These Classic Books Are Surprisingly Fresh and Free
Some older books have a real musty feel in which the handwriting is dusty like an ancient hardcover. But some of the old books seem to be new. I asked renowned literary figures and critics for the recommendation of one surprisingly fresh classic — live, available, or relevant today. And since most of these books are freely available, you can read them for free or cheap.
All links in these cited guidelines are from Lifehacker. The text has been slightly edited for clarity.
Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation :
Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier was written in 1915 and contains one of the boldest and best opening lines: “This is the saddest story ever told.”
I’d say read this just for the sake of it, but it also has an amazing narrative and emotional impulse. What makes the novel modern after all these years is how impressionistic it is and that you must constantly rethink your ideas about the narrator. At first it seemed like a straightforward realistic novel, but Ford was interested in something weirder than that.
Branca Arsic , Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University:
Definitely Moby-Dick . This is one of those “absolute” books, a sort of secular Bible, in which you can find so much meaningful thinking about different historical moments and contexts. But this is especially true in this historical context, when democracy is threatened with a slide towards totalitarianism.
Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date , The Proposal, and The Wedding Party :
Betsy’s Wedding , Maud Hart Lovelace! This is the last of the Betsy-Tacey books , and in fact, it is a sequel to “Happiness Forever” – Betsy and Joe have been lovers from time to time throughout high school and college, broke up and finally made up VERY romantically. World War I has broken out in Europe and they get married at the beginning of the book.
And then … they need to figure out how to live together, how to make a career as a writer, how to deal with the ups and downs, mood swings, family responsibilities and frustrations, and aside from some tough gender roles, so much of it is totally relevant and fresh today. !
Maris Kreitzman, critic and host of The Maris Review :
Human Slavery W. Somerset Maugham. I want the first Goodreads review to talk about the book:
Abigail Endler, Critic-Critic at Crime by the Book :
My choice is Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None ! This genius detective novel is a puzzle that will baffle even the most devoted fan of law and order . There are no bells and whistles, only the author’s ingenuity and a sharper storyline.
Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra ‘s Sourdough and 24-Hour Bookstore :
I think Rudyard Kipling’s Kim , first published in 1901, deserves a wider readership in the 21st century. You don’t need me to tell you about the Kipling problem , but / and no writer is a monolith, and neither is any novel. It is worth it to walk over Kim’s mines to get into the heart of a bustling pluralistic road trip.
As a bonus, Kim is the acknowledged inspiration for Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials series ; he calls Kim “the book that never fails.” If you are a fan of Lyra Belaqua – and you should be – you will find her prototype in Kim .
Julia Pierpont, author of Among Ten Thousand Things :
Anything from E.M. Forster : Even his less beloved novels are so rich in his humor and wicked observations. Howards End is his greatest work, but in The Longest Journey he describes a young man with “the figure of a Greek athlete and the face of an Englishman” as follows: “It was where he became handsome that clothing began.” I read it many years ago and should think about this line at least once a month.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey : Last year, one of my closest friends told me that she was done with Austin because her romances were outdated and problematic for women. I pushed her, and it turned out that she was really talking about film adaptations. Films are doing a disservice in some way because they can’t include what’s so witty about her work. Northanger Abbey is a good place to start for a skeptic because it’s overtly satirical.