Top 20: Classic Fiction
Some things you can't fit onto a top five list, so here's the first of a series of top twenty lists. Having graduated with a B.A. in English, I have an affection for the classics and even to this day strive to read one a month. These are my personal favorites. 1. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho has been thrilling readers for over two hundred years and holds a critically important place in the history of gothic literature, the rise of romanticism, and the development of the modern detective novel. The novel has something for everyone: Although Radcliffe subtitled The Mysteries of Udolpho "a romance," this gothic thriller is also in part a travelogue, a sentimental novel, a novel of manners, a female Bildungsroman, and a mystery--it even contains a selection of poems. While readers will enjoy wondering whether heroine Emily St. Aubert will ever escape the clutches of her step-uncle Montoni to reunite with her stalwa...