No Sob Stories Here: 10 Lighthearted Classic Books

Here’s a classic that’s not only lighthearted but downright hilarious. Like many a Disney princess, this book’s protagonist, Flora, has lost her parents. She goes to live with distant relatives at the titular farm in the fictitious village of Howling, in Sussex. There, she meets a lively cast of characters and discovers the farm is poorly run. Also, like many a Disney princess, Flora uses her level head to set everything to rights. The result is a book that is voicey, quotable, laugh-out-loud funny, and ultimately an utter delight.

So “lighthearted” may be a bit of a stretch for this novel, but here is why I am standing by it. This is a novel from 1914 about a man’s queer awakening, and it ends happily! All too often, the books about marginalized identities attain the “classic” moniker with plotlines of characters enduring unspeakable hardship. In this book, Maurice is initially troubled by the discovery of his queerness, and he does attempt to “cure” himself of it, but he comes around to accepting himself in the end. It’s beautiful. It’s a bummer that this novel was only published posthumously, but it’s a wonderful addition to the canon nonetheless.

This book is a classic in Japan that should be read more widely. Botchan, which means “young master,” is the title character. He’s a rambunctious kid growing up in Tokyo who gets his comeuppance when he becomes a middle school mathematics teacher in a small town in Japan’s deep south. He clashes with his students, and they pretty much torture him. Botchan is sometimes likened to Catcher in the Rye because of the sarcastic narration and the coming-of-age storyline. Although it is a funny read, the book comments on morality and the westernization of Japan.

If you love gossip, this is the book for you. Cranford is a series of interconnected vignettes about a small village town. The plot is absolutely not the point of the book; it’s really just about settling down and getting to know everyone in Cranford. While life was changing at a breakneck pace for people in the Victorian Era, this book generously portrays the decline of the genteel way of life. And it’s slyly funny in the process. This is a great pick for someone who likes gentle stories that still have some poignancy.

OK, so this book is definitely longer than War and Peace, which may not make you think it’s lighthearted. But this modern classic is an immersive and truly readable saga that is, at heart, a family drama. Lata Mehra is looking for a suitable boy to marry, and her mother is also on the hunt. The story follows four families linked by marriage and friendship and spares no detail about ways of life in India in the 1950s. The story is not without difficult content —there is political strife, religious conflict, class struggles, etc. But if you love to get invested in characters, this is a great pick. Don’t let the length scare you off; there is so much to enjoy within!

Have you ever read a book and started to plan a vacation to visit its setting? This book will hit you right in the wanderlust. When published in 1922, it even caused a tourism boom in Portofino, Italy. The book follows four English women who pool money to rent an Italian villa for a month. The women were initially strangers, but their time together is the catalyst for them all to make personal transformations. Read this one for the descriptions of Portofino and to appreciate the way travel can profoundly change people.