10 Classic Books to Read This Spring

This past week in Edinburgh felt like a microcosm of the season: Easter Sunday dawned bright and cloudless, with birds singing in the trees as I walked to church and the last of the daffodils giving their best performance before they are replaced by April's tulips. In the afternoon, I walked down to Princes Street to sit in the gardens, bask in the sun, and finish Elif Batuman's The Idiot. Of course, the rain started the next day, and I found myself on the couch for most of the week, passing time with Weather by Jenny Offill. On the weekend the sun returned, but brought with it winds strong enough to knock a person over. Ah, the delights of spring in Scotland.

All this reading in all kinds of weather has made me think about the classics that usually spring to mind this time of year, calling to be reread. Here are my top ten classic books to read this spring:

The World of Books sale strikes again!

1. Emma, Jane Austen

Something about spring always has me reaching for Jane Austen novels, and none is quite as synonymous with spring (in my head, at least) as Emma. Beautiful, clever, and rich, Emma loves to play matchmaker in the lives of her friends, but with hubris, even the best laid plans sometimes go awry. Character growth and blooming romances lend themselves to the springtime mood, as does the idyllic Georgian England countryside setting. My favourite adaptation by far is the 2020 film directed by Autumn de Wilde and starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular Emma, which does a great job remembering that Emma is a romantic comedy as much as it is a period drama. My second favourite? Probably Clueless (1995).

2. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden is another obvious choice for spring thanks to its exuberant celebration of the importance of the natural world and its effects on the human spirit. The novel centres on Mary Lennox, a spoiled child who is newly orphaned and sent to live with her uncle in the Yorkshire countryside. There, she discovers a secret garden, walled and overgrown, and as she begins to care for it, her health and happiness also improve. For many, spring symbolises hope and rebirth, new life blooming after a long winter, and there are few novels that explore this theme so sweetly as The Secret Garden.

3. An Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim

Another novel where the hope and joy of springtime take centre stage is An Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. The novel follows four women, strangers to each other but equally dissatisfied in their daily lives, who decide to split the cost of renting a medieval Italian castle for a magical holiday for the entire month of April. The holiday reintroduces them to their true natures and to the joy and friendship they are capable of. Like many of the other novels on this list, An Enchanted April has been adapted into a film and a play, and like all of the novels on this list, it is the perfect narrative for springtime, no matter which form you choose to enjoy it in.

4. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Another Austen novel, I think I would be remiss if I didn't include Pride and Prejudice, although it technically takes place across all four seasons. While Emma calls to mind airy picnics and flowers blooming, I think Pride and Prejudice is best enjoyed on some rainy day in April, when the world is tender and green but true spring temperatures haven't quite arrived. A novel of manners, Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet, who must overcome her prejudice against the prideful Mr Darcy to find her match in love.

5. A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

My favourite novel by Hemingway isn't really a novel at all, but more like a semi-fictionalised memoir of the author's early years in Paris as a young writer of The Lost Generation. I loved the writers of The Lost Generation as a teenager, and stumbling across this book was the catalyst that sent my admiration into full-blown obsession. Hemingway, who I had dismissed as writing primarily about war in short sentences, is at his most tender here, in his last and posthumously published reminisces infused with the wry observations and deceptively simple prose poetry that makes him such a giant in American literature. This book makes me feel like I am strolling along the Seine in 1920s Paris in the springtime sunshine with a notebook tucked under my arm. It also makes me want to rewatch Midnight in Paris (2011).

6. Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery

Although Anne of Green Gables is another book that could easily be read in any season, I always crave it most toward the end of spring and beginning of summer. Perhaps it has something to do with the image of Anne and Mr Cuthburt riding through the Avenue or arriving at Green Gables for the first time in the buggy, or the hopeful, vibrant, and appreciative spirit of Anne herself. As with The Secret Garden, I think both the beauty of the prose and its invocation of the natural world play a huge role in my enjoyment of this book.

7. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, Sylvia Plath

As the name suggests, this is a journal, not a novel, and it's probably better read in parts rather than as a whole. That said, although it obviously takes place across many seasons and years of Plath's life, there are certain passages that come to my mind every springtime that make me want to pick it up, flip to a random page in the middle, and begin reading. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knew me in high school that Plath is one of my favourite poets, and although she is unfortunately well-remembered for her untimely end, she writes about the full spectrum of the human experience with such clarity and beauty, even here in her private journals, that you may wonder if she reached directly into your soul to find inspiration.

8. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

A firm childhood favourite, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland follows imaginative, curious Alice into the topsy-turvy world of Wonderland, the perfect playground for spring reading. This time of year, as well as early summer, also seems like the ideal time for an Unbirthday tea party, game of croquet, and falling asleep along the riverbank. What do you mean, it was a dream all along?

9. The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

This much beloved comedy by Oscar Wilde is perfect for spring because I, too, want to spend every day in May eating muffins, daydreaming about fictional romances, and forging a new identity away from everyday life. The classic play satirises the demands of social obligations and the triviality of living in polite society, but it's also just plain fun. If you're not a fan of reading plays, the 2002 movie adaptation is equally delightful.

10. Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

This poetry collection may be an unconventional choice, but I wanted to include a wide selection of genres and formats in this list, hence Plath's journals and Wilde's play. A staple of the American school curriculum, Whitman's optimistic poetry collection Leaves of Grass made a strong impression on me in high school and is my first choice when it comes to poems for spring. Some classics to start with are "Song of Myself", "O Captain My Captain", and "I Hear America Singing".

What are you reading this season, either outside in the sun or at home on the couch? Did I miss any of your favourites?