most under-rated classics - some

[peaccenicked]

Tolstoy ''The Resurrection''
Anything by Dava Sobel.
Gogols '' The Overcoat''
Gorky's ''Mother''
London's ''Iron Heel''
Upton Sinclair's ''The Jungle''
Voltaire's ''Candide''
And Cervantes ''Don Quixote'' just cant be praised enough.

[Supermodel]

For Kids:

"goodnight moon" Margaret Wise Brown
"The true story of the three little pigs" by A. Wolf
"Yertle the Turtle" Dr. Seuss

Now grown ups:

Presumed Innocent (Scott Turow)
The Three Musketeers (Dumas)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Hardy)
The God of Small Things (Arundati Roy)
The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
The poetry of Robert Frost
The poetry of Pablo Neruda
The poetry of Garcia Lorca

I'm limiting this to fiction although I almost never read fiction.

[Valkyrie]

Yes, Candide! It's full of wit and brillance!! I just did a quick re-read of it a few weeks back. It stands the test of time. You know it's a masterpiece when it can withstand multiple re-reads and new gems can still be found. http://www.literature.org/authors/voltaire/

I think also Kafka's 'The Trial" --completely overshadowered by the Metamorphosis. And "The picture of Dorian Grey". http://65.107.211.206/decadence/wilde/works.html
As well, as Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five, which got some mediocre critical reviews. :( And Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the few women feminist of that time who was able to write without adopting a male pseudonym. http://www.constitution.org/woll/row.htm
I think Camus is fascinating and way underrated, stuck in the existentialist genre and out of reach for most people because of it. (Ahh, maybe I'm a bit of an existentialist, though, It's all about humanity for me.)
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/1311/camus

(Edited by Paris at 6:11 pm on June 11, 2002)

[Fires of History]

YES! Camus! One of a short list of my all time favorites. Misunderstood, misrepresented, and definitely under-rated. But I guess that's how society reacts when something flies right over their head.

And I agree about Oscar Wilde. He is pure genius- and therefore under-rated.

I would however like to add:

"To The Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf.
It completely changed my ideas about individual perception. It looks at people in the act of looking, if that makes any sense. Stunning and brilliant stream of consciousness piece.

(Edited by Fires of History at 8:25 pm on June 11, 2002)

[Menshevik]

People under-rated Wilde for so long because he was a homosexual, but he's coming back!

[deadpool 52]

Quote: from Paris on 11:09 pm on June 11, 2002

I think Camus is fascinating and way underrated, stuck in the existentialist genre and out of reach for most people because of it.

Camus was not existentialist, though.

Although I agree, completely underated.
The Stranger
The Plauge
The First Man
Caligula

He always battled of himself speaking versus his characters.

Ambrose Bierce should be coming back, however.

(Edited by deadpool 52 at 12:22 pm on June 22, 2002)