Les Misérables is one of my favorite books of all time. Make sure to have tissues on hand though because it will make you laugh and cry

You’ll love Victor Hugo, but be prepared. It’s heart wrenching.

French literature is a wonderful world to explore. I highly recommend Guy de Maupassant if you are interested in any short stories. He has some novels, but he is more well known for his short stories. A good collection is Les contes de la becasse (tales of the woodcock). They are beautifully constructed and his writing style is impeccable.

I don't read a lot of classics, but I'm reading Les Miserables and I promise you it's really comfortable to read. The writing is amazing and you just cant stop reading ❤️

If you're looking for realistic classics I recommend Russian Literature, Tolstoy is my favourite!

For Balzac: Eugenie Grandet is the best place to start followed by Pere Goriot and then Ursule Mirouet. Then The Black Sheep and then you would be ready for Lost Illusions. Also, for French literature, Guy de Maupassant. His stories are wonderful.

I want to read more Russian classics :)

“Georgian literature” - I’m cracking up! I thought that meant lit from the country of Georgia. I was puzzled but highly impressed at your choice. Then you mentioned Austen. Of course, King George! 😁 My goal for 2020 - finally finish the delightful Don Q!

You're the classiest booktuber I know! 😍

Hi, Lucy, I wanted to hold a little nap while watching some book inspirations...instead, now I’m researching your books and, of course, I subscribed! Never watched so many interesting book suggestions in ONE video. I know some of them, especially LES MISERABLES, which I love. It’s kind of a (cosy) crime story, too and tells a lot of living in that time. And the feelings after being hurt are the same until today. This is, what I like most in classics. Thank you for sharing, love from Germany, Monika, classic and non fiction lover❣️

About Balzac I'm a big fan 🤩. I think it's ok to start with Lost Illusions. But as a warning I wanted to mention that his descriptions are quite long. Very detailed and might be found as boring to some people (I love Balzac's way of descripting places personnally, he has the finest sense of humour). I would recommend his novel Le Père Goriot otherwise? And knowing a bit about your tastes I guess Le Lys dans la vallée (much shorter than Lost Illusions) and Une fille d'Ève should also please you. That being said, I read Lost Illusions in my early twenties and it's since one of my best reading memories. I think you're the perfect age for the topic of that book 😊 Happy new year 🧡💫🥳🍀

Les Misérables is a great choice. I'm trying to read Shakespeare this year. Love your channel. Good to see someone reading classics.

Happy new year Lucy!! Dangerous Liaisons is such a good choice for French literature! It's basically always ranked as one of the French's favourite classics of all time and it's certainly one of mine. As for Balzac, I think "Père Goriot" is more famous than "Lost Illusions" so that might be a good place to start, but I personally remember enjoying "Le Lys dans la Vallée" when I was a teenager!

I read Frances Burney’s letters and journals in 2019. I remember really liking it, but getting impatient to finish it by the last 100 pages. She is an odd figure in Georgian society because she’s not of particularly noble birth, but her father was a piano teacher to the rich and famous so she naturally gets to meet everyone notable from that time period. She was also very shy and obsessed with propriety. Her letters are very interesting indeed.

I am so excited for you to read House of Mirth! It was my favorite classic of 2019. Would love to see a video featuring it

Les miserales is one of my all time favourite books however you might need to read it with you phone/tablet/computer next to you as you might need to read up on french history as I had to do this and I had seen the musical and bbc adaptation before I read it. Fun fact for you the words of the Christmas carol “in the bleak midwinter” are from one of Christina Rossetti’s poems.

I love that your so honest about being slightly overwhelmed by the length of a classic novel because most people think if your a reader you can read anything at any time and place not realizing sometimes you have to be in the right frame of mind in order to have the concentration needed for a long classic

Evelina was one of my favorite books in 2019 and I hope one day it will be adapted!!!!! (Please @Netflix make it happen)

Before reading Lost Ilusions you must read "Pere Goriot", then "Lost ilusions" and afet that "A curtisanes life"... i read these books last summer and they were amazing...i loved them so much...

Happy New Year. Hope this decade will bring you many happiness. Since I have started watching your videos I have come to know about so many more great classics. You've inspired me to pick new pieces though before I used to procrastinate a lot because I found them very hard. Reading classics definitely helps your learn a lot about a culture in a very interesting way and you can easily connect to a different era, a time and it's ways you haven't been able to experience . Reading classics have got me interested in reading a lots of history as well. Thank you so much for inspiring me. P. S: though unrelated, but you kinda look like the principal my school(in a good way🙂). Love from India 😇😇😇

hi! i love that you're expanding your horizons by reading more french literature. you could give latin american authors a chance as well! there are amazing classics out there! in gerenal, english-speakers booktobers only read literature originally written in english, so i was excited to hear something else. but still, going further that europe would be amazing. have fun!

Planning to read Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird

With Balzac, you can start anywhere you want really. He wrote most of his books within the frame of La Comédie Humaine, hoping to paint a picture of life as it is, and linking each books to the one before and the one after. So it makes a whole, but each book can be read individually. Lost Illusions focuses on Rastignac, a young arriviste, who you meet in Père Goriot and who you can follow throughout various other novels (including The Wild's Ass Skin, where Balzac mixes a bit of the fantastic into his realism). Balzac is the biggest name of French realism, with Stendhal (The Red and The Black is also amazing!). You can also look into Zola (Germinal, The Ladies' Paradise, L'Assommoir), Maupassant (The Horla, Bel-Ami). And for French modern classics, my favourite Mood Indigo/Froth On The Daydream by Boris Vian. Not realism, but if you want to give a chance to somehting new. And for historical fiction, The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon. Now I think I should go pick up Shirley off my shelf to start this year classics reading challenge!

Honoré de Balzac is one of my favourite authors. As a french I always thought that next to V. Hugo Balzac is the greatest French author of all the times. He wrote a lot of his master pieces in a short time given the fact that he had financial troubles during all his adult life. So he needed to publish new novels to pay his debts. In my opinion the best places to start reading Balzac are "le père Goriot" (my favourite) or "Eugénie Grandet" or "la peau de chagrin". I am sure that you will enjoy any book you pick from these ones. I just want to warn you that Balzac likes to take his time in describing his characters and the time/space where the story takes place. So sometimes it gets boring. But once you get through that you will love Balzac 's style of writing. Enjoy your readings!

I spent my last 10 or 11 days of 2019 reading Les Miserables. I have owned that book since Christmas 2013 and i finally read it. It is a lot of story but it is worth it.

Les Miserables is my favorite novel of all time, I really hope you enjoy it!

Lucy, you are inspiring! I haven’t read the Balzac you chose, but can recommend Père Goriot or Old Man Goriot as it’s sometimes called. It’s set in a boarding house and is about the woman who runs it and the people who live there. I read a book in #victober by Charlotte Riddell called A Struggle for Fame written in 1883 and it goes into great detail about the publishing industry at the time. I loved it! Deb

Oooh dangerous liaisons is my favourite French classic! I studied this in class and fell in love with it. As for the pronunciation of the name of the author, I think you're right although us French folks are not so sure either hehe

You should incorporate classics from other other countries like Spain, Mexico, Germany, India, China, Latin America and so. Just to have a little of variety

I read Les Miserables a few months ago and I LOVED it. The musicals and films REALLY dumb down the story which only infuriated me as I read the book. The book made me cry three times and is INCREDIBLY relevant to todays political and philisophical climate. I am not sure if the one you got was an abridged version but I implore you to read the unabridged version the way it was meant to be read, you will not regret it.

Hi Lucy! I am a french major in college. I definitely recommend you start with Dangerous Liaisons as it is easier to read very enjoyable. George Sand's style is quite simple, so I don't think it would be too challenging to read Indiana. Like you, long novels scare me, so I would save Les Misérables for summer vacation or something. As for Balzac, I haven't read Lost Illusions, so please update when you do read it !

Les Miserables is a joy to read. Doesn't matter that it is long. I read it when I was about 17, then I read all of the rest of Hugo's major novels.

Lucy, Happy New Year. Today is the first day of the 2020 Classics Community Reading Challenge. I am planning on starting my year by reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf as I have a library copy waiting to be read. French literature is something I am hoping to explore this year. I am studying Spanish this year as a world language. I am enjoying the process of learning Spanish. However, French is the language I have always wanted to learn. Therefore, I want to take it at some point in my school life. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is a book I will try to read. I am also thinking of reading Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos and Indiana by George Sand. I absolutely love realism in classic literature. I have been wanting to write a classic. It is going to be an arduous project to write a classic during our current time period, but I am very eager. For the research of that, I will read New Grub Street by George Gissing. After I finish reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, I will read The House of the Mirth. As you can see, I am planning on reading the books on your TBR. As for Russian literature, I will read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I endeavor to read a few books in Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne series and some of her other books as well. I have just started reading Jane Austen in 2019. I hope to read more of her books this year. I am also planning on reading Evelina by Frances Burney and Belinda by Maria Edgeworth. I may also read The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. I love you

I very much enjoy your video. Thanks for sharing. I heard you mention Maria Edgeworth, and I highly recommend her essay "An Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification." It was an answer to the patronizing attitudes of Addison and Steele towards women. It's also very funny. As for French literature, you already mentioned my favorite, Madame Bovary, that taught me to be grateful for what I have now. Balzac' s most famous novel was Pete Goriot. Author Balzac' called Goriot "the Christ of fatherhood" concerning his love for his daughter. In an interesting note, Karl Marx studied Balzac' to learn about French society during the mid- nineteenth century. My favorite Frenchman would be the 17th Century playwright Moliere, as translated into VERSE by poet Richard Wilbur. The Misanthrope is the best, but Tartuffe, The Learned Ladies will make those in the next room wonder what all the laughter is about. Wilbur's translations sparked a major Moliere revival on New York stages in the 1970s. Somebody below mentioned Proust with a smiling face rolling it's eyes. What I'd heard (I am American) was "For crying our loud, he takes 30 pages to describe getting out of bed in the morning!" But I remembered making real French Madeleines from a French cookbook, so I jumped into Proust's Swann's Way, the Moncrieff translation. I was mesmerized. After half an hour I was saying "So THAT'S why it's a classic!" Proust writes like no one else, and it's addicting. You don't have to read all 6 volumes. As for the other two Titans of the Twentieth Century, I'll never warm up to James Joyce, and reading Thomas Mann was really tough. I liked Visconti's movie, Death in Venice, and then there was the conversation in the movie Annie Hall about the Woody Allen character pushing any book with "Death" in it's title on to the Dianne Keaton character...

Lost Illusions is absolutely a good place to start with Balzac. I found it much richer than the other famous Balzac, Pere Goriot. I'd also recommend a Zola for you, Therese Raquin.

Happy new year! I'm a huge Balzac fan, and in my opinion, Lily of the Valley is a good place to start, of course if you like the sound of it. It's a favourite of mine :)

Happy New Year! I am Adrika from BOOKTUBER ADRIKA. Lucy here is an audience of Classic Community Reading Challenge. I have selected wonderful books for this challenge. I can spend hours reading classics. They reinvigorate me to the fullest. I wish to become a published author someday. I am currently devouring Little Women by LouisaMay Alcott and Of the Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I love you a lot😘

Classics I’m hoping to read this year: crime and punishment by Dostoevsky Ana karenina The handmaids tale Nausea by jean paul sartre

I’m so excited to read more classics this year! Hearing you mention Les Miserables makes me want to try reading it again.

Balzac is a great choice. His stories are never boring which is something very enjoyable in my opinion ;)

Congratulations on your desire to read French classics ! I read Les illusions perdues so many years ago that I'm afraid I don't remember much about it or even if it's the right place to start. One novel by Balzac I remember loving as a teenager (so did my sister) was Les Chouans - it took place during the French revolution. My mother used to live near George Sand's house in Nohant, so of course I went to visit it and had the good fortune to follow a wonderful guide. He made me discover George Sand under a different light than the usual we were taught at school. She was quite an astounding woman who lived a passionate life ! Happy new year and many thanks again for sharing with us :)

I read selections of Honoré de Balzac's work The Colonel Chabert for class and liked them. My French professor also told us Balzac was such a workaholic writer that he wrote for hours at a time and drank up to 50 cups of coffee in a day.

Don't know if you'll see this, but your videos are like a gulp of fresh air. Most of the vloggers on booktube talk & praise exclusively books with little to no literary value, so it's nice to see someone who's promoting something other than YA trash. Keep it up ^^

I want to read four French classics this year too: Madame Bovary, Bel Ami, Candide or Optimism and The Phantom of the Opera.

Read War and peace last year and really liked it. Currently reading Dangerous Liaisons it's basically a romance noval and the main two characters are male and female. FYI if you ever saw Cruel Intentions it's based on it.

When you said that you felt like you might have been too ambitious I was thinking “Oh God she’s going to bring out À la recherche du temps perdu - see you in 2035” 😂

aaaaah this is so exciting, I can't wait to post my tbr too! thank you for always sharing your love for classics and for creating this wonderful community 💗💗 happy reading, lovely!

You are motivating me to read authors from other the english and american ones.You have such good insights and ideas, you will be problably a great writer.New Year greetings from Germany!

Hello! New subscriber here! :) I’m reading Les Miserables for the first time this year too! It’s been my favorite play since I was about nine years old, so I figured I was due for reading the original. I already started a bit, but I found a way to make it less intimidating... I’ve split it up into the five sections (Fantine, Cosette, etc.), and by looking it as a series of five, it feels much more approachable. Good luck with it, and with all of your reading goals this year! Happy New Year, and happy reading! 😊

I think you're better to start with Father Goriot by Balzac. It's quite short, and as you've got some experience with French, it might be interesting to read it in English, and then read it again in French once you know the story.

Great selection of books. Les Mis is fantastic, if you enjoy the 1st hundred pages, you'll wish the novel was even longer. Lost Illusions is a great start for Balzac, it's one of my favorites. But if you might want something shorter, Père Goriot is also a great start for Balzac. Looking forward to your year of reading, best regards.

I started reading the Great Books (c) 1990 in July 2016. 60 volumes. To date I've read 41 of them. Currently working on Plutarch's "Lives." (Not reading the volumes in order. FYI, Balzac's "Cousin Bette" is one I've read, vol. 45.)

Hello Lucy, happy to see your interest for the french littterature. As a french, I can give you few inputs, from the books that you have chosen Hugo is going to be the most easy to read Les Miserables ( its a page turner, very realistic characters, strong multidimensional plots and beautiful language) . La Clos as well is a page turner and the psychilogy of the characters is very entertaining and intellectually stimulating. When it comes to Balzac he is a bit less acccessible and his novels and style have evolved a lot. I think that starting with " Le pere Goriot" or " La peau de chagrin" would be an easier step to go into his works. Now as I remember that you are the one who introduced to "Rebecca" let me suggest you to read MAUPASSANT , he has plenty of short novellas who are amazingggggg ! His master was Flaubert (known as one of the best french writing style author with Hugo ),but Maupassant his pupils was a nevrotic he could be very dark and then very innocent. Unfortunately he ended up crazy. As you can see, i can talk for ages when it comes to Fench litterature , so feel free to connext with me in Goodreads if you want to discuss further !!!! Happy New Year :)

I read a book in between every part in Les Mis to give myself a break (and once when a character was being too infuriating) I loved it though.

The BBC mini series adaption of Les Miserables is good, too, if you haven't seen it already. In terms of French classics, I'm a fan of The Beast Within by Emile Zola and the collection of short stories by Guy de Maupassant. For something a bit more modern, check out Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan. I personally don't a specific classics goal this year, other than wanting to read The Brothers Karamazov. Happy reading! 😊

Yey!! Lost Illusions is one I plan on reading for 2020. I bought mine at Barnes & Nobles when they had their sale on classics for $5.🙂 I read lots of good reviews on Goodreads for it. Evelina & House of Mirth I also want to read in 2020. Happy New Year Lucy!! 🎉🎉 🥂🍾

Fantastic TBR, I've only read Hunchback by Hugo, he can write but I know he goes on long tangents in his books so be prepared for that. I want to read more Russian classics this year, I plan on making my classics video soon! I wrote a chapter of my MA dissertation on New Grub Street, it has a slow beginning but he's definitely underrated. Henry Mayhew's book is so fascinating, I think you'll love it.

I'm reading House of Mirth - exquisite writing and I'm savouring every word. Like you, I can't stop talking about Edith Wharton! I loved The Age of Innocence and I've bought Ethan Frome and Summer which I'm looking forward to reading as well.

House of Mirth is so good! One of my favorites!

I have a few modern classics that I want to read this year. The outsiders, Beloved and Desperaux that is in Spanish

Oooh, I love Christina Rosetti. She's one of my all time favorite poets. East Lynne sounds interesting. I read Lady Audley's Secret after your video about it. I loved it! :)

The House of Mirth is my favorite book! I hope you enjoy it!

George Gissing is a most underrated author. Loved New Grub Street, but just finished Never World and it was even better. I wrote down most of the titles you referenced as they sound like some authors I want to explore. Love your channel!!

I've read most of Hugo's books and even in translation, they are beautiful to read. Don't miss Zola's Rougon-Macquart series also.

I read Les Miserables this year and i'm so proud because it's a huge book.

I'm French and I've read Eugenie Grandet by Balzac a few years ago, I really liked it. I don't know the book you suggested but I recommend you Eugenie Grandet :) Also Pere Goriot is probably his most famous book, so you could also check out this one !

I really want to get into reading more classics this year. I'm aiming to read at least 10 of them, starting with Peter Pan. I'm definitely overwhelmed by larger books, so I'm impressed you're reading Les Mis. I still have The Count of Monte Cristo sitting on my shelf, after trying to tackle it well over a decade ago.

Lost Illusions was one of my favorite books.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. An American classic, written when McCullers was 23, first published in 1940.

Happy New Year, Lucy! You are so ambitious! I am joining the challenge. Happy Reading!

Les liaisons dangereuses is amazing, easily one of the best novels I've ever read. Talking about it I want to read it again, I'm sure your gonna love it

This is a great list, Lucy! I've read Belinda, by Rhoda Broughton for Victober last year - and now I want to read everything by her! Rossetti, Burney, and Edgeworth were also great reads for me last year. And I am planning to read Sand's Indiana in 2020, too! I will join your #ClassicsCommunity this year, and I will be posting my reads for it on my blog and Instagram. Happy reading! :)

By the way, just a point of interest: W. Somerset Maugham has a wonderful, pithy treatment of his critique of French lit and writers in his preface to his "A Writer's Notebook." Its a fun read.

Les Miserables is long but worth it! Happy New Year !

In reflection, Les Mis has held the longest position for the most intimidating book for me. I should change that! I still need to finish Jane Eyre! Happy reading dear :)

Dangerous Liaisons is great, hope you enjoy it. The screen adaptation with Michelle Pfeiffer and John Malkovich is a great follow up, true to the text, fantastic casting, amazing performances.

I adored Dangerous Liaisons, I hope you enjoy it! My favorite Rossetti poem is “Goblin Market” East Lynne sounds wonderful and I am going to pick up a copy.

Good!! I'm Brazilian. In this year i want read more because now i finish my college. I want read: les Miserables, and Russian Classics.

Woman in White!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Propelled me into an obsessive Wilkie Collins binge!

Dangerous liaisons is such a great book! I studied it in my second semester in first year and I was just blown! Merteuil and Valmont are just the best duo ever! And I adored the lovely Madame de Tourvel! Hope you enjoy this book!

Just a little warning: That translation of Les Mis (the Denny trans) is, despite what it claims, abridged (several chapters omitted), and takes quite a few, imo unnecessary, liberties - if you want a really good and similarly modern and lyrical translation that isn't abridged I'd suggest the donougher translation (my fav). the Wilbour translation (the oldest, archaic but beautiful) or the Fahnstock (not very lyrical but true to the original) are also very good! - but honestly anything other than Denny or Wraxall!❤ (obvs do what you want, just a tip😊)

I'm french and I love your youtube channel. If you want to read recent french literature, I would advise you to read Annie Ernaux, Maryse Condé, Delphine de Vigan or Virginie Despentes ! Also, Leila Slimani and Alice Zeniter. Enjoy this reading year.

For Honoré de Balzac you should check out Cyrano de Bergerac ! 😉

Hi Lucy! I recommend you read Old Goriot from Balzac first. It is a short work and a great introduction to 19th-century French realist literature and also to Balzac's series, 'The Human Comedy'. Cousin Bette is also superb, I highly recommend it.

You might want to supplement London Labour with Engles Condition of the English Working Class which is more about Manchester. Also if you want to write a modern Victorian novel you might like to look at Arturo Perez Reverte's The Fencing Master which is deliberately based on the novels of Benito Perez Galdos (the Spanish Dickens). I have read a lot of Galdos and when I read The Fencing Master I could feel the echo. Gabriel Garcia Marques Love in the Time of Cholera is another modern novel harking back to a previous age which might interest you. Good luck

Les Mis is one I do intend to read but OY it's SO BIG. The size of it is kind of daunting (kind of like Frances Burney). I've seen the 1934 French film version which is five hours long and is really good; it's on blu-ray in the UK and I recommend it. Remember Lost Illusions is actually three books, so that'll drive up your French quotient even further :) I *think* I've read that Edith Wharton book but I'm not sure, I forget what books I've read of hers cos it was an awfully long time ago. Should read more, cos I do recall liking what I did read by Wharton. All of these look like good and interesting choices, but as I've finally realised how useless I increasingly am at organised book reading and film viewing projects, I'm not sure how much I'll be actively participating myself.

happy new year! i really want to read evelina this year too! hope you enjoy all the books you mentioned!

i love christina rossetti! i am studying her work for my a levels and it is a joy. hope you enjoy her collected works!

Love your videos!!! I’m doing the exact same!!! I’m working on my first novel and I’m writing it as if it would’ve been written in the 1870’s but of course working on it now!!

Les Misérables seems so interesting and it seems like it would be a great novel since the movie is fantastic.

If you have lots of patience and time you could check out Clarissa by Richardson. It’s one of the most literarily important epistolary works! It’s interesting and the villain is truly detestable

Yess I want to read Les Miserables too! It’s my favourite musical of all time so I would love to get into the book

I haven't read Les Miserables but I'd like to some day. Also, I love your hair ♥️

I started les miserables during this confinement period since I’m at home but still not easy! I mean it’s incredible and well written but I don’t feel like I’m progressing even though I’m around page 500 it’s still not even half of it 😂 But so far it’s worthy!

Very inspirational as always. Thank you!! I want to recommend the new movie version of Little Women, which just was released in the U.S. I hope it is also available in England because you would love it. Especially the main character of Jo and her writing aspirations. Since you said you were interested in the publishing world of the Victorian era (although Little women is set in America), there are some great scenes with Jo and her editor, Jo writing by candle light, and the magnificent scene where it shows how her book is put the together. And that ending...wow!! Powerful stuff for any women writer and a gorgeously done film.

Happy new year Lucy thanks for all your effort to make me to read classic book In this year im gonna read 'Lord of the flies'

Hello Lucy ! I am ffench and passionate about Literature. To help you with H. De Balzac, I think you should not really start by his books... Balzac has a very heavy writing and could take 10 pages to describe a vase! ( That is all his genius ! )But I recommend you to read Zola instead ! He is the master of french realism . 'Au Bonheur Des Dames' is one of my favourite books and truly a piece of Art ! Highly recommend for your beginnings in French realism !

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is my favourite novel, thank you for mentioning it

I've only read Les Misérables. It was terrific, probably the best novel I've ever read.

Belinda is a trip. I really enjoyed it.