Back to the Classics Challenge – Final Wrap-Up

Published on by Margaret

This is the first year I’ve joined the Back to the Classics Challenge, hosted by Karen’s @ Books and Chocolate. The books have to be 50 years old  and fit in to twelve categories. I’ve completed just six of them. These are the books I read:

  • A 19th century classic: any book first published from 1800 to 1899 – Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 1857, not my favourite Dickens but still enjoyable.
  • A 20th century classic: any book first published from 1900 to 1971 – Checkmate to Murder by E C R Lorac – 1944. What is fascinating in this book is the insight it gives into what life was like in wartime London, complete with the London fog and details of the blackout.
  • A classic by a woman author – Orlando by Virginia Woolf – 1928. The plot is extraordinary, beginning towards the end of Elizabeth I’s reign when Orlando is a young nobleman, and continuing for the next five hundred years to the start of the twentieth century. 
  • A classic by BIPOC author; that is, a non-white author. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I enjoyed this far more than I expected. It’s a great story, action-packed, and full of high drama and emotion.
  • A new-to-you classic by a favourite author — a new book by an author whose works you have already read. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope. It’s the fourth book in Anthony Trollope’s series, the Chronicles of Barsetshire
  • A children’s classic – The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit. This is feel good’ book about a family living in a world long gone – in 1905. I enjoyed it, but would have loved it if I’d read it when I was a child.

I very much enjoyed this challenge. My favourite is The Mount of Monte Cristo. My thanks go to Karen for hosting this challenge!

12 thoughts on “Back to the Classics Challenge – Final Wrap-Up”

  1. You read some terrific books, Margaret. I’m planning to do this one myself next year, if it takes place again that is. Like you, I wouldn’t probably try to read all twelve books.

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  2. This looks like fun. I’ve been noodling over whether to do a second round of the classics club challenge but this could be an easier one – I tend to prefer challenges where I don’t have to decide in advance what to read. Is it going to run next year – Karen doesn’t seem to have posted on her blog for several months

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    1. I’ve been wondering about a second round of the classics club challenge too as I’ve got just one book left to read in mine. I hope Karen does run it again.

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  3. I’m glad you enjoyed the challenge, Margaret. And you certainly chose some great books! I would very much like to read the Lorac; I’ve read some of her other work and enjoyed it; it’s a shame she was forgotten for a while. I’m glad, though, that the BL has brought her work out again for a new audience.

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  4. I loved The Count of Monte Cristo!! I re-read it this year for a second time. Have you seen the PBS Masterpiece Theatre production of Little Dorritt? It’s really good! I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say how close it follows the book. I’ve not tried to read the book because my mom attempted to read it one year (she’s an avid reader) and she said she just didn’t care for it even though she absolutely loved the mini-series. So I have just let that one Dickens’ title sit on the back burner. 😉

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    1. Some years ago the BBC did a miniseries of Little Dorrit – I think that was a joint production with PBS and I watched a few episodes, but if I remember correctly it was a rather dark production and I gave up watching it.

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      1. That might be the same one. I do remember it being on the darker side. It’s the one with Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen.

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  5. Nice set of classics. I’ve been wanting to read Count of Monte Cristo for awhile and it does sound like a fun book. I tried Orlando once, and didn’t get very far, but am inspired to try again after hearing how much you liked it. Framley Parsonage is one of my favorite Trollope novels. And I do love Little Dorrit, especially when the family travels.

    I am hoping this challenge is offered again in 2022, but haven’t heard one way or the other.

    Happy Holidays!

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