High School Literature

[homeschoolmom]

What was your favorite piece of literature that you read as an assignment in high school? Could be American Lit, Brit Lit, World Lit., a play, short story, novel, etc. And why did you like it?

Just trying to make up a collection. Thanks.

[ThePenciledOne]

[i]Anthem[/i] by Ayn Rand and [i]The Great Gatsby[/i] by Fitzgerald were my favorites.

Oh and [i]Macbeth[/i] from Shakespeare is up there too. Read the first two in Honors English and the last in AP English my senior year.

Edit: Some of these other postings are jogging my memory haha, so yes [i]Animal Farm[/i] from George Orwell was awesome, I was angry we didn't read [i]1984[/i], but I read that outside of class. [i]Dante's Inferno[/i] was another very good read, though we only read peices of it. Hawthorne's [i]Scarlet Letter[/i] was another quite decent read as well.

Edited June 16, 2010 by ThePenciledOne

[TeresaBenedicta]

I particularly enjoyed [i]To Kill a Mocking Bird[/i].

[i]Jane Eyre[/i] was another favorite.

I did my senior paper on [i]Frankenstein[/i].

Really loved [i]A Separate Piece[/i].

Hm. I'll have to think about this some more. Good question.

[laetitia crucis]

I really loved reading [i]The Inferno[/i]. We didn't get to read the entire [i]Divine Comedy[/i], but that bit certainly made me want to read the rest of it.

I think I liked it so much because I've always been fascinated with "things of faith", especially topics related to the Four Last Things -- I suppose my baptist-roots really drilled the reality of hell into me so much that I couldn't get enough of it. It also made me ponder deeper into my own salvation.

And I just thought it was beautifully written.

[Era Might]

I wasn't really interested in literature when I was in high school. I remember reading "To Kill A Mockingbird," "Great Expectations," and "The Scarlet Letter," and probably a few others. None of them interested me.

I also read Dante's "Inferno." It wasn't a school assignment, but I remember that it interested me.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Era Might

[MissScripture]

All Quiet on the Western Front --Read that for both German and English.

I remember reading "My Name is Asher Lev" and enjoying it, but I think that may be partially due to all the jokes my class developed about it.

I really liked "As I Lay Dying" even though I never actually finished reading it. Don't tell my teacher!

Most of what I liked came from my AP Lit class, because that was the only English class I had in high school that wasn't painful to sit through. Huck Finn wasn't bad. I can't think of any other ones at the moment.

ETA: 1984 and Animal Farm were also excellent.

Edited June 16, 2010 by MissScripture

[zunshynn]

Where Angels Fear to Tread and Howards End by E. M. Forster -- A Passage to India was good too. I read all three as a senior in AP English. We had to pick from a theme, or a certain author to read. I was the only one in my class that decided to read Forster, and I did so without knowing hardly anything about him or his novels, and I am SO glad I did. He is just an all-around fantastic writer... incredible depth to his themes... the setting itself practically becomes a character in and of itself, which influences the dynamic between the characters... Really can't recommend them highly enough, especially Where Angels Fear to Tread.

I also really liked Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the Chosen by Chaim Potok... Hamlet and Macbeth were pretty good too. Most of my favorite novels addressed moral themes very strongly, and these all do. And although I didn't read Our Town in high school, I saw it performed, and I thought it was a fantastic, powerful piece.

I'm sure I have more, but these are what come to mind at the moment.

Edited June 16, 2010 by zunshynn

[Nihil Obstat]

The Great Gatsby, BY FAR (it's even on my list of all-time favourites) followed by Macbeth.

[ardillacid]

I enjoyed Tale of Two Cities

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='15 June 2010 - 11:28 PM' timestamp='1276662494' post='2129710']
The Great Gatsby, BY FAR
[/quote]

Seriously? IMO, it was an okay but not so great novel.

[Luigi]

[quote name='notardillacid' date='16 June 2010 - 12:33 AM' timestamp='1276662795' post='2129721']
I enjoyed Tale of Two Cities
[/quote]

It was the best of assignments, it was the worst of assignments..... (many pages intervene).... 'Tis a far better thing you read than I have ever read.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Resurrexi' date='15 June 2010 - 11:36 PM' timestamp='1276662986' post='2129724']
Seriously? IMO, it was an okay but not so great novel.
[/quote]
I'm really a fan of it.

[Resurrexi]

So far, my favorite works that have been required reading for high school have been [i]Merchant of Venice[/i], [i]Our Town[/i], and [i]Brave New World[/i].

[Sojourner]

I honestly can't think of any assigned books in high school that I really loved reading, short of Shakespeare plays (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar). Not sure why I liked them, but I did.

I had to read a lot of Hemingway (which I hate), and "Gulliver's Travels," which I also hated.

I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 7th grade and loved it, and I always read our anthologies for class from cover to cover within the first two weeks of class. But I look at my shelves now, and I don't see any of the books I was assigned to read, so I must not have been that profoundly influenced by them. All the books I really love I read in college or later.

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Terra Firma' date='16 June 2010 - 12:39 AM' timestamp='1276663186' post='2129730']
I honestly can't think of any assigned books in high school that I really loved reading, short of Shakespeare plays (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar). Not sure why I liked them, but I did.

I had to read a lot of Hemingway (which I hate), and "Gulliver's Travels," which I also hated.

I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 7th grade and loved it, and I always read our anthologies for class from cover to cover within the first two weeks of class. But I look at my shelves now, and I don't see any of the books I was assigned to read, so I must not have been that profoundly influenced by them. All the books I really love I read in college or later.
[/quote]
I slmost killedd myself when I read "The Old Man and the Sea"