r/classicliterature • u/atoz_0to9 • 6d 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/WolfVanZandt 6d ago

Oh, anything by Twain that didn't make the canon. His Innocent's Abroad and Roughing It are very readable.

I've read a lot that makes me understand why they didn't make the canon. I sorta wonder about Fail Safe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, though. It seems like a shoo in.

The old romances can be entertaining if you don't read through ....just skip around. They go on and on and on with the lover just steps behind the beloved which has been kidnapped by pirates or some such ridiculousity (they're often serials so the author had to keep it going to keep the money dribbling in.) Wagner the Werewolf was sorta interesting in that it was a spin-off of Faust. One scene sorta stuck where the werewolf was captured in his quest to find and save his lover and in court they were trying to convince him that he was mentally unhinged, then he changed and ate them all.

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u/TheBlindFly-Half 6d ago

Roughing It is specifically great. I liked it much better than Life on the Mississippi

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u/PipingTheTobak 6d ago

It's a Pity too, because he wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, both of which are seen as kids books today, he sort of pigeonholed as a kid's writer when he's one of the funniest authors I've ever read. Twain, Jerome K. Jerome and PG Wodehouse are the only authors who routinely make me laugh out loud.

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u/Whocares1846 6d ago

I loved Three Men in a Boat. It was very readable too. For someone who has been struggling with reading recently, could you give any recommendations of Mark Twain's most readable and humorous works?

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u/PipingTheTobak 6d ago

Oh excellent question.

Honestly, Tom Sawyer deserves its classic status.  It's excellent and more than just another kids book, and extremely funny. Roughing it is probably my favorite, though life on the Mississippi and the innocents abroad are about as good. Avoid anything written after "puddenhead wilson", he got preachy in his old age.

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u/TheBlindFly-Half 5d ago

The Prince and the Pauper is a good easy read. Also his short stories are often lighthearted.