“you could call jane austen an unmarried woman because she never mrs.” 😭 BYEEEEE

Only jack would look at a random picture of kate middleton and ignore her to focus on the books instead

the fact that kate bush wrote wuthering heights because her and emily brontë have the same birthday is even more ICONIC ! I’m like okay reincarnation !!!

Jack we need an Emma Watson videooo

Jack we need a video of you explaining the literary references on TTPD

Really saved yourself from a mob of angry Irish people by putting in that correction for Oscar Wilde😅

I’m so jealous of Princess Catherine’s book collection so pretty and aesthetically pleasing 💕

The 2020 Emma movie with Anya Taylor-Joy is my all-time favorite movie!

I think it IS a bit disappointing how curated & planned this list is. If Kate is obsessed with faerie smut,, we'll never know 😢

THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK WAS MY CHILDHOOD!!! there was a whole series and i still have them on my shelf. AND katie morag too!

Thank you for correcting yourself in editing when you called Oscar Wilde British, I was about to come out swinging!

Lunch with Jack is like my second favorite meal, after breakfast with a great book. I swear it changes my day

J am assuming this is already on the works, but j just need the confirmation that at some point in the future we will have a video called "every literary reference in the tortured poets department" and it better include all 31 tracks because i need that peter and cassandra analysis from you, jack. Thank you ily always ur the best 💕

Kind of would love a video of Jack reading all the children's books and giving them the full literary analysis treatment

Jack, thank you so much for this video ❤

Omgggg, I geeked out when you said you loved Northanger Abbey cause I ardently admire it. Such an underrated book.

as soon as your book comes out im preordering 10 of them

Dickens also wrote for the masses, not the intectuals, so his writing depicts that. It's simple and easy to digest because that's not really the important part - the story is. I always respect an author that writes for the people, that trusts that the story is good enough and doesn't need complex writing to give it credit. So yeah, I really like Charles Dickens.

I just wish Lady Diana had lived because she’d have the best Letterboxd, Fable TV Club and a Book Club.

such a good video, love how u talk abt booksss btw very off topic but ur skin looks great skin care reveal pls

I read somewhere that she really loves “Anne of Green Gables” as well.

silas marner DOES slap, thank you. it was the literary criticism comp. choice for texas this year and everyone hated it but i thought it was a straight banger.

Every time I get a jack in the books notification I never know what to expect

I’m sending you love, all of you❤❤❤

am I the only one who’s completely in love with “persuasion” ❤❤❤ definitely my favorite jane austen ❤

I often tell people I like to read classics 💀😭 I just love to read many different kinds of books and I also love to read books that are well known and might come up in conversations and references or just had an impact on general. It's the easiest way to describe my taste in books. Yes I read crime, romance, fantasy but I don't stick to one genre enough to say "I read romance books" because it's simply not true. I might need to think about the way I would describe my taste in books

You loookkkk sooo handsome in this video! The lighting here is awesome, your hair, and jumper. Amazing content overall!

Agreed there with dorian gray. Did just that listened to the big finish productions adaptation of it plus the spin off series where dorian continues his life until the 21st century (recommend you try both) then went back to read the book, and remains the only pre-1900 book I've read.

The Princess of Wales is amazing, thanks for the video

big up the fit matching

omg finally someone said this about dickens!!! read great expectations and HATED it bc it’s so much longer than it needs to be!

omg, i'm seeing dracula which is also a one woman show by the same director, kip williams, who did doran gray! he's an australian director and im reviewing it for my drama hsc, im soooo keen - he did a trilogy of gothic with the strange case of dr jekylll and hyde, he is amazing

I'm only missing Bleak House but I read a few other Dickens novels. Making my way through them one tome at a time

I’m very impressed they chose The Picture of Dorian Gray for her shelf given it’s history in the country and what happened to Oscar Wilde. An subtle nod to progress for sure

The hound of baskerville was our 10th class English supplementary book 1. My sister is 6 year elder than me. When she was in 10th class i was in 4th class and i already read the book 4 times before i entered 10th class and our school used play this movie only for 10th students i was excited for my turn. Love it

The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark is such a deepcut childhood memory oh my god

I've read most of these, too!

Genuinely everyone should see the Dorian Gray play currently on!! I saw it when it was in Melbourne and to this day it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen in the theatre

Props for the pic!

I want someone as loyal to me as Jack is to Emma by Jane Austen

I love charlotte’s web one of my favorite childhood books ❤

I am so with you re Dickens. The only one I enjoy is A Tale of of Two Cities. I had to read Dombey and Son for my Lit degree - the pain! Oscar Wilde is just genius, as you say witty on every page. Shakespeare's sonnets - seconded! I've also read all of the classics plus Charlotte's Web. A nicely curated set of classics for sure.

We love seeing Jack gossiping about the crown.

How far is the ttpd video jack?

Every and each time a get to the English department in our local library I get lost and would choose Arabic books only , I really want to read the books you're talking about ❤😂

Also off topic but if only i could pull off that shade of pink as well as jack does oh

That color really suits you

Okay sleuth!🕵️💅

Jack do you never sleep

Love me some Sherlock Holmes, and I love Wuthering Heights.

Off topic but that pink really suits you!!

Mansfield Park is my favourite austen novel and ive seen probably a handful of people that also like it. Its quite universally hated 😂 so now when i see people trashing mansfield park i can say its got royal approval /j

This made me think it would be cool to do a "if you liked... then read..." but exclusively with classics vs modern reads. Like, if you like this classic, you'd like this modern fiction book or vice versa.

I found both Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens quite depressing to read. Ever read Jude the Obscure? Blimey that is tough! Also I got half way through Oliver Twist when I was probably 12 and had to give it up because it got me so down. These two authors in particular were writing specifically to stimulate compassion and empathy within the upper classes of the day - prompting them to improve the lives of the much less fortunate. Hence why you get that massive impact of a serious reality check (with the force of a sledgehammer), which they successfully achieved in their novels.

Have you ever read if we were villains by M L Rio - interested what you think of it and the Shakespeare links to it !!

I’m so cynical but from the perspective of a bookseller, penguin clothbound classics on the whole I would say tend to draw the attention largely of the least bookish people - they’re just so pretty everyone wants to look at them. I’ve had so many people tell me they wish they had a whole shelf full of them and proceed to buy nothing from our indie shop! So on a very skeptical level I’d love to know which of these she has actually read!!

this channel is buckingham palace and jack is my king 🤴

Jack How do you get celebrities to give you book suggestions? I have been trying to get recommendations from Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow & Matt Leblanc but haven’t gotten a response from them yet. I have anxiety about annoying them.😢

Jack said let’s break this down…

can we please just give a shoutout to “north and south” by elizabeth gaskell? I’m not done with the video yet but I adore it, its like “industrial revolution meets pride and prejudice” 😂

I walked out of Sarab Snook's Picture of Dorian Gray It was so hammy after a while and it just got too much when she started doing selfies.

please make a hozier video 😢

Jack, please do Emma Watson video next!!

Did he say “literary aura” @ 3:00?

OMG I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT STIG OF THE DUMP AND REMEMBERING IT NOW MAKES MY LIFE FEEL WHOLE AGAIN :O :O :O

Really enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I would describe Oscar Wilde as 'British', even though Ireland was still under British colonialism during his lifetime.

Jack, now we really need a review of the books recommended by Queen Camilla!

I feel like King Arthur could also count as one of the "most portrayed characters"

Silas Marner does slap though, you are not wrong at all

Oscar Wilde was Irish 🥹

“The only non British author in this list is Homer” But of course 😊

wait wait wait I'm confused- what do kids read in the UK and the US for school? I did my highschool in a bilingual program (my mother tongue+English) in public school, nothing fancy. By the time we had finished 10th grade (15ish yo) we had read ALL these books except Bleak House - we did A Tale of Two Cities, instead, for Dickens. I was convinced this is normal curriculum for 14-15 year-olds in English-speaking countries, def NOT uni material.

I love Kate Middleton so much! ❤❤

I enjoyed alsmost every book in my womens gothic lit class but I HATTEEDDD Wuthering heights. 😆

Instead of saying the book choices were calculated you could say they were purposeful.

All the adjectives you use to describe the books depicted could be what the publicists want us to feel about the royal family. It could also be true for a lot of Brits. 🤷‍♀️

Question: I hate withering heights with an absolute passion please tell me someone, anyone agrees

i feel like, these were definitely selected by the house decorating staff (or whomever does that) and Kate was maybe given a choice of which 12 of 20 of these books she wanted on her desk. i'm a nerd so i know all these editions came out in the first round of penguin clothbound classics, mostly British authors, and Coralie Bickford-Smith, the designer of those covers, is British. I think these books are beautiful, but they are not a good reading experience, and they don't hold up, i wish they were made better. i started collecting some but now i'm trading them in at my used bookstore.

What you said about Charles Dickens is exactly why I've never liked his books. It's so longwinded and when you know that these writers got paid by the word, it's obvious. Also did Jack really call The Picture of Dorian Gray a modern classic?? It was still published in the 1800s 😅

Hmm...Odysseus was hurrying back to Penelope but stayed with Circe for over a year.

Please do Emma Watson video next Jack thank you 😊

suprised you didnt go on a rant about charlottes web as you normally do lol

Wait.. in english you say Odessus and not Ulysses..? but James Joyce.. or maybe juste tiredness and talking for twenty minutes 😂🙃 Love your video!

American here - is a "head boy/girl" a secondary school thing (grades 7-12), or a university thing? Does it have to be at a boarding-school situation, or is it a thing even at commuter schools? I feel like boarding schools, and schools outside of the US in general, are highly romanticized because of their more traditional elements. Is it just a posh thing?

I think the hate for Tik Tok books comes from overexposure. Everyone is reading them, therefore every booktok-er is talking about them. Sometimes it's nice to be part of the club, but other times you just want something different.

I have read penguin clothbound classic and I can tell you she has not read those books. They are beautiful but not created to be actually read.

Given I no longer go to the movies - and haven't been to see one since 2006 - found the references un-entertaining. I have not turned my TV on since November 2022.

Jack idc about the royals but I care about you, so I'll watch

Dickens's writing feels exaggerated to me. I am not into Austen as well. But Wuthering Heights was one of the classics I gravitated towards. My favourite British classic - Far From the Madding Crowd.

The Kate Bush song is the only thing I like about Wuthering Heights.

clothbound classics SUCK just as actual physical books to read, really poor quality and the cover images will wear off right away. read other editions of those classics though, no reason not to!

June deserved better

The Emily movie was the most disappointing film I've seen in ages! I love Emily Bronte and was so excited for the movie but I couldn't stand it because of all of the historical inaccuracies and things they just made up. The whole love affair was made up, there is 0 evidence of anything like this happening, and frankly making it up seems quite anti-feminist. It basically says "she couldn't have written such a wonderful work of fiction if she didn't have real life experiences to base it on". Because imagination doesn't exist apparently. The movie also made it seem like the men in her life were the reason she started writing in the first place AND completely misrepresented the relationship between the sisters, putting them against each other and literally altering facts to make it work for their nonsensical vision. The relationship between the sisters is what makes the Brontes so amazing, so the fact they ruined even that to make their ridiculous narrative work is infuriating. I don't know how I'd feel about the movie if I didn't know about these things and could separate it from the Brontes' actual history... If anyone is looking for an actually well-done and well-researched movie about the Brontes - To Walk Invisible is incredible.

I think her list is boring. I'm not saying these are terrible books, but they don't say anything meaningful about her as a reader. It's clear the collection was carefully (perhaps too carefully) curated for a specific image (and that's sort of KM in a nutshell...?). I think her children's book recommendations are far more fascinating and insightful.

She hasn‘t been „Kate Middleton“ in years… why do people insist on calling a married woman by her maiden name?

Love the cover of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Other than that my definition of fun doesnt align with your modern sensibilities whatsoever. I love almost none of these works. I would have chosen Bleak House, but if I had to pick a Shakespeare I would have chosen Hamlet, a Jane Austen I would have chosen Persuasion, a Bronte I would have chosen Tenant of Wildfell Hall... I would have included two Frances Hodgson Burnetts: The Making of a Marchioness and The Little Princess. I would also have also chosen Frankenstein and Graham Greene's Travels with my Aunt. Other favorite English novels I would include: Harry Potter... I know not all of these authors are exclusively British, but why limit myself so also: Henry James' The Europeans.

I feel like I don't get Dorian Gray. It's like 60% irrelevant side tangents, especially if Lord Henry is in the scene. Whenever he's there, every conversation turns into the same talk about his philosophy and everyone saying how awful it is. And he's there a lot. I also don't get which plot twist Jack keeps alluding to. Don't get me wrong, the parts where the plot actually moves are really good, but there are just too many pages dedicated to the cool rocks Dorian collected and how despicable Lord Henry is.

maybe I'm wrong, but the penguin cloth bound series just does not do it for me. they look like a mass produced attempt at the classic but modern look. if I'm going for vintage nothing can beat the black classic vintage editions (not the new font I'm still mad about that).

Is this the original Kate or the AI clone of her last interview ? 😬🙄