flamboyant and romantic and curious what decision is she going to make will she conform to societal moors or will she choose a life full of zest yes of the derbyvilles by thomas hardy's 340 pages long tess is probably the most beloved of all of hardy's characters a girl who is in a house with her drunken father a house that's dilapidated no money she becomes the victim of a very unfair society when a scoundrel of the first order takes advantage of her as she tries to make a living working for him forced to leave society because she's classed as impure she tries to make her way only to be let down just as things are getting good hardy said this was the tale of a pure woman faithfully told and it's hard not to agree the way of all flesh by samuel butler is about 340 pages long and it deals with the hypocritical nature of society the hypocrisy of religious teachings the vanity of morals behind closed doors and the shackles that bind the individual in a society that expects it to conform it was butler's only work and is classed as a masterpiece fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury is about 230 pages long it follows guy montag a fireman in the future but by firemen it means he burns books that the state in sister burned because people having original thoughts are dangerous to peace and order but when gaiman tag comes across a young girl who just asked lots of quizzical questions it starts him thinking and he begins to stash away the banned books that he is sent to burn how would it all work out when the state finds out the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde is about 225 pages long and is wonderful when dorian has his portrait painted he wishes that the portrait could grow old instead of him and with this almost faustian set up dorian then embarks on enjoying every pleasure that is open to him in his youth which is enduring through this book wild seems to be tussling with his own view of the aesthetic philosophy which he had adhered to and ultimately does he come to the conclusion that morality does have a place in society beyond just art brave new world by thomas huxley is about 250 pages long huxley had an ability to look at the ideologies of his day and perceive the inevitable conclusion that they would lead to and thus wrote this dystopian novel where set in the future people are no longer the individuals because everyone belongs to everybody else the state frowns on the education of children and they are only taught and managed by the state not parents they are born in the state hatchery would you believe it this ideal society as espoused by a human ideology of his day is lampooned by huxley but is all too scarily familiar today women by louisa may allcat is about 360 pages long it follows the four girls meg jo beth and amy with all their different interests as they struggle through a life of poverty because their father is away fighting in the war and how they each try to assist the family in making money and later on we follow them into their love interests as well it is a book that delights anybody who has ever read it the count of monte cristo by alexander dumas 900 pages long so a biggie but it's possibly his very best work and it races along it tells the story of a young man called edmund dantes who is arrested on his wedding day for a crime that he's not even informed what it is locked in a prison on an island dantes begins to educate himself and plot revenge he discovers money he embarks on adventures and then turns up as the mysterious count of monte cristo and he will wreak the most elaborate of revenges upon those who put him in prison fathers and sons by ivan turjanev discusses the clash of two generations arkady is a student who comes back from university full of revolutionary and nihilistic ideas just before the ending of serfdom in the russian empire along with his friend barazov he speaks to his father and the old men who don't agree or see eye to eye with the new way of thinking this new ideology and so we see the tangle and tumult of a younger generation clashing with an older generation who know better perfume by patrick suskind is about 290 pages and it tells the story of jean-baptiste granul if i say that correctly who is born and abandoned on the streets of 18th century paris he grows to find out he has an extraordinary gift of smell he can capture any scent in a perfume except one the scent of a young girl and he will be obsessed with this and strive to find the way to capture that scent at all possible costs he becomes a wicked character in literature mrs dalloway by virginia woolf is about 270 pages long it spans only one day where clarissa dalloway a socialite is preparing a party of the hoypolo of london across london someone unknown to her septimus warren smith a shell-shocked veteran of the war is going to see a doctor because of his shell shock state virginia woolf masters the inner monologue in this book as we we see the changes in moods of clarissa dalloway and although never meeting septimus he has that evening the most profound effect on clarissa and when you read it he may just have that effect on you anna karenina by leo tolstoy is 850 pages long it's another of those books which focus on the inward turmoil of a character against the expectations of society without karenina is beautiful she is wealthy she is popular she has a son whom everybody adores but she's fed up with life and feels hollow then she meets cal vronsky they end up in a wild affair which scandalizes society and her family however this is all juxtaposed with the character levin who is seeking to find contentment and inner peace and meaning in life in his own quiet way farewell to arms by ernest hemingway is just over 300 pages long it won the nobel prize for literature hemingway himself served in the ambulance corps in world war one and his writing gives us a graphic depiction a memorable picture of warfare he sees the fear of his comrades he sees the courageousness of them it's wrapped in one of the most living love stories you will read in fact hemingway rewrote the end of this story 39 times to get it just right lord of the flies by william golding is about 255 pages long being evacuated from britain because of a nuclear war a plane crashes leaving a group of boys on a desert island there they struggle to set up their own society which quickly falls into chaos and savagery it ends in murder until they're finally rescued something that golding seems to explore in this is the importance of reason and intelligence in dealing with society which always lies at the edge of chaos peter pan by j.m barry does this book even need a synopsis captain hook peter pan the lost boys you name it they're all there but here's the question have you read it this is storytelling this is wonderful it's so worth the read no matter how old you are the chronicles of narnia by c s lewis this is a masterpiece of allegorical writing because within the weave of the stories that make up the chronicles there are the key aspects of the bible narration uh put in there by lewis from the creation to the ransom of jesus christ this is an excellent book just as a standalone story but also showing children how books have deeper meaning than just the tale if you haven't read all of them i really encourage you to the child within you will thank you the only one that is a repeat author it is macbeth by shakespeare this famous play finds the key figure macbeth at the height of his loyalty and renown after fighting a battle on behalf of king duncan of scotland famously on the way home he meets the witches who prophesy that he will be king of scotland then finding that the king is about to stay at his own castle macbeth egged on by his wife lady macbeth decides to murder king duncan in his sleep the famous speech just before that is this a dagger i see before me which i have actually done a review of if you want to check it the inward nature of macbeth as he tussles with the guilt of conscience as he tries to put aside the man of loyalty that he was to cope with the man of crime that he has become is an epic in tragic literature possibly unparalleled in the whole field of story and so we've arrived at the top 10 of the list these 10 find themselves on so many of the compiled lists from time magazine to the guardian to goodreads to all sorts and because of that i've classed them all in the top 10 of books to read so here goes in number 10 crime and punishment by theodore dostoevsky at about 460 pages this book watches raskolnikov a poor student who is in rags starving and living in a small garrett bedroom in saint petersburg and he contemplates murdering a wicked pawn broker and using her money to finish his education so that he can be a benefactor to mankind after committing the murder we follow his psychological troubles as he tries to come to terms with what he has done and how he should respond to what he has done and whether it's wrong or not overall this absolutely brilliant piece of literature gets one to think about the question is it okay for someone that is learning and greater than others to cross the boundaries of morality that opposed on that are imposed on society as long as it's for the benefit of other people is such a thing possible and through this dostoevsky really really takes a sharp focus at the idea of materialist socialism number nine is great expectations at about 500 pages this of course follows pip from his youthful days where he lives with joe gargery and his wife at the blacksmiths and then he sets course to london where he is to find his great expectations he meets a host of different characters you can never forget for instance gargery himself magwitch miss havisham estella jaggers wemmick all these characters but what does it do to the reader because in this book you are pip what are great expectations what should we be setting our sights on to have a happy life that ultimately is what dickens is getting you to think about to kill a mockingbird by harper lee comes in at about 300 pages sensitivity empathy humanity these are three chief qualities that come through this story when tom robinson a black man is accused of raping a white woman in the south of the united states the lawyer atticus finch a white man chooses to defend tom robinson this leads to him being attacked almost being lynched but during all this time he stands true to proper humane values and tries to instill them in his children whose eyes are awakened to the racism in the society around them which is based on ignorance and intolerance at number seven we have the sound and the fury by william faulkner this story set in the first third of the 20th century follows the thompson family a former aristocratic family from the southern united states as it breaks down and disintegrates losing its reputation losing its religiosity and morality it's a book that focuses or reveals how the self-centeredness of a family and a home in which there is no love leads to total utter grief despair and breakdown in number six we have hamlet by william shakespeare now hamlet of course is the prince of denmark and early on in the five act play he sees his father's ghost who tells him that he was murdered by his brother and he asks hamlet to wreak vengeance on his uncle the play then plots the course of hamlet trying to come to terms with the task whether he can trust the vision that he's seen and the inwardness of thought that goes through a person as they try to strike out to do something very great indeed hamlet is not the most sympathetic of shakespeare's characters but this play has so many turns of phrase that an author would be happy just to have one of them in their whole career that it's a marvel that any mind could think let alone right like shakespeare at number five is the great gatsby by f scott fish gerald weighs in at about 180 pages jay gatsby is young and rich and this story follows the ideas of obsession and excess people all keep turning up to jay gatsby's mansion on long island where the greatest and grandest of parties are thrown but gatsby is never seen by his guests he's he's always at the edge missing something and that's something is daisy buchanan the girl that he lost to another man so when gatsby and daisy's lives cross again it sets a whole sequence in motion that has an effect on everybody around about 1984 by george orwell is about 360 pages long now this follows winston smith a man working in the record department of the ministry of truth which is ironically named because it keeps altering the past under the premise that he who controls the past controls the future and he who controls the present controls the past we have words like doublethink and the thought please come from this book and it is probably the most famous of all dystopian novels which is bizarrely familiar to today's current climate i'm pretty sure you are going to be surprised by number three on this list and yet it seems to appear everywhere water shipped down by richard adams about 600 pages in length it follows the course of a group of rabbits who flee their warren to find safety in a new home fiverr is the rabbit that has a sixth sense and believes that something bad is about to happen where they currently live not all the rabbits take heed but his brother hazel agrees with him and of him and a few others flee the book then and charts their journey through the countryside of england and we get an unusual feeling for how humans use and abuse the environment from the perspective of a rabbit eventually they find watership down the ideal place to set up a new home but the story is far far from over why should you read this book it is because it practically encapsulates the essence of story the thing that has bound humanity together through all the ages the thing that makes us unique is story and richard adams manages to just touch on its golden fringe jane eyre by charlotte bronte had about 450 pages i'll just read you a clip to give you a synopsis of this do you think because i am poor obscure plain and little i am soulless and heartless you think wrong i have as much soul as you and full as much heart and if god had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth i should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you jane mr rochester and a dark secret perhaps the most famous of lovers after romeo and juliet and number one of the 52 books you can read in 52 weeks of the year by 51 authors is probably no surprise to you all pride and prejudice by jane austen at around 340 pages in length it follows the tales of the girls of the bennett household but primarily elizabeth bennett she is witty she is independent and she will not consider marrying a man except for love when she meets mr darcy a man of fortune she is not impressed she thinks him proud and distant and rude however as the story slowly unfolds through a host of characters we begin to get the idea that maybe miss bennett has misjudged mr darcy because certain things begin to come to light it's likely that a good majority of you watching have read pride and prejudice if you haven't read it for years and years maybe now's the time to go back to it but if you are one of those who has not read it it's not essential in your life however read it because it is brilliant well there you go everybody that was 52 books drawn together from an array of different lists regarding what is the best literature out there amongst the classics and i hope that you really enjoyed it which of these have you already read put it in the comments write down all the ones you've read so that you are left with a list of the ones you haven't and by the end of 21 will you have got through them all you will have the most eclectic array and broad understanding of the mind of some of the greatest writers on earth if you go through this list i hope it's been useful to you and i would like to ask you one thing could you subscribe and ring the bell if you appreciate what i do and then tell me what you would like to see more of on this channel and i will try to do it this is tristan and the classics i wish you well with your reading

Channel: Tristan and the Classics

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Keywords: 52 books a year, 52 books a year challenge, 50 best books of all time, best books of all time, classic literature, classic novels, book recommendations, classic books, book reviews, classics booktube, classic literature book review, classic books collection, classic books everyone should read, book a week, top 50 classic books, top 50 classic books of all time, book recommendations 2023, classic books for 2023

Id: wJBVGWgWSKE

Length: 35min 5sec (2105 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 30 2020