book recs from your local (fav) ao3 author - classics edition 🧚🏻
Hello everyone! Back for some classics today 🧚🏻
It was very, very hard to choose 5 classics to recommend, so I just went fuck it and chose 7, but rest assured I could go on and on. So many excellent books I left out, I almost feel guilty - nothing stops from eventually doing a part 2!
1. The Count Of Montecristo - Alexander Dumas: it’s hard to summarize a +1000 pages book, so I’ll just tell you it’s the story of Edmond Dantès, a young sailor falsely accused of treason who manages to escape the island fortress he was imprisoned in. The ULTIMATE revenge story, you won’t believe how well this book flows and how compelling the story is. If you have time and like stories about betrayal, justice, cunningness, revenge and hope, dig in!
2. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë: one of my favs, recently butchered by an adaptation I urge not to see and home to a quote a lot of you love (“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same”), but most definitely NOT a love story: it’s a dark, tragic and gothic novel that follows Heathcliff in his cruel quest of revenge on the families who have wronged him and his obsessive attachment to Catherine. An incredible novel about possession, revenge, obsession, cruelty, abuse and morality. The setting will transport you right to the English moors, and don’t ignore the commentary on classism!
3. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier: another Gothic classic, it follows an unnamed young woman who impetously decides to marry a wealthy widower, only to later discover that he and the mansion are haunted by Rebecca, the first wife. A sort of coming of age novel about memory, trying to escape the past, jealousy, the gothic obsession as seen through the eyes of the deranged head maid of the house, and gender roles. An incredible incipit too!
4. Maurice - E. M. Forster: the most special book in this post, the one book I recommend to every queer person I ever met (as my friend @firelikestars knows very well). A story of queer love in early 20th Century England, it follows Maurice Hall from his schooldays through university and beyond, as he loves, loses, comes to terms with himself, understands his society and his world better, loves and loses some more until he finally gets a happy ending. I’m sure you understand how big of a deal the happy ending is: this book was published only posthumously, in 1971, while it was written starting from 1913. If you’re a queer person, read this book: for the author, for the community, for the culture, and for it’s an amazing story. My friends can back me on this!
5. Emma - Jane Austen: my favorite from my close personal friend Jane, the story of Emma Woodhouse, rich, clever, young and spoiled heiress who LOVES to meddle in her neighbours’ love lives. Home to probably the most loved quotes in fandoms: “If I loved you less, I may be able to talk about it more.” Emma embarks on a matchmaking adventure with poor results, and takes us with her through a story that’s witty and fun, but still complex and rich in societal commentary. Also, it’s a novel about self-growth, class boundaries, and pivotal lingering glances. This time, the movie adaptation with Anya Taylor-Joy is very much enjoyable!
6. White Nights - Fyodor Dostoevsky: this is actually a short story, good to dive into the very rich and very complex Russian classic literature. A lonely narrator, known as a “dreamer”, meets a young woman, Nastenka, as she cries on a bridge, and falls in love with her over the course of four bright nights in St. Petersburg. But she is in love with someone else, someone she’s waiting for: a novel about loneliness, isolation, unrequited love. A bittersweet romantic agony perfect for angst enjoyers, but what I enjoyed the most is the representation of fleeting moments of human connection, yet so profound, that may fade quickly, but stay within us a long. Oh, the agony!
7. Carmilla - Sheridan de Fanu: another Gothic novel, this one predates Stoker’s dracula by more than 20 years, and we finally dive in a favorite of mine: doomed yuri. Laura, the narrator, lives in highly isolated Austrian Styria, but it all changes when a young woman named Carmilla comes to stay with her after a carriage accident. An intense, emotionally intimate and homoerotic connection blooms between the two, even as Laura becomes increasingly weak and starts having weird nightmares. Carmilla has something to hide: what might it be? Pioneer of the genre, it also was among the first to explore psychological suspense and - especially - sensual tension between the two main female characters. Thank you Sheridan!
As always, thank you for reading! 🧚🏻 What should we dive into next time? Underrated gems? Queer stories? Books about female rage? Favorite mysteries? Let me know! 🧚🏻🧚🏻🧚🏻
