What are the "Classic" Fantasy novels?

[tetsujin28]

Now we get into the problem of definitions. What are the classic fantasy novels. Now are you talking popular being read and remembered by a lot of people. Or are we talking the basis of much of fantasy literature. I'm going to choose the latter and work up in time.

Beowulf
Gilgamesh
Illiad
The Odyssey

Well, nothing will ever beat real myth. I'm a classicist -- I have to say that! ;-)

 

[tetsujin28]

How I forgot about A. Merrit

Merritt was The Man. But along with Lovecraft, Machen, and Hodgeson, I consider him more of a horror writer than a fantasist. But I'll admit that the lines are pretty blurry.

 

[Threedub]

For me, Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series stirred my imagination as a middle school student as much as Lord of the Rings did when I was a teenager.

It is my favorite book from childhood.