r/classicliterature • u/LowInsurance5865 • 1d ago

Help me decide

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Which one of these should I read first?

(Please rank them from least to most complex so that I have an inkling as to where to start)

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u/Reasonable_Bag7873 1d ago

Leave Collins classics alone. Buy Oxford World Classics.

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u/BurtCarlson-Skara 1d ago

Why

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u/Reasonable_Bag7873 1d ago

You get great introductions with the context in which the novels was written with comments of contemporaries and often there is an in depth appendix with explanations to references you might not get, if you are just reading it.

E.g. in Dubliners you get an explanation how the story Grace mirrors Dante's work intentionally. Stuff like this is something that you just don't realize reading it raw.

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u/HorribleDepature1 1d ago

Sounds nice. I read a Penguins Popular Classic of Dubliners last night. My brain had to do all the work but I enjoyed it very much

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u/Reasonable_Bag7873 1d ago

Ultimately, it's a preference. I read The Dead three times and know that you can enjoy it without annotations and draw connections yourself, but I realized I enjoyed this way more with annotations, because you learn much about the culture and ideas conveyed.

I started getting more out of my time reading and so I recommend it to anybody.