Forbes Named 30 Classic Novels Everyone Should Read—These 10 Stand Out

Classic novels have survived for decades and sometimes centuries for a reason. Yet plenty of readers still avoid them because they associate classics with school assignments, difficult language, or books they are supposed to appreciate rather than actually enjoy.

I used to feel the same way.

But the more classics I read outside of a classroom, the more I realized how many of them are genuinely entertaining. The best classic novels aren’t simply important pieces of literary history. They tell unforgettable stories about love, ambition, injustice, loneliness, power, family, identity, and everything else that continues to shape our lives.

That is what makes Forbes’ list of 30 classic novels everyone should read so interesting.

I usually approach “books everyone must read” lists with a little skepticism because reading is far too subjective for any publication to decide what everyone should enjoy. Still, this is one of the stronger collections of classics I’ve come across.

There are obvious literary giants such as Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, and Middlemarch, but Forbes also includes more recent classics such as The Remains of the Day, The Outsiders, and The Color Purple.

And then there is The Hobbit.

It might look slightly out of place next to some of the heavier literary fiction here, but considering how much J.R.R. Tolkien influenced modern fantasy, I think it absolutely belongs.

I don’t agree with every selection. With only 30 spots available, I probably wouldn’t have included both Charlotte’s Web and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when books such as 1984, Jane Eyre, Beloved, and The Great Gatsby are absent.

Even so, there is a lot to love here.

Forbes’ 30 Best Classic Novels Everyone Should Read

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• Roots by Alex Haley
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton  
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley  
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 
• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez   
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding 
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

It is a surprisingly varied collection. Instead of restricting “classic” to 19th-century British literature, the list stretches across different countries, genres, cultures, and generations.

But which books stand out the most?

Here are 10 selections from the list that are particularly worth reading.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Few novels changed the way readers viewed colonialism and African literature as dramatically as Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

The novel follows Okonkwo, a respected warrior in an Igbo community whose identity is built around strength, status, and tradition. His world begins changing as European missionaries and colonial forces arrive.

What makes the novel so powerful is that Achebe doesn’t reduce the story to a simple clash between good and evil. Okonkwo is complicated, his community is complicated, and the forces transforming it are devastating.

It is also much more approachable than its reputation might suggest. At around 200 pages in most editions, Things Fall Apart is an excellent choice for readers who want to explore classics without committing to an enormous novel.

More importantly, it offers a perspective that was frequently missing from older Western literature.

This is one of Forbes’ strongest selections.

2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Few classic novels have remained as culturally relevant as Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen’s story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy has been adapted, reimagined, referenced, and copied countless times, yet the original still holds up remarkably well.

Elizabeth is intelligent, opinionated, and quick to judge. Darcy initially comes across as arrogant and distant. Their misunderstandings create one of literature’s most famous romances.

But reducing Pride and Prejudice to a love story misses much of what makes it great.

Austen is incredibly funny.

Her observations about wealth, marriage, social status, family expectations, and human behavior remain sharp more than two centuries after the novel was published.

If you think classics are automatically dull, this is one of the books I would recommend starting with.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Popular culture has transformed Frankenstein’s creature into one of horror’s most recognizable monsters, but Mary Shelley’s original novel is far stranger and more philosophical than many readers expect.

Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with creating life, only to recoil from what he has made.

What follows isn’t simply a monster story. It is a novel about ambition, responsibility, isolation, rejection, scientific ethics, and what happens when a creator refuses to take responsibility for his creation.

That is one reason Frankenstein continues to feel surprisingly modern.

As science and technology become increasingly capable of changing human life, Shelley’s questions about how far we should go remain just as fascinating.

It is also impossible to discuss the history of science fiction without discussing Frankenstein.

More than 200 years later, it still deserves its reputation.

4. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is one of the more demanding books on this list, but it is also one of the most rewarding.

Its unnamed narrator describes himself as invisible, not because people literally cannot see him, but because society refuses to recognize who he actually is.

Through his experiences, Ellison explores race, identity, ideology, power, and the ways individuals can become trapped by the expectations others place upon them.

It is a deeply American novel, but its questions about identity extend far beyond one time or place.

Readers looking for a light introduction to classics probably shouldn’t begin here. But anyone willing to give the novel time will find one of the most ambitious works of 20th-century American literature.

To Kill a Mockingbird Is a Classic for a Reason

Like many readers, I first encountered To Kill a Mockingbird in school. Unlike some required reading, however, this was one of the novels that immediately pulled me in.

The story is narrated by Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, whose father, Atticus Finch, agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of assaulting a white woman in Maycomb, Alabama.

Using Scout’s childhood perspective allows Harper Lee to explore prejudice, morality, justice, and empathy while still telling a story that is incredibly readable.

That accessibility is a major reason the novel has remained so popular.

There are more complicated conversations surrounding the book today than there were when many of us first read it, but perhaps that is another reason it remains worth discussing.

A great classic doesn’t necessarily provide easy answers. Sometimes its importance comes from the conversations it continues to create.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude isn’t quite like anything else on Forbes’ list.

Gabriel García Márquez follows multiple generations of the Buendía family in the fictional town of Macondo, where extraordinary and impossible events are treated as part of everyday existence.

Ghosts appear. Time seems to repeat itself. History circles back on the same families again and again.

That mixture of reality and the extraordinary became closely associated with magical realism, and Márquez’s influence can be seen throughout modern literature.

The novel can feel confusing at first—especially because several characters share similar names—but once you settle into its rhythm, there is something almost hypnotic about it.

Few novels feel this enormous while remaining centered on a single family.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Of all the books on this list, The Remains of the Day may be one of the quietest.

It may also be one of the saddest.

Kazuo Ishiguro follows Stevens, an English butler who has spent most of his life believing that professionalism, dignity, and service matter more than his personal desires.

During a road trip, he begins looking back at the choices that defined his life.

There are no enormous battles or shocking plot twists here. Instead, Ishiguro slowly reveals how regret can build through thousands of small decisions.

The result is devastating.

It is also a wonderful example of why “classic” doesn’t have to mean ancient. Published in 1989, The Remains of the Dayshows how comparatively recent novels can quickly establish themselves as essential literature.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 remains one of the easiest classic novels to recommend.

In Bradbury’s dystopian future, Guy Montag works as a fireman. But instead of putting out fires, Montag burns books.

His life begins to change after meeting Clarisse, a curious young woman whose questions force him to reconsider the society around him.

Readers often describe Fahrenheit 451 primarily as a novel about censorship, and that certainly matters. But Bradbury also explores distraction, mass entertainment, conformity, loneliness, and the gradual disappearance of meaningful conversation.

Those themes help explain why the book continues to find new audiences.

It is short, fast-paced, and packed with ideas, making it a particularly good classic for readers who want something accessible.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Anyone expecting Wuthering Heights to be a sweet Victorian romance may be in for a surprise.

Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is passionate, destructive, obsessive, and frequently cruel.

That is exactly what makes the book so fascinating.

Emily Brontë fills the novel with revenge, jealousy, social ambition, family conflict, and characters who often make terrible decisions.

You may not like many of these people.

But you probably won’t forget them.

The dark atmosphere also makes Wuthering Heights a great choice for readers who enjoy gothic fiction but have never explored many classics.

Nearly two centuries later, Heathcliff remains one of literature’s most memorable—and frustrating—characters.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Of all 30 books, The Hobbit might initially seem like the oddest selection.

I think it deserves to be here.

Bilbo Baggins wants nothing more than a peaceful life until Gandalf arrives with a company of dwarves and sends him on an adventure involving trolls, goblins, treasure, riddles, and eventually a dragon named Smaug.

The story is fun enough on its own.

Its influence, however, is enormous.

Tolkien helped establish many conventions readers now associate with modern fantasy literature, particularly immersive worldbuilding, invented mythology, maps, languages, and epic quests.

Without The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the fantasy genre we know today would look very different.

And unlike some classics, The Hobbit remains incredibly easy to pick up.

For readers intimidated by classic literature, it is one of the best entry points on this entire list.

What Makes Forbes’ Classics List Work?

The strongest thing about this list is its range.

Some classic book lists feel like they were designed primarily to impress English professors. You end up with 800-page novels that may be historically significant but aren’t necessarily books the average reader wants to pick up on a Saturday afternoon.

Forbes’ selections are more approachable.

There are long, demanding novels such as Middlemarch, but there are also short books such as Of Mice and Men and The Outsiders.

There is gothic fiction with Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights, dystopian fiction with Fahrenheit 451, fantasy with The Hobbit, historical family sagas such as Roots, and literary fiction such as The Remains of the Day.

That makes the list particularly useful for someone trying to discover what type of classic literature they actually enjoy.

The Classics I Think Forbes Missed

No list of only 30 books is going to satisfy everyone.

And there are several omissions that immediately stand out to me.

I would have strongly considered adding:

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Beloved is probably the omission that surprises me most, particularly since Toni Morrison is represented by The Bluest Eye.

And while Charlotte’s Web and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are wonderful books, I’d probably replace at least one with an adult classic when the list is limited to only 30 titles.

Of course, that’s part of the fun of lists like this.

Everyone’s version would look different.

Which Classic Should You Read First?

If you’re new to classics, don’t automatically start with the book people tell you is the “greatest.”

Start with the book closest to something you already enjoy.

If you love fantasy: read The Hobbit.

If you love horror: read Frankenstein.

If you love romance: read Pride and Prejudice.

If you love dystopian novels: read Fahrenheit 451.

If you love gothic fiction: read Wuthering Heights.

If you want something short: try Of Mice and Men or The Outsiders.

Finding the right first classic makes a huge difference.

Why Classic Novels Are Still Worth Reading

Readers sometimes assume classics survive because schools and universities keep assigning them.

That is only part of the story.

The greatest classics survive because generations of readers continue discovering something recognizable inside them.

Technology changes. Governments change. Social expectations change.

Human beings don’t change nearly as much.

We still fall in love with the wrong people. We still worry about fitting in. We still struggle with ambition, grief, jealousy, prejudice, loneliness, family expectations, morality, and power.

The settings may be different, but the emotions aren’t.

And that is ultimately why the best classic novels continue finding readers long after the worlds in which they were written have disappeared.

Final Thoughts on Forbes’ 30 Best Classic Novels

Overall, Forbes put together one of the more interesting classic literature lists I’ve seen.

Would I change a few books?

Absolutely.

But there is enough variety here that almost every reader should be able to find something appealing.

If you’ve always thought classics were boring, don’t try to force yourself through the longest or most intimidating book on the list. Start with The Hobbit, Frankenstein, Fahrenheit 451, The Outsiders, or Pride and Prejudice.

You might discover that classic literature is much more enjoyable than you remember from school.

How many of Forbes’ 30 classic novels have you read? And which classic do you think deserved a spot on the list?

Until next time, happy reading!

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