Books to get a teen started on classic literature

[Sue]

God no, don't read Thomas Hardy. I read loads as a teenager and ended up thinking you were meant to hang around thirty years waiting for a girl to like you if you really loved her (luckily gave up after two or three).

Yes, I fear i read too many Victorian novels in my youth.

 

[krtek a houby]

HG Wells? War of the Worlds and The Time Machine are short and thrilling, imho

 

[Cloo]

I'm not convinced this is good advice tbh Cloo. Reading has to be freely chosen and it either sparks your imagination or it doesn't. He can pass exams in Eng Lit by using all the revision guides and youtube tutorials without having to get deep into the language.

I think it would help to try a few books over the next year to give him a grounding in reading that style, we're not going to insist on things if he doesn't go for it. It's just finding some more engaging stuff from that era he can potentially get into so it's not new to him when it gets to GCSE.

I think older sci fi is definitely a good idea.

He devoured Narnia during COVID so he can read happily in a slightly older style but that's still a relatively simple read.

 

[newme]

I dont think Ive ever finished a book wirtten before....1940 or thereabouts...i say finished, barely even started...Im with Ziggy

I picked up the unabridged Sherlock holmes audiobooks read by Stephen Fry and they were easy to get through.
I also learned ejaculated used to mean something very different, especially after someones husband ejaculates at her from a second-floor window.

 

[Idris2002]

Regarding poetry, the First World War poets should be in every teenagers hands.

 

[prunus]

A few specific suggestions from my own memory of enjoying them about that time of life:

Conan Doyle: The Lost World
Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court
H Ryder Haggard: King Solomon’s Mines
RM Ballantyne: The Coral Island

 

[Chilli.s]

someones husband ejaculates at her from a second-floor window.

good shot

 

[krtek a houby]

I think it would help to try a few books over the next year to give him a grounding in reading that style, we're not going to insist on things if he doesn't go for it. It's just finding some more engaging stuff from that era he can potentially get into so it's not new to him when it gets to GCSE.

I think older sci fi is definitely a good idea.

He devoured Narnia during COVID so he can read happily in a slightly older style but that's still a relatively simple read.

About sci-fi, although they aren't classic literature, really got into the Target novelisations of Doctor Who from the age of 7 to 14

Still re-read the occasion one every so often.

 

[Dr. Furface]

An English 18th cent classic that I just remembered is Trollope's Barchester Towers, which surprised me how much I liked it when I was younger and had to read it for A level (the only reason I would have done).

For an American classic, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is brilliant - set in the US civil war, amazingly realistic but written by a guy in his early 20's who wasn't even alive when it happened, easy to read and fairly short too.

 

[Aladdin]

Christie -- There are one or two unsatisfactory titles tho that have had to be changed

True

 

[Red Cat]

I think it would help to try a few books over the next year to give him a grounding in reading that style, we're not going to insist on things if he doesn't go for it. It's just finding some more engaging stuff from that era he can potentially get into so it's not new to him when it gets to GCSE.

I didn't think you were going to force it on him Cloo.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Walkabout - james vance marshall
The Pearl - steinbeck

 

[rutabowa]

catcher in the rye

 

[Pickman's model]

Surprised no mention of clockwork orange

 

[JimW]

Instead of Holmes, maybe try Conan Doyle's Sir Nigel and The White Company, bit of knightly derring-do. If I may perform some small service on your person or help relieve you of some vow. ETA "juvenile blood and thunder" says someone quoted on Kirkus Reviews

 

[Idris2002]

Jack Kerouac was a terrible bastard in real life, but On the Road is a genuinely great book, especially for the teenage set.

 

[marshall]

Surprised no mention of clockwork orange

A classic, for sure; but is it the 'language of classic literature'?

 

[furluxor]

I'm not convinced this is good advice tbh Cloo. Reading has to be freely chosen and it either sparks your imagination or it doesn't. He can pass exams in Eng Lit by using all the revision guides and youtube tutorials without having to get deep into the language.

I'd second this.

I love many of the classics but I was reading The Three Musketeers at an age when I still thought being a musketeer was a viable career choice. Many people I know hated classics their whole lives and especially having to read them for school. Some pick them up now and make pleasant discoveries, some try them and remember why they have no interest in them. The language is somewhat complex, but it's also largely the point. Someone who cannot maintain focus reading The Demons might easily spend hours constructing an intricate plane model, which I cannot do. To each his/her own.

 

[Idris2002]

A good modern translation of the Iliad and Odyssey would be appropriate here. I tried reading the E. V. Rieu prose translation, which was the first ever Penguin Classic, and kept bouncing off it.

But get the right translation and you're laughing.

 

[Aladdin]

I honestly think if it's 19th century novels you need.. then you can't go wrong with Dickens.

Would suggest starting with Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.
And The Old Curiosity Shop.
Easy enough to read. Not too depressing.

 

[JimW]

A good modern translation of the Iliad and Odyssey would be appropriate here. I tried reading the E. V. Rieu prose translation, which was the first ever Penguin Classic, and kept bouncing off it.

But get the right translation and you're laughing.

My youngest (four) constantly asks for a re-read of Chinese translations of illustrated French versions of the Odyssey and Iliad, and we have Orpheus and Oedipus (!) in the same series.

 

[Idris2002]

Oedipus (!) in the same series.

"Are you guys being French again?"

 

[Idris2002]

Here's one: natural history.

Specifically Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle in the abridged penguin edition. Derring-do, science style.

Also a strong anti-slavery message.

 

[nogojones]

Maybe Candide? I loved it as a teenager (and still do). Easy reading, fast paced, funny and also dark as fuck. I was astounded at the time that a 200 year old book could be fun

 

[Duncan2]

Unsure what I would make of them now but remember racing through several books by Jeffery Farnol that would fit the description " teen blood and thunder" Adam Penfeather Buccaneer and the Broad Highway spring to mind.I disagree with Maomao about Hardy I think both his novels and his poetry are marvellous.Return of the Native and Far from the Madding Crowd are indispensable imv.In terms of short stories I agree with those above who mentioned The Time Machine ( Wells) and The Signalman ( Dickens).

 

[Humberto]

Jack London's White Fang and Call of the Wild are in a similar vein.

 

[LakieLady]

Jerome K Jerome, Three Men in a Boat. Genuinely funny, and an easy entry into the style of the time.

 

[rutabowa]

ohh I did miss the "pre 20th c" bit of OP... but still think I'd recommend catcher in the rye as a stepping stone from "book that are just fun story telling" into "books as literature"... and it kind of makes you feel cool reading it, which totally helps studying all english literature. its not like language is massively different in 19th century books, it's just that you study them in more depth. + the main character talks about reading a lot... and its v relatable for a teen whilst not talking down at all.

obv v personal too tho, and if he's anything like me parent recommendations put me off books... I needed to feel like I discovered books myself

 

[Aladdin]

How about some PG Wodehouse? Good for a laugh at least..

 

[krtek a houby]

Cervantes' Don Quixote is hilarious, has a Monty Python feel to it in parts.