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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 — 4,755,846 ratings
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| 2 |
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Jane Eyre
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4.16 avg rating — 2,306,607 ratings
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| 3 |
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1984
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4.20 avg rating — 5,397,633 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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4.32 avg rating — 1,015,671 ratings
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| 5 |
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Little Women (Little Women, #1)
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4.17 avg rating — 2,440,211 ratings
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| 6 |
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Wuthering Heights
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3.90 avg rating — 2,022,422 ratings
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| 7 |
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Frankenstein
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3.90 avg rating — 1,860,561 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Great Gatsby
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3.93 avg rating — 5,860,840 ratings
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| 9 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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4.26 avg rating — 6,825,365 ratings
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| 10 |
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Sense and Sensibility
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4.09 avg rating — 1,288,503 ratings
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| 11 |
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The Odyssey
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3.83 avg rating — 1,182,698 ratings
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| 12 |
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A Tale of Two Cities
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3.88 avg rating — 1,008,440 ratings
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| 13 |
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Great Expectations
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3.80 avg rating — 869,717 ratings
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| 14 |
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Brave New World
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3.99 avg rating — 2,061,721 ratings
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| 15 |
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Animal Farm
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4.02 avg rating — 4,496,988 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 — 1,333,752 ratings
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| 17 |
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Dracula
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4.02 avg rating — 1,463,197 ratings
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| 18 |
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Hamlet
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4.03 avg rating — 1,042,914 ratings
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| 19 |
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Fahrenheit 451
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3.97 avg rating — 2,804,403 ratings
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| 20 |
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Emma
by
4.05 avg rating — 975,215 ratings
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| 21 |
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The Canterbury Tales
by
3.53 avg rating — 237,208 ratings
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| 22 |
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Anna Karenina
by
4.10 avg rating — 924,964 ratings
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| 23 |
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The Catcher in the Rye
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3.80 avg rating — 3,867,868 ratings
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| 24 |
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Romeo and Juliet
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3.74 avg rating — 2,807,299 ratings
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| 25 |
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Persuasion
by
4.15 avg rating — 771,013 ratings
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| 26 |
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
by
4.30 avg rating — 4,426,910 ratings
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| 27 |
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Rebecca
by
4.25 avg rating — 714,097 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 — 606,503 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Scarlet Letter
by
3.44 avg rating — 914,640 ratings
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| 30 |
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Gone with the Wind
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4.31 avg rating — 1,253,804 ratings
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| 31 |
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Les Misérables
by
4.21 avg rating — 840,136 ratings
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| 32 |
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by
3.94 avg rating — 576,193 ratings
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| 33 |
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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4.13 avg rating — 1,854,520 ratings
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| 34 |
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War and Peace
by
4.17 avg rating — 363,711 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Iliad
by
3.93 avg rating — 506,285 ratings
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| 36 |
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Crime and Punishment
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4.29 avg rating — 1,066,865 ratings
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| 37 |
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Beowulf
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3.50 avg rating — 344,634 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Complete Tales and Poems
by
4.40 avg rating — 294,969 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Three Musketeers
by
4.10 avg rating — 345,666 ratings
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| 40 |
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Macbeth
by
3.89 avg rating — 1,013,125 ratings
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| 41 |
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Oliver Twist
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3.88 avg rating — 425,893 ratings
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| 42 |
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale
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3.56 avg rating — 613,028 ratings
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| 43 |
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Mansfield Park
by
3.86 avg rating — 378,090 ratings
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| 44 |
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The Grapes of Wrath
by
4.03 avg rating — 988,762 ratings
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| 45 |
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by
3.89 avg rating — 275,256 ratings
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| 46 |
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The Republic
by
3.97 avg rating — 224,718 ratings
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| 47 |
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Catch-22
by
3.99 avg rating — 883,715 ratings
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| 48 |
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Madame Bovary
by
3.71 avg rating — 372,490 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Brothers Karamazov
by
4.39 avg rating — 382,410 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Lord of the Rings
by
4.54 avg rating — 727,421 ratings
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| 51 |
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King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 236,480 ratings
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| 52 |
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David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 257,375 ratings
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| 53 |
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Northanger Abbey
by
3.85 avg rating — 450,533 ratings
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| 54 |
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Don Quixote
by
3.91 avg rating — 303,519 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 — 3,127,550 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Time Machine
by
3.89 avg rating — 562,270 ratings
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| 57 |
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Lord of the Flies
by
3.70 avg rating — 3,176,655 ratings
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| 58 |
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
by
3.85 avg rating — 223,611 ratings
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| 59 |
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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
by
4.33 avg rating — 1,104,997 ratings
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| 60 |
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Of Mice and Men
by
3.89 avg rating — 2,811,368 ratings
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| 61 |
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The Moonstone
by
3.91 avg rating — 98,542 ratings
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| 62 |
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by
3.84 avg rating — 301,620 ratings
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| 63 |
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Gulliver’s Travels
by
3.59 avg rating — 297,787 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Man Without Qualities
by
4.19 avg rating — 7,359 ratings
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| 65 |
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The Crucible
by
3.61 avg rating — 461,610 ratings
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| 66 |
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Candide
by
3.76 avg rating — 299,951 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Metamorphosis
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,403,953 ratings
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| 68 |
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The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 275,291 ratings
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| 69 |
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Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,910 ratings
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| 70 |
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
by
3.87 avg rating — 65,915 ratings
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| 71 |
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Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,853 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 — 143,587 ratings
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| 73 |
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Treasure Island
by
3.85 avg rating — 537,774 ratings
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| 74 |
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The War of the Worlds
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3.83 avg rating — 347,902 ratings
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| 75 |
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Jude the Obscure
by
3.83 avg rating — 75,773 ratings
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| 76 |
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East of Eden
by
4.44 avg rating — 629,645 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Age of Innocence
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3.97 avg rating — 194,594 ratings
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| 78 |
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Robinson Crusoe
by
3.68 avg rating — 330,012 ratings
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| 79 |
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Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 113,766 ratings
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| 80 |
|
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 508,682 ratings
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| 80 |
|
The Secret Garden
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4.17 avg rating — 1,287,395 ratings
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| 82 |
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Paradise Lost
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3.85 avg rating — 181,473 ratings
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| 83 |
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 171,170 ratings
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| 84 |
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Aesop’s Fables
by
4.05 avg rating — 129,443 ratings
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| 85 |
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Cry, the Beloved Country
by
3.93 avg rating — 79,358 ratings
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| 86 |
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The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
by
4.19 avg rating — 244,483 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Histories
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4.01 avg rating — 55,371 ratings
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| 87 |
|
The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
by
4.05 avg rating — 601,037 ratings
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| 89 |
|
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by
3.99 avg rating — 384,495 ratings
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| 90 |
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The House of Mirth
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3.98 avg rating — 105,450 ratings
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| 91 |
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The Pilgrim's Progress
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4.07 avg rating — 157,777 ratings
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| 92 |
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The Woman in White
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4.01 avg rating — 165,475 ratings
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| 93 |
|
Alice in Wonderland
by
Jane Carruth (Adapted By)
4.03 avg rating — 396,615 ratings
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| 94 |
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The Aeneid
by
3.87 avg rating — 142,663 ratings
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| 95 |
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Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 939,162 ratings
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| 96 |
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The Little Prince
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4.33 avg rating — 2,448,056 ratings
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| 97 |
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A Christmas Carol
by
4.09 avg rating — 920,661 ratings
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| 98 |
|
The Giver (The Giver, #1)
by
Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 2,786,317 ratings
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| 99 |
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Julius Caesar
by
3.71 avg rating — 218,452 ratings
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| 100 |
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Heart of Darkness
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3.43 avg rating — 555,669 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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