Reading List: Classic Literature

There’s still time left this summer to enjoy the outdoors and a good book. Why not make it a classic? Classic novels have withstood the test of time for a myriad of reasons, including unforgettable characters and settings, universal themes that are still relevant today, and their simultaneous ability to serve as windows into the past. So, without further ado, here’s a list of literary classics that will continue to delight and enlighten readers in the years to come.

*Descriptions provided by the library catalogue.

Emma by Jane Austen

Emma tries to impose her match-making ideas on everyone and finds that sometimes she should desist. As daughter of the richest, most important man in the small provincial village of Highbury, Emma Woodhouse is firmly convinced that it is her right — perhaps even her “duty” to arrange the lives of others.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jay Gatsby had once loved beautiful, spoiled Daisy Buchanan, then lost her to a rich boy. Now, mysteriously wealthy, he is ready to risk everything to woo her back. Bathtub gin, flappers and house parties that last all week enliven Fitzgerald’s classic tale, a startling portrait of Gatsby’s search for meaning in his opulent world.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The adventures of the well-to-do hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who lived happily in his comfortable home until a wandering wizard granted his wish.

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

Drawing directly on her own experiences, Anne Brontë describes the isolation and dark ambiguity of the governess’s life as lived by her fictional heroine Agnes Grey. Mature, insightful, and edged with a quiet irony, this first novel by the youngest of the Brontës displays her keen sense of moral responsibility and sharp eye for bourgeois attitudes and behavior.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of “Beloved.” Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things begin to happen. Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this profoundly affecting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath is Toni Morrison’s greatest novel, a dazzling achievement, and the most spellbinding reading experience of the decade. A brutally powerful, mesmerizing story.

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

When the parish church bells toll out the death of an unknown man, Lord Peter investigates the sinister affair.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Edmund Dantes, unjustly convicted of aiding the exiled Napoleon, escapes after fourteen years imprisonment and seeks his revenge in Paris.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Idealistic young scientist Henry Jekyll struggles to unlock the secrets of the soul. Testing chemicals in his lab, he drinks a mixture he hopes will isolate–and eliminate–human evil. Instead, it unleashes the dark forces within him, transforming him into the hideous and murderous Mr. Hyde. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dramatically brings to life a science-fiction case study of the nature of good and evil and the duality that can exist within one person.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The adventures of an orphaned young man in Victorian England who is given a great deal of money by an unknown benefactor to enable him to live as a gentleman, pursuing a good education and fulfilling great expectations.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Widely regarded as the world’s first modern novel, and one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan travels to Jamaica Inn on the wild British moors to live with her Aunt Patience. The coachman warns her of the strange happenings there, but Mary is committed to remain at Jamaica Inn. Suddenly, her life is in the hands of strangers: her uncle, Joss Merlyn, whose crude ways repel her; Aunt Patience, who seems mentally unstable and perpetually frightened; and the enigmatic Francis Davey. But most importantly, Mary meets Jem Merlyn, Joss’s younger brother, whose kisses make her heart race. Caught up in the danger at this inn of evil repute, Mary must survive murder, mystery, storms, and smugglers before she can build a life with Jem.