Reading the classics can be either a fun or a tiring experience. Choosing which classics to read makes a big difference. Keep reading to find out which 30 classics made our list!
Everyone isn’t a fan of the classics but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read any of them. They can be some of the most refreshing books you will read. Many of them are well written and millions of people read them every year. Schools teach many of them for a reason. You can see the full list below!
30 Classics that You Must Read
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Classics to Check Out
Like most readers, I have a love hate relationship with the classics. Some of them are amazing like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Count of Monte Cristo. And then you’ll come across a classic that will make you never want to read a classic again. But for the most part, I have enjoyed most classics and I am glad I gave them a chance.
Horror novels don’t often make the classic list but a few have broken through over the past couple of centuries. Dracula and Frankenstein are regarded as two of the best horror books of all time and rightfully so. If you haven’t gotten around to read these books, then you are missing out.
There are many amazing novels such as Beloved, The Outsiders, and The Grapes of Wrath that move you. We won’t ever be able to grasp these moments in history which is why we turn to authors to show us what life was like. Even if these are fiction novels, they are based on real life moments.
Conclusion
That ends the list of the 30 classics that you must read. How many of these classics have you read? Which classics should we add on our next list? Let us know in the comments below!
Atlas Shrugged and/or The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
What about Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh and A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
100 years of solitude is on the list twice.
Perhaps replace one with Love in the time of cholera. A much better book.
Les Miserables
Did you guys really pay someone to compile a list that includes One Hundred Years of Solitude (a great book) twice? Who edits this stuff?
The book is just that good
Your lists sadly exclude Native American literature. N. Scott Momaday received the Pulitzer Prize for House Made Of Dawn.
There never has been nor will there be a good reason to read Ulysses.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell & The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
The PG Wodehouse Omnibus is missing in this list.
Things fall apart – Chinua Achebe
Stand by Me by Stephen King,
The Life of Pi
Death of a Salesman
Perfume etc
1000 yrs of solitude twice on list as you know 😉
70% of these are English as the original language. Hardly representative of literature as a whole, could be more diverse.