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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 — 4,746,972 ratings
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| 2 |
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Jane Eyre
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4.16 avg rating — 2,303,159 ratings
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| 3 |
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1984
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4.20 avg rating — 5,385,330 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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4.32 avg rating — 1,013,914 ratings
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| 5 |
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Little Women (Little Women, #1)
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4.17 avg rating — 2,435,776 ratings
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| 6 |
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Wuthering Heights
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3.90 avg rating — 2,016,895 ratings
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| 7 |
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Frankenstein
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3.90 avg rating — 1,856,486 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Great Gatsby
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3.93 avg rating — 5,851,191 ratings
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| 9 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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4.26 avg rating — 6,815,430 ratings
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| 10 |
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Sense and Sensibility
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4.09 avg rating — 1,286,931 ratings
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| 11 |
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The Odyssey
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3.83 avg rating — 1,180,694 ratings
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| 12 |
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A Tale of Two Cities
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3.88 avg rating — 1,007,524 ratings
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| 13 |
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Great Expectations
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3.80 avg rating — 868,791 ratings
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| 14 |
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Brave New World
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3.99 avg rating — 2,058,490 ratings
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| 15 |
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Animal Farm
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4.01 avg rating — 4,486,261 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 — 1,332,927 ratings
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| 17 |
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Dracula
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4.02 avg rating — 1,459,209 ratings
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| 18 |
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Hamlet
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4.03 avg rating — 1,041,037 ratings
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| 19 |
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Fahrenheit 451
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3.97 avg rating — 2,797,988 ratings
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| 20 |
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Emma
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4.05 avg rating — 973,622 ratings
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| 21 |
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The Canterbury Tales
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3.53 avg rating — 236,991 ratings
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| 22 |
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Anna Karenina
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4.10 avg rating — 923,604 ratings
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| 23 |
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The Catcher in the Rye
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3.80 avg rating — 3,863,123 ratings
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| 24 |
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Romeo and Juliet
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3.74 avg rating — 2,804,438 ratings
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| 25 |
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Persuasion
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4.15 avg rating — 769,675 ratings
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| 26 |
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
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4.30 avg rating — 4,421,230 ratings
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| 27 |
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Rebecca
by
4.25 avg rating — 712,495 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 — 605,902 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Scarlet Letter
by
3.44 avg rating — 913,615 ratings
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| 30 |
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Gone with the Wind
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4.31 avg rating — 1,253,282 ratings
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| 31 |
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Les Misérables
by
4.21 avg rating — 839,275 ratings
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| 32 |
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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3.94 avg rating — 575,628 ratings
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| 33 |
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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4.13 avg rating — 1,849,383 ratings
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| 34 |
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War and Peace
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4.17 avg rating — 363,166 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Iliad
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3.93 avg rating — 505,481 ratings
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| 36 |
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Crime and Punishment
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4.29 avg rating — 1,063,762 ratings
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| 37 |
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Beowulf
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3.50 avg rating — 344,195 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Complete Tales and Poems
by
4.40 avg rating — 294,704 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Three Musketeers
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4.10 avg rating — 348,727 ratings
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| 40 |
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Macbeth
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3.89 avg rating — 1,011,496 ratings
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| 41 |
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Oliver Twist
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3.88 avg rating — 425,412 ratings
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| 42 |
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale
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3.56 avg rating — 612,263 ratings
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| 43 |
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Mansfield Park
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3.86 avg rating — 377,710 ratings
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| 44 |
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The Grapes of Wrath
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4.03 avg rating — 987,508 ratings
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| 45 |
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by
3.89 avg rating — 274,950 ratings
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| 46 |
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The Republic
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3.97 avg rating — 224,386 ratings
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| 47 |
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Catch-22
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3.99 avg rating — 882,989 ratings
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| 48 |
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Madame Bovary
by
3.71 avg rating — 371,942 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Brothers Karamazov
by
4.39 avg rating — 381,348 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Lord of the Rings
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4.54 avg rating — 726,664 ratings
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| 51 |
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King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 236,200 ratings
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| 52 |
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David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 257,075 ratings
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| 53 |
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Northanger Abbey
by
3.85 avg rating — 449,755 ratings
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| 54 |
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Don Quixote
by
3.91 avg rating — 303,160 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 — 3,122,346 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Time Machine
by
3.89 avg rating — 561,557 ratings
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| 57 |
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Lord of the Flies
by
3.70 avg rating — 3,172,232 ratings
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| 58 |
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
by
3.85 avg rating — 223,276 ratings
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| 59 |
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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
by
4.33 avg rating — 1,103,327 ratings
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| 60 |
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Of Mice and Men
by
3.89 avg rating — 2,806,739 ratings
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| 61 |
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The Moonstone
by
3.91 avg rating — 98,494 ratings
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| 62 |
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by
3.84 avg rating — 301,340 ratings
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| 63 |
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Gulliver’s Travels
by
3.59 avg rating — 297,525 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Man Without Qualities
by
4.19 avg rating — 7,342 ratings
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| 65 |
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The Crucible
by
3.61 avg rating — 460,906 ratings
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| 66 |
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Candide
by
3.76 avg rating — 299,530 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Metamorphosis
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,398,827 ratings
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| 68 |
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The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 274,695 ratings
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| 69 |
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Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,863 ratings
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| 70 |
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
by
3.86 avg rating — 65,843 ratings
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| 71 |
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Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,796 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 — 143,438 ratings
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| 73 |
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Treasure Island
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3.85 avg rating — 537,133 ratings
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| 74 |
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The War of the Worlds
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3.83 avg rating — 347,482 ratings
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| 75 |
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Jude the Obscure
by
3.83 avg rating — 75,690 ratings
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| 76 |
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East of Eden
by
4.44 avg rating — 627,625 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Age of Innocence
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3.97 avg rating — 194,302 ratings
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| 78 |
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Robinson Crusoe
by
3.68 avg rating — 329,717 ratings
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| 79 |
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Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 113,662 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 — 507,851 ratings
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| 80 |
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The Secret Garden
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4.17 avg rating — 1,285,765 ratings
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| 82 |
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Paradise Lost
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3.85 avg rating — 181,174 ratings
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| 83 |
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 170,847 ratings
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| 84 |
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Aesop’s Fables
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4.05 avg rating — 129,373 ratings
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| 85 |
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Cry, the Beloved Country
by
3.93 avg rating — 79,307 ratings
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| 86 |
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The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
by
4.19 avg rating — 244,428 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Histories
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4.01 avg rating — 55,309 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
by
4.05 avg rating — 600,066 ratings
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| 89 |
|
Their Eyes Were Watching God
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3.99 avg rating — 383,987 ratings
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| 90 |
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The House of Mirth
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3.97 avg rating — 105,351 ratings
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| 91 |
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The Pilgrim's Progress
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4.07 avg rating — 157,525 ratings
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| 92 |
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The Woman in White
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4.01 avg rating — 165,304 ratings
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| 93 |
|
Alice in Wonderland
by
Jane Carruth (Adapted By)
4.03 avg rating — 396,578 ratings
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| 94 |
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The Aeneid
by
3.87 avg rating — 142,469 ratings
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| 95 |
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Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 937,806 ratings
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| 96 |
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The Little Prince
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4.33 avg rating — 2,442,411 ratings
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| 97 |
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A Christmas Carol
by
4.09 avg rating — 913,753 ratings
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| 98 |
|
The Giver (The Giver, #1)
by
Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 2,782,361 ratings
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| 99 |
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Julius Caesar
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3.71 avg rating — 218,206 ratings
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| 100 |
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Heart of Darkness
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3.43 avg rating — 554,930 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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