Top Ten Tuesday: Classics That Have Been on My TBR for Way Too Long

Top Ten Tuesday is a tag hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's prompt is "Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR", but I'm tweaking it a bit to "Classics That Have Been on My TBR for Way Too Long". 

I've read a lot of classics, both for school and for fun, but there are still so many I haven't read! I'm using this Top Ten Tuesday topic as an opportunity to gather these classics scattered across my TBR list and challenge myself to read them soon!

I have organized this list in order of most recent to oldest published. All covers are linked to Goodreads.

1. Watership Down, by Richard Adams (1972)

"Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society." (From Goodreads)

I've heard this is about rabbits. I don't really know more than that.

2. The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom (1971)

"At one time Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that there would ever be a story to tell. For the first fifty years of her life nothing at all out of the ordinary had ever happened to her. She was an old-maid watchmaker living contentedly with her spinster sister and their elderly father in the tiny Dutch house over their shop. Their uneventful days, as regulated as their own watches, revolved around their abiding love for one another. However, with the Nazi invasion and occupation of Holland, a story did ensue. Corrie ten Boom and her family became leaders in the Dutch Underground, hiding Jewish people in their home in a specially built room and aiding their escape from the Nazis. For their help, all but Corrie found death in a concentration camp. The Hiding Place is their story." (From Goodreads)

I can't believe I haven't read this!

3. Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson (1951)

"Seventeen-year-old Natalie Waite longs to escape home for college. Her father is a domineering and egotistical writer who keeps a tight rein on Natalie and her long-suffering mother. When Natalie finally does get away, however, college life doesn’t bring the happiness she expected. Little by little, Natalie is no longer certain of anything—even where reality ends and her dark imaginings begin." (From Barnes & Noble)

Shirley Jackson is the author of the often-assigned short story "The Lottery", but I've also read her full-length 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House. This one is next on my Shirley Jackson list!

4. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951)

"The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind." (From Goodreads)

How was I never assigned to read this in school?!

5. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh (1945)

"Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated work is a memory drama about the intense entanglement of the narrator, Charles Ryder, with a great Anglo-Catholic family. Written during World War II, the story mourns the passing of the aristocratic world Waugh knew in his youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities; in so doing it also provides a profound study of the conflict between the demands of religion and the desires of the flesh. At once romantic, sensuous, comic, and somber, Brideshead Revisited transcends Waugh's familiar satiric exploration of his cast of lords and ladies, Catholics and eccentrics, artists and misfits, revealing him to be an elegiac, lyrical novelist of the utmost feeling and lucidity." (From Goodreads)

I'm pretty sure my sister hates this book.

6. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner (1930)

"As I Lay Dying is Faulkner’s harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn by each of the family members -- including Addie herself -- as well as others; the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama, As I Lay Dying is a true 20th-century classic." (From Goodreads)

I've heard this is very weird, which is probably why I've put off reading it for so long.

7. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton (1920)

"Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people 'dreaded scandal more than disease.' This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it." (From Goodreads)

I haven't read anything by Edith Wharton, so I have no idea what to expect, but I like the description!

8. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (1905)

"Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by 'old money' and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears thirty, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing, and to maintain her in the luxury she has come to expect. Whilst many have sought her, something—fastidiousness or integrity—prevents her from making a 'suitable' match." (From Goodreads)

This book was mentioned in Jane, Unlimited, by Kristin Cashore, and it's been on my TBR ever since.

9. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad (1899)

"Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, was originally a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It is a story within a story, following a character named Charlie Marlow, who recounts his adventure to a group of men onboard an anchored ship. The story told is of his early life as a ferry boat captain. Although his job was to transport ivory downriver, Charlie develops an interest in investing an ivory procurement agent, Kurtz, who is employed by the government. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in 'one of the darkest places on earth.' Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad. A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written." (From Goodreads)

I've read Lord Jim, also by Joseph Conrad, for school, and I didn't particularly enjoy it.

10. David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (1850)

"David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one of literature's great comic creations. In David Copperfield - the novel he described as his 'favourite child' - Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure." (From Goodreads)

Out of the four works of Dickens that I have read, I have only enjoyed two: A Christmas Carol, which I read or watch almost every year at Christmastime, and A Tale of Two Cities. The other two were Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, which I did not find to be enjoyable. However, my mom told me I might like David Copperfield, and she doesn't generally care for Dickens either, so I'll give it a try.

How many (if any) of these classics have you read? Which ones (if any) are on your TBR?