I was thinking this while reading The Canterbury Tales, which isn’t exactly the oldest I’ve read (I think that goes to Homer)
But The Canterbury Tales is just so delightful! Getting into the flow of the rhyming prose is very fun to read (I’ve just been reading the Penguin Classics Coghill translation which is fantastic)
I’ve already watched the Pasolini adaptation but I’m definitely going to revisit once I finish the book.
Probably something by Jane Austen? Actually technically Shakespeare but that was for school so it doesn’t really count.
The Count of Monte Cristo has held up extremely well for a 200 year old story. Same with Don Quixote
I’ll move them up in my theoretical TBR!
Not the oldest I’ve read, but the oldest I’ve properly enjoyed is Jane Eyre (and it happens to be my fave of all time too)
Beowulf fucking slaps
I really enjoyed Don Quixote! It’s a lengthy book but there were some genuinely hilarious scenes. I couldn’t believe how old it was - it felt quite modern.
Not that old (relatively speaking) but the Count of Monte Cristo is excellent. Such a grand and incredible adventure. Quite possibly my favourite book of all time.
I’ve tried to like a lot of old books, and just never got them (or, sometimes, even got through them). Inferno, Don Quixote, Canterbury Tales, The Iliad, etc. I think the oldest book I’ve actually enjoyed was Dracula. Then there’s a long drought after that; I think the next-oldest books I enjoyed were Harry Harison’s Deathworld (1960) and Morris West’s Tower of Babel (1968). West’s book, particularly; I didn’t realize it was that old until I finished it and caught a glimpse of the copyright date. It reads a lot like a modern spy thriller.
Dunno if you’d count it as a book but the Epic of Gilgamesh is one of my all time favorite stories that I regularly go back to. Also, predates Homer by a long shot.
I studied ancient Hebrew scriptures and Buddhist writings at university, which I enjoyed a lot. Also read bits and pieces of Hindu Vedas, Gilgamesh, Inanna, the young’uns of ancient Greek literature and some other things that aren’t coming to mind. Which is oldest depends on which scholar you talk to, but it’s most likely between Inanna, Gilgamesh and Job. Of those three, I loved Inanna the most.
But also, the Tale of Genji from Heian Japan (early 11th century), written by a noblewoman named Murasaki Shikibu. That’s so much later it’s basically modern ;) but it’s the one I want to point others to. Project Gutenberg has the 1st and 2nd parts of a translation into English if anyone wants to check it out. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66057
