Classics > C Classics > by Title (First Letter)

Advantages: Easy to read…
Disadvantages: …nonsense.

...A WOMAN OF PLEASURE (or) FANNY HILL (1748) By John Cleland (1710-1789) The aim of writing this novel was, according to John Cleland, to present pornography without a single “taboo” word. The modern reader will “search in vain for four-letter words,” as I read in one of the introductions to the book. This is the story of a young orphan girl, called Francis (or Fanny) Hill, who works in prostitution and although she meets the love of her life, she ...
...she actually has sex with Fanny and makes her orgasm. Later on towards the end of the novel, Francis peeps at two men out of curiosity and she realizes that they are having sex. She feels disgusted by this “criminal scene” as she puts it and tries to “raise the house upon them” but she falls and faints. Hypocrisy? No, in fact her relationship with Phoebe, it seems, was not considered “unnatural” –whatever what that may mean– to her in any way. This ... Read review

Advantages: Compelling and easy to read
Disadvantages: Often abridged or without original illustrations these days.

Alice in Wonderland Here we meet Alice by a river with her older sister in the summer, bored she notices a rabit walking on it's hind legs wearing a waistcoat and looking at a pocket watch muttering he is late. he drops a glove and anxious to help Alice chases him with it and falls down a rabbit hole, where she is transported into a starnge new world. She meets all sorts of strange characters, the most memorable probably being the Mad Hatter, The ...
...and The Queen of Hearts, who ironically seems to have none. She takes part in tea parties, tries to sooth a screaming pig, shrinks then becomes a giant then shrinks back again, and has to play croguet with a flamingo and hedgehogs amongst other bizarre activities. I can read this book over and over again, there are many layers to it and you can appreciate it all over again as an adult on another more psychadelic level, it's deffinately one of my ... Read review

Advantages: The first and greatest of English detective novels
Disadvantages: nothing

...unusual, but appropriate, manner, reflecting the episodic nature of the story. Three actors present the story in parts, taking on separate first-person accounts of events. All the voices are convincing, cultured British intonations describing the events surrounding the apparent theft of the Moonstone diamond from a country mansion. Each voice shades the various characters featured within the particular parts, just as the narrative offers characterizations ... Read review