British Novel Recommendations?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>For APLit we have to choose a british novel to read from the link below.</p>

<p><a href=“http://students.resa.net/potockiam/english/ap/AP_readinglist.htm[/url]”>http://students.resa.net/potockiam/english/ap/AP_readinglist.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Any recommendations?</p>

2

<p>Anything by Shakespeare and Dickens obviously, but a personal favorite of mine was Wuthering Heights. It’s a little dense, so try to get it on audio book if you can, it makes a lot more sense listening to it than reading it.</p>

3

<p>Brave New World by Huxley - an excellent book, both for reading as literature and for composing AP essays.</p>

4

<p>Well, it all depends on what you like to read, but my favorites are Jane Eyre and 1984. As a suggestion, I would stay away from the books by Jane Austen. I had to read Emma and Pride & Prejuidice for school; both seemed to carry on forever and I couldn’t wait to get to the end so I wouldn’t have to be tortured any longer.</p>

5

<p>Really? I loved Pride and Prejudice, Emma… basically ANYTHING by Jane Austen, haha (but then again, I’m a fanatic) Classics :)</p>

6

<p>^^ like I said, guess it depends on what you like to read… me and my friends are always arguing over what books are good and what books aren’t. We’re such dorks, lol!</p>

7

<p>Nah, my friends do that all the time. What’s even dorkier is when they memorize half the quotes from the book (the really awkward ones that make sense in the book context but sounds just plain weird when said verbally) and then use them as inside jokes…</p>

<p>Now THAT’S just dorky…</p>

8

<p>If you’re a girl, any Austen novel is an awesome read just for fun! <em>so romantic</em> If not, try Hard Times. It’s pretty short and easy to get into.</p>

9

<p>Oh read Dr. Faustus. Seriously an amazing book.</p>

10

<p>i seriously recommend anything by shakespeare or jane austen. also try pygmalion, brave new world, middlemarch, or tom jones</p>

11

<p>From your list:</p>

<p>The Warden by Trollope. It’s funny.</p>

<p>The Mayor of Casterbridge by Hardy. It’s not funny, but its a good story. Jude the Obscure is pretty good also.</p>

12

<p>Ooh, a great list. I wish we could have read books like that for IB English. :frowning: Here are the ones I suggest:</p>

<p>A Room of One’s Own, Mrs. Dalloway, or To the Lighthouse are great books. Woolf is one of my favorite authors, although some people find her a bit boring. AROO is my favorite of the three, but it is a feminist work, so be warned. </p>

<p>I liked T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, although it might not be a good choice if you don’t like poetry. Plenty of symbolism and literary techniques to work with, though.</p>

<p>Emma is also one of my favorites; she’s so interfering you can’t help but love her; Pride and Prejudice is also good. Jane Eyre is also a good pick, and it’s fairly light reading. </p>

<p>Wide Sargasso Sea is a must-read if you’ve read Jane Eyre; Rhys goes back to tell the story of the “woman in the attic.”</p>

<p>Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies are easy to read and analyze, but they don’t make for very cheerful reading. </p>

<p>As a general rule, I don’t like James Joyce (he doesn’t make sense!), but A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is relatively straightforward, and it has interesting insights into turn-of-the-century Irish life. I found it useful for the AP exam.</p>