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A Date with the Classics
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items Attempting to become the kind of person who casually has opinions on 19th-century literature. A growing list of classics I want to read, from beloved literary masterpieces to the books everyone seems to have an opinion about đź“–
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One of those books that feels much bigger than the story it tells. Following two generations of the Trask family, East of Eden explores love, jealousy, family, betrayal, forgiveness, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. It’s emotional, dra... AND it's getting an adaptation starring Florence Pugh =)
East of Eden | Barnes & Noble®
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Sharp-witted conversations, ridiculous social expectations, unforgettable characters, and one of literature’s most iconic romances. Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet as she navigates love, marriage, class, and her own tendency to judge peo...
Pride and Prejudice (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) by Jane Austen ...
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A complicated family, a deeply dysfunctional father, three very different brothers, and a murder at the center of it all. But beneath the drama and mystery, Dostoevsky is asking some very big questions about faith, morality, free will, guilt, love, a...
The Brothers Karamazov (Penguin Classics)
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Betrayal, imprisonment, treasure, secret identities, elaborate schemes, and revenge on an almost ridiculous scale — what more could you want? After being wrongly imprisoned for years, Edmond Dantès escapes and returns under a new identity with one go...
The Count of Monte Cristo
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Forget everything you think you know from the movies — Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is much more haunting than simply being a story about a monster. It’s about ambition, scientific discovery, loneliness, rejection, responsibility, and what happens whe...
Frankenstein (Penguin Classics)
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What happens when a genuinely kind and innocent person is dropped into a world driven by jealousy, pride, obsession, money, and social status? Prince Myshkin’s goodness makes him fascinating precisely because the people around him don't know what to ...
The Idiot
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A beautiful young man makes a terrible bargain: he will remain young and perfect while his portrait ages and records every consequence of his choices. What follows is a dark, decadent exploration of beauty, vanity, temptation, morality, and corruptio...
The Picture of Dorian Gray
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One morning, Gregor Samsa wakes up to discover that he has mysteriously transformed into a giant insect. 🪳 What sounds absurd becomes a surprisingly disturbing exploration of family, isolation, work, identity, and what makes someone valuable. Short,...
The Metamorphosis
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A short, unsettling novel about a man who seems strangely detached from the world around him. Through his story, Camus explores absurdism, morality, meaning, and society's expectations of how we're supposed to feel. Perfect if you want something phil...
The Stranger By Albert Camus
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A young woman's life begins to feel increasingly disconnected from the expectations placed upon her, as she struggles with identity, ambition, relationships, and finding her place in the world. Intimate, beautifully written, and emotionally intense.
The Bell Jar (P.S. Series)
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A teenager wanders around New York after leaving school, trying to make sense of adulthood, loneliness, growing up, and the people around him. Holden is famously polarizing but that's part of what makes the book interesting.
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
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Glamorous parties, forbidden love, wealth, ambition, and the illusion of the American Dream. It’s short but packed with symbolism and atmosphere, and underneath all the glitter is a surprisingly tragic story about wanting something that may never hav...
The Great Gatsby