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I am on a mission to read and reread classic literature. I searched far and wide for a decent book list but all seem incomplete to me. Please add your favorite classic books to the list.
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| 1 |
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Pride and Prejudice
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4.29 avg rating — 4,754,715 ratings
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| 2 |
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Jane Eyre
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4.16 avg rating — 2,306,141 ratings
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| 3 |
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1984
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4.20 avg rating — 5,396,031 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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4.32 avg rating — 1,015,431 ratings
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| 5 |
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Little Women (Little Women, #1)
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4.17 avg rating — 2,439,743 ratings
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| 6 |
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Wuthering Heights
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3.90 avg rating — 2,021,745 ratings
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| 7 |
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Frankenstein
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3.90 avg rating — 1,862,966 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Great Gatsby
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3.93 avg rating — 5,859,663 ratings
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| 9 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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4.26 avg rating — 6,824,136 ratings
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| 10 |
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Sense and Sensibility
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4.09 avg rating — 1,288,326 ratings
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| 11 |
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The Odyssey
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3.83 avg rating — 1,182,413 ratings
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| 12 |
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A Tale of Two Cities
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3.88 avg rating — 1,008,334 ratings
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| 13 |
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Great Expectations
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3.80 avg rating — 869,583 ratings
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| 14 |
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Brave New World
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3.99 avg rating — 2,061,331 ratings
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| 15 |
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Animal Farm
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4.02 avg rating — 4,495,605 ratings
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| 16 |
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Adventures of Tom and Huck, #2)
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3.83 avg rating — 1,333,651 ratings
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| 17 |
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Dracula
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4.02 avg rating — 1,462,936 ratings
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| 18 |
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Hamlet
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4.03 avg rating — 1,042,690 ratings
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| 19 |
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Fahrenheit 451
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3.97 avg rating — 2,803,584 ratings
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| 20 |
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Emma
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4.05 avg rating — 975,032 ratings
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| 21 |
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The Canterbury Tales
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3.53 avg rating — 237,181 ratings
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| 22 |
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Anna Karenina
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4.10 avg rating — 924,799 ratings
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| 23 |
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The Catcher in the Rye
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3.80 avg rating — 3,867,232 ratings
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| 24 |
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Romeo and Juliet
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3.74 avg rating — 2,806,939 ratings
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| 25 |
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Persuasion
by
4.15 avg rating — 770,854 ratings
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| 26 |
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
by
4.30 avg rating — 4,426,268 ratings
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| 27 |
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Rebecca
by
4.25 avg rating — 713,916 ratings
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| 28 |
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
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4.06 avg rating — 606,413 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Scarlet Letter
by
3.44 avg rating — 914,508 ratings
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| 30 |
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Gone with the Wind
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4.31 avg rating — 1,253,743 ratings
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| 31 |
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Les Misérables
by
4.21 avg rating — 840,032 ratings
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| 32 |
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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3.94 avg rating — 576,111 ratings
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| 33 |
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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4.13 avg rating — 1,853,883 ratings
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| 34 |
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War and Peace
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4.17 avg rating — 363,639 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Iliad
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3.93 avg rating — 506,179 ratings
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| 36 |
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Crime and Punishment
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4.29 avg rating — 1,066,463 ratings
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| 37 |
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Beowulf
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3.50 avg rating — 344,572 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Complete Tales and Poems
by
4.40 avg rating — 294,946 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Three Musketeers
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4.10 avg rating — 345,633 ratings
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| 40 |
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Macbeth
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3.89 avg rating — 1,012,954 ratings
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| 41 |
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Oliver Twist
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3.88 avg rating — 425,840 ratings
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| 42 |
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale
by
3.56 avg rating — 612,913 ratings
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| 43 |
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Mansfield Park
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3.86 avg rating — 378,046 ratings
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| 44 |
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The Grapes of Wrath
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4.03 avg rating — 988,611 ratings
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| 45 |
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by
3.89 avg rating — 275,226 ratings
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| 46 |
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The Republic
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3.97 avg rating — 224,674 ratings
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| 47 |
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Catch-22
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3.99 avg rating — 883,624 ratings
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| 48 |
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Madame Bovary
by
3.71 avg rating — 372,422 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Brothers Karamazov
by
4.39 avg rating — 382,272 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Lord of the Rings
by
4.54 avg rating — 727,311 ratings
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| 51 |
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King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 236,459 ratings
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| 52 |
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David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 257,334 ratings
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| 53 |
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Northanger Abbey
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3.85 avg rating — 450,455 ratings
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| 54 |
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Don Quixote
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3.91 avg rating — 303,570 ratings
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| 55 |
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)
by
4.24 avg rating — 3,126,896 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Time Machine
by
3.89 avg rating — 562,196 ratings
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| 57 |
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Lord of the Flies
by
3.70 avg rating — 3,176,054 ratings
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| 58 |
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
by
3.85 avg rating — 223,581 ratings
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| 59 |
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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
by
4.33 avg rating — 1,104,822 ratings
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| 60 |
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Of Mice and Men
by
3.89 avg rating — 2,810,764 ratings
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| 61 |
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The Moonstone
by
3.91 avg rating — 98,534 ratings
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| 62 |
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by
3.84 avg rating — 301,576 ratings
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| 63 |
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Gulliver’s Travels
by
3.59 avg rating — 297,751 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Man Without Qualities
by
4.19 avg rating — 7,357 ratings
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| 65 |
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The Crucible
by
3.61 avg rating — 461,556 ratings
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| 66 |
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Candide
by
3.76 avg rating — 299,894 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Metamorphosis
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,403,344 ratings
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| 68 |
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The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 275,211 ratings
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| 69 |
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Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,896 ratings
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| 70 |
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
by
3.87 avg rating — 65,905 ratings
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| 71 |
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Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,842 ratings
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| 72 |
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J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
by
4.62 avg rating — 143,565 ratings
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| 73 |
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Treasure Island
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3.85 avg rating — 537,699 ratings
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| 74 |
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The War of the Worlds
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3.83 avg rating — 347,852 ratings
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| 75 |
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Jude the Obscure
by
3.83 avg rating — 75,764 ratings
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| 76 |
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East of Eden
by
4.44 avg rating — 629,401 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Age of Innocence
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3.97 avg rating — 194,565 ratings
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| 78 |
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Robinson Crusoe
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3.68 avg rating — 329,976 ratings
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| 79 |
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Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 113,749 ratings
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| 80 |
|
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 508,595 ratings
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| 80 |
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The Secret Garden
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4.17 avg rating — 1,287,177 ratings
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| 82 |
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Paradise Lost
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3.85 avg rating — 181,445 ratings
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| 83 |
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 171,144 ratings
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| 84 |
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Aesop’s Fables
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4.05 avg rating — 129,436 ratings
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| 85 |
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Cry, the Beloved Country
by
3.93 avg rating — 79,352 ratings
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| 86 |
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The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
by
4.19 avg rating — 244,476 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Histories
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4.01 avg rating — 55,361 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
by
4.05 avg rating — 600,918 ratings
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| 89 |
|
Their Eyes Were Watching God
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3.99 avg rating — 384,425 ratings
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| 90 |
|
The House of Mirth
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3.98 avg rating — 105,442 ratings
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| 91 |
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The Pilgrim's Progress
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4.07 avg rating — 157,735 ratings
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| 92 |
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The Woman in White
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4.01 avg rating — 165,459 ratings
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| 93 |
|
Alice in Wonderland
by
Jane Carruth (Adapted By)
4.03 avg rating — 396,610 ratings
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| 94 |
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The Aeneid
by
3.87 avg rating — 142,644 ratings
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| 95 |
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Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 938,973 ratings
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| 96 |
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The Little Prince
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4.33 avg rating — 2,447,322 ratings
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| 97 |
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A Christmas Carol
by
4.09 avg rating — 919,679 ratings
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| 98 |
|
The Giver (The Giver, #1)
by
Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 2,785,895 ratings
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| 99 |
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Julius Caesar
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3.71 avg rating — 218,423 ratings
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| 100 |
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Heart of Darkness
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3.43 avg rating — 555,570 ratings
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634 books ·
522 voters ·
list created June 21st, 2008
by Crystal.
Tags:
classic, literature
Comments Showing 1-7 of 7 (7 new)
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message 1:
by
Tamora
(new)
Apr 04, 2009 11:38AM
I'm just clicking on what I've read, not on what I liked. When you're dealing with books like these, that generally drop into everyone's life before they're 20, what you like and what you don't like is highly individual. I don't think you can really go by the opinion of the next person, because you're all forming your opinions. I liked TARZAN, but had no interest in CHARLOTTE'S WEB. My classmates had spasms over CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, so much so that I never told them that I kinda liked it. They were okay with THE SCARLET LETTER, which made me crazy. You really have to try the books that our parents, teachers, and peers think are probably classic, and decide for yourself if they're good reads as far as you're concerned!
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I would just like to say that I believe 'Les Miserables' by Victor Hugo is the best book on this list. And nooooo, I'm not basing it on the hit musical (even though I love that as well), because it did get a lot wrong. I'm currently reading A Tale of 2 Cities, nad let me say I've made a lot of connections to Les Miserables. It's just an amzing and epic Book!
I agree with Tamora, There are several books i've been told are must reads by people who don't read much themselves. I have been disappointed in many of them most books are classics because they've been around forever and a day. Much of the language is outdated and stale. occasionally you do stumble upon a book with a plot that holds up but it is a rare find. That being said, I loved Scarlett Letter and The hunchback of Notra Dame but found Pride and Prejudice tedious at best shallow and mindless at worst
i just discovered my interest in reading so i've read only a few. i just finished che's book on social revolution. so far from what i've read dracula is the best they describe the events as if one was there. my second best is lady chaterley's lover
This is a great list! I have this sort of mission too, although I gotta find a good library to hold all of these books. Too bad I don't have it in the area, or money to but some..
@CrystalI've tried adding other books than then ones originally written in English, apart from voting for the ones already on the list I mean, as there are so many great classics worth reading. All of which are available in English translations, by the way. Books I've added are, for instance, Alle fabels, Lustgebed, Avondgezichten, Het hoofdkussenboek, Het boek van Dede Korkoet, Nibelungenlied, De ring van de duif, Het boek der koningen, De rozentuin and Rubaiyat, to name just a few.
By the way, 'Classics' = 'Modern Classics' too? As there are plenty of those on your list.
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