With countless classics to read, choosing which novels to read isn’t always easy. That is why we made this list of the 25 classics that you must read. Keep reading to find out which books made our list!
There are thousands of classics out there and you won’t be able to read most of them. This list will help you choose some of the best classics ever written. There is a good chance you will end up binge reading some of these authors.
Not every classic novel will be to your liking. Some of them you may not finish and that is fine. Everyone has their own preference. With that said, there is a good chance you will like most of the books on this list. You can see the full list below!
25 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
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Best of the Best
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 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 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.
Reading the classics can be either fun or tedious. Especially when some of these classics were written so long ago that our worlds have few similarities. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells is the novel credited with creating the idea of the time traveling chair method. But the world that Wells imagines in his novel is far removed from reality. While the plot isn’t the greatest, it is still an influential novel that helped shape the sci-fi genre.
Conclusion
That is all for this list of the 25 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!
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Why is Marquez’ “One Hundred Years of Solitude” listed twice?
You must read it twice.
I read it once in Spanish and that was enough! Also, no James Joyce or Russian novels Read Crime and Punishment -and it was
You missed adding Of Mice and Men and/or The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. Both are classics and must-reads.
You have the same book listed twice should I read it twice
Its really 200 years of solitude
Why is
“Hundred Years of Solitude” listed twice? Because the author was good friend of Comrade Fidel Castro, and the Communist Pigs are taking over.
Surely if you read and understand the classics you ‘d know better than to call people pigs.
I noticed that too. Maybe it’s so good they want us to read it twice…
So there’s actually only 24 books you must read 😃
That is a list of 24.
No person must read anything by a Bronte sister. Charlotte and Emily are perfect examples of what Hawthorne called a “damned mob of scribbling wome.”
Wow! You must really like “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” since you listed it twice.
Ahaqir definetly hates Gibran Kahlil Gibran “The Prophet” the most sold book world wide translated into 22 languages.
The Prophet is estimated to have sold a out 10 million copies. I could name a dozen books off the top of my head that have sold better.
It is a good read, but not the most sold book in the world. Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes – which also belongs on this list – has been translated into more languages and read by more people than any book except the Holy Bible.
Jane Austen is extremely overrated – she is very boring and “Pride and Prejudice” couldn’t be even remotely compared to “Vanity Fair”by Thackeray. Strange choices for Dumas and Orwell -“Three musketeers” and “Animal farm” have had more impact on the reading public. I hope it’s a joke counting “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” as great novels.
We should include more recent classics and different genres that have had great impact to thesedust old tomes. Necromancer by William Gibson (he coined Cyberspace in an earlier short story and used it here, it inspired the Matrix and was the first of an eerily prescient trilogy). The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula le Guinn is also a beautifully written book on gender relations.
#7 and #16 are duplicates.
#7 and #16 are the same ☹️
Don Quixote is one classic I couldn’t possibly finish it was so idiotic
There are definitely some of my favourites on here but if you want to list Heart of darkness which is the European perspective on colonialism then you also need to list an African perspective and I recommend Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe. I was also let down a bit by this list, I’m a literature student and I can understand the literary contribution these novels made but it would’ve been nice if the list consisted of books by authors from different backgrounds instead of just focusing on American and British authors. Books like Pride and Prejudice, the Great Gatsby and Wuthering Heights are literally on every “classics to read” list. Everyone know they should have been read it by now, rather recommend books that are less popular. The Perfume by Patrick Süskind is a very strange book but it is amazing. It should have been on this list.
Why does a European book about colonialism “need” to be balanced by an African book? We don’t need to always be comparing perspectives, sometimes we can just read a good book and ponder that perspective. And for what it’s worth, Heart of Darkness is amazing and Things Fall Apart is lame and boring.
What about “Moby Dick”? Also what about Ivanhoe?
Or “Earth Abides” and “Flowers For Algernon”.
The list is only of English books by English authors. What about famous foreign books translated into English.
Ahaqir list shows that his literature knowledge is very limited.
Please refrain from using the term “fiction novels” (“Even if these are fiction novels….” in your last paragraph before your “Conclusion”). It’s redundant (like Catholic pope, Jewish rabbi, etc.).
Did you have an AI come up with this?
I also think this reeks of AI. It’s poorly written, inconsistently formatted, and full of errors. A child could have caught that the “writer” included the same book twice, this website obviously doesn’t have any editorial standards.
Must-read classics, and only four from the non-English speaking world!?! Where are DON QUIXOTE, MADAME BOVARY, WAR AND PEACE, GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL? Nothing from Asia or Africa, only 100 YEARS from Latin America (albeit listed twice). No MIDDLEMARCH, ADAM BEDE, VANITY FAIR? No Faulkner or Hemingway but S.E. Hinton is a “must”? Sorry, have to give the list a failing grade.
What about, “A Tale of Two Cities”?
No Hemingway or Fitzgerald?
Any list ignoring War and Peace and Atlas shrugged should be ignored.