2020: The Year I Fell In Love With Classics
- Charlie Pritchard
- Feb 10, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 5, 2021
Unfortunately, 2020 was a year that will live long in the memory and for all of the wrong reasons. However, during lockdown, I re-discovered a hobby that has now become a passion. Reading is not only a thoroughly enjoyable pastime but when you read extensively every day, you can lose yourself not purely in the work of the world’s best authors, you also find yourself compelled to do further reading about their lives and their other works.
This list features 10 of the best classics and modern classics that I read last year. We venture all the way back to 1605, with the most recent novel on this list published in 1961. This list includes works that offer the perfect introduction to classic literature and have become era-defining in their wide reach and lasting influence.
Sit back, enjoy this list, and let me know which novels have fundamentally impacted your lives and which novels you have taken solace in reading during lockdown.
1 | DON QUIXOTE
Don Quixote (1605), widely considered as ‘the first modern novel’ tells the story of a crazed Manchegan who, along with his noble squire Sancho Panza, journeys through Spain, deluded by his grandeur as a knight errant. Quixote is a regular, middle-aged man who, driven mad by tales of chivalry, one day decides to leave his rural village in order to bring about his own version of justice. Cervantes’ prose is sublime, written with intensity, comedy, and economy. Not a word is wasted as we enjoy nearly one thousand pages of adventures. Cervantes also crafted one of literature’s most recognisable double acts, inspiring the creation of world-famous fictitious partnerships, from Holmes and Watson to C-3PO and R2-D2. I absolutely adored this mammoth novel and it is a work which I will re-read many times, such is its rich sense of adventure and beautiful evocation of Spain. It is a complete novel.
2 | THE THREE MUSKETEERS
The Three Musketeers (1844) is a novel consisting of thrilling events, entrenched in deception and romance. In Dumas’ most treasured work, young D’Artagnan leaves for Paris, becoming acquainted with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, the Musketeers of the Guard, embroiling him in a plot of treacherous and swashbuckling adventure. D’Artagnan is a charming and naive protagonist who learns immensely from his comrades, particularly the wise Porthos, whose past is integral to the novel’s alluring plot. Not only did Dumas master the art of writing with excitement and suspense, but he offered a fascinating historical context that served as the backdrop to the tale. This novel is absolutely brilliant and can be cherished on many levels, for readers young and old.
3 | CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866) is a pure psychological thriller. The plot begins with a murder, but the story is less about the deed itself than the torturous aftermath which befalls our protagonist, Raskolnikov. Dostoyevsky fabulously focuses on the torment of Raskolnikov’s psyche as a result of his murderous behaviour, as he ponders his fate as a poor student living in a tiny rented room. It is Raskolnikov’s punishment that takes precedent in Dostoyevsky's most revered work, with the student committing a double murder within the first act of the novel. It is precisely how Raskolnikov confronts his guilt and psychological turmoil that provides the vast depth of the plot. Whilst his mother and sister express a desire to join him in St. Petersburg, Raskolnikov frantically navigates the sordid alleys of the city, neurotically looking over his shoulder at each turn to ensure that his secret does not get out. Raskolnikov’s profound paranoia culminates in a shattering denouement, concluding a majestic work of cerebral fiction.
4 | THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) was the fabulous Oscar Wilde’s only novel. The novel sparked controversy at the time, with Wilde’s daring approach craftily taking on the taboos of the era. The impeccable use of symbolism throughout the novel is not only atmospheric in its effect, but it is also tinged with foreboding. Wilde’s way with words was unparalleled, and the way he interweaved an exquisitely depicted gothic London with a supernatural plot was divine. Dorian Gray is an impressionable and affluent young man, whose portrait by Basil Hallward possesses a haunting influence over his fate. Lord Henry Wotton plays the part of Dorian’s tempting companion as he attends operas and frequents the sordid opium dens of London’s East End. As Lord Henry famously tells Dorian, ‘the only to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.’ How Dorian desperately clings to his belief that he can become eternally youthful is where the fundamental beauty of this novel lies.
5 | THE GREAT GATSBY
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most famous work, The Great Gatsby (1925), he sought to capture the essence of the Jazz Age, the epitome of the Roaring Twenties in the United States. In this novel, Fitzgerald gave us a sumptuous analysis of American consumerism and the excesses of the ‘leisure class’. This is underpinned by Jay Gatsby, who has a spellbinding influence upon the novel’s impressionable narrator, Nick Carraway. Gatsby’s lavish parties provide the foreground to his pursuit of the glamorous Daisy Buchanan, whose adulterous husband Tom becomes the story’s villain. Nick’s retelling of his experience in New York is told with a charming personality and offers a decadent insight into how money and fame can become man’s great downfall. For such a short novel, The Great Gatsby is written with supreme eloquence and depth, it is a triumph of modern classic fiction.
6 | BRAVE NEW WORLD
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) offers an enthralling depiction of a dystopian future, inspiring a generation of writers of the genre including George Orwell and Ray Bradbury. Although Huxley’s vision in this novel consists of a so-called utopia, with free love and prescription drugs part and parcel of everyday life, this ultimately has dystopian consequences for the novel’s central characters, Bernard Marx and John the Savage. Huxley’s prose is fantastic and his imagination marvellous, but the novel’s subtleties are also deserving of note, such as the time period the author creates: ‘AF’ being ‘After Ford’, a nod to Henry Ford’s immense influence upon the consumerist West at the time the book was written. I was initially sceptical of how much the book would read like a science-fiction novel but was pleasantly surprised how Huxley made his characters so human, thus the most chilling aspect of the story considering the plot’s disturbing climax.
7 | BRIDESHEAD REVISITED
Evelyn Waugh was a supremely influential British novelist in the 20th Century, and it was with Brideshead Revisited (1945) where his stock rose to a new level. Written as the Second World War ended, Waugh’s novel resonated with a generation because he experienced the tragedy of the war himself, and how he extrapolated a plot of romance, reminiscence and religion gave readers so much to take from the book. Charles Ryder is Waugh’s semi-autobiographical protagonist who attends Oxford University and meets the charming and enigmatic Sebastian. His family resides in the country at Brideshead, and as soon as he introduces Charles to his childhood home, it instantly evokes a pronounced fondness and allure for our narrator. It is not only Waugh’s depiction of Brideshead which is stunning but how he brought the story to life in Oxford and Venice leaves an enduring impression.
8 | NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR
Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is another seminal work that has become more chilling with time. The exploration of truth, liberty, and emotion is central to the lasting impression this novel has left in its wake. Winston Smith is our protagonist and works at The Ministry of Truth, destroying information from the past. The government which oversees the activities of its people is personified as ‘Big Brother’, who is the all-seeing eye on humanity. How can Winston escape? How can he find love? How can he ever believe in a better future? The sinister suspense which Orwell creates within an allegorical vision of the future is intense but deeply thrilling. The novel has become one of the most profound works of not only modern classic literature but of all time. It is essential reading for our younger generation, with such excessive usage of social media akin to sticking one’s head in a box full of rats.
9 | GIOVANNI’S ROOM
James Baldwin is one of the 20th Century’s most influential authors and in his second novel, Giovanni’s Room (1956), he wrote with bravery, brevity, and elegance. The novel is semi-autobiographical, inspired by Baldwin’s experiences in Paris. His protagonist David embarks upon a secret love affair with waiter Giovanni, whom he meets in a small Parisian cocktail bar. Baldwin’s depiction of Parisian nightlife is sumptuous, focusing less upon the glamour of the city but more upon its forbidden subtle potential as the stage of a sprouting homosexual romance. Baldwin in some ways revolutionised how people perceived homosexuality but it is not only the author’s discussion of morality that is the sole appeal of the story. The evocation of Paris, the suave Giovanni, and the psychological torment of David are excellent features of the story in their own right. I cannot wait to read more James Baldwin in 2021.
10 | REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
A stunning portrait of how a marriage attempts to rid itself of suburban conformity, Richard Yates produced a superb debut with Revolutionary Road (1961). It tells the story of Frank and Alice Wheeler who, consumed by boredom in suburban Connecticut, dream of moving to France to escape the banality of their new life outside the city. However, Frank deals with this monotony in his own way and how the consequences manifest occur with resounding destruction. Yates’ sense of timing in crafting the plot creates atmosphere and suspense, with a profound understanding of how suburban families interact and deal with their own ambitions. Therefore, he mastered the art of evoking 1950s America in juxtaposing new affluence with the dilemma of aspiration, and unfortunately for the Wheelers, the effects are tragic. The novel was immensely readable and clever, as well as relatable, and much like Fitzgerald did, captured an era of American society in such a style that we may never see again.
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