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Classic Lit Recs for Every Reader
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items Do you skip the classics section at the bookstore? Maybe you wonder what you’re missing, but you feel intimidated? Or maybe you think classics are boring? This list is my attempt to convert you to a lover of the classics! As a former English major an...Bookshop.org whenever possible so your purchases go to support local bookstores!
Sections
7
For the Reader Here for ALL the Drama
For the Hopeless Romantic
For the Literary Fiction Lover
For the Dystopian & Sci-Fi Fan
For the Fantasy Aficionado
For the Historical Fiction Buff
For the Reader Here for ALL the Drama
Longing, lost love, lavish wealth, and wild parties, all set against the backdrop of 1920s Long Island, make The Great Gatsby the iconic masterpiece it is today and a compelling, moody, drama-packed read from start to finish.
The Great Gatsby
Orphaned Jane Eyre emerges from a lonely, miserable childhood as a resilient and strong-minded young woman. Soon after accepting a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall, she begins to fall for her employer, the brooding and mysterious Mr. Roches...
Jane Eyre
A Gothic classic filled with mystery and angst, Rebecca follows the story of young woman recently married to wealthy widower Maxim de Winter after a whirlwind romance. When the newlyweds return to his country estate, our heroine is swallowed up in th...
Rebecca
The Count of Monte Cristo is the ultimate revenge story. After being wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Edmond Dantes escapes, discovers hidden treasure, and uses his newfound wealth to plot retribution against the men who conspired...
The Count of Monte Cristo
A Gothic satire, Northanger Abbey is arguably the moodiest of Jane Austen's novels, while retaining her trademark wit and humor. Our heroine, young Catherine Morland, falls in love with Henry Tilney and visits his family at their gloomy estate, North...
Northanger Abbey
For the Hopeless Romantic
Jane Austen is the gold standard of romance novels. Her Regency-era romances are filled with strong heroines, dry humor, and witty social critiques. This beautiful set includes her three most popular works, Emma, Sense & Sensibility, and Pride &a...
The Jane Austen Gift Set: A Puffin in Bloom 3-Book Collection
When you finish the three book set and want more Austen, look no further than Persuasion, a pining-filled story of love long lost and found again.
Persuasion
After inheriting a large farm from her deceased uncle, the captivating Bathsheba Everdene becomes a wealthy landowner. Pursued by three suitors - the poor but loyal shepherd Gabriel Oak, the prosperous farmer Boldwood, and the alluring Sergeant Troy ...
Far from the Madding Crowd
For the Literary Fiction Lover
One of the first books to ever make me cry, To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age story set in the Deep South that contends with themes of racism, poverty, and justice. The story is told from the perspective of our young protagonist Scout Finch, w...
To Kill a Mockingbird
14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis lives in a world divided into two categories: the privileged socs (socials) and the greasers, who live their lives on the margins. Ponyboy and his greaser friends are staunchly pitted against the arrogant socs until a trage...
The Outsiders
This is a great pick if you love literary fiction that transports you to different cultures and opens your eyes to diverse perspectives. The first novel in Chinua Achebe’s acclaimed African trilogy, Things Fall Apart follows the tragic struggle of Ok...
Things Fall Apart
Little Women is on so many of my lists, and I’ll continue to recommend it as one of my all-time favorites. Meet the young March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - as they come of age and contend with poverty, loss, and change in this Civil-War-era fa...
Little Women
If you enjoy a great coming of age story, this one’s for you. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows Francie Nolan as she grows up poor in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in the early twentieth century. Despite her tightknit family’s struggles, resili...
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn [75th Anniversary Ed]
If you enjoyed Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, you MUST read the Dickens novel that inspired her work. Kingsolver took David Copperfield and constructed a masterful retelling of the classic set in an Appalachian community wracked by the opioi...
David Copperfield
Oliver Twist is Charles Dickens’ tremendously readable story of a workhouse orphan who runs away to London only to get caught up in a gang of thieves. A great gateway novel into the wonderful world of Dickens’ cunning storytelling and cutting social ...
Oliver Twist
For the Dystopian & Sci-Fi Fan
Big Brother is watching! 1984 is set in the dystopian superstate of Oceania, where a totalitarian government wields control over its citizens through widespread surveillance, fact manipulation, and the implementation of “Newspeak,” a limited language...
1984
In a dystopian society where reading is banned, Guy Montag is a “fireman” who burns books for a living - until he joins a secret group whose purpose is to rescue books by stealing them and committing them to memory. If you didn’t get a chance to stud...
Fahrenheit 451
In this sci-fi thriller, a Black woman in twentieth-century America is pulled back in time to the antebellum South, where she is compelled to save the life of a white ancestor while contending with the cruel realities of racism and slavery. Propulsiv...
Kindred
For the Fantasy Aficionado
If you love high fantasy but haven’t read Tolkien yet, what are you doing?! My husband is the fantasy reader in our house, and these are his all-time favorites. They’re classics for a reason. No one builds a world complete with histories and language...
J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Fantasy has never been my go-to genre, but the Chronicles of Narnia series are among my favorite books of all time. When dedicating The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to a young friend, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Some day, you will be old enough to start ...
The Chronicles of Narnia Full-Color Paperback 7-Book Box Set
For the Historical Fiction Buff
A Tale of Two Cities was my introduction to Charles Dickens, and I think it’s a great place to begin your journey into Dickens if you enjoy historical fiction. Set in London and Paris around the time of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is ...
A Tale of Two Cities
Set in the Dominican Republic during the Trujllo dictatorship, In the Time of the Butterflies is a fictionalized account of the Mirabel sisters, four real women who opposed the regime at great personal cost.
In the Time of the Butterflies
Set during the French Revolution, this novel follows the exploits of Sir Percy Blakeny, a wealthy Englishman who secretly leads a band of men rescuing French aristocrats from execution, while acting foolish and apathetic in his public life. Will Blak...
The Scarlet Pimpernel
For the Mystery & Thrill Seeker
Agatha Christie is the queen of mystery for a reason. Her plots are sharp-witted and original, and her characters compelling. And Then There Were None is my persona favorite. A group of strangers is invited to an island, where they begin to be murder...
And Then There Were None
Who doesn’t love Sherlock Holmes? Familiarize yourself with the character through one of the many fantastic film or TV adaptations available (the Masterpiece series and Young Sherlock are my favorites), then dive into the world of Sherlock Holmes as ...
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Seasons Edition--Spring)
Love a cozy mystery? You’ll love the bite-sized stories of Father Brown, a Catholic priest who solves crimes around his small English village.
The Complete Father Brown Stories
The Seven Dials is a clever, multi-layered Christie mystery in which our charming heroine Bundle and Superintendent Battle work together to solve a puzzling mystery and uncover a secret society in the process.
The Seven Dials Mystery
A murder is committed on a moving train, and someone on board is responsible. Will Detective Poirot crack the case before it’s too late?
Murder on the Orient Express