Classics book clubs
Find a classic book club on Fable, your chance to connect with other readers who love great literature, timeless books, and the best novels of all time. On Everand, you’ll find thousands of classic ebooks and audiobooks. Then start your own classic book club or join one of our many classic lit communities.Download the app to join the club!
Join a classics book club
8 book clubs available to join
- smaine moderatesKTUG knygų klubasKTUG knygų klubo bendruomenė15Last activity 5w ago
- Mattie moderatesMattie'sroomLets read together! All genres. 🍵☕️🍪1Last activity 3w ago
- angelpompom moderatesAll the Classic’s Book ClubHii!! Want to actually start reading classics? Us too! We’ll read 1-2 a month💕13Last activity 2w ago
- Nautical Nonsense moderatesNautical NonsenseDiscuss whatever you’re reading at the moment! Open to all books and genres!2Last activity 48w ago
- romi moderateslibros entre tetashablamos de libros2Last activity 4w ago
- ⚔️ moderatesCozy classic & fiction3Last activity 2w ago
- Linnea moderatesOld and modern Classicshopefully youll want to join my club :) here we read classics! Youll have 1month to read the book!9Last activity 1w ago
- Margarita Klymenko moderatesforgotten and fatalmyth retellings, historical fiction & suspense.1Last activity 3d ago
Popular classics book club picks
Classics author spotlight
Awesome classics book reviews
4.0
1,370 clubs
agusia24w ago
I can’t believe they’re turning this shattering tragedy of generational abuse into a smutty movie with jacob elordi…
4.8
553 clubs
CJReads46w ago
At the end of Chapter 19 Lord Henry says, “Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” Now I have to say that I loathe Lord Henry. I think he was incredibly obnoxious and uptight. But he had some gems and this was the best of them. I think this quote will be relevant throughout the whole review. Oscar Wilde. You mad man. What a book. Classics are not just old. They are pieces of literature that have consistently stayed relevant since their inception, and have been important throughout multiple eras. Humanity has changed A LOT since Wilde was alive. But his book is still just as relevant as it was in the late 19th century.
The pursuit of beauty. This is one of the key points throughout the book. And it is even more important today. We are so obsessed with our phones, our social media. We have ruined our perception of ourselves because we compare to others. We are all beautiful. We were not meant to compare to models. We were not meant to be viewed on such a global scale. And Wilde reminds us that this pursuit of beauty is one thing. Superficial. Beauty does not matter. To be cringe, it’s the beauty inside you that truly matters. Being a good person, being kind, funny, loving these are all what beauty is. Not posing for the perfect picture in the mirror to post on your story, or putting the right filter on your TikTok so your eyes pop. We only chase beauty because it is an outside force. That the world is telling us that we need to lose weight. Fashion trends say that we need to wear big shoes because that’s what’s attractive right now. We all care about these things. Hell I’m writing this and I care about my appearance too, I’d be hypocrite if I said I wasn’t. But if the world wasn’t the way that it is, we wouldn’t care about this. Oog did not care that his beard was unkempt. Grug did not care that his neighbors spear was sharper. Our ancestors just lived. They’d see their reflection in a pond maybe a few times. I saw once that someone said that the worlds most evil invention was the mirror. We were not meant to ponder upon our looks. We shouldn’t have to ponder upon our looks. But we do. And to bring it around this is what Dorian is obsessed with. Beauty. That he is the most beautiful human ever and that his eternal youth will allow him to charm generations. That he can do anything. The way these characters speak of his looks. I was obsessed. But damn he was still a miserable person. He was self obsessed. He couldn’t get enough of himself. Yes in ways he was an exaggeration, but I think at his core he wasn’t. He was a man corrupted by his own beauty. Corrupted by the glowing opinions of others. Corrupted because he felt he was greater than others because why? Because he had a great hairline and nice lips? Doesn’t that sound stupid? Because it’s all vanity. It’s all pointless.
Now we get to my favorite parts of the book. Yeah that wasn’t even the best the book had to offer in my opinion. And we circle back to the quote at the beginning. Oscar Wilde was most likely queer. He did not have the terms and definitions that we had today, but his sexuality seemed to be, to not put a label on him, up in the air. This 100% comes through in his work and it’s beautiful. The way that this man describes attraction, love, infatuation, between men and women, women and men, men and men. It makes my soul happy. The way that Basil discusses Dorian. “He is all my art to me now.” And that’s chapter 1. The pining, the yearning, it’s something special. And it’s all written in the most beautiful way. Wilde’s prose is a force. It is true beauty in writing. It is art. It is some of the best I’ve ever read. Maybe the best. He is able to show all the sides of humanity through an equally beautiful light. Nowadays his writing is beautiful, but in his day? It was controversial. Because what do you mean a man in the 1890s has released a book that clearly states two men being romantically involved. What do you mean this book rescinds the church and it’s teachings. That it speaks against the government. All of this was detested at the time. It was against God. It was demonic. But THATS why this book is a classic. This book was a rebellion. It was Oscar Wilde standing at the edge of a cliff. He was swaddled in chains and being dragged down to the abyss. But he withheld and screamed to the world. “I’m here.” “I’m valid.” “I exist.” It didn’t matter how many metaphoric chains weighed down Oscar Wilde. He still wrote this damn book. His sexuality possibly led to his demise. But that did not matter. He still wrote this. He wrote a stain on his world that has now helped others in our modern world. And I’m sure it helped out loads of people that were so far hidden in their own mind in his day. We have made progress, but this book is still a subtle rebellion against the system. It is still a massive middle finger to those that hate. And this is my favorite part of the book. Maybe I’m a romantic, maybe because this is personally what I love to see in writing. But reading a classic, one of the most beautifully written books ever, that speaks about queer people? Yes. I need it. Inject it into my veins.
If I had to compare this to something I’ve already read it would be the secret history. How the characters all kinda suck, how the story is absolutely wild, but yet how fascinating it is. I could not put this book down. I read a classic quickly. That’s unheard of for me. Because Wilde just did that good of a job.
I know that my words will possibly fall flat, because how can you write a review on a book that has been reviewed since 1890. But I think that quote I mentioned is exactly why I wanted to write this review. Because I am one more voice screaming at the world to read this book. To maybe teach one lost soul that Basil Hallward saying that Dorian Gray is the finest man he’s ever seen won’t make people gay. That Lord Henry being an asshole towards women is going to make people sexist. This book is a testament that literature matters. Literature does not change you. It opens your eyes to a new view. It makes you feel seen. Basils infatuation with Dorian didn’t turn your kid gay, it made your kid realize that being gay was normal, and that other men felt infatuated by men. I don’t know if I’m losing the plot here or not, I have a lot to say on this book and I’m writing this directly after I finished. Maybe I should’ve meditated on this more but I try and write my reviews immediately. I want my emotions to be raw and unfiltered. What I’m trying to say is that this book is still relevant. And that’s it’s relevant for a reason. This book is still talked about today, because it could be released in 2025 and it would fit in with modern day literature in a lot of ways. Because Oscar Wilde was special. So thank you Oscar for being an icon and writing this gay ass book. I hope you are somewhere safe where your love can be untainted by the world.
addictiveatmosphericbeautifully-written21 more
4.8
205 clubs
Annie Zearadjou44w ago
White Nights – A Review by Me, Who Read One Paragraph and Said “Oh No, He’s Me”
So apparently, my first completed classic decided to slap me with emotional damage in under an hour. Love that. Truly.
I picked it up because it was short.
Joke’s on me, it was short and soul shattering.
I expected old-timey fluff, maybe some slow plot and fancy words. What I got? A 58 page emotional mugging.
Dostoevsky said, “Let’s clown every introvert” and I felt that in my spine.
The Dreamer
My lonely little monologue machine.
He saw a girl, got two seconds of human interaction, and immediately wrote her name in cursive on his heart. This man turned a single “Hey” into a full-blown love story. He was so soft, I’m convinced life bullied him into poetry.
As an introvert myself, I saw parts of me in him like his longing, his overthinking, his daydreaming.
People assume lonely folks are quiet. But give us a moment of attention? We rap.
And oh, he did. Yapper in chief. Too good for this world.
But let’s be real, he didn’t love her.
He loved the feeling of being seen.
He loved. He lost. He hoped. He thanked the night for letting him feel.
And here I am lowkey crying over a man who only lived for 60 pages.
Nastenka
At first? Understandable.
She’s stuck under Grandma Surveillance, scared and desperate for connection.
So when someone finally helps her, she clings. I get it. Naive? Yes.
Girl, you don’t sit there comparing the guy who’s baring his soul to you… to the man who ghosted you for a year.
They planned a future together. He dreamed it out loud.
And she switched tracks in under a minute.
No hesitation. No second thought. Just boom betrayal with a smile.
I will never recover.
The Lodger
Ah yes. Him.
Promised crumbs, vanished and then showed up exactly at the most convenient plot-ruining time.
Bro didn’t even speak to her when he lived in the same house, but now he’s ready to be her soulmate?
Make it make sense.
Honestly? I believe Dreamer and Nastenka could’ve had something real.
They had a connection. A chance.
But Dostoevsky said, “Let me teach you pain.” And so he did. Yet I rooted for the Dreamer. I read somewhere that he never even revealed his name tho he mentioned hers on every page like a prayer. And ladies and germs, that hurts.
The Truth?
Nobody—and I mean nobody—was actually in love.
They were in love with being noticed.
With being needed.
With not being alone for five minutes.
And that? That’s the most painfully real thing I’ve read in a long time.
Final thoughts
If this book taught me anything, it’s this:
Being alone is bearable.
But being almost loved, then left?
That’s the kind of ache that deserves a trigger warning.
P.S.
On reread, I realized I needed Nastenka as a villain the first time. This time... I didn’t
5.0
317 clubs
𝒀𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒛𐙚46w ago
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
1984: A Masterclass in Getting Emotionally Jump-Scared by Government Propaganda
Winston Smith is the human equivalent of a damp cigarette: tired, coughing, and absolutely not built for revolution but does that stop him? No. My guy said, “I will rebel in the most depressing way possible: journaling and unseasoned sex in a dystopian alley.”
Imagine living in a world where the gym class yells at you through the TV, kids are paid to snitch on their parents, and your Alexa is also your parole officer. That’s 1984.
Winston really thought he was the main character for 0.5 seconds. He bought one antique paperweight and was like, “Yup. I am the resistance.” Sir, please. You get winded going up stairs. Sit down.
He falls in love with Julia, a girl who hates the system AND wears real makeup (gasp!). Together, they create a sexy little bubble of fake freedom. And what do they do with that freedom? They have oatmeal-level passion and talk about overthrowing the Party… in a room that is 100% bugged. I’ve seen better strategy from Sims characters.
But THEN. O’Brien, the man Winston thinks is the plug to the rebellion, turns out to be the final boss of gaslighting. This dude tortured Winston so hard he started believing 2 + 2 = trauma. At one point I swear Winston’s last brain cell packed up and LEFT the scene.
Julia? She got uno reversed so hard she turned into a government ghost. One minute she’s “Death to the Party,” next thing you know she’s quiet quitting her entire personality.
And then we get to the grand finale the part that had me cackling through the tears:
Winston, this poor, emotionally dry-cleaned man, is sitting in a café drinking expired gin, after getting psychologically wrecked by every authority figure with a pulse. He stares lovingly at a poster of Big Brother like he’s watching a K-drama, and then I kid you not he has the nerve to say:
“He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
EXCUSE ME???
Not you getting waterboarded with propaganda and coming out with a crush. That wasn’t a character arc. That was a government-mandated lobotomy followed by a Hallmark moment.
5 STARS.
For pain. For power.
For Winston losing to peer pressure, fascism, and one rat.
And for that final line that had me whispering, “This man fell in love with his kidnapper and called it growth.” I called Stockholm syndrome
abuseviolencewar violence