Books to get a teen started on classic literature

[Cloo]

Ziggy is 13 now and has been having some remedial English/comprehension sessions this summer with a friend who is a tutor. She was suggested that to prepare him for English Lit GCSE it would be helpful for him to get more used to the language of classic literature.

Ziggy has a decent reading age, but not much patience if stories don't get a bit of a move on and finds convoluted sentences hard to follow. We're thinking Sherlock Holmes short stories might be good for him. I also think maybe Dracula would work - it's fairly easy to follow what's happening and I enjoyed it around his age. Any other ideas for reads that might ease him in to coping with pre 20th literature?

 

[frogwoman]

Of Mice and Men maybe? I had to read it at school for gcse. It's a good book but I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been forced to read it.

 

[Humberto]

Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

[Cloo]

Of Mice and Men maybe? I had to read it at school for gcse. It's a good book but I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been forced to read it.

I'm thinking earlier than that to get him used to the sort of language you get in 19th C literature.

Humberto - hadn't thought of that, yes, RLS is a good call.

 

[May Kasahara]

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Quite short and whips along.

Dracula is intermittently very good but does have some longueurs as I recall, so might get a bit frustrating.

 

[frogwoman]

I'm thinking earlier than that to get him used to the sort of language you get in 19th C literature.

Humberto - hadn't thought of that, yes, RLS is a good call.

You could try some classic ghost stories maybe. There's one about the night watchman, I forget who it's by though.

 

[Poot]

Diary of a Nobody by the Grossmiths? At least it's funny!

 

[May Kasahara]

Or Edgar Allen Poe?

 

[Yossarian]

Maybe '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' or something else by Jules Verne

 

[izz]

Loving the ideas of Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. I guess Ziggy doesn't get on well with y'typical Victorian authors ? Dickens ? Collins ? The Three Musketeers ? Lord of the Rings ? The Big Sleep ?

 

[maomao]

Dracula has lots of weird sex stuff and Conan Doyle is full of racism. Silas Marner is a good beginner's Victorian novel though if that's difficult maybe start with Alice in Wonderland or even Kidnapped/Treasure Island. Gulliver's Travels is great fun but even older so the language can be a little tough.

 

[Cloo]

Diary of a Nobody by the Grossmiths? At least it's funny!

Ooh, that's a good one and it is very funny.

 

[weepiper]

Alice in Wonderland and Kidnapped are good shouts. If those are a bit much then try him with earlier 20th Century stuff like The Sword In The Stone, Five Children And It and Peter Pan which are still going to have slightly archaic language but will be more immediately accessible for him.

 

[Humberto]

Rudyard Kipling might be one to look at. I was thinking Kim but I couldn't vouch for the language.

 

[maomao]

Mark Twain is very accessible late 19th century literature. Lot of n-words though.

 

[Mumbles274]

Here's a pic of some "classics" as I see them

 

[Superdupastupor]

To kill a Mockingbird.
I think it's the classic age to take on LoTRs
Wizard of earthssea( if you like it you have a book for life)

 

[Pickman's model]

Saki. Lady Chatterley's lover. Frankenstein. Wilde. Ragged trousered philanthropists. Baudelaire in translation. Barry lyndon by thackeray. Salammbo by flaubert. Walter pater. The young yeats - the yeats of the 1890s. Think outside the box.

 

[BigMoaner]

stephen king was my gateway, weirdly. he was the first author who "grabbed me by the throat".

and dylan, i was obsessed and every one he mentioned i was drawn too

 

[BigMoaner]

turn the wifi off. leave books around.

that was the content of much of my summer holidays. thank god.

 

[marshall]

Moonfleet, J. Meade Falkner

Fairly zips along, smuggling, treasure, mystery, adventure, friendship...all that exciting stuff.

 

[BigMoaner]

funny enough bought moonfleet in a charity shop just a few days ago! looking forward to it

 

[Pickman's model]

Not to mention flannery o'connor, the catcher in the rye, Raymond Chandler, the naked and the dead, the good soldier svejk, potocki, and confessions of an English opium eater

 

[BigMoaner]

Not to mention flannery o'connor, the catcher in the rye, Raymond Chandler, the naked and the dead, the good soldier svejk, potocki, and confessions of an English opium eater

yes to flannery o'connor.

also raymond carver, if he's old enough to get the bleak lower middle class angst. it's just his style is so accessible.

 

[BigMoaner]

also HUCKLEBERRY FINN!

 

[marshall]

Chandler's a good call, classic crime fiction is a great way 'in'.

 

[BigMoaner]

martin amis - though a bit heavy on the adult themes i guess.

 

[BigMoaner]

poor old smarty pants amis, i miss him. despite the annoying contrarian "just asking questions" postering in his later journalism, i loved him books. loved them. they provided so much in my twenties. was like having a hillarious friend.

i don't think writers will appear like taht again.

 

[Pickman's model]

Forgot ambrose bierce, Arthur machen - great god pan and three impostors - meyrink and maupassant. And zola.

 

[BigMoaner]

and poetry. poetry will lead him astray into other literature.

stevie smith, kerouac, gunn, larkin (esp larkin), t.s. elliot, bob dylan, douglass dunn, wordsworth, all fairly engagable.