20 classics your teacher won't have to force you to read

Discover 20 must-read classics that captivate without the classroom push—engaging books you'll love, from timeless tales to thrilling page-turners.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Cover
Book

The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

A handsome, dissolute man who sells his soul for eternal youth is horrified to see the reflection of his degeneration in the distorted features of …
Item Not Found
ID: 0486280489
(Type: book)
Animal Farm Cover
Book

Animal Farm

by George Orwell

75th Anniversary Edition—Includes a New Introduction by Téa Obreht George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire on a downtrodden society’s blind march towards …
Nineteen Eighty-four Cover
Book

Nineteen Eighty-four

by George Orwell

Eternal warfare is the price of bleak prosperity in this satire of totalitarian barbarism.
Brave New World Cover
Book

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

Huxley's story shows a futuristic World State where all emotion, love, art, and human individuality have been replaced by social stability. An ominous warning to …
To Kill a Mockingbird Cover
Book

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both …
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Cover
Book

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

by Ken Kesey

An international bestseller and the basis for the hugely successful film, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the defining works …
The Catcher in the Rye Cover
Book

The Catcher in the Rye

by J.D. Salinger

The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions …
Item Not Found
ID: 0553280414
(Type: book)
A Tale of Two Cities Cover
Book

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

No summary available.
Item Not Found
ID: 0553213423
(Type: book)
Wuthering Heights Cover
Book

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Bronte

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Wuthering Heights, first published in 1847, the year before the author's death …
Ethan Frome Cover
Book

Ethan Frome

 

No summary available.
The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again Cover
Book

The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again

by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an …
As I Lay Dying Cover
Book

As I Lay Dying

by William Faulkner

A true 20th-century classic from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Sound and the Fury: the famed harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across …
Heart of Darkness Cover
Book

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

Marlow sails down the Congo in search of Kurtz, a company agent who has, according to rumors, become insane in the jungle isolation.
The Metamorphosis Cover
Book

The Metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka

“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” With this startling, bizarre, …
Lord of the Flies Cover
Book

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding

Golding’s iconic 1954 novel, now with a new foreword by Lois Lowry, remains one of the greatest books ever written for young adults and an …
Fahrenheit 451 Cover
Book

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag is a fireman, his job is to burn books, which are forbidden.