I love the Catcher In the Rye by JD Salinger and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'm a American male but honestly need to read some English classics because I hear all the classic bangers are across the pond (lol). I'm open to any classic besides classic books that deal with political and military stuff. Preferably less than 500 pages. Thanks!
by mightyboosh121
21 Comments
Rebecca Daphne De Maurier
Alices Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Caroll.
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
*1984* by George Orwell is required, but (not English ofc) *We* by Yevgeny Zamyatin is also really great in that same dystopian genre, and was an inspiration for Orwell’s book. It’s cool when you think of it as Zamyatin’s work being a response to WWI and Orwell’s as a response to WWII (more or less).
Pride and Prejudice and Middlemarch are both bangers.
George Orwell: 1984 and Animal Farm
William Goulding: Lord of the Flies
Mary Shelly: Frankenstein
HG Wells: War of the Worlds (and several others)
If you liked Fitzgerald, try Evelyn Waugh and E.M. Forster
I would recommend a Dickens to start with – *Great Expectations* being my choice.
African Queen by C.S. Forester. Its under rated and at times hilariously funny.
Lord of the Flies
Count of Monte Crisco
War and Peace
Crime and Punishment
I prefer Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald
Dickens is the answer.
Novels by Robert Louis Stevenson.
But also, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Bronte sisters, Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf and Henry James deserve a look.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Recently tried Willa Cather My Antonia, and can’t recommend it enough as a classic I don’t see mentioned often
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
To kill a mockingbird
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Prayer for Owen Meany
Sherlock Holmes?
[Hartman the Anarchist](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartmann_the_Anarchist) by Edward Douglas Fawcett from 1893. Written by the brother of Percy Fawcett (Lost City of Z) this book is early science fiction and one of the earliest steam punk, the book is technically political I guess because it features anarchist in zeppelins firebombing London for political reasons, but if you ignore the political aspect you have the wonderful tale of madmen in the air burning down London.
The Outsiders by S.E Hinton
1984, Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, and Picture of Dorian Gray