aconissa:

I totally get what you mean. Sometimes it’s just down to that particular author’s writing style, but often it’s because of the way people wrote in that specific period and how they expressed the emotion in their works. My advice would be to get used to older writing styles, as the more you read the more you’ll be able to understand them, and it’ll become easier to pick up their (usually) subtler way of showing emotion. Also reading more about the period and themes of the works often helps too, just so you have a greater background understanding. Also, if you’re reading in translation, then be careful whose translation you choose! Some translators will focus more on the literary beauty, some on the content and themes, some on the accuracy, etc. You may need to do some research when choosing a translation, but it’ll be worth it overall. That all being said, here’s some classics that show more emotion (at least when I read them):

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Victor is the most melodramatic character ever, let’s be real)
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (does it need saying? I weep at like every single page)
  
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (although most of Shakespeare is filled with emotion, this is the one that I find saddest)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (this was one of the first classics I read; the style makes it very accessible & you get closer to the characters)
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (always has me in stitches)
• Persuasion by Jane Austen (a lot more heartfelt and bitter than her other novels, you really get a sense of Austen herself)
• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (more of a modern classic, but it’s really beautifully written and very emotional)
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (first book that made me sob so hard I couldn’t breathe, and unfortunately I was in public at the time)
• Medea by Euripides (I’ve got the Philip Vellacott translation by penguin)
• Book XVIII of the Iliad by Homer (actually Achilles is even more melodramatic than Victor Frankenstein, and this book proves it; also book XXI-XXIV. I like the Robert Fagles translation)
• Book II of the Aeneid by Virgil (mostly the very end bit when Aeneas sees his wife’s ghost, which always breaks my heart. David West translation)