Discussion Question: Penguin Classics
According to Penguin Classics, there are ten classic books that everyone MUST read. They are the essentials of literature, and they are:
- Dante's Inferno
- Thoreau's Walden
- Sophocles' Oedpius Rex
- Kafka's Metamorphosis
- Melville's Moby-Dick
- Shakespeare's Hamlet
- Homer's Odyssey
- Austen's Pride and Prejudice
- Bronte's Jane Eyre
- Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Walden = really? Maybe I need to re-read that book, because I do not remember it being anything fantastic.
Also, I thought Metamorphosis was stupid. Sure, it's an interesting little story I guess, but meh. He's a bug. WHATEVER. But I'm just a pleb. What would I know?
You can enter a contest to win all ten of these fine publications from Penguin Classics here. Just describe why you like your favorite book from these ten titles.
I've read all ten of these stories at one point or another, although in the case of Homer and Dante I may have technically read a comic book version. Heh. I may have also failed to complete Walden, if I'm being completely honest. If I were to make my own Top-10 Classics, I'd take out Walden & Metamorphosis and replace them with...hmm...
- Cervantes' Don Quixote
- Huxley's Brave New World
I actually was thinking of adding Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath but he's already got a book on that list, and Of Mice and Men is pretty good, too.
What do you consider to be the Top Ten Must-Read Classics?
(Also, if anyone decides to enter that Penguin Classics contest, let us know which book you chose to write about, and what you said!)