5 Classics for June

In this series, I recommend five classics each month that remind me of that particular time of the year. June has always struck me as a strange mix of peace and chaos, of beauty and discomfort, of consistency and change. I think this past month has definitely embodied those contradictions, as flowers bloom in the midst of so much pain and uncertainty. For this list of recommendations, I’ve chosen five classics that also contain inherent contradictions.


Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. This entire novel takes place over the course of a single day in June and contains a lot of language and imagery surrounding this month: “…what she loved: life, London, this moment of June.” Whenever I think of June I always think of this striking, poignant, beautifully written novel. Its two main story lines also provide the juxtapositions that I often associate with June.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. What may seem at first like a silly play unfolds to reveal a witty, satirical look at society, class, and social conventions. If you’re a fan of Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, then I highly recommend giving this one a try.

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. What appears to be a whimsical, hilarious of strange beings and countries that Lemuel Gulliver stumbles upon is actually a satirical account of society in the early eighteenth century.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Another satirical read, this one about race and childhood and society along the Mississippi River in the 1840s. An in important message runs beneath Tom Sawyer’s adventures and antics.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. This topsy-turvy tale of a girl just looking for some entertainment contains creatures and scenes both whimsical and frightening.


I hope you’ve enjoyed this classics guide for the month of June!

With books do you associate with the month of June? What do you think of the books I’ve mentioned? Which books would you add? Let me know in the comments section below!

Yours,

HOLLY

Advertisement

33 responses to “5 Classics for June”

  1. I also recommend the truly classic,Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Thank you! Definitely on my list of Shakespeare to read at some point!

      Like

  2. I read “Catch 22” and “100 Years of Solitude” during summer vacations and highly recommend both! For summertime reading!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. 100 Years of Solitude is such a great novel for summertime!

      Like

  3. I associate summer time with the childhood classics, such as Harry Potter. During the long summer holiday (3 months starting from 15th of June) I usually had more time to read books of my own choice, so reading series was one of my favourite pastimes. Ah, those times 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Yes, definitely!! I used to read so much in the summers when I was younger ❤

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Love your choices, especially Alice’s Adventures. I’d add To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet (not because of the tragedy but because of the beautiful Italian setting haha)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you! Those are such great additions–To Kill A Mockingbird especially reminds me of June.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. I really love Mrs. Dalloway! It took me a bit of time to get used to the stream of consciousness narrative, but when I did, I just flew through the book. Great recommendations! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you! I agree, once you settle into the stream of consciousness style it’s such a brilliant book!

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Alice In Wonderland is the escapist whimsical tale I need now haha ❤ lovely post!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Agreed! ❤ Thank you!!

      Like

  7. I read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland some time ago but really enjoyed it!! Lewis Carroll’s writing is just as great as the original (kind of creepy) illustrations. I haven’t read anything by Oscar Wilde yet which I want to change as soon as possible. Thank you for this list and great post, Holly!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oscar Wilde is such a great writer! Would also recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray by him–such a wild book! Thank you!

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Importance of Being Earnest is honestly one of my favorite plays ever. Oscar Wilde is just the best in general, but Importance is just–UGH SO GOOD. It’s also such a great summer rec, so thank you for reminding me it exists so I can go reread!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oscar Wilde is so great! I would LOVE to see The Importance of Being Earnest performed ❤

      Liked by 1 person

  9. I have been wanting to read Mrs. Dalloway for a while now, yet never get to it. Oh, well, I will, someday 😂
    Thank you for this interesting list!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hope you enjoy it whenever you get around to it!

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Great list! I love Mrs. Dalloway. The stream of consciousness format makes it such a unique read. Alice in Wonderland is a great read for all seasons, though summer fits best I think!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much!

      Liked by 1 person

  11. Love the list! Mrs. Dalloway is on my TBR! Also I didn’t know that Gulliver’s Travels was a satire! Cool info!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks so much!!

      Liked by 1 person

  12. I can still recite whole monologues from The Importance of Being Ernest by heart, after performing pieces from it when I was in High School!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. That’s so great!

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Whenever you do these it always throws me back to my degree. I loved reading Alice in Wonderland and Mrs Dalloway at university.

    I actually have been meaning to read The Importance of Being Earnest forever – it just seems like one of those I really should have read by now!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The Importance of Being Earnest is such a great one–hope you enjoy! And writing these posts takes me back to my degree as well–I love writing them ❤

      Like

  14. Mrs. Dalloway will always be one of my favorites! ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes!! Such a brilliant read ❤

      Like

  15. Oh one hundred percent yes for Importance of Being Earnest, Gulliver’s Travels and Alice in Wonderland for June! Actually, all the books on this list are perfect!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much!!

      Like

  16. […] Relevant was amazing, but you can check out a few more here. Holly also has some great posts on classic recs for every month. Her taste is so sophisticated and brings books I’d never heard of to my attention 😊 And […]

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: