Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little
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Jane Eyre is one of my most reliable touchstones; people who enjoy reading it often like my writing. There is something about its complexity and interconnectedness that stuck with me as a reader, and then as a writer, and something about the type of morality which influences Jane being an indicator for my readers.
Others on that list include the more complex realistic SF fiction (Dune, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, A Canticle for Leibowitz); mysteries such as the Lord Peter Wimsey stories of Dorothy L. Sayers, especially the latter ones; and some complex mainstream novels (Rebecca, The Name of the Rose, The Thorn Birds, On The Beach).
Maybe it’s being slightly old-fashioned, maybe it’s having been omnivorous readers as children, maybe a less frantic pace, but I’m always delighted to find the shared books. But if I had to pick just one, it would be Jane Eyre.