[CleverChook]

Most of my suggestions already listed. I'd add some Russian classics: Tolstoy (Anna Karenina or War and Peace), and Doestoevsky (Crime and Punishment).

Also, Victor Hugo's worth a look. I recently read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and quite enjoyed it, esp. all the architectural descriptions of Paris and the general history of Paris.

This thread has given me a few old favourites to reread, starting with Rebecca, I think.

[steppy]

If you like Jane Austen try Washington Square by Henry James.

[tres-chic]

The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas.

I was never so pleasantly surprised.

[Manderley]

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. It has the best character in it of all the books I have ever read.

[*lalah*]

Jane Eyre and Vanity Fair are my favourites.

[Molondy]

Of the well known classics my favorites are probably:

Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Pride & Prejudice
Brideshead Revisited
Gone with the Wind
Catcher in the Rye
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
EAst of Eden (my favorite Steinbeck)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)
The Great Gatsby.

Less well known but really really worth getting into is anything by Dorothy Dunnett. She wrote historical fiction and her books are hands down my favorite books ever. Most are based around Scottish history. The first series is the Lymond Chronicals and the SEcond is the House of Niccolo (although the HoN comes first chronologically I would read LC first). She has a stand alone novel King Hearafter which is a reimagining of the story of Macbeth (sort of).

They can be hard going but once you get into them they are unputtdownable and unforgettable and the sort of books that reward many many re-reads. Her fans are true fanatics.

[*lalah*]

Oh and also Crime and Punishment and one flew over the cuckoos nest (not sure if it counts as classic or not?)