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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 — 4,750,897 ratings
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| 2 |
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Jane Eyre
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4.16 avg rating — 2,304,655 ratings
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| 3 |
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1984
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4.20 avg rating — 5,390,781 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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4.32 avg rating — 1,014,625 ratings
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| 5 |
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Little Women (Little Women, #1)
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4.17 avg rating — 2,437,492 ratings
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| 6 |
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Wuthering Heights
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3.90 avg rating — 2,019,301 ratings
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| 7 |
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Frankenstein
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3.90 avg rating — 1,859,808 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Great Gatsby
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3.93 avg rating — 5,855,305 ratings
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| 9 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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4.26 avg rating — 6,819,741 ratings
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| 10 |
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Sense and Sensibility
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4.09 avg rating — 1,287,616 ratings
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| 11 |
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The Odyssey
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3.83 avg rating — 1,181,495 ratings
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| 12 |
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A Tale of Two Cities
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3.88 avg rating — 1,007,897 ratings
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| 13 |
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Great Expectations
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3.80 avg rating — 869,146 ratings
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| 14 |
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Brave New World
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3.99 avg rating — 2,059,913 ratings
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| 15 |
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Animal Farm
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4.02 avg rating — 4,490,836 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 — 1,333,262 ratings
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| 17 |
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Dracula
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4.02 avg rating — 1,461,530 ratings
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| 18 |
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Hamlet
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4.03 avg rating — 1,041,870 ratings
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| 19 |
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Fahrenheit 451
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3.97 avg rating — 2,800,730 ratings
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| 20 |
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Emma
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4.05 avg rating — 974,330 ratings
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| 21 |
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The Canterbury Tales
by
3.53 avg rating — 237,087 ratings
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| 22 |
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Anna Karenina
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4.10 avg rating — 924,157 ratings
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| 23 |
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The Catcher in the Rye
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3.80 avg rating — 3,865,202 ratings
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| 24 |
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Romeo and Juliet
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3.74 avg rating — 2,805,683 ratings
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| 25 |
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Persuasion
by
4.15 avg rating — 770,264 ratings
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| 26 |
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
by
4.30 avg rating — 4,423,810 ratings
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| 27 |
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Rebecca
by
4.25 avg rating — 713,210 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 — 606,152 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Scarlet Letter
by
3.44 avg rating — 914,064 ratings
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| 30 |
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Gone with the Wind
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4.31 avg rating — 1,253,494 ratings
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| 31 |
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Les Misérables
by
4.21 avg rating — 839,700 ratings
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| 32 |
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by
3.94 avg rating — 575,852 ratings
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| 33 |
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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4.13 avg rating — 1,851,618 ratings
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| 34 |
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War and Peace
by
4.17 avg rating — 363,371 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Iliad
by
3.93 avg rating — 505,794 ratings
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| 36 |
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Crime and Punishment
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4.29 avg rating — 1,065,113 ratings
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| 37 |
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Beowulf
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3.50 avg rating — 344,378 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Complete Tales and Poems
by
4.40 avg rating — 294,823 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Three Musketeers
by
4.10 avg rating — 347,125 ratings
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| 40 |
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Macbeth
by
3.89 avg rating — 1,012,222 ratings
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| 41 |
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Oliver Twist
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3.88 avg rating — 425,594 ratings
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| 42 |
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale
by
3.56 avg rating — 612,580 ratings
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| 43 |
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Mansfield Park
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3.86 avg rating — 377,899 ratings
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| 44 |
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The Grapes of Wrath
by
4.03 avg rating — 988,064 ratings
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| 45 |
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by
3.89 avg rating — 275,091 ratings
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| 46 |
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The Republic
by
3.97 avg rating — 224,531 ratings
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| 47 |
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Catch-22
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3.99 avg rating — 883,291 ratings
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| 48 |
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Madame Bovary
by
3.71 avg rating — 372,174 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Brothers Karamazov
by
4.39 avg rating — 381,814 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Lord of the Rings
by
4.54 avg rating — 726,988 ratings
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| 51 |
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King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 236,314 ratings
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| 52 |
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David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 257,192 ratings
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| 53 |
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Northanger Abbey
by
3.85 avg rating — 450,099 ratings
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| 54 |
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Don Quixote
by
3.91 avg rating — 303,365 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 — 3,124,612 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Time Machine
by
3.89 avg rating — 561,868 ratings
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| 57 |
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Lord of the Flies
by
3.70 avg rating — 3,174,172 ratings
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| 58 |
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
by
3.85 avg rating — 223,414 ratings
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| 59 |
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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
by
4.33 avg rating — 1,104,074 ratings
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| 60 |
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Of Mice and Men
by
3.89 avg rating — 2,808,747 ratings
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| 61 |
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The Moonstone
by
3.91 avg rating — 98,515 ratings
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| 62 |
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by
3.84 avg rating — 301,457 ratings
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| 63 |
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Gulliver’s Travels
by
3.59 avg rating — 297,624 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Man Without Qualities
by
4.19 avg rating — 7,352 ratings
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| 65 |
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The Crucible
by
3.61 avg rating — 461,218 ratings
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| 66 |
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Candide
by
3.76 avg rating — 299,709 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Metamorphosis
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,401,070 ratings
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| 68 |
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The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 274,956 ratings
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| 69 |
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Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,874 ratings
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| 70 |
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
by
3.86 avg rating — 65,874 ratings
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| 71 |
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Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,813 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 — 143,495 ratings
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| 73 |
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Treasure Island
by
3.85 avg rating — 537,388 ratings
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| 74 |
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The War of the Worlds
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3.83 avg rating — 347,664 ratings
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| 75 |
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Jude the Obscure
by
3.83 avg rating — 75,731 ratings
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| 76 |
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East of Eden
by
4.44 avg rating — 628,504 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Age of Innocence
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3.97 avg rating — 194,440 ratings
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| 78 |
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Robinson Crusoe
by
3.68 avg rating — 329,826 ratings
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| 79 |
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Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 113,702 ratings
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| 80 |
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 508,230 ratings
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| 80 |
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The Secret Garden
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4.17 avg rating — 1,286,462 ratings
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| 82 |
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Paradise Lost
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3.85 avg rating — 181,309 ratings
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| 83 |
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 170,998 ratings
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| 84 |
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Aesop’s Fables
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4.05 avg rating — 129,404 ratings
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| 85 |
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Cry, the Beloved Country
by
3.93 avg rating — 79,325 ratings
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| 86 |
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The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
by
4.19 avg rating — 244,460 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Histories
by
4.01 avg rating — 55,335 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
by
4.05 avg rating — 600,466 ratings
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| 89 |
|
Their Eyes Were Watching God
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3.99 avg rating — 384,184 ratings
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| 90 |
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The House of Mirth
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3.98 avg rating — 105,401 ratings
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| 91 |
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The Pilgrim's Progress
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4.07 avg rating — 157,616 ratings
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| 92 |
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The Woman in White
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4.01 avg rating — 165,377 ratings
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| 93 |
|
Alice in Wonderland
by
Jane Carruth (Adapted By)
4.03 avg rating — 396,591 ratings
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| 94 |
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The Aeneid
by
3.87 avg rating — 142,555 ratings
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| 95 |
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Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 938,382 ratings
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| 96 |
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The Little Prince
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4.33 avg rating — 2,444,891 ratings
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| 97 |
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A Christmas Carol
by
4.09 avg rating — 916,538 ratings
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| 98 |
|
The Giver (The Giver, #1)
by
Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 2,784,063 ratings
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| 99 |
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Julius Caesar
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3.71 avg rating — 218,323 ratings
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| 100 |
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Heart of Darkness
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3.43 avg rating — 555,254 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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