Spring Classics TBR

Spring is officially here and I’m excited to spice up my seasonal TBR with some classics. Classics have always been a genre that intimidated me. My first experience with reading a classic for pleasure was “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen which I really enjoyed.

Since the start of 2022, I’ve been reading books in various different genres that aren’t necessarily in my comfort zone or books that I’d have picked up previously. And to my surprise, I’ve been enjoying them as well. This has made my fear of classics diminish a bit because they don’t feel as inaccessible as they once used to.

Today, I thought I’d share two classics that I want to get to this Spring.

Emma by Jane Austen

Published in: December 23rd, 1815

Premise: “Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen’s most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.”

This book quickly jumped onto my TBR as soon as I found the 2020 movie score. I absolutely love the music for this movie. While the score for the Keira Knightley “Pride and Prejudice” movie is quiet, subtle, and dramatic, the score for the latest “Emma” adaption is boisterous, fun, and happy. The musical score for the “Pride and Prejudice” movie has more of an academia tone to it while the “Emma” score seems far more cottage core.

Nothing screams Spring more than cottage core vibes.

I surprised myself by how little I hesitated in picking up a copy of “Emma” on one of my bookstore trips. I didn’t know much about the plot or premise of this book other than it features our main character Emma who fancies herself somewhat of a match maker. While everyone loves “Pride and Prejudice” in it’s true literature form, I hear a lot more negative things about “Emma”. I think a lot of the mixed reviews stem from the fact that Emma is perceived as an unlikeable main character.

I am fifty pages into this book already and I can see why people think this way about Emma. She’s very nosy and very into people’s business but I kind of like that. I personally don’t mind an unlikeable character and I feel like her desperation to be a match maker is the perfect set up for a lot of drama. I’m also looking forward to Jane Austen’s humor and comedy scenes that I loved from “Pride and Prejudice”. With the way Emma and her family is going on about their days, I’m sure there will be no shortage of humor.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Published: August 18th, 1943

Premise: “The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness — in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.”

I know the basic premise of Emma but I know absolutely nothing about this book. To be honest, the thing that first drew me to this book is the cover and the title, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”. I assume that the concept of the tree growing is a symbol of time passing. I love multi-generational stories or stories that span across a long period of time so this definitely did intrigue me.

After reading the short blurb on the book, the story seems like it’s going to be an emotionally heavy read as we follow a young girl grow up in what I think is a bit of a volatile family situation. I’m quite interested to see how this book explores the time period and the coming of age of a girl during an era full of social and economic tensions.

I chose this classic as a Spring read because I’m basic and the tree just makes me associate the book with the new season but also because there’s something so immersive about a coming of age story. I feel like Spring is the perfect season for stories spanning across multiple years because I associate it as the season for new beginnings and the start of long adventures. It’s the season of change and growth and I feel like coming of age stories are perfect for a season such as this.