10 Classics Every Catholic Feminist Should Read
Part of our bookish series! 📚
For a long time, I kind of winced at the idea of “classic” novels.
This is for a few reasons.
I felt like an idiot every time I tried to read one. I love to read, obviously. But if I’m ready to curl up with a great book at the end of the day, my taste skews more Beverly Cleary or Jennifer Close or Megan Miranda or J. Ryan Stradel then…Hemingway. I felt like I had to work so hard at even understanding what the authors were saying, and what I was supposed to be getting out of it. It wasn’t easy, and therefore, it wasn’t enjoyable.
People who read classics seemed kind of snobby. I said it! You aren’t better than anyone else because you love Bronte, okay?! I’m just as much of a reader as you! And also, your obsession with old dead people is creepy!
I was under the impression that classics were for rich white people, and that we needed to expand the cannon to include people of all backgrounds and experiences.
But a couple of years ago, I felt a draw in my soul to dig back into Jane Eyre. I read Jane Eyre in high school and it was one of the few books I truly enjoyed in AP Lit. It was the kind of autumn day where the sun was twinkling just right through the crimson leaves and my piping hot pumpkin coffee had just the right amount of steam. I wanted to read a dark, aching novel about grace and hauntings and courage, and it was Jane I turned to.
Man, I loved that book.
Then I remembered that I also loved The Great Gatsby in high school. So I picked it up and read it again for the first time in a while. It was such a great experience that I read Little Women for the first time. Then Brideshead Revisited, which everyone was insisting I read. And like a stone rolling down a hill, I fell in love with classics.
Classics are classic1 for a reason: they’ve stood the test of time. They’re books that we’re still talking about because, for the most part, they’re still worth talking about! I hope I’ve made it clear the past ten months that there are many contemporary novels that I love, and I don’t think people who read classics are “better” readers than those who don’t. But I do think that if you choose to never read a challenging classic, you’re missing out on an opportunity to expand your mind and learn from writers past.
Furthermore, I’ve learned a lot from Dr. Anika T. Prather about the idea that classics are only for rich white people. I just had to expand my classics cannon! Classics are for everyone; the truth, beauty, and goodness they espouse isn’t for people of any one skin shade or income level.
“When I think of enslaved people, I think of the pain of the whip, the despair of the mother whose child has been sold away, and the torture of the lynching tree. These horrors connected to the senses and gave way to feelings of despair and hopelessness. These experiences gave birth to darkness. However, when an enslaved man or woman would gain access to classics, which were the same texts that the master and his family were reading, a light of understanding was born in their minds which gave way to reason. They began to become liberated in the mind so that they were driven to do one of two things: fight at any cost to liberate themselves and/or fight at any cost to liberate other enslaved people.” - Dr. Prather
So, listen: if you’re feeling dumb? I feel dumb sometimes, too. But you’re not in high school and SparkNotes is allowed. I sometimes read the SparkNotes of classics chapter-by-chapter as I finish to make sure I’m properly understanding the themes and motivations. Nobody’s shown up to throw me in Bad Reader Jail just yet.
Don't skip out on classics because you think they’re too hard, or you think they’re some kind of tool from the oppressor class. They’re for you, too. You deserve their wisdom, and you deserve to partake in their great tradition. Happy reading!
Here are 10 Classic Novels Every Catholic Feminist Should Read, According to Exactly One Catholic Feminist (ie., me).