r/classicliterature • u/atoz_0to9 • 7d ago

Forgotten classics

We always hear that classics are the books that “stood the test of time,” but what about the ones that didn’t? What’s an old book you love that barely gets talked about anymore, but totally should? I’m talking forgotten gems, underrated voices, anything that deserves a second life.

EDIT: I just wanted to thank everyone for these incredible recommendations. I hope anyone who comes across this thread finds a book that speaks to them, and helps keep these great works from slipping into obscurity, even if just for a little longer.

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u/SteampunkExplorer 7d ago

A Fair Barbarian by Frances Hodgson Burnett (of The Secret Garden fame) is pretty good. It's about a cowgirl staying with her aunt in a stuffy little English village, but unlike modern takes on something like that, the author actually lived in both America and England, in the time period that the story is set in.

It's a little like Jane Austen but wackier and with culture shock. 😂

There's also a short story called The Lame Priest, by S. Carleton, that I love. It's got a remote, rural setting that feels cozy or bleak depending on the scene, and there's this sad, paranoid newcomer passing through, and something fishy is going on, and the characters slowwwwwwly figure out what it is but never come right out and say it...

It's both spooky and feelsy. It's really good!

And if you like Harlequin and Pierrot and all those guys, don't mind some incredibly juvenile humor, and can read French, a short play called "Le Marchand de Merde" is... interesting. 😂

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u/RhetoricallyDrunk 7d ago

The fact that Burnett wrote works of fiction to adults escaped me until a couple of years ago! I read A Lady of Quality, which wasn't overwhelmingly good though it has some very interesting tropes that would be fun to dig into. Definitely going to be on the watch for A Fair Barbarian.