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Classics Library
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 — 4,673,726 ratings
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| 2 |
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Jane Eyre
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4.16 avg rating — 2,274,528 ratings
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| 3 |
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1984
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4.20 avg rating — 5,281,805 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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4.32 avg rating — 999,515 ratings
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| 5 |
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Little Women (Little Women, #1)
by
4.17 avg rating — 2,408,225 ratings
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| 6 |
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Wuthering Heights
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3.90 avg rating — 1,973,426 ratings
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| 7 |
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Frankenstein
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3.89 avg rating — 1,787,094 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Great Gatsby
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3.93 avg rating — 5,773,143 ratings
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| 9 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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4.26 avg rating — 6,732,353 ratings
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| 10 |
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Sense and Sensibility
by
4.09 avg rating — 1,273,643 ratings
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| 11 |
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The Odyssey
by
3.83 avg rating — 1,164,663 ratings
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| 12 |
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A Tale of Two Cities
by
3.88 avg rating — 1,000,115 ratings
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| 13 |
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Great Expectations
by
3.80 avg rating — 861,347 ratings
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| 14 |
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Brave New World
by
3.88 avg rating — 1,260,584 ratings
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| 15 |
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Animal Farm
by
4.01 avg rating — 4,401,457 ratings
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| 16 |
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by
3.83 avg rating — 1,323,385 ratings
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| 17 |
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Dracula
by
4.02 avg rating — 1,426,280 ratings
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| 18 |
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Fahrenheit 451
by
3.97 avg rating — 2,745,954 ratings
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| 19 |
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Hamlet
by
4.03 avg rating — 1,026,330 ratings
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| 20 |
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Emma
by
4.05 avg rating — 957,573 ratings
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| 21 |
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The Canterbury Tales
by
3.52 avg rating — 235,395 ratings
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| 22 |
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Anna Karenina
by
4.10 avg rating — 912,482 ratings
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| 23 |
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The Catcher in the Rye
by
3.80 avg rating — 3,822,709 ratings
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| 24 |
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Romeo and Juliet
by
3.74 avg rating — 2,780,734 ratings
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| 25 |
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Persuasion
by
4.15 avg rating — 757,795 ratings
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| 26 |
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
by
4.30 avg rating — 4,371,504 ratings
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| 27 |
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
by
4.06 avg rating — 600,525 ratings
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| 28 |
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Rebecca
by
4.25 avg rating — 703,978 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Scarlet Letter
by
3.44 avg rating — 905,063 ratings
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| 30 |
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Gone with the Wind
by
4.31 avg rating — 1,247,739 ratings
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| 31 |
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Les Misérables
by
4.21 avg rating — 833,735 ratings
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| 32 |
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by
3.94 avg rating — 570,544 ratings
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| 33 |
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
by
4.13 avg rating — 1,804,449 ratings
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| 34 |
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War and Peace
by
4.17 avg rating — 358,997 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Iliad
by
3.93 avg rating — 498,279 ratings
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| 36 |
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Crime and Punishment
by
4.28 avg rating — 1,037,575 ratings
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| 37 |
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Beowulf
by
3.50 avg rating — 339,739 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Complete Tales and Poems
by
4.40 avg rating — 292,510 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Three Musketeers
by
4.10 avg rating — 346,232 ratings
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| 40 |
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Macbeth
by
3.89 avg rating — 998,364 ratings
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| 41 |
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Oliver Twist
by
3.88 avg rating — 421,507 ratings
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| 42 |
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale
by
3.56 avg rating — 606,000 ratings
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| 43 |
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Mansfield Park
by
3.86 avg rating — 373,839 ratings
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| 44 |
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The Grapes of Wrath
by
4.02 avg rating — 976,765 ratings
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| 45 |
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Captain Nemo, #2)
by
3.89 avg rating — 272,180 ratings
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| 46 |
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The Republic
by
3.97 avg rating — 221,510 ratings
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| 47 |
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Catch-22
by
3.99 avg rating — 876,609 ratings
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| 48 |
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Madame Bovary
by
3.71 avg rating — 366,574 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Brothers Karamazov
by
4.39 avg rating — 373,723 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Lord of the Rings
by
4.54 avg rating — 719,912 ratings
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| 51 |
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King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 233,784 ratings
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| 52 |
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David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 254,334 ratings
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| 53 |
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Northanger Abbey
by
3.85 avg rating — 442,435 ratings
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| 54 |
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Don Quixote
by
3.91 avg rating — 299,134 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 — 3,080,923 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Time Machine
by
3.89 avg rating — 555,680 ratings
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| 57 |
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Lord of the Flies
by
3.70 avg rating — 3,136,418 ratings
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| 58 |
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
by
3.85 avg rating — 220,162 ratings
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| 59 |
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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
by
4.32 avg rating — 1,087,456 ratings
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| 60 |
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Of Mice and Men
by
3.89 avg rating — 2,770,283 ratings
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| 61 |
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The Moonstone
by
3.91 avg rating — 97,660 ratings
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| 62 |
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by
3.84 avg rating — 298,976 ratings
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| 63 |
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Gulliver’s Travels
by
3.59 avg rating — 295,111 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Man Without Qualities
by
4.19 avg rating — 7,231 ratings
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| 65 |
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The Crucible
by
3.61 avg rating — 454,530 ratings
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| 66 |
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Candide
by
3.76 avg rating — 296,239 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Metamorphosis
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,358,855 ratings
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| 68 |
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The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 269,487 ratings
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| 69 |
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Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,283 ratings
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| 70 |
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
by
3.86 avg rating — 65,320 ratings
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| 71 |
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Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,223 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
4.61 avg rating — 142,123 ratings
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| 73 |
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Treasure Island
by
3.85 avg rating — 531,412 ratings
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| 74 |
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The War of the Worlds
by
3.83 avg rating — 342,861 ratings
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| 75 |
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Jude the Obscure
by
3.83 avg rating — 75,106 ratings
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| 76 |
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East of Eden
by
4.43 avg rating — 610,798 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Age of Innocence
by
3.97 avg rating — 191,403 ratings
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| 78 |
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Robinson Crusoe
by
3.68 avg rating — 326,630 ratings
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| 79 |
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Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 112,790 ratings
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| 80 |
|
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 501,701 ratings
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| 80 |
|
The Secret Garden
by
4.17 avg rating — 1,270,922 ratings
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| 82 |
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Paradise Lost
by
3.85 avg rating — 178,881 ratings
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| 83 |
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 168,425 ratings
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| 84 |
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Aesop’s Fables
by
4.05 avg rating — 128,851 ratings
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| 85 |
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Cry, the Beloved Country
by
3.93 avg rating — 78,817 ratings
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| 86 |
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The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
by
4.19 avg rating — 243,879 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Histories
by
4.01 avg rating — 54,919 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
by
4.05 avg rating — 591,823 ratings
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| 89 |
|
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by
3.99 avg rating — 379,839 ratings
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| 90 |
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The House of Mirth
by
3.97 avg rating — 104,126 ratings
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| 91 |
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The Pilgrim's Progress
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4.07 avg rating — 155,260 ratings
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| 92 |
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The Woman in White
by
4.01 avg rating — 163,442 ratings
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| 93 |
|
Alice in Wonderland
by
Jane Carruth (Adapted By)
4.03 avg rating — 396,054 ratings
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| 94 |
|
The Aeneid
by
3.87 avg rating — 140,703 ratings
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| 95 |
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Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 925,390 ratings
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| 96 |
|
The Little Prince
by
4.33 avg rating — 2,398,015 ratings
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| 97 |
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A Christmas Carol
by
4.09 avg rating — 900,552 ratings
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| 98 |
|
The Giver (The Giver, #1)
by
Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 2,749,932 ratings
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| 99 |
|
Julius Caesar
by
3.71 avg rating — 216,222 ratings
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| 100 |
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Heart of Darkness
by
3.43 avg rating — 548,711 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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