Native American Heritage Month

Join Goodreads

and meet your next favorite book!

Sign Up Now
Sign in with Facebook

Classics for Beginners discussion
Classics For Beginners To-Read List

Created by Nicolle, Feb 12, 2012 14846 views
Nicolle A list of the classics that we in this group feel should be read and enjoyed for years to come...
Only recommend books that you have actually read

The books in our list is sorted into various categories and are listed here in alphabetical order. Inside each category, books are listed in alphabetical order from the last name of the author.

FICTION

General
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Adam Bede by George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Silas Marner by George Eliot
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift ~ A satirical work
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Action/Adventure
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Children's
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Comedy
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Most Of P.G. Wodehouse by P.G. Wodehouse

Crime/Mystery
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Fantasy
The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Iliad & The Odyssey by Homer
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
The Once and Future King by T.H. White

Historical
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Horror/Gothic
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Psychological/Philosophical
The Plague by Albert Camus
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

Romance
Little Women Louisa May Alcott
Emma by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen ~ Forbidden romance
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte ~ Forbidden romance
The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute

Science Fiction
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams ~ A comic novel
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ~ Dystopian
Lord of the Flies by William Golding ~ Dystopian
1984 by George Orwell ~ Dystopian
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand ~ Dystopian
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: WITH The Mysterious Island AND Journey to the Centre of the Earth AND Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

Short Stories
Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe

Poetry
The Complete Poems by William Blake
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Complete Poems by Banjo Patterson
Ariel by Sylvia Plath

Plays
The Plays of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
The Complete Works by William Shakespeare
Complete Works of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde ~ Includes the novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', poems, and essays

NON-FICTION
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell ~ A comic autobiography

To Be Sorted
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Fall by Albert Camus
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Nicolle If you think any of these shouldn't be on our list or are in the wrong category please say. If a book fits in to more than one category it should be in the most predominant, or what the book is most known as.
Flor Thanks, Nicole :)
Jimmy Nicolle wrote: "A list of the classics that we in this group feel should be read and enjoyed for years to come...

Action/Adventure
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Nathaniel Hawthorne"

I'm sure you meant the author to be Baroness Orczy for that one...I don't think that Hawthone's Scarlet Letter could be classed as adventure...apologies if this brought a similar shade to your cheeks!
Nicolle Jimmy wrote: "Nicolle wrote: "A list of the classics that we in this group feel should be read and enjoyed for years to come...

Action/Adventure
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Nathaniel Hawthorne"

I'm ..."
Woops!!
Gaylinn I think The Plague by Albert Camus needs to be added. Also Darknesss at Noon by Koestler.
Jonathan Terrington Yes definitely add some Henrik Ibsen under the plays.
Nicolle Gaylinn wrote: "I think The Plague by Albert Camus needs to be added. Also Darknesss at Noon by Koestler."

What categories?
deleted user For the categories listed The Plague would probably best fit under historical. Psychological/philosophical might be a better category, but it might be too easy to throw all sorts of books under such a broad umbrella.
Nicolle Thankyou Michael, have put it under Psychological/philosophical as I think that is more specific than 'historical' and I revel in specifics. :)
deleted user Hi, Nicolle. In that case, maybe The Trial should be moved into the same category. I think a beginner might be disappointed if they think it's similar to Christie or Doyle since there's no crime and no mystery to solve in the traditional sense.
Jonathan Terrington I still think the Trial is very much a crime novel though. But it isn't similar to Doyle or Christie. Psychological may be better though.
deleted user I agree that it is in a sense, definitely. But a crime novel to me is about something overt, either the crime itself or the accusation of or defense against it. There are elements of that in The Trial, but when you categorize something it seems simplest to either do so according to the thing's general theme or to its most defining constituent part. I think in both cases The Trial is probably something other than crime (but I'm not sure). It's kind of interesting though.
Nicolle Okay... I like this little debate :D
Jonathan Terrington That is true that The Trial is not a crime novel in the simple sense. But it has the same kind of feel - there being an unsolved mystery that the protagonist must find out about. It is not quite a purely psychological work and yet it is not quite a crime work...
Nance How about The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas in Action/Adventure? Those are both wonderful classics!
deleted user I think the mystery is K. and the dark absurdity of the world he occupies; K.'s early attempts to solve the more concrete question of the nature of his crime are abandoned for the most part and he instead concentrates on motivations, states, reality, etc. The unspoken crime, if there was one and if the real crime isn't K.'s environment, is more of a device for Kafka to hang his hat on and not the hat itself. So when I think of The Trial I don't think of crime or mystery; I think of K.'s psychological state and the philosophical questions, which I don't pretend to grasp more than fleetingly, Kafka raises. But like all of the greatest work it's too big and multifaceted to be confined to any one categorization, like trying to hold a greased pig, you think you've got it but then, sploop, squeal, off it goes.
Diana Pope I would add Persuasion by Jane Austen. :)
Heather L For children's:


Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Rascal by Sterling North
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

All could also probably be labeled as "historical" as well, but they are usually found in childrens' books.

Also, you never added Ibsen (posts 10/11) under plays. ;-)
Riya what about Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.

you could add it to the crime/mystery category, or to psychological/philosophical
deleted user Crime & Punishment should definitely be on the list.

A Confederacy of Dunces should be too I think, under a new heading for comedy.
Jonathan Terrington And if you're going to throw in a comedy section maybe include a more modern classic in my opinion with My Family and Other Animals. But maybe that is too debatable...
Louise Quite possibly. Absolutely wonderful book though. All nature-loving kids should read it.

If there's going to be a comedy section though I'd also recommend The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse - or any Jeeves and Wooster books, that's just the first short story collection.
deleted user Yeah, I'd second the addition of Wodehouse.
Nicolle We haven't got Fahrenheit 451 which was one of our group read! Will add now...
Rachel Aschmann Wow! It's a good thing I'm retired as I now want to read everything on the list. Good job everyone!
Katie Would "A Raisin in the Sun" be considered a classic...for plays?
deleted user I would say so, Katie, but I never know what people mean by classic exactly.
Chris My favorite is Les Misérables... under historical? I always look for that on lists of classics...
Viveto I guess Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell would be nice for this list (I hope I didn't miss it in any of the comments above).
Leo Robertson The Gormenghast Novels! Probably fantasy, but I would say horror/gothic is better :-)
Jonathan Terrington I definitely don't find Cormac McCarthy my type of classic. I'm currently reading Blood Meridian and I find his style rather gimmicky now after having read two other works of his.
Nicolle Michael wrote: "I'll recommend a few more. I've never been sure how long you want the list to be, Nicolle, so I won't go overboard.


Absalom, Absalom!
The Sound and the Fury
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Flannery ..."
Could I have what group/genre you think they should be in please?
deleted user Sorry about that, Nicolle, sure.

Absalom, Absalom! -- Southern
The Sound and the Fury -- Southern
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter --Southern
Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters -- Southern
Blood Meridian -- Western
Suttree -- Southern
Labyrinths -- Short Stories or Magical Realism
Letters to a Young Poet -- Philosophy or Epistolary
Leo Robertson Jonathan wrote: "I definitely don't find Cormac McCarthy my type of classic. I'm currently reading Blood Meridian and I find his style rather gimmicky now after having read two other works of his."

Totally! Liquid misery has few redeeming qualities :P
deleted user Liquid beauty more like.
Jonathan Terrington Yet beauty is a highly subjective quality. If I ask someone what beauty is I doubt many people would truly agree on a shared ideal of beauty. And even if they did they would have different ideas of what makes something beautiful. We appear to possess a clearer idea of what beauty is not rather than what it is as a collective.

I still want to read Cormac McCarthy's work. I'm trying to understand why other readers seem to love it so much while I've only semi-appreciated it.
deleted user Yes, Jonathan, I wasn't claiming a universal ideal of beauty, merely offering my opinion; though you would likely find general core assumptions and desires the world over (for beauty among other things--I base this on the fact that communication requires at least some shared views, no matter how obscure or precariously shared, and communication across place and time obviously occurs, and not merely by chance). As for beauty defined as what it isn't being easier than defining what it is, if beauty is utterly subjective both definitions/ideas/ideals/approximations/etc./etc. are impossible.

About McCarthy, I don't generally try to push work I like onto other people, or explain why I like it, principally because I"m too lazy, my pursuits are selfish, and I spend enough time listening to myself. I am, however, always interested in what other people think, so thank you for your posts; I enjoy them.
Jonathan Terrington The idea of beauty has recently interested me because an artist friend of mine challenged me to think about what beauty is and is not. I found I had no clear idea of what beauty was but more what it was not. I of course understood it as your opinion, an opinion which I respect even if I cannot necessarily understand others opinions.

I try not to do the same. I find overhyping a work of fiction tends to have a negative effect on the readers. I try and merely indicate that I think a book is good and that I want to hear what others say about that book personally.
deleted user It's always been an overriding interest of mine, although more for personal reasons than a desire to understand it in an academic sense (I can understand the motives for that too though). I don't want to make this thread difficult for people to use who want to suggest books, so I'll leave it at that and won't ramble on. Thanks for your interesting posts, Jonathan; I hope your passions for literature, beauty, and everything else great continue for a long time.
Jonathan Terrington I too hope that they do. Those interests inspire me to want to pursue a career in teaching for certain.

I think we need more Austen on this list. I need to get reading more of her work myself.
midnightfaerie yeah, she has a lot..i'm making my way thru her too...but i'm surprised more ppl don't talk about her smaller works...they're just as good, if not better...persuasion, lady susan...the watsons...etc..i'm trying to get thru them all...there's an edition on kindle that has everything but i'm trying to find it in book form..so far...no luck...buying most of it individually...
« Prev 1 3