My Penguin Classics Collection

I’m going to show you all my black spine Penguin classics today. I’ll do the English classics from the latest to the earliest in terms of time period, and then classics from around the world at the end. Enjoy!

[gg_]

thanks for a lovely video, Nicole! It would be great to see your Oxford Classics next, I think :)

[cassiopeiathew]

I recently did an inventory of my classics collection and I have 102, which is crazy because I’ve only read like 1/5 of them. I love seeing other peoples collections, it shows what art people prefer and it shows something of themselves in it I feel. (I prefer to read used classics because it’s so much cheaper to buy them but it’s also very intimate knowing you have a book which has been places, so I didn’t blow 2k of 100 books or something lol)

[teresachaotic.corner]

I completely forgot that Mr. Knightly was that much older!
Love the cover of A Journal of the Plague Years!
I had the same copy of The Thebean Plays in college!
Lovely video... there's something so soothing about these classic Penguin covers.

[SiuKar]

thanks Nicole! it would be nice if you could show us the books behind you in your future video

[RaynorReadsStuff]

Thanks Nicole. This was great. I love the Penguin classics. Some of yours I have read, some I haven’t but you make them sound very tempting 😊

[GraceRay-bm]

Love Anna Karenina. Totally agree with you that some scenes are like a darker and stronger version of Austen.
Love to have your library.

[ReadingNymph]

I need to read some of Mary Wollstonecraft works, great collection ❤

[ahmetmuazkomur]

This was a really fun video, thank you. The Shepherd's Life and A Shepherd's Life are two interesting books that now i have on my list to read. I like reading about rural/country life and interested in ethnographic research of both village and nomadic lifestyles. However reading the memoirs of people who were part of those communities give a very insightful understanding. I remember having a great time reading a couple of memoirs of Yörüks (nomadic people living in Turkey) and getting the "feel" for the lifestyle. Also, seeing the world classics made me think, do you think you'd pick up some Middle Eastern classics in the future? Like Layla and Majnun or Shahnama (The Book of Kings).

[jentan]

Definitely recommend more Forster. A Room with a View and Howard's End are great

[donaldkelly]

Nicole, I look for Penguin Classics like a hunter stalking the big cats.

Your collection was impressive, especially DeFoe and Charles Lamb!

Does your Journal of the Plague Year have an old intro by Anthony Burgess? Burgess was a great reviewer and literary critic. I think his fiction was spotty.
Don't stop here, get Robinson Crusoe, Roxanne, and Capt. Jack Flanders.

And if you think Moll is even slightly repentent about the life she led, you should think again!

Have you read the Lamb essays? If not, please do. He wrote so clearly and casually that it hides his true message.

[fernnielsen]

I would like to know if you ever take notes about the books you read? To look back on or just reflect by writing down how you felt about the book in general. Thanks

[gnirrednow]

Nicoooole, please don't read the Penguin translation of The Canterbury Tales! T_T

I highly suggest reading it in the OG middle english, rather than in translation. To me that's the coolest thing about Chaucer, that we can read him exactly as written without too much effort and be instantly transported back to the 14th century. It only takes a short while to get acquainted with the pronunciations of middle english and that little bit of effort is so so so rewarding. I've read excerpts from that Penguin edition of Chaucer and tbh it makes me sad. It makes me think of a declawed cat, an abject, pitiable creature to which senseless violence has been enacted. Chaucer's language is unbearably flat in modern english. It pains me to think that such translation would be your intro to Chaucer T_T

The Norton Critical editions of The Canterbury Tales are very good. There are pronunciation guides and helpful tutorials for getting comfy with middle english in the beginning (including links to audio so you can hear other scholars read passages), and footnotes throughout to help us make sense of Chaucer's vocabulary and references.