Now here’s a lovely game of chance from The Classics Club.
- Pick twenty unread books from your list.
- Number them from one to twenty.
- On Monday a number will be drawn.
- That’s your book, to read in February in March.
And that’s the Classics Club Spin!
So here goes. Some I know I’m going to love, some I’m a little intimidated by, and some I’m a little uncertain about.
The first five:
1. Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost (1731)
2. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox (1752)
3. A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe (1790)
4. A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbold (1791)
5. The Coquette by Hannah W Foster (1797)
I have five books from the eighteenth century on my list and I haven’t read one yet. They’re all books I want to read, it’s just that Classics from later years call rather louder.
*****
Five to re-read:
6. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (1814)
7. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857)
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847)
9. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (1848)
10. Under The Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy (1872)
I’ve gained so much appreciation of the classics I’ve re-read recently that I have to pull out the five re-reads left on my list.
*****
Five that I’ve started but never finished
11. The Count of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas (1844)
12. Villette by Charlotte Bronte (1853)
13. The Warden by Anthony Trollope (1855)
14. The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green (1878)
15 . Mariana by Monica Dickens (1940)
Two books that just felt a little too long, two books that I really liked but picked up at the wrong moment, and one book that I lost for a while and then found again.
*****
Five from my Virago shelves
16. The Daisy Chain by Charlotte M Yonge (1856)
17. The Odd Women by George Gissing (1893)
18. Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley (1899)
19. Cullum by E Arnot Robinson (1928)
20. Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden (1947)
I could have made this part of my list easy, but I’ve picked the books that have been waiting for some times I picked up other modern classics.
*****
I have a long train journey on Tuesday, so my book will be coming with me.
But for now, we wait …..
Fleur in her World 
I hope you get Mariana by Monica Dickens, which I loved. The Warden is also good, though I found it started a bit slowly. However, Barchester Towers follows it, and it’s just wonderful! You can read BT as a standalone, but it makes more sense if you’ve read The Warden first.
No train journeys for me but I’m off work on Monday so I hope to start reading my spin selection right away!
Arrgghhhh….Villette! That darn book – page 364 or something like that and I could not stand it anymore! The Odd Women on the other hand was utterly fantastic so I hope you get to it sooner rather than later, Jane.
I’d be very nervous of 1 – 5. I managed halfway through Mysteries of Udolpho and couldn’t take any more. Hope the draw is kind to you and you’ll love the chosen title.
I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to take part in this as I’ve been enjoying just reading on a whim recently. I’ll make my mind up tomorrow. I hope you get a book you enjoy!
I’m hoping for an Anthony Trollope too – I keep hearing a lot of love about his stuff. Good luck.
PS love your spinning picture 🙂
Yay, the more spinners, the merrier 🙂 And I adore that spinning picture too, so fitting! The first five (18th century) intimidate me, while your re-read options are all books I’d love to read. I hope we all get assigned a book that we will love.
Villette is a little bit like a Book That Will Not End, so I can see why you haven’t finished it. Still, I ended up being very moved by that novel when I read it two winters ago. It will be interesting to see what novel everyone ends up with, but just having committed to Trish’s read-along of Vanity Fair, I don’t think I can play this particular round for the Classics Club.
Like Helen, I’ve been trying to decide if I am going to participate or not. At first I thought ‘no’, but the more lists I see the more fun it looks! I like the idea of putting re-reads on the list. I hope you get something wonderful!