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Jan 2017
5:33pm, 9 Jan 2017
3,885 posts
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The Scribbler
I agree with everything Sharkie says. Generally, actually, not just on this thread!
Jane Austen and Dickens still make me laugh at the right bits. There's a brilliantly bitchy aside in Persuasion when Anne and Captain Wentworth are separated only by the bulk of Mrs Musgrove on the sofa.
Nod is getting rather half-hearted responses, and after two rather 'meh' books in a row, I'm going to co-read it with something more substantial, so I'm starting my Bronte re-read with Agnes Grey.
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Jan 2017
5:37pm, 9 Jan 2017
33,935 posts
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Bintmcskint
I'd recommend Great Expectations as a first Dickens. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Jan 2017
5:47pm, 9 Jan 2017
10,789 posts
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Sharkie
I love you Scribbler! 
I've started 'my' Bronte re-read with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - I know the two 'Anne's' far less well than the others although have read them both before. That's the problem with being ancient - anything I read in my teens was about half a century ago. Aaaaargh!
There was a good piece about Agnes Grey in this weekend's Guardian Sat review section.
I have been prompted towards some intersting books by that page quite frequently - with mixed success.
The REAL disappointment was Westwood, a long novel by Stella Gibbons of Cold Comfort Farm fame... but then how could anything stack up to that little masterpiece!
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Jan 2017
6:15pm, 9 Jan 2017
14,523 posts
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LindsD
I  CCF.
And yes, agree about My Cousin Rachel.
I'll ask my Mum for some JA when I go this weekend. I think she's got them all.
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Jan 2017
6:27pm, 9 Jan 2017
7,135 posts
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Little Nemo
I can't imagine not having read any Jane Austin, I read P&P when I was 14 and I've loved it ever since. Although Persuasion may be my absolute favourite.
On the other hand I've only read one Dickens and that was in the last couple of years so I'm a bit of a slacker there
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Jan 2017
6:31pm, 9 Jan 2017
19,852 posts
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Diogenes
I like all the Jane Austen I've read, although I think I found Emma the hardest going. I think my favourite Dickens was Little Dorrit. Some of the BBC adaptations were so good, Martin Chuzzlewit for example, that you feel you don't need to read the actual books, which is good as there are so many of them and most of them are quite long.
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Jan 2017
7:14pm, 9 Jan 2017
12,140 posts
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Columba
Sharkie - Pickwick Papers would be perfect for Sunday teatime!
Great Expectations would definitely be a good Dickens to start with. David Copperfield, for some reason, I didn't read until quite well on. There's a lot of autobiography in it. I read Nicholas Nickleby early as well, rocking with laughter at some of Mrs. Nickleby's rambling and disjointed speeches. Dickens can take you from high humour to dark horror in a few pages. He's said to have "invented" Christmas as we celebrate it now - in "A Christmas Carol", which is shorter than many of them so if you just wanted to dip your toes in the water it might be a good one to start with.
The only Brontes I've read are Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. but I've just checked my bookshelves and found I also have "Shirley" and "Villette" (both Charlotte) and "The Tenant..." (Anne). They will have been my mother's. Any suggestions as to which of these I should read first will be gratefully received, especially as I've nearly finished Nod.
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Jan 2017
7:28pm, 9 Jan 2017
33,937 posts
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Bintmcskint
"The Tenant..." is my favourite Bronte though it is years since I read them all.
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Jan 2017
7:40pm, 9 Jan 2017
10,800 posts
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Sharkie
We 'did' Pickwick Papers at school - awful choice for 14 year old girls. My brother's grammar school was much more up to date. Just 19th century classics for O level Eng Lit for us but fortunately The Mayor of Casterbridge, Wuthering Heights and P&P survived the mauling and I re read them in my twenties.
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Jan 2017
7:46pm, 9 Jan 2017
10,801 posts
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Sharkie
Ah that's interesting, Bint. I've always thought Wuthering Heights was the best...then I thought again about the others, perhaps with a feminist perspective and the likes of Jane Eyre stand up very well. I bet Wildfell will do too.
Shirley I found almost unreadable.
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