Top Ten Tuesday - Classics

A weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I love this week's prompt! You guys know I try to read a Classic a month here on the blog and I haven't really enjoyed many of them lately and it's been really fun to remind myself about the Classics I do love! So here in no particular order are my top ten favorite classics (books at least 50 years old).

1.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

This is one of my all time favorite books. I love everything about the March sisters and their struggle to find love and their place in the world. I did a reread in December and it still holds up and makes me sob like it's the first time. BETH!!!!!!!

2.) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 

You may know that I love a good unreliable narrator. I also love characters who are whiny, jaded, and disillusioned by the world despite their supposed prosperity. Holden Caulfield, I feel your pain. I read this book in high school and them willingly again in college.

3.) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I'm sure Jane is on many a list today. And while I like Pride and Prejudice, I LOVE Sense and Sensibility. The Dashwood sisters are so easy to relate to and the relationship I have with my sister is just like their relationship in this book. I sometimes find Austen a little wordy but Sense and Sensibilty didn't feel that way for me at all!

4.) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Another one of my favorite books of all time. I just love the tortured love story. Plus you may also know I love characters who are dubious and walk the line between good and evil. This book is full of that! I mean they basically ruin one another's lives in the name of love! WHO DOES THAT! Heathcliff and Cathy, that's who!

5.) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Yes as in the musical. Seriously though this is a great piece of Gothic literature. A love triangle I can get behind, a heartbreaking ending, and amazingly thrilling writing. It's not only more detailed but quite a bit darker than the musical. If you liked that I definitely recommend the book!

6.) The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

I read this one back in February for anti-love month and despite a slow start it was a fantastic story with morally bankrupt people and a young woman caught in the middle. It seriously ruined me for romance for a very long time and I mean that in a good way!

7.) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

I read this one just recently and totally loved it! It's a phenomenal mystery and what I refer to as Neo-Gothic literature. It also had fantasticly diabolical characters that are morally dubious and spend a lot of time ruining one another's lives.It was dark and dramatic and I enjoyed so much about it!

8.) The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Another of my absolute favorite books! This book ripped my heart into a million pieces and left me ugly crying on the bus! It's a beautifully written piece of literature about rural America, the Great Depression, and finding connection with your fellow man. I almost cried just writing this explanation!

9.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 

I read this book in high school and then twice in college. It's such an amazing book about the excesses of the Roaring Twenties in America and is another one of those tortured love stories. Noticing a trend? It's also a beautifully written book with great symbolism it doesn't overwhelm you with.

10.) The Odyssey by Homer

The Classic of all Classics! This may surprise people because I'm always squawking about how I hate travel monologues and "road trip stories" but I LOVE The Odyssey. I've always had a thing for Greek Mythology since my first interaction with The Odyssey in middle school, it just fascinates me!

Well now that I see them all in one place I notice that I have a pretty serious type of Classic that I usually enjoy. So if you have any dark Gothic novels with a tortured romance where the characters actively try to ruin one another's lives let me know what it is, because I'll probably love it!

What are your favorite Classics? Leave me a comment with your list! Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!