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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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A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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Pride and Prejudice
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4.29 avg rating — 4,672,906 ratings
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| 2 |
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Jane Eyre
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4.16 avg rating — 2,274,214 ratings
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| 3 |
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1984
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4.20 avg rating — 5,280,605 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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4.32 avg rating — 999,355 ratings
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| 5 |
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Little Women (Little Women, #1)
by
4.17 avg rating — 2,407,897 ratings
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| 6 |
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Wuthering Heights
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3.90 avg rating — 1,973,088 ratings
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| 7 |
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Frankenstein
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3.89 avg rating — 1,786,781 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Great Gatsby
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3.93 avg rating — 5,772,329 ratings
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| 9 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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4.26 avg rating — 6,731,434 ratings
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| 10 |
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Sense and Sensibility
by
4.09 avg rating — 1,273,459 ratings
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| 11 |
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The Odyssey
by
3.83 avg rating — 1,164,482 ratings
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| 12 |
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A Tale of Two Cities
by
3.88 avg rating — 1,000,017 ratings
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| 13 |
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Great Expectations
by
3.80 avg rating — 861,240 ratings
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| 14 |
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Brave New World
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3.88 avg rating — 1,260,261 ratings
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| 15 |
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Animal Farm
by
4.01 avg rating — 4,400,561 ratings
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| 16 |
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by
3.83 avg rating — 1,323,264 ratings
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| 17 |
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Dracula
by
4.02 avg rating — 1,426,006 ratings
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| 18 |
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Fahrenheit 451
by
3.97 avg rating — 2,745,417 ratings
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| 19 |
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Hamlet
by
4.03 avg rating — 1,026,207 ratings
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| 20 |
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Emma
by
4.05 avg rating — 957,413 ratings
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| 21 |
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The Canterbury Tales
by
3.52 avg rating — 235,375 ratings
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| 22 |
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Anna Karenina
by
4.10 avg rating — 912,315 ratings
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| 23 |
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The Catcher in the Rye
by
3.80 avg rating — 3,822,259 ratings
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| 24 |
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Romeo and Juliet
by
3.74 avg rating — 2,780,497 ratings
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| 25 |
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Persuasion
by
4.15 avg rating — 757,670 ratings
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| 26 |
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
by
4.30 avg rating — 4,370,935 ratings
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| 27 |
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
by
4.06 avg rating — 600,450 ratings
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| 28 |
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Rebecca
by
4.25 avg rating — 703,842 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Scarlet Letter
by
3.44 avg rating — 904,970 ratings
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| 30 |
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Gone with the Wind
by
4.31 avg rating — 1,247,660 ratings
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| 31 |
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Les Misérables
by
4.21 avg rating — 833,668 ratings
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| 32 |
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by
3.94 avg rating — 570,498 ratings
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| 33 |
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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4.13 avg rating — 1,803,969 ratings
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| 34 |
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War and Peace
by
4.17 avg rating — 358,963 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Iliad
by
3.93 avg rating — 498,191 ratings
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| 36 |
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Crime and Punishment
by
4.28 avg rating — 1,037,285 ratings
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| 37 |
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Beowulf
by
3.50 avg rating — 339,691 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Complete Tales and Poems
by
4.40 avg rating — 292,490 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Three Musketeers
by
4.10 avg rating — 346,190 ratings
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| 40 |
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Macbeth
by
3.89 avg rating — 998,250 ratings
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| 41 |
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Oliver Twist
by
3.88 avg rating — 421,460 ratings
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| 42 |
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale
by
3.56 avg rating — 605,938 ratings
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| 43 |
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Mansfield Park
by
3.86 avg rating — 373,794 ratings
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| 44 |
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The Grapes of Wrath
by
4.02 avg rating — 976,634 ratings
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| 45 |
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Captain Nemo, #2)
by
3.89 avg rating — 272,146 ratings
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| 46 |
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The Republic
by
3.97 avg rating — 221,472 ratings
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| 47 |
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Catch-22
by
3.99 avg rating — 876,522 ratings
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| 48 |
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Madame Bovary
by
3.71 avg rating — 366,503 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Brothers Karamazov
by
4.39 avg rating — 373,622 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Lord of the Rings
by
4.54 avg rating — 719,833 ratings
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| 51 |
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King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 233,765 ratings
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| 52 |
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David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 254,306 ratings
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| 53 |
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Northanger Abbey
by
3.85 avg rating — 442,353 ratings
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| 54 |
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Don Quixote
by
3.91 avg rating — 299,084 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 — 3,080,443 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Time Machine
by
3.89 avg rating — 555,603 ratings
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| 57 |
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Lord of the Flies
by
3.70 avg rating — 3,136,052 ratings
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| 58 |
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
by
3.85 avg rating — 220,112 ratings
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| 59 |
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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
by
4.32 avg rating — 1,087,268 ratings
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| 60 |
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Of Mice and Men
by
3.89 avg rating — 2,769,888 ratings
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| 61 |
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The Moonstone
by
3.91 avg rating — 97,654 ratings
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| 62 |
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by
3.84 avg rating — 298,940 ratings
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| 63 |
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Gulliver’s Travels
by
3.59 avg rating — 295,079 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 — 454,475 ratings
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| 66 |
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Candide
by
3.76 avg rating — 296,189 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Metamorphosis
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,358,379 ratings
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| 68 |
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The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 269,444 ratings
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| 69 |
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Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,280 ratings
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| 70 |
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
by
3.86 avg rating — 65,316 ratings
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| 71 |
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Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,215 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 — 142,105 ratings
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| 73 |
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Treasure Island
by
3.85 avg rating — 531,335 ratings
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| 74 |
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The War of the Worlds
by
3.83 avg rating — 342,803 ratings
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| 75 |
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Jude the Obscure
by
3.83 avg rating — 75,101 ratings
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| 76 |
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East of Eden
by
4.43 avg rating — 610,598 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Age of Innocence
by
3.97 avg rating — 191,361 ratings
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| 78 |
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Robinson Crusoe
by
3.68 avg rating — 326,602 ratings
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| 79 |
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Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 112,781 ratings
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| 80 |
|
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 501,642 ratings
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| 80 |
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The Secret Garden
by
4.17 avg rating — 1,270,744 ratings
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| 82 |
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Paradise Lost
by
3.85 avg rating — 178,853 ratings
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| 83 |
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 168,391 ratings
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| 84 |
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Aesop’s Fables
by
4.05 avg rating — 128,848 ratings
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| 85 |
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Cry, the Beloved Country
by
3.93 avg rating — 78,812 ratings
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| 86 |
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The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
by
4.19 avg rating — 243,873 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Histories
by
4.01 avg rating — 54,911 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
by
4.05 avg rating — 591,738 ratings
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| 89 |
|
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by
3.99 avg rating — 379,798 ratings
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| 90 |
|
The House of Mirth
by
3.97 avg rating — 104,116 ratings
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| 91 |
|
The Pilgrim's Progress
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4.07 avg rating — 155,220 ratings
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| 92 |
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The Woman in White
by
4.01 avg rating — 163,421 ratings
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| 93 |
|
Alice in Wonderland
by
Jane Carruth (Adapted By)
4.03 avg rating — 396,044 ratings
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| 94 |
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The Aeneid
by
3.87 avg rating — 139,857 ratings
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| 95 |
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Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 925,267 ratings
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| 96 |
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The Little Prince
by
4.33 avg rating — 2,397,492 ratings
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| 97 |
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A Christmas Carol
by
4.09 avg rating — 900,457 ratings
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| 98 |
|
The Giver (The Giver, #1)
by
Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 2,749,610 ratings
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| 99 |
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Julius Caesar
by
3.71 avg rating — 216,206 ratings
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| 100 |
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Heart of Darkness
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3.43 avg rating — 548,636 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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