TOPIC · 27 BOOKS

Classics

Books I have read about classics, brought together across genres, periods and countries.

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Cover of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott FitzgeraldI really liked the way you got into the time. It's a short novel about money, desire and the impossibility of reconstructing the past. I really liked the atmosphere and the figure of Gatsby, although I think I enjoyed it more for what it suggests than for the story itself.

Cover of The Gambler

The Gambler

Fiódor DostoyevskiDostoevsky tells of his obsession with the game and how he can seize a person with incredible intensity. It's short, dark and very entertaining, and you notice that he knew perfectly what he was talking about.

Cover of An Honest Thief

An Honest Thief

Fiódor DostoyevskiA short story by Dostoevsky about poverty, guilt and contradictions of a person trying to preserve some dignity.

Cover of To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper LeeI understand its importance perfectly and it has very good characters and scenes, particularly those connected with the trial. Even so, I did not connect with it as much as I expected, and some sections felt slow.

Cover of Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf

Hermann HesseI find it overrated given how often it is cited as a reference. It contains interesting ideas about identity, loneliness and the different selves that coexist within a person. I understand its importance, but some parts felt dense and I did not connect with the protagonist at all.

Cover of The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. SalingerI really liked Holden's voice and that mixture of anger, confusion and vulnerability with which he looks at the adult world.

Cover of Contra un ignorante que compraba muchos libros

Contra un ignorante que compraba muchos libros

Luciano de SamósataI found it very funny that a text written nearly two thousand years ago describes so well whoever buys books to look cultured without reading or understanding them. It is brief, sharp and completely up-to-date.

Cover of Letter from an Unknown Woman

Letter from an Unknown Woman

Stefan ZweigZweig can tell a whole life and a love obsession in very few pages. It's one of those books that looks simple while you read them and then stays with you for a long time.

Cover of The Miracles of Life

The Miracles of Life

Stefan ZweigIt's fine and has Zweig's usual sensibility, but it didn't leave me the same impression as his best short stories.

Cover of Buchmendel

Buchmendel

Stefan ZweigA very short and precious story about a man who lives virtually inside the books. Zweig gets that little character to end up also representing a European world that was disappearing.

Cover of Fear

Fear

Stefan ZweigZweig turns the fear of being discovered into a tension that grows page after page.

Cover of Chess Story

Chess Story

Stefan ZweigOne of my favorite Zweig short stories, with a game of chess, he gets to talk about obsession, isolation and mental resistance in a way that keeps an incredible tension.

Cover of Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman

Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman

Stefan ZweigZweig tells in very few pages how an impulsive decision can completely change a life. I loved the tension, the obsession and the ease with which you get into the protagonist's head.

Cover of The Stranger

The Stranger

Albert CamusThe story of an Algerian Frenchman who feels like a foreigner within his own environment, always outside of reality. He faces everything that happens to him as if he has no feelings, without worrying about his own existence. Short but intense novel.

Cover of The Plague

The Plague

Albert CamusIt tells the story of a plague epidemic in Oran from the point of view of a witness. After living through COVID, none of it feels foreign to us. That is why it is worth reading, particularly for its account of the personal dramas behind the wider crisis.

Cover of The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre DumasIt's one of the most entertaining novels I've ever read, a spectacular story, but for a long time it has been hard to find a Spanish edition that I would like to give away. Some are cut, some have old translations and many full editions are quite unattractive. One day I will find the definitive one and Amazon will probably warn me again that I've already bought it ten times.

Cover of The Black Corsair

The Black Corsair

Emilio SalgariI love the pirate stories, and this is a classic adventure novel that's hardly ever written about anymore: corsairs, vengeance, battles and voyages through the Caribbean.

Cover of El gran inquisidor / La casa muerta

El gran inquisidor / La casa muerta

Fiódor DostoyevskiTwo books: The Great Inquisitor is a fragment of The Karamazov Brothers, which recounts a second coming of Jesus Christ to earth in Seville during the Spanish Inquisition.

Cover of Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons

Iván TurguenevA Russian classic about something very simple and never changing: children think their parents don't understand the world and parents think their children want to destroy it.

Cover of Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Joseph ConradA novel from 1899 about the author's experience in Congo, the excesses of colonization, and the social context of the time.

Cover of Helena, or the Sea in Summer

Helena, or the Sea in Summer

Julián AyestaI can't tell you why I liked it so much, but I read it from a sitting and it reminded me of many moments when I was a kid, in the summer, I would definitely read it again.

Cover of El mejor alcalde, el Rey

El mejor alcalde, el Rey

Lope de VegaThe truth is that theatre, especially this kind of comedy, is not what I enjoy reading most. Written in the 17th century, it's about how a Spanish nobleman, taking advantage of his position, wants to force a peasant girl to marry him, and that forces the King of Castile to mediate and solve the situation.

Cover of Tales of the Greek Heroes

Tales of the Greek Heroes

Roger Lancelyn GreenIt's a very good book that tells Greek legends and mythology, it's a single narrative that makes it easier to read, and it goes through all the stories we've ever heard: from the creation of the universe to Hercules, King Midas, Orpheus, Jason and the Argonauts. I've enjoyed it so much!

Cover of Portraits of a Marriage

Portraits of a Marriage

Sándor MáraiIt starts in a coffee shop in downtown Budapest in the first third of the 20th century with a woman telling her story with her ex-husband.

Cover of Burning Secret

Burning Secret

Stefan ZweigA 1911 novel that tells the story of a young aristocrat who tries to approach a married woman through his 12-year-old son while they're on vacation at a hotel.

Cover of Leyendas

Leyendas

Stefan ZweigIt's not one of his best books, but It is a quick read and some of the stories are good. Five legends Zweig wrote to convey his concerns and the times he lived in (World Wars, crises, etc.).

Cover of Journey Into the Past

Journey Into the Past

Stefan ZweigIt's a novel about love, distance and how you can idealize a relationship by telling the story of a couple separating during World War I.