Absolutely not the right word…but what books have become part of our collective consciousness and still seem fresh when you revisit? I would put Mary Shelly's Frankenstein high on the list.
Wish I could find the right word. Pillars of a genre? Timeless characters? Stuff that gets incorporated into later works by nature of their impact.
(Feel free to correct my vocabulary on this…but I think you know what I mean)
by Snoo74600