I was thinking this while reading The Canterbury Tales, which isn’t exactly the oldest I’ve read (I think that goes to Homer)
But The Canterbury Tales is just so delightful! Getting into the flow of the rhyming prose is very fun to read (I’ve just been reading the Penguin Classics Coghill translation which is fantastic)
I’ve already watched the Pasolini adaptation but I’m definitely going to revisit once I finish the book.
Beowulf fucking slaps
Dunno if you’d count it as a book but the Epic of Gilgamesh is one of my all time favorite stories that I regularly go back to. Also, predates Homer by a long shot.
Not the oldest I’ve read, but the oldest I’ve properly enjoyed is Jane Eyre (and it happens to be my fave of all time too)
Probably something by Jane Austen? Actually technically Shakespeare but that was for school so it doesn’t really count.
The Count of Monte Cristo has held up extremely well for a 200 year old story. Same with Don Quixote
I’ll move them up in my theoretical TBR!
Well by the standards you’ve set this is positively modern, but I’d say my favorite ‘old’ book (indeed one of my favorite overall) has to be Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
I love how bold the story felt playing with the idea of gender and power in the Victorian English countryside. It was also surprisingly sweet, and I hold the storm scene after Bathsheba’s marriage to Troy in my hall of fame romantic hero moments.
The book is just pure comfort for me, like a blanket and a warm mug of cocoa by the fireplace. Bathsheba and Gabriel Oak were such good characters and i couldn’t help but cheer them on, I just loved it.
I also just find it so interesting that Hardy, who is in my opinion, author of some of the most bleak and hopeless stuff out there, is responsible for such a tender tale.
This was my first Hardy book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I next read “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and I liked that even more.
Beowulf
Moby Dick and War and Peace were both sick with it.
My longest throw was The Tale of Genji, the audiobook was great if you have the patience for longer books
I studied ancient Hebrew scriptures and Buddhist writings at university, which I enjoyed a lot. Also read bits and pieces of Hindu Vedas, Gilgamesh, Inanna, the young’uns of ancient Greek literature and some other things that aren’t coming to mind. Which is oldest depends on which scholar you talk to, but it’s most likely between Inanna, Gilgamesh and Job. Of those three, I loved Inanna the most.
But also, the Tale of Genji from Heian Japan (early 11th century), written by a noblewoman named Murasaki Shikibu. That’s so much later it’s basically modern ;) but it’s the one I want to point others to. Project Gutenberg has the 1st and 2nd parts of a translation into English if anyone wants to check it out. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66057
