#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

I have been waiting for this week’s #5OnMyTBR because I’ve wanted to talk about several of these on previous weeks but thought I’d save them all for today’s classics theme! I’m doing the Gothtober readathon in October, a readathon celebrating gothic fiction, and several of these are on my TBR for it, I can’t wait to read some new gothic classics as well as reread some favourites.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca is one of my new classics, I’ve never actually read it. But, I want to read it before the Netflix film release near the end of October because I’m very much someone who needs to read the book before they watch something. I’m aware of the plot because it’s just one of those books where you kind of know what happens, but that doesn’t make me any less excited to finally read this!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

This is another I’m planning to read for Gothtober. I have read this one, but it was absolutely years ago and I’m very much due a reread! Oscar Wilde is just such a fascinating person, he’s the one I always choose when I’m asked ‘who from history would you like to have a dinner party with’. One of my most precious books is a collection of his poetry in a hardback with foil that I found in a second hand bookshop and it’s so pretty.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Of course, how could any gothic fiction readathon tbr be complete without Dracula?! This is another of my favourite classics, and is actually the novel I chose to write my dissertation on in my senior year (I pretty much wrote an essay on queer sexuality in Dracula and Carmilla and it was MUCH FUN).

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The last classic on both this list and on my Gothtober TBR is The Phantom of the Opera, which despite being a HUGE fan of the muscial and the film version with Gerard Butler, I am ashamed to say I’ve never actually read… I will finally be righting this awful wrong in October!

Olivia by Dorothy Strachey

Last but definitely not least is the only non gothic classic on the list, huzzah! Olivia is “considered one of the most subtle and beautifully written lesbian novels of the century” therefore obviously I need to read it.

And those are five classics on my TBR! Are any of your favourite classics on this list? If not, what are your favourites? Let me know in the comments!