Sheep Among Wolves Publishing

Hide and Seek with a Classic

By Courtenay October 6, 2025 Fiction, Good and Great Books, The Bookshelf

Here goes for today’s round of Hide and Seek with a Classic.

I work at a public library. Despite some old-school values within our branch, we are a modern and progressive library when it comes to policy. We don’t charge fines for overdue books—and we don’t insist on a silent study environment.

Instead, we see our branch as a hub for community connections.

And apparently, if you’re under eight years old, a hub for community connections equals . . . a great place to play hide and seek.

All of which means that I, personally, have been a sideline spectator to quite a few games of hide and seek over the past couple of years—and the experience has reminded me of something I’d almost forgotten from my own childhood: until you reach a certain age, hide and seek is a game that needs clues.

It’s possible to play it with a warmer-colder system. That one needs third-party assistance, but it’s great if the hider is actually an inanimate object. (So that’s why I find plastic toys BEHIND the books on the shelf!) If the hider is a human child, its even simpler to just keep up an ongoing call of the seeker’s name from wherever your hiding place happens to be.

One way or another, people get found.

But Who’s Finding the Books?

Okay, that’s a loaded question that could present us with several tempting bunny trails! But rather than dive into esoteric questions about the future of literature in our communities at large, today’s post is for the community right here at Sheep Among Wolves—a community that I already know loves books.

Especially classic books.

So here goes for today’s round of Hide and Seek with a Classic.

The rules?

You keep reading the post. (I know—really fun so far, right?)

You’re about to encounter a series of cute little graphics with a collection of ten hints about a classic novel—each with a point total in front of it.

If you guess on the first hint, ten points. If it takes to till the second, nine. Third, eight.

You get the idea.

Ready for some fun?

Here goes!

Hide and Seek with a Classic

10 Points: “Books—oh no!—I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings.”

9 Points: “I deserve neither such praise nor such censure . . . I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.”

8 Points: Publication Date: 1813

7 Points: What I Love: 1. The absolutely living and breathing characters. 2. The wittiness of the author. 3. The immersive picture of contemporary (historical) life.

6 Points: What I Hate: The author’s carelessness with the Third Commandment when certain characters are speaking. It’s notorious that her good characters almost never swear, but I still find it offensive when the supporting cast does!

5 Points: “I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any.”

4 Points: Someone Else Who Read It: "Now I thought I would have [Mystery Novel] . . . I had always thought it would be better than its rival." – Sir Winston Churchill, The Second World War: Closing the Ring (1951)

3 Points: “I might as well inquire,” replied she, “why, with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?”

2 Points: Jane Austen

1 Point: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

Ready or Not—Here I Come!

Did you guess the classic I had in mind?

Fanfare and drumroll:

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

Check out content, ratings and reviews on Goodreads.

Download the complete novel for free from Project Gutenberg.

This has been one of my favourite novels ever since I read it in high school. I love the humour. I love the long stretches of dialogue about theoretical topics. I love the accessibility—yes, it’s 200 years old—yes, the style reflects that—but for some weird reason, a surprisingly wide demographic actually finds it possible to both read and enjoy it.

I love the oh-so-rare romantic trope where not one but both members of the final couple are passionately determined not to end up together—for most of the book! “And what am I to do on the occasion? It seems a hopeless business.” (Seriously—I think the reason that trope is so seldom copied is because it takes an absolute genius to pull it off.)

But most of all, I just love the characters. Love them in such a personal way, that it almost seems like an understatement to say I love the character development. That sounds like I find the cast delightful as a technical exercise—a successfully executed bit of mechanics. They are, of course. An extremely delightful technical exercise and a superbly executed piece of literary mechanics.

But what I love them for is simply for feeling like vivid, likable, believable friends.

Pride and Prejudice has, in my opinion, one of the best casts in the whole world of fiction.

(Reigning in the fangirling, with difficulty.)

Now it’s your turn!

Did you guess today’s hide and seek classic? How many points did you get on the game? And what are your thoughts about Pride and Prejudice—as a novel and as a fan club?

I’d love to hear your comments in the section below!

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2 thoughts on “Hide and Seek with a Classic”

    1. Courtenay

      I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had fun creating it. And yes, Northanger Abbey was a good guess, too, since books in general are more of a theme in the story!