i'd really like to read some of famous classical romance, but unfortunately i don't know many of these books. what's your suggestion?

Books by Jane Austen (such as Pride and Prejudice), Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Age of Innocence, Romeo and Juliet, María (by Jorge Isaacs), Ana Karenina...

There are so many books you can read, but you know, some people consider historical romance novels (from 80s, 90s) as classics too so you could try those if perhaps you just want romance

Also, think about classic movies, is incredible the amount of films based on classic romance books: those I mentioned before (I don't know if there's a film based on Maria), The Great Gatsby, Gone with the Windd, A Room with a view...

Hopefully it will help you

[Victoriana]

Georgette Heyer created the regency romance as a genre and is fantastic. Roberta Gellis for accurate historical romances. And the Angelique series by Sergeanne Gollon is considered classic.

Do you want to read classic writing style or 20th century yet proper English historical romance? Personally though Jane Austen etc etc do become a bit difficult reading for first time reading and newer historical romance are mostly eroticas with very few good plots and great many grammar mistakes. I would recommend to go for 1980-2000 published books which are much better in this sense atleast.

Try reading Amanda Quick's historical books, they are quite riveting! Also other good historical authors are Jude Deveraux, Johanna Lindsey (older books ) and of course the fabulous Judith McNaught. They all have good grip of the language and prose plus story/ character progression is very interesting.

Happy Reading!

[Fizban]

Rosedevlin, I have to disagree with you in terms of the 1980-2000 historical romances. They may have fewer grammatical mistakes but their historical accuracy in most cases was abysmal! The only truly accurate romance author of that time frame was Barbara Cartland (one has to give her and her research assistants credit for that, even if all her stories tend to read the same).

I do concur with the earlier recommendation of Georgette Heyer, however - excellent novelist and good historical accuracy. And yes, I will agree with you on Amanda Quick (though her books from the 90s were much better - Ravished, Reckless, Mistress, etc.) but her heroines and heroes tend to be more than a bit forthright. The other authors you mentioned are also excellent but for me, I've found that the best modern author with the most historical accuracy and excellent narrative abilities has to be Lynne Connolly.

I highly recommend her first-person perspecitive Richard & Rose series as well as her Triple Countess series and Secrets trilogy, which are all set in Georgian England (around 1750). She has also does some excellent Regency standalones (Vanessa, Noblesse Oblige, Loving Lucy). Currently she's got a late Georgian-era series (Emperors of London) going along with a paranormal historical series (Even Gods Fall in Love) based on the Greek/Roman gods.

And speaking of the Georgian era, I have to include a mention of Jo Beverley's Malloren series in here too. Excellent series and wonderful characters.