Classic books that you've definitely heard of that are actually worth reading.
Sections
5
English
French
Italy
Russian
South America
English
Witty Elizabeth Bennet navigates love, misunderstandings, and society’s expectations in Regency England.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
From harsh childhood to Thornfield Hall, Jane navigates love, secrets, and shocking revelations about Mr. Rochester.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
A passionate and destructive obsession spans generations, as Heathcliff and Catherine bring revenge and tragedy to everyone around them.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
An orphan named Pip rises from humble beginnings, chasing wealth, love, and the mysteries of his secret benefactor.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
An orphan boy escapes a harsh workhouse, falls into London’s criminal underworld, and searches for family and justice.
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
A web of love, ambition, and scandal shapes the lives of a provincial town’s residents. (Also George Eliot is a pen name, this book was written by a Women :)
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Tess navigates love, misfortune, and rigid society, with devastating consequences.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
A young man stays forever youthful while his portrait ages, leading to indulgence, corruption, and dark consequences.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A group of friends races to stop Count Dracula, facing terror, suspense, and the supernatural across Europe. Told through lettters and newspaper articals.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Sherlock Holmes investigates a legendary, deadly hound terrorizing a wealthy family on the foggy moors.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Set over a single day in London, Clarissa Dalloway navigates memories, social life, and inner reflections on love and loss.
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
A scientist creates life, unleashing a misunderstood monster whose quest for revenge brings tragedy and horror.
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
French
A convict’s struggle for redemption unfolds amid love, revolution, and social injustice in 19th-century France.
Les Miserables (Penguin Classics)
A deformed bell-ringer falls for a beautiful gypsy, sparking love, jealousy, and tragedy in medieval Paris.
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
The ultimate tale of revenge
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
A young man joins three daring musketeers, diving into adventure, duels, and royal intrigue.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
A man awaits his execution, confronting fear, injustice, and the weight of mortality.
The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo
A bored wife chases love and luxury, leading to passion, scandal, and heartbreak.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Italy
Dante journeys through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, exploring sin, redemption, and the human soul.
The Divine Comedy
Ten storytellers escape the plague in Florence, sharing 100 tales of love, wit, and human folly.
The Decameron (Penguin Classics)
Marco Polo describes fantastical cities to Kublai Khan, exploring imagination, memory, and the human experience.
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
A reader tries to finish a book but keeps getting interrupted, plunging into a twisting, meta-adventure of stories within stories.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Amid Sicily’s political upheaval, a dying prince reflects on love, family, and the fading aristocracy.
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
A friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in a medieval abbey, unraveling secrets, heresy, and danger.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
A good place to start if you've not read many Italian classics
The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories
Russian
A daring pursuit of love spirals into betrayal, scandal, and ultimate ruin.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Satan shows up in Moscow, and everything goes off the rails.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Set in a dystopian Russian society. The inspiration behind Orwells 1984.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
A short story about how a lowly clerk’s life turns upside down when a new overcoat changes everything… then tragedy strikes.
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogo
A collection of Anton Chekhovs works
Anton Chekhov Selected Stories
A desperate man wrestles with guilt, morality, and the consequences of murder.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A chilling tale of political chaos, radical ideas, and moral decay that tears a Russian town apart.
Demons by Dostoevsky
A family torn apart by love, hate, and questions that have no easy answers. Dostoevsky’s masterpeace.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Nobles, soldiers, and families struggle through love, loss, and the chaos of Napoleonic Russia.
War and Peace
Tradition and rebellion collide when a new generation challenges everything their fathers believe.
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
A man becomes obsessed with a secret card trick, spiraling into greed, risk, and fate.
The Queen of Spades and Other Stories
A man faces his own mortality, questioning a life spent chasing status and comfort.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
South America
A family’s hopes, betrayals, and obsessions unfold over generations, as their town Macondo rises, falls, and becomes trapped in cycles of love, power, and tragedy.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Three generations of the Trueba family face love, politics, and supernatural forces, as secrets and destiny shape their lives.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
A fugitive hides on a mysterious island, only to discover strange inventions that blur reality, love, and immortality.
