classic lit-tra-ture

I've been reading several old books lately - books written before 1940. Over the weekend I read parts of Elinor Brent-Dyer's A Thrilling Term at Janeways, Baroness Orzcy's Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. As many witty people have pointed out before, A Thrilling Term... doesn't even come close to living up to the title. I get tired of girls' adventure stories that feature the girls finding treasure hidden during the dissolution of the monasteries; one would think the Tudors didn't benefit at all from this. This book had treasure - but not just any treasure. No, these were original Benvenuto Cellini pieces - half a dozen of them, I believe. The Way of the Pimpernel was almost realistic, by contrast.
I'm reading Anna Karenina for a book club, and I had set myself a quota, so many pages each day. To my astonishment, I found myself enjoying the book, and far exceeding my quota. I was never very fond of Dostoevsky, though I've read Crime and Punishment a few times, and the short Tolstoy pieces I'd read hadn't made me want to tackle Anna. Of course, this is like saying, "Well, I didn't like Dickens, so I assumed I wouldn't like Austen." Ridiculous! But I'd never thought about it that way before.
I've been listening to a lot of books on tape lately - I just finished listening to Ballet Shoes, which I enjoyed, and am halfway though listening to a good version of Lady Susan (mentioned Austen in the paragraph above reminded me of this). I've heard people complain about Harriet Walter's voice before (particularly when she played Harriet Vane), but I don't mind it. I'm less charmed by Elizabeth Sastre's voice - she's not in Lady Susan, but she's reading the Streatfeild books (I've moved on to Dancing Shoes - I didn't dislike her voice that much). Sastre's voice is a little twee for my taste, but I can't get Streatfeild books on tape any other way.