Hi, folks!
As most of you know, The Classics Club is a group of readers committed to reading and blogging about at least 50 classics over a period of five years.
“The Classics Club was started on March 7, 2012 by a blogger who wanted to see more people posting about classics literature in the blogosphere. Her goal was to, “unite those of us who like to blog about classic literature, as well as to inspire people to make the classics an integral part of life.” She thought about several ideas but finally settled on inviting people to make out a list of (at least 50) classic titles they intend to read and blog about within the next five years.” Here.
I joined the group in 2013, had several lists since then, and never looked back. However, I don’t feel that my current list will be finished in time, since 2020 seems to have messed up with all my reading plans. And, to be frank, I look at that list and simply don’t feel like picking up any of the titles still to be read. So, I am making a fresh start & creating a new list for the next five years.
Most of the books I listed below will be rereads for me, but this is what I am seeking right now, and these are books I want to pick up soon. I will update this post as I go along. You will be able to find a link to this post on my projects page.
Key:
Read books are marked as (✓)
Favourites are marked as (✨)
My reviews, when available, will be linked below.
Start Date: 28.07.2020
End Date: 27.07.2025
Books read so far: 12/125
Favourites: 04/11
- Alberta and Jacob, by Cora Sandel (1984, tr. Elizabeth Rokkan. Original: Alberte og Jacob, 1926)
- La Bâtarde by Violette Leduc (2003, tr. Derek Coltman. Original: 1964)
- Behind a Mask, or A Woman’s Power by Louisa May Alcott (1866, under the pseudonym of A. M. Barnard)
- Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, by Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1868)
- Beyond the Glass by Antonia White (1954)
- Bid Me to Live, by H. D. (1960)
- The Blazing World and Other Writings, by Margaret Cavendish (1666)
- The Bondwoman’s Narrative, by Hannah Crafts (written between 1853 and 1861, published in 2002)
- The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pisan (1405)
- The Book of Margery Kempe (2000, tr. Lynn Staley. Original: 1438)
- Brown Girl, Brownstones, by Paule Marshall (1959)
- A Burglary: Or, Unconscious Influence, by Amy Dillwyn (1883)
- The Castle of Wolfenbach: A German Story, by Eliza Parsons (1793)
- Charlotte Smith: Major Poetic Works, ed. Claire Knowles & Ingrid Horrocks (2017, posthumous)
- Cherry & Violet, by Anne Manning (1853)
- The Children’s Hour, by Lillian Hellman (1934)
- The Chinese garden, by Rosemary Manning (1962)
- Claudine at School, by Colette (1900)
- Clermont, by Regina Maria Roche (1798)
- The Clever Woman of the Family, by Charlotte Mary Yonge (1865)
- Collected Poems by Charlotte Mew (1982, posthumous)
- The Complete Works by Hadewijch (1980, tr. Columba Hart)
- Complete writings by Phillis Wheatley, edited by Vincent Carretta (2001, posthumous)
- The Confessions of Lady Nijō, by Lady Nijō (1973, tr. Karen Brazell)
- Corinne, or, Italy, by Madame de Staël (2009, tr. Sylvia Raphael. Original: 1807)
- The Curse of Caste; Or the Slave Bride, by Julia C. Collins, edited by Mitch Kachun and William L Andrews (2006, posthumous)
- Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting, by Penelope Mortimer (1958)
- The Dark Island, by Vita Sackville-West (1934)
- Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley (1929)
- A Double Life, by Karolina Pavlova (2019, tr. Barbara Heldt. Original: 1848)
- Down Below, by Leonora Carrington (1972)
- Faces in the Water, by Janet Frame (1961)
- Fantomina and Other Works, Eliza Haywood (1725)
- Felicia Hemans: Selected Poems, Prose and Letters, ed. Gary Kelly (2002, posthumous)
- The Female Quixote: or, the Adventures of Arabella, by Charlotte Lennox (1752)
- Female Quixotism, by Tabitha Gilman Tenney (1801)
- La Femme De Gilles, by Madeleine Bourdouxhe (1994, tr. Faith Evans. Original: 1937)
- Fernhurst, Q.E.D.and Other Early Stories by Gertrude Stein (1971. Original: Q.E.D, 1903; Fernhurst, 1904)
- Floating Clouds, by Fumiko Hayashi (2006, tr. Lane Dunlop. Original: 1951)
- ✓ The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault (1943)
- Gloriana; or, the Revolution of 1900 by Lady Florence Dixie (1890)
- The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan, by Michitsuna no Haha (1989, tr. Edward G. Seidensticker) // Also known as: The Kagero Diary, by Michitsuna no Haha (1997, tr. Sonja Arntzen)
- The Governess, or The Little Female Academy, by Sarah Fielding (1749)
- Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton (1953)
- The ha-ha, by Jennifer Dawson (1961)
- Half a Lifelong Romance, by Eileen Chang (2016, tr. Karen S. Kingsbury. Original: 1948)
- ✓ The Half-Sisters, by Geraldine Jewsbury (1848)
- Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales, by Vernon Lee (1890)
- ✨ A Phantom Lover (short story, first published in 1886, also known as ‘Oke of Okehurst’)
- A Wicked Voice (short-story, first published in 1887)
- The Heavenly Twins, by Sarah Grand (1893)
- The Heptameron, by Marguerite de Navarre (1984, tr. Paul A. Chilton. Original: L’Heptaméron, 1542)
- Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
- The Hermaphrodite, by Julia Ward Howe (2004, posthumous)
- Heroine of the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Gwendolyn Bennett’s Selected Writings, edited by Belinda Wheeler (2018, posthumous)
- Idylle saphique, by Liane de Pougy (1901)
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs (1861)
- Indiana by George Sand (1872)
- The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan (1990, tr. Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)
- The Interior Castle, by Teresa of Ávila (1979, tr. Otilio Rodrigues. Original: 1588)
- ✓ Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted, by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1892)
- The Izumi Shikibu Diary (1969, tr. Edwin Cranston. Original: 1004)
- Keynotes and Discords, by George Egerton (pen name of Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright, 1893/1894)
- Laetitia Elizabeth Landon: Selected Writings, ed. Jerome McGann & Daniel Riess (1997, posthumous)
- The Lais of Marie de France (1999, tr. Keith Busby & Glyn S. Burgess. Original: 1160)
- Letty Fox: Her Luck, by Christina Stead (1946)
- The Life and Death of Harriett Frean, by May Sinclair (1922)
- The Living is Easy, by Dorothy West (1948)
- Maria: or, the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (1798)
- Marriage by Susan Ferrier (1818)
- Mary Robinson: Selected Poems, ed. Judith Pascoe (1999, posthumous)
- ✓✨ Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks (1953)
- Megda, by Emma Dunham Kelley (1891)
- Memoirs of Emma Courtney, by Mary Hays (1796)
- Millenium Hall, by Sarah Scott (1762)
- Miss Grief and Other Stories, by Constance Fenimore Woolson (2016, posthumous)
- ✨ Miss Grief (1880, short story)
- A Modern Mephistopheles by Louisa May Alcott (1877, published anonymously)
- Moths, by Ouida (pen name of Maria Louise Ramé, 1880)
- Munster Village, by Mary Hamilton (1779)
- My Brilliant Career, by Miles Franklin (1901)
- My Ladys Soul: The Poems of Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall, ed. Serena Trowbridge (2018, posthumous)
- The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe (1794)
- ✓ Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave (1850)
- The New Atalantis by Delarivière Manley (1709)
- ✓ O, the Brave Music, by Dorothy Evelyn Smith (1943)
- The Old English Baron, by Clara Reeve (1777)
- ✓ Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, by Harriet E. Wilson (1859)
- The Outward Room, by Millen Brand (1937)
- ✓ Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller (1969)
- Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay (1967)
- ✓ Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset (1928)
- The Princess of Cleves, by Madame de Lafayette (1992, tr. Robin Buss. Original: 1678)
- Private Worlds, by Phyllis Bottome (1934)
- The Purple Flower by Marita Bonner (1928)
- The Real Charlotte, Edith Somerville & Martin Ross (1894)
- Red Pottage, by Mary Cholmondeley (1899)
- The Red Record, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1895)
- Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane (1917)
- Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich (1998, tr. Elizabeth Spearing. Original: 1393)
- ✓✨ The Romance of a Shop, by Amy Levy (1888)
- Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown (1973)
- Saraband, by Eliot Bliss (1936)
- Scivias, by Hildegard of Bingen (1990, tr. Jane Bishop. Original: 1152)
- Selected Letters, by Madame de Sévigné (1982, tr. Leonard Tancock. Original: 1725)
- Selected Works by Angelina Weld Grimké, edited by Carolivia Herron (1991, posthumous)
- The Selected Works of Georgia Douglas Johnson, edited by Claudia Tate (1996, posthumous)
- Self-Control, by Mary Brunton (1811)
- The semi-detached house & The semi-detached couple, by Emily Eden (1859-1860)
- A Serious Proposal to the Ladies by Mary Astell (1694)
- A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbold (1791)
- The Story of a Marriage, by Louisa Baldwin (as Mrs. Alfred Baldwin, 1895)
- Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux (1996, tr. John Clarke. Original: 1898)
- Strangers and pilgrims, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1873)
- ✓✨ A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney (1958)
- Théresè and Isabelle by Violette Leduc (1966)
- A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, by Amelia B. Edwards (1877)
- The Three Miss Kings, by Ada Cambridge (1891)
- The travels and adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu (1744, anonymous, probably by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu)
- ✓ The Tree and the Vine, by Dola de Jong (2020, tr. Kristen Gehrman. Original: De thuiswacht, 1954)
- Trio, by Dorothy Baker (1943)
- The Twelfth Hour by Ada Leverson (1907)
- Violets and Other Tales, by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1895)
- This Waiting for Love: Helene Johnson, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance, edited by Verner D. Mitchell (2000, posthumous)
- The Waiting Years, by Fumiko Enchi (2002, tr. John Bester. Original: 1957)
- The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney, Lady Morgan (1806)
- The Wooden Doctor, by Margiad Evans (1933)
- Zoe, by Geraldine Jewsbury (1845)
That’s it for now, folks. If you fancy reading any of these books along with me, just let me know. 🙂
Yours truly,
J.

A great list – good luck!
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Thank you, Karen! I am trying it again, hopefully I will stick to my choices… 🙂
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Wow, fascinating choices–I had to stop and Google several. I have Daddy’s Gone a Hunting and My Brilliant Career on my general TBR list. The Children’s Hour was mentioned a lot in one of my dark-ages high school English classes. Amazing I can recall that. Happy Reading
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Thank you! 🙂
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Great list! I loved Red Pottage; O, the Brave Music; and Guard Your Daughters. I also loved the Emily Eden novels – they’re combined into one edition but they’re really unrelated, you don’t have to read them together. Both are good but I preferred the second.
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I thought I had to read them together! Interesting. It’s good to know that you loved them, now I know I will enjoy them, too 🙂
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