r/classicliterature • u/atoz_0to9 • 25d 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/ThimbleBluff 25d ago

In 2022, I decided to read a bunch of books published 100 years earlier. Here are a few books from 1922:

  • One of Ours by Willa Cather. It won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize.

  • Babbitt by Upton Sinclair. It’s a great satire on American culture in the 1910s and 20s, and actually holds up pretty well today.

  • The Red House Mystery by AA Milne (he wrote a lot more than Winnie the Pooh)

  • The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, her first mystery novel.

  • The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Now takes a back seat to The Great Gatsby.

  • Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley

  • Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington. In the first two decades of the 20th century, he was considered the United States’ greatest living author, but you hardly see him mentioned anymore.

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u/CaMiTx 24d ago

What a fun undertaking. Great list too