Deb­bie Ja­cob

What is the great­est clas­sic ever writ­ten? If you've been read­ing our cur­rent SAS Book Club choice, An­na Karen­i­na by Leo Tol­stoy, you are cer­tain­ly aware that fa­mous au­thors such as Russ­ian writ­ers Fy­o­dr Dos­to­evsky and Vladimir Nabokov named this sweep­ing, Russ­ian clas­sic as the best book ever writ­ten. Every list of great­est books or best books has an emo­tion­al and sub­jec­tive el­e­ment to it no mat­ter how ob­jec­tive the list-mak­er claims to be. Still, it's fun to spec­u­late on what is the best book ever writ­ten. When it comes to clas­sics, I can nar­row my choice down to three great books: An­na Karen­i­na, Les Mis­er­ables and Mo­by Dick.

An­na Karen­i­na is such a com­plete book in its treat­ment of the theme of love. Gary Saul Mor­son says in his cri­tique en­ti­tled An­na Karen­i­na In Our Time, "As a book about in­fi­deli­ty, An­na Karen­i­na is al­so a book about the na­ture of hon­esty and truth­ful­ness." An­na's sto­ry is a com­pelling one that makes us think about our own lives and the de­ci­sions we make in life in terms of fam­i­ly and love.

Then, there's Les Mis­er­ables, our SAS Book Club book choice for De­cem­ber. French au­thor Vic­tor Hugo makes read­ers pon­der the im­pact of his­to­ry on our lives. The nov­el takes place be­fore and dur­ing the 1830 Ju­ly Rev­o­lu­tion in France. Hugo shows the hor­rif­ic con­di­tion of France dur­ing that time and makes us all think about the hu­man ex­pe­ri­ence: how much we will ac­cept in life and how we are pushed to the point of re­bel­lion.

Still, if I must choose among my three favourite clas­sics, I would have to choose Mo­by Dick by Her­man Melville as my favourite clas­sic. Mo­by Dick is the clas­sic sto­ry of man ver­sus na­ture and the ul­ti­mate dis­sec­tion of re­venge. It is a riv­et­ing read for its lan­guage. Melville is fun­ny, poignant, scary, sad-you name it and Mo­by Dick makes the read­er feel it. So what is the best clas­sic ever writ­ten? Join our SAS Face­book group and let us know what you think about clas­sics? Tell us your favourite clas­sic. Al­so, check out the sites be­low for more dis­cus­sion on the best books ever writ­ten.

Life Mag­a­zine's 2007 list nar­rowed down their orig­i­nal list to 544 books in all. From there, the mag­a­zine came up with this top ten list:

An­na Karen­i­na by Leo Tol­stoy

Madame Bo­vary by Gus­tave Flaubert

War and Peace by Leo Tol­stoy

Loli­ta by Vladimir Nabokov

The Ad­ven­tures of Huck­le­ber­ry Finn by Mark Twain

Ham­let by William Shake­speare

The Great Gats­by F Scott Fitzger­ald

In Search of Lost Time by Mar­cel Proust

The Sto­ries of An­ton Chekhov by An­ton Chekhov

Mid­dle­march by George Eliot

Read more about Time Mag­a­zine's 2007 list of great­est nov­els at http://www.time.com/time/arts/ar­ti­cle/0,8599,1578073,00.html#ixzz27UFEs­ryf

Check out this site for some great writ­ing tips, top ten book lists of the 19th and 20th cen­turies and top ten au­thors at http://www.brain­pick­ings.org/in­dex.php/2012/01/30/writ­ers-top-ten-fa­vorite-books/

Note to read­ers: Get ready!

Next week we be­gin our dis­cus­sion on Cloud At­las by David Mitchell.