Beautifully Written Classics | Recommendations

These are just a few of the most beautifully written classics that I would recommend!

Books I Mentioned:
Demian by Hermann Hesse
The Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Pleasure by Gabriele D'Annunzio
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Romola by George Eliot
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Social Media:

[surrealsoupuniverse]

Your channel and steve donoghue's channel are pure gold! I recently discovered you both. You both are awesome. Thanks for all the recommendations 😊 ❤

[SterlingInk]

Totally agree with you on Moby Dick. Even though everyone kept on saying it’s so boring, I was so shocked by how beautifully written it was. I also felt like it was going to be a special book from the very beginning. Not a huge fan of American classics, but this one was so beautiful.

[judemoralesU]

You make me want to read them all! You are an excellent presenter and your delivery is perfect! So happy I found your channel ❤

[susanm]

Definitely agree with you on Frankenstein. For me Willa Cather's My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop are beautifully written. Her descriptions of the prairie in My Antonia and New Mexico in Death Comes are exquisite.

[siddynickhead]

I would add Vladimir Nabokov to your list. The prose in Lolita is divine! Totally agree with you on Hardy..I hate nature writing, farming etc but I freaking loved all of it in Tess..so he sold it to me!

[TheLinguistsLibrary]

Rome is my favorite city. I've just added The Marble Faun to my cart, thank you so much, I did not know of this novel.

[apocalypsereading]

ok you've got this Dracula fan convinced he needs to revisit Frankenstein. really happy for you finding two new favs, you describe them beautifully and it inspires me to go hunting for new favs myself ~

[librariesandlabradors]

I just have to compliment you Jennifer on how you describe all these books. You make me want to read every last one! And I agree wholeheartedly with the ones I have read that you feature. 💕

[amyofhearthridge]

I love these thoughtful reviews! Wow! I haven’t read many of these, but have dipped into many of these authors. Dickens is REALLY growing on me and I adore Hardy’s nature descriptions. Frankenstein is such a fascinating read. I so want to try Demian after listening to you talk about it lately. I’m saving this video to my TBR! 😂 Also I’m so glad there are other people out there that love books for their beautiful writing and don’t necessarily need a heavy plot! ♥️😄

[LimesRickie]

My 2nd favourite novel of all-time is 'Return of the Native" with Edgon Heath being its most fascinating 'character'.

[suzannetol]

This was just a beautiful list of books. I adore The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde is just a fantastic writer. I became a fan of Wilde over night.

I love more videos like this. I'm diving deeper into poetry and a video on the most beautiful written poetry books would be lovely.

[jameslovell]

Just recently found this channel! Some of the most beautifully written books I’ve read have been Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

[rifan_j]

Wonderful list! I loved "Frankenstein" and "Villette". . My favorite Hardy was "Jude The Obscure". Earlier this year I also read "Middlemarch" and It was amazing. Also, that edition of Frankenstein is so stunning! I'll recommend Virginia Woolf, "To The Lighthouse" or "The Waves" for her extremely beautiful prose. :)

[angelawebb]

Excellent video and Yes to Prose! The purpley-er the better. Not to say I don’t enjoy contemporary novels but I find that with a contemporary novel, the story must carry everything because the writing while perhaps good, is not inspirational. Inspirational, purple prose elicits a sigh after reading. For me, it’s what separates writers from wordsmiths. Wilde, Shelley, Brontes, Hardy, all wordsmiths. I’m saving the video as well for the comments because of all the awesome recommendations from your community.

[AbdulRahim-wdki]

I have completed Moby Dick on my just concluded vacation with family. That's a huge achievement as they allowed me enough time to read.

The prose is full of comparisons and metaphors and I beleive the whaling facts is an essential part of this great book. Melville was recognized as most of the authors only after his death. A lukewarm response when the book was printed but a colossus of American literature.

[noelleggett]

Hardy and Dickens - for sure. What Hardy does for descriptions of nature, Tolstoy does for descriptions of human nature. War and Peace is (surprisingly) a delight to read, as you feel that you’re in the room with the characters and can sense their emotions from Tolstoy’s subtle descriptions of body language interspersed with (often contrasting) dialogue. Dickens’ prose can seem mannered by today’s standards. But if you pick up a newspaper from his era, you’d recognise his style. It is often strangely ‘journalistic’, which lends a sense of realism and authority to a subjective narrator’s account - contrasted with naturalistic dialogue, illustrating the various dialects and social classes of his well-drawn characters.

[Readlive]

Frankenstein is from my very top favorite books! I also love Moby Dick! It does have some difficult parts, but the writing is incredible!!!

[valeriuxe]

Love this! I only read Turgenev’s First Love from this list and it's one of my favourite books of all time. A great deal of the criteria for a book to be a favourite for me is the writing. I love beautiful prose and you definitely convinced me to read all of these books.

[ThatReadingGuy]

I've heard that Seven Pillars of Wisdom and Black Lamb and Grey Falcon are brilliantly written. What little I've read from each of them confirms that. Seductively written.

[Caesar_]

Beautiful video Jennifer, I am also obsessed with anything Rome and Italy, so the recommendations are amazing. Can’t wait to read them ❤️