The Classics

So…what makes a piece of literature a Classic?

This is a tough one for me. Many of The Greats are extremely well written, the language beautiful and poetic and the settings are often exotic and intriguing, but often the plot is garbage. Not something I really want my children reading about. Take for instance Catcher in the Rye. A classic to be sure. Well written to be sure, but the plot? Garbage. Pure trash. Do I have my daughters read it to be culturally literate? Everyone’s heard of Catcher in the Rye. Will it hinder them to not know the story? I guess we’ll see.

After much thought and research, I’ve decided on these books for my 11^th grader. I’m having her start early because she has a pretty tough schedule next year, including a college English class.

The List…

To Kill a Mockingbird

Catch-22

1984

The Scarlet Letter

Lord of the Flies

Animal Farm

The Diary of Anne Frank

A Separate Peace

The Island of Dr. Moreau

Fast Food Nation

The Picture of Dorian Grey

Frankenstein

Jane Eyre

Heart of Darkness

Rebecca

Hound of the Baskervilles 

This is the list for my 9^th grader. It is not finished yet. I’m still compiling her book list but so far I know she’ll read these along with her sister…

Hound of the Baskervilles

Diary of Anne Frank

To Kill a Mockingbird

Lord of the Flies (I think we’re going to listen to this one all together. I personally hate this book and would have left it off the list, but they have asked to read it, so I’m going to endure it with them.)

One thing I have learned about teaching Literature to my children is to NOT rely on my own memory. I remember reading and loving many books as a child, but when I went back through them with my own kids, I realized either a lot of it went right over my head or I simply forgot a lot! 

Take A Light in the Forrest, for instance. GREAT book. It gives a really good insight into that time period and what it was like for Native Americans, and the settlers, and how hard it was to integrate the two cultures. HOWEVER, it’s a bit disturbing for  the early elementary years when I read it to my girls! I remember LOVING that book in about 5^th grade, but it was much darker and more disturbing than I remembered. If I’d pre read or remembered correctly, I would have waited a few more years to introduce that one.

So it’s a little more complicated that just grabbing a grade level book list off the internet somewhere and handing it off to the kids. I want them to be culturally literate, and I want them to enjoy great, classic literature, but I also want to have them reading books that as a whole, are worthy of their time. If the setting is amazing, and the writing is stellar, and the book is very well known and often discussed, but the plot, the very story, is ignoble, dishonorable, and corrupt why would I want my children reading it? 

This truly is a conundrum for me. I want my children to be highly educated and well read, but if, ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things’  is our guideline, well that shines a new light on things. 

So, any classics you'd definitely recommend? Avoid?