The Editors of the Salem Press, Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed [2015]
637 entries: 569 monographical, 68 otherwise
Unranked—arranged alphabetically by work
This book, like Masterpieces of World Literature, is a product of Frank Magill's publishing house, Salem Press. Comparing the two lists, one immediately sees many of the same works in both. But the two books are sufficiently distinct to warrant the inclusion of two lists instead of a combination. Initially at Greater Books we included the previous edition of this work, Recommended Reading: 500 Classics Reviewed [1995], because the current edition was published after much of the initial work on this site was completed. As the titles indicate, the newer work is an expansion of the earlier; all of the "500 classics" listed in 1995 are included in the latter volume with the exception of Toni Morrison's Beloved, certainly a noteworthy exclusion, but one which I cannot but guess is a mistake, as this volume is marked by several peculiarities suggesting the lack of proofreading. For example, the number of entries in the book itself is not 600, but 605. The final tally here (637) is due to several of the 605 entries actually listing multiple works, most notably "The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes," which results in nine monographical works, the four novels and the five story collections that comprise the canonical Holmes.
- William Faulkner
Absalom, Absalom!
1936—English
- John Dryden
Absalom and Achitophel
originally published in two volumes, 1681 and 1682; authorship of second is disputed—English
- George Eliot
Adam Bede
1859—English
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Adonais: An Elegy Upon the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc.
1821—English
- Saul Bellow
The Adventures of Augie March
1953—English
Mark Twain
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1884—English
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1876—English
- Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Aeneid
First Century B C—Latin
- Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence
1920—English
- Ben Jonson
The Alchemist
1610—English
Lawrence Durrell
- Justine
1957—English
- Balthazar
1958—English
- Mountolive
1958—English
- Clea
1960—English
- Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
1865—English
- Maya Angelou
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
1986—English
- Erich Maria Remarque
Im Westen Nichts Neues
All Quiet on the Western Front
originally published Dec. 1928 in Vossische Zeitung—German
- Robert Penn Warren
All the King's Men
1946—English
- William Shakespeare
All's Well That Ends Well
ca. 1606-08—English
- Henry James
The Ambassadors
originally published serially 1903 in the North American Review—English
- Theodore Dreiser
An American Tragedy
1925—English
- Euripides
Andromache
ca. 428-25 B.C—Greek
- Jean Racine
Andromaque
1667—French
'Anecdote of the Jar'
originally published in Poetry, Oct. 1919; included in Harmonium, 1923English
- Frank McCourt
Angela's Ashes
1996—English
- Wallace Stegner
Angle of Repose
1971—English
- George Orwell
Animal Farm
1945—English
- Eugene O'Neill
Anna Christie
1921—English
- Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877—Russian
- L M Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables
1908—English
- Sophocles
Antigone
ca. 441 B.C—Greek
- William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
ca. 1606-08—English
- John O'Hara
Appointment in Samarra
1934—English
--
- Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah
The Thousand and One Nights; The Arabian Nights
Ninth-Fifteenth centuries—Arabic
- John Milton
Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England
1644—English
- Jules Verne
Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-vingts Jours
Around the World in Eighty Days
1873—French
- Sinclair Lewis
Arrowsmith
1925—English
- William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying
1930—English
- William Shakespeare
As You Like It
1603—English
- T S Eliot
Ash Wednesday
1930—English
- Bernard Malamud
The Assistant
1957—English
- Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged
1957—English
- Ian McEwan
Atonement
2001—English
- Kate Chopin
The Awakening
1899—English
- Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt
1922—English
- Euripides
Bakchai
The Bacchae
405 B.C—Greek
- Carson McCullers
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
1951—English
- Pär Lagerkvist
Barrabas
1950—Swedish
- Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers
1857—English
- Ellen Glasgow
Barren Ground
1925—English
- Ben Jonson
Bartholomew Fayre
1614—English
'Bartleby, the Scrivener'
originally published serially Nov.-Dec. 1853 in Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and Art; included in Piazza Tales, 1856—English
- Barbara Kingsolver
The Bean Trees
1988—English
- John Gay
The Beggar's Opera
1728—English
- Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar
1963—English
--
- Beowulf
ca. Eighth-Eleventh centuries—English
Christopher Isherwood
- Mr. Norris Changes Trains
1936—English
- Goodbye to Berlin
1939—English
--
- The Bible
—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
- Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Foretopman
Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)
1924—English
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions
originally published in two volumes, 1817—English
- Aristophanes
Ornithes
The Birds
414 B.C—Greek
- Richard Wright
Black Boy
originally published in two volumes: Black Boy, 1945; American Hunger, published in part serially, in its entirety, 1977—English
- Charles Dickens
Bleak House
originally published serially Mar. 1852-Sep. 1853—English
- Cormac McCarthy
Blood Merdian or The Evening Redness in the West
1985—English
'The Blue Hotel'
originally published serially Nov.-Dec. 1898 in Collier's Weekly; included in The Monster and Other Stories, 1899—English
- Tom Wolfe
The Bonfire of the Vanities
originally published serially Jul. 1984-Aug. 1985 in Rolling Stone; revised 1987English
- Markus Zusak
The Book Thief
2005—English
- Henry James
The Bostonians
originally published serially in the Century Magazine, 1885-86—English
- James Boswell
London Journal
written 1762-63—English
- Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
1932—English
'The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky'
originally published 1898 in McClure's; included in The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure, 1898—English
- Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
1945—English
- Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
1988; expanded 1996; abridged and edited version co-authored with Leonard Mlodinow entitled A Briefer History of Time published 2005—English
- Junot Díaz
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007—English
- Graham Greene
Brighton Rock
1938—English
- David James Duncan
The Brothers K
1992—English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brat'â Karamazovy
The Brothers Karamazov
originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian
- Dee Brown
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
1970—English
- Jack London
The Call of the Wild
originally published serially 1903 in the Saturday Evening Post—English
- George Bernard Shaw
Candida
published in 1898 as part of Plays Pleasant; originally performed 1903—English
- Voltaire
Candide, ou L'Optimisme
1759—French
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478—English
- Ezra Pound
Cantos
published in part in Poetry, Jun.-Aug. 1917; the Criterion, Jul. 1923; the Transatlantic Review, Jan. 1924; and in the following volumes: The Fourth Canto, 1919; A Draft of XVI Cantos, 1925; A Draft of Cantos 17-27, 1928; A Draft of XXX Cantos, 1930; Eleven New Cantos XXXI-XLI, 1934; The Fifth Decad of Cantos, 1937; Cantos LII-LXXI, 1940; The Pisan Cantos, 1948; Seventy Cantos, 1950; Section: Rock-Drill, 85-95 de los Cantares, 1955; Thrones: 96-109 de los Cantares, 1959; Drafts and Fragments of Cantos CX-CXVII, 1968; in its entirety, revised and expanded, 1987—English
- Rudyard Kipling
Captains Courageous
originally published serially 1896-97 in McClure's—English
'The Cask of Amontillado'
originally published Nov. 1846 in Godey's Lady Book—English
- Franz Kafka
Das Schloss
The Castle
1926—German
- Tennessee Williams
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1955—English
- Joseph Heller
Catch-22
1961—English
- J D Salinger
Catcher in the Rye
1951—English
- Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle
1963—English
'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'
originally entitled 'Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog', published Nov. 1865 in the Saturday Press; retitled and revised for inclusion in the Californian, Dec. 1865—English
'The Celestial Omnibus'
—English
- John Updike
The Centaur
published in part in Esquire and the New Yorker; in its entirety, 1963—English
- E B White
Charlotte's Web
1952—English
- Stendhal
Le Chartreuse de Parme
The Charterhouse of Parma
1839—French
- Anton Chekhov
Višhnëvyj Sad
The Cherry Orchard
1904—Russian
- Lord Byron
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
1812-18—English
- Arthur C Clarke
Childhood's End
1953—English
- Chaim Potok
The Chosen
1967—English
- Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
1843—English
C S Lewis
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
1950—English
- Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
1951—English
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
1952—English
- The Silver Chair
1953—English
- The Horse and His Boy
1954—English
- The Magician's Nephew
1955—English
- The Last Battle
1956—English
- Pierre Corneille
Le Cid
1637—French
'Civil Disobedience'
originally published 1849 as part of Aesthetic Papers—English
- Samuel Richardson
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady
1748—English
'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place'
originally published 1933 in Scribner's; included in Winner Take Nothing, 1933—English
- Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange
1962—English
- Alice Walker
The Color Purple
1982—English
- William Shakespeare
The Comedy of Errors
1594—English
Arthur Conan Doyle
- A Study in Scarlet
originally published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual—English
- The Sign of the Four
originally published Feb. 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly—English
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1892; stories originally published Jul. 1891-Jun. 1892 in the Strand—English
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
1894; stories originally published 1892-3 in the Strand—English
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
1902; originally published serially Aug. 1901-Apr. 1902 in the Strand—English
- The Return of Sherlock Holmes
1905; stories originally published 1903-4 in the Strand—English
- The Valley of Fear
1915; originally published serially Sep. 1914-Feb. 1915 in the Strand—English
- His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes
1917; stories originally published Sep. 1908-Dec. 1913 in the Strand; except one published Sep. 1917 in Collier's Weekly—English
- The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
1927; stories originally published Oct. 1921-Apr. 1927 in the Strand—English
- John Kennedy Toole
A Confederacy of Dunces
written early 1960's; published 1980—English
- Augustine of Hippo
Confessionum Libri Tredecim
The Confessions of St. Augustine
written 397-98—Latin
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Les Confessions
1782—French
- Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
1889—English
- Boethius
Consolatio Philosophiae
The Consolation of Philosophy
written ca. 524—Latin
- Alexandre Dumas
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
originally published serially Aug. 1844-Jan. 1846 in Journal des Débats—French
- André Gide
Les Faux-Monnayeurs
originally published 1925 in Nouvelle Revue Française—French
- Sarah Orne Jewett
The Country of the Pointed Firs
originally published serially 1896 in the Atlantic Monthly—English
- William Wycherley
The Country Wife
1675—English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
Crime and Punishment
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian
- Immanuel Kant
Kritik der Reinen Vernunft
Critique of Pure Reason
1781; revised 1787—German
- Arthur Miller
The Crucible
1953—English
- Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country
1948—English
- Thomas Pynchon
The Crying of Lot 49
1966—English
- Abraham Verghese
Cutting for Stone
2009—English
- Edmond Rostand
Cyrano de Bergerac
1897—French
- Henry James
Daisy Miller
originally published serially Jun.-Jul. 1878 in Cornhill Magazine—English
- Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine
published in part, Jun. 1953, in Gourmet; in its entirety, 1957—English
'The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze'
originally published 1934 in Story—English
- Charles Dickens
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)
originally published serially May 1849-Nov. 1850—English
- Nikolai Gogol
Mërtvyâ Duši
Dead Souls
1842—Russian
- Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop
1927—English
- James Agee
A Death in the Family
1957—English
- Thomas Mann
Der Tod in Venedig
Death in Venice
1911—German
- Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman
1949—English
- Leo Tolstoy
Smert' Ivana Il'icha
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
1886—Russian
- Giovanni Boccaccio
Il Decameron, Cognominato Prencipe Galeotto
ca. 1351-53—Italian
- James Fenimore Cooper
The Deerslayer: or, The First Warpath
1841—English
- Herman Hesse
Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
originally entitled Demian: Die Geschichte Einer Jugend, published 1919 under the pseudonym, Emil Sinclair—German
- Alexis de Tocqueville
De la Démocratie en Amérique
Democracy in America
originally published in two volumes, 1835 and 1840—French
- Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
1871—English
- Eugene O'Neill
Desire Under the Elms
1924—English
Plato
- Apologia Socratis
The Apology
early Fourth Century B.C—Greek
- Crito
early Fourth Century B.C—Greek
- Phaedo
early Fourth Century B.C—Greek
'Zapiski Sumasšedšego'
'The Diary of a Madman'
1835—Russian
- Anne Frank
Het Achterhuis. Dagboekbrieven 14 Juni 1942 - 1 Augustus 1944
The Diary of a Young Girl
1947—Dutch
- Dante
La Divina Commedia
The Divine Comedy
originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian
- Christopher Marlowe
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
1592—English
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1886—English
- Boris Pasternak
Dóktor Živágo
Doctor Zhivago
Italian translation, 1957; original Russian, 1958—Russian
- Henrik Ibsen
Et Dukkehjem
A Doll's House
1879—Norwegian
- Lord Byron (George Gordon, Lord Byron)
Don Juan
originally published in six volumes: Jul. 1819; Aug. 1821; Jul. 1823; Aug. 1823; Dec. 1823; Mar. 1824—English
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615—Spanish
- Bram Stoker
Dracula
1897—English
- Cáo Xuěqín (Mengruan) (Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in)
Hóng Lóu Mèng
The Dream of the Red Chamber; The Story of the Stone
1791—Chinese
- James Joyce
Dubliners
1914—English
- Alexander Pope
The Dunciad
originally anonymously published 1728; revised through fourth edition, 1743—English
- Frank Herbert
Dune
1965—English
Ursula K Le Guin
- A Wizard of Earthsea
1968—English
- The Tombs of Atuan
1971—English
- The Farthest Shore
1972—English
- John Steinbeck
East of Eden
1952—English
'Easter, 1916'
published separately 1916, in the New Statesman, Oct. 1920, and the Dial, Nov. 1920; included in Michael Robertes and the Dancer, 1920—English
- Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams
1918—English
'The Eighty-Yard Run'
—English
- Euripides
Ēlektra
Electra
written ca. 413 B.C—Greek
- Jane Austen
Emma
originally anonymously published 1815—English
- Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
2010—English
- Henrik Ibsen
En Folkefiende
An Enemy of the People
1882—Norwegian
'The Enormous Radio'
originally published May 1947 in the New Yorker; included in The Enormous Radio and Other Stories, 1953—English
--
- Sha Naqba Imuru
The Epic of Gilgamesh; He Who Saw the Deep
Eighteenth-Tenth centuries B.C—Sumerian; Akkadian
- Peter Shaffer
Equus
1973—English
- Alexander Pope
Essay on Man
1734—English
- Michel de Montaigne
g
Les Essais
Essays
originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French
Francis Bacon
- Essays: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed
1597; expanded 1612; expanded 1625, retitled Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall—English
- Nova Atlantis
1624—English
'The Eternal Moment'
—English
- Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome
1911—English
- Aristotle
Ethika Nikomacheia
Nicomachean Ethics
Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Baruch Spinoza
Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
Ethics
1677—Latin
- Alexander Pushkin
Evgénij Onegin
Eugene Onegin
published in part serially 1825-32; in its entirety, 1833; revised 1837—Russian
'The Eve of St. Agnes'
part of Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, 1820—English
--
- The Somonyng of Everyman
late Fifteenth Century—English
- Jonathan Safran Foer
Everything Is Illuminated
2002—English
Everything That Rises Must Converge
1965; nine stories, mostly previously published in periodicals—English
- Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene
originally published in two volumes, 1590 and 1596—English
- Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
published in part, Feb. 1951, as 'The Fireman' in Galaxy Science Fiction; in its entirety, 1953—English
- Albert Camus
La Chute
The Fall
1956—French
- Ken Follett
Fall of Giants_
2010—English
'The Fall of the House of Usher'
originally published Sep. 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine; revised for inclusion in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840—English
- Thomas Hardy
Far From the Madding Crowd
originally anonymously published serially in Cornhill Magazine, Jan.-Dec. 1874; revised 1895 and 1901—English
- Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
1929—English
- Honoré de Balzac
Le Père Goriot
Father Goriot
originally published serially Dec. 1834-Feb. 1835 in Revue de Paris—French
- Ivan Turgenev
Otcy i Deti
Fathers and Children; Fathers and Sons
originally published Feb. 1862 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust
originally published in two volumes: first, Faust. Der Tragödie Erster Teil, published in part, 1790; in its entirey, 1808; revised 1829; second, Faust. Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil, 1832—German
- Sǿren Kierkegaard
Frygt og Baeven
Fear and Trembling
originally published under the pseudonym, Johannes de Silentio, 1843—Danish
- Jorge Luis Borges
Ficciones
originally entitled El Jardín de Senderos que se Bifurcan, published 1941; expanded 1944 and 1956—Spanish
- Rohinton Mistry
A Fine Balance
1995—English
*Guardian* *Smart* *Recommended*
- James Joyce
Finnegans Wake
1939—English
- James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time
originally published Dec. 1962 as 'Letter From a Region in My Mind', in the Progressive; and Nov. 1963 as 'Down at the Cross', in the New Yorker—English
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
V Kruge Pervom
In the First Circle
1968; expanded 1978—Russian
'The Five-Forty-Eight'
originally published in the New Yorker; included in The Housebreaker of Shady Hill and Other Stories, 1959—English
- Bernard Malamud
The Fixer
1966—English
- Daniel Keyes
Flowers for Algernon
short story published April 1959 in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction; novel published 1966—English
- Charles Baudelaire
Les Fleurs du Mal
The Flowers of Evil
1857—French
'For Esmé—In Love and Squalor'
originally published Apr. 1950 in the New Yorker; included in Nine Stories, 1953—English
- Robert Lowell
For the Union Dead
1964—English
- Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls
1940—English
John Galsworthy
- The Man of Property
1906—English
- Indian Summer of a Forsyte
1918—English
- In Chancery
1920—English
- Awakening
1920—English
- To Let
1921—English
- T S Eliot
Four Quartets
originally published in four volumes: Burnt Norton, in Collected Poems 1909-1935, 1936; East Coker, in the New English Weekly, 1940; The Dry Salvages, in the New English Weekly, 1941; Little Gidding, in the New English Weekly, 1942—English
- Mary Shelley
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
originally anonymously published 1818—English
- J D Salinger
Franny and Zooey
1961; 'Franny' originally published Jan. 1955 in the New Yorker; 'Zooey' originally published May 1957 in the New Yorker—English
- John Fowles
The French Lieutenant's Woman
1969—English
- Murasaki Shikibu
Genji Monogatari
The Tale of Genji
ca. early Eleventh Century—Japanese
- Émile Zola
Germinal
originally published serially in Gil Blas Apr. 1884-Jan. 1885—French
- Henrik Ibsen
Gengangere
Ghosts
1881—Norwegian
'The Gift of the Magi'
originally entitled 'Gifts of the Magi', published December 1905 in the New York Sunday World; included in The Four Million, 1906—English
- J P Donleavy
The Ginger Man
1955—English
- Lois Lowry
The Giver
1993—English
- Tennessee Williams
The Glass Menagerie
1944—English
- James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain
1953—English
- Arundhati Roy
The God of Small Things
1997—English
Northern Lights
1995; U S title, The Golden Compass; first of three volumes of His Dark MaterialsEnglish
- Pearl Buck
The Good Earth
1931—English
'A Good Man Is Hard to Find'
originally published 1953 in Modern Writing I; included in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, 1955—English
- Ford Madox Ford
The Good Soldier
1915—English
- Doris Lessing
The Good Terrorist
1985—English
- John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath
1939—English
- Neil Gaiman
The Graveyard Book
2008—English
- Thomas Pynchon
Gravity's Rainbow
1973—English
- Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
originally published serially Dec. 1860-Aug. 1861 in All the Year Round—English
- F Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
1925—English
- Knut Hamsun
Markens Grøde
Growth of the Soil
originally published in two volumes, 1917—Norwegian
- Jonathan Swift
Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships
Gulliver's Travels
1726; revised 1735—English
- William Shakespeare
Hamlet
1602—English
- Evelyn Waugh
A Handful of Dust
1934—English
- Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale
1985—English
- Carson McCullers
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
1940—English
- Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood's—English
- Henrik Ibsen
Hedda Gabler
1890—Norwegian
- Kathryn Stockett
The Help
2009—English
William Shakespeare
- The First Part of Henry IV
1597—English
- The Second Part of Henry IV
1600—English
- Henry V
1599—English
- Euripides
Hippolytos
428 B.C—Greek
- Herodotus
Historiē
History
Fifth Century B.C—Greek
- Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1979 novel based on 1978 radio play—English
- J R R Tolkien
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
1937—English
- Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth
1905—English
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of the Seven Gables
1851—English
- Isabel Allende
La Casa de los Espíritus
The House of the Spirits
1982—Spanish
- Philip Roth
The Human Stain
2000—English
- Saul Bellow
Humboldt's Gift
1975—English
- Victor Hugo
Notre-Dame de Paris
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1831—French
- Knut Hamsun
Sult
Hunger
published in part, 1888, in Ny Jord; in its entirety, 1890—Norwegian
'Hyperion'
part of Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, 1820—English
- Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1969—English
- Eugene O'Neill
The Iceman Cometh
1946—English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Idiot
originally published serially 1868-9 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Idylls of the King
published in parts, 1859-85—English
- Homer
Iliad
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B.C—Greek
- Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest
1895—English
- Truman Capote
In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
originally published serially Sep.-Oct. 1965 in the New Yorker—English
'in Just-
originally published May 1920 in the Dial; included in Tulips and Chimneys, 1923English
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
In Memoriam A H H
1849—English
- Jhumpa Lahiri
Interpreter of Maladies
1999; nine stories originally published in varied periodicals—English
- William Carlos Williams
In the American Grain
1925—English
- Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man
1952—English
- William Kennedy
Ironweed
1983—English
- Walter Scott
Ivanhoe
originally anonymously published 1819—English
- Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, 1847—English
- Henry Fielding
The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and His Friend, Mr. Abraham Abrams
1742—English
- Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club
1989—English
- Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure
originally published serially Dec. 1894-Nov. 1895 in Harper's New Monthly Magazine—English
- William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
1599—English
- Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
originally published serially in Appeal to Reason, Feb.-Nov. 1905—English
Rudyard Kipling
- The Jungle Book
1894—English
- The Second Jungle Book
1895—English
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped
originally published serially May-Jul. 1886 in Young Folks—English
- Rudyard Kipling
Kim
originally published serially Dec. 1900-Oct. 1901 in McClure's and Jan. 1901-Oct. 1901 in Cassell's—English
- William Shakespeare
King Lear
1606—English
'Poceluj'
'The Kiss'
—Russian
- Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner
2003—English
- Edward P Jones
The Known World
2003—English
- Sigrid Undset
Kristin Lavransdatter
originally published in three volumes: Kransen, 1920; Husfrue, 1921; Korset, 1922—Norwegian
'Kubla Khan, a Vision in a Dream'
originally published in Christabel; Kubla Khan, a Vision in a Dream; The Pains of Sleep, 1816—English
- D H Lawrence
Lady Chatterley's Lover
abridged version, 1928; complete work, 1960—English
- Oscar Wilde
Lady Windmere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman
1892—English
- James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757
1826—English
- Nikos Kazantzakis
The Last Temptation of Christ
1953—Greek
- Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892—English
'Leda and the Swan'
originally published Jun. 1924 in the Dial and Aug. 1924 in To-Morrow; also published as 'Leda' in the first version of A Vision, 1926; included in The Cat and the Moon and Certain Poems, 1924; that book (except the play, The Cat and the Moon) made part of The Tower, 1928—English
- Ursula K Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness
1969—English
*Bloom* *Harvard* *Recommended*
'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'
part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., published serially Jun. 1819-Jul. 1820, expanded 1848
- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Il Gattopardo
The Leopard
1958—Italian
- Colum McCann
Let the Great World Spin
2009—English
- James Agee
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
1941; photography by Walker Evans—English
- Pedro Calderón de la Barca
La Vida es Sueño
Life Is a Dream
1635—Spanish
- Yann Martel
Life of Pi
2001—English
- James Boswell
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
1791—English
'Ligeia'
originally published Sep. 1838 in the American Museum; revised for inclusion in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840; Phantasy Pieces, 1842; Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, 1845; the New York World, Feb. 1845; and the Broadway Journal, Sep. 1845—English
- William Faulkner
Light in August
1932—English
- John Hawkes
The Lime Twig
1961—English
'Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798'
originally published in Lyrical Ballads, 1798—English
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Le Petit Prince
1943—French
- Louisa M Alcott
Little Women
originally published in two volumes: Little Women, 1868; and Good Wives, 1869—English
- Lewis Thomas
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
1974; 29 essays originally published serially 1971-73 in the New England Journal of Medicine—English
- Plutarch
Bìoi Paràllēloi
Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
First Century—Greek
- Samuel Johnson
Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets
The Lives of the Poets
published in part, 1744, as An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Strange, Son of the Earl Rivers; published in ten volumes, first-fifth in 1779 and sixth-tenth in 1781, as part of a larger set, The Works of the English Poets; published indepdently in six volumes, retitled The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets; With Critical Observations on Their Works, 1781—English
- Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita
1955—English
- Larry McMurty
Lonesome Dove
1985—English
- Eugene O'Neill
Long Day's Journey Into Night
1956—English
- Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel
1929—English
- Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim
originally published serially Oct. 1899-Nov. 1900 in Blackwood's Magazine—English
- William Golding
Lord of the Flies
1954—English
- J R R Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
published in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King, 1954-55—English
'The Lottery'
originally published Jun. 1948 in the New Yorker—English
- Gabriel García Márquez
El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera
Love in the Time of Cholera
1985—Spanish
'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock'
originally published Jun. 1915 in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse; included in Prufrock and Other Observations, 1917—English
'The Luck of Roaring Camp'
originally published Aug. 1868 in Overland Monthly—English
- Aristophanes
Lysistrate
Lysistrata
411 B C—Greek
- William Shakespeare
Macbeth
ca. 1607—English
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris—French
- Stephen Crane
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
1893; revised 1896—English
- Thomas Mann
Der Zauberberg
The Magic Mountain
1924—German
- John Fowles
The Magus
1966; revised 1977—English
- Sinclair Lewis
Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott
1920—English
- George Bernard Shaw
Major Barbara
1905—English
- Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon
1930—English
- George Bernard Shaw
Man and Superman
performed in part, 1905; in its entirety, 1915—English
- Lord Byron
Manfred
1817—English
- André Malraux
La Condition Humaine
Man's Fate
1933—French
- Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
originally anonymously published 1814—English
- Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles
1950; stories originally published in varied periodicals: Planet Stories, Maclean's, the Arkham Sampler, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Imagination, Weird Tales, Other Worlds, Super Science Stories, Charm, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; expanded U K edition, entitled Silver Locusts, published 1951; expanded 1974; revised 1997—English
'The Masque of the Red Death'
originally entitled 'The Mask of the Red Death', published May 1842 in Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine; retitled and revised for publication in the Broadway Journal, Jul. 1845—English
- Mikhail Bulgakov
Mástyer i Margaríta
The Master and Margarita; published in part, 1966-67, in Moskva; in its entirety, 1973; revised 1989—Russian
- Thomas Hardy
The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character
1886—English
- William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure
1604—English
- Carson McCullers
The Member of the Wedding
1946—English
- William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice
ca. 1596-98—English
- Ovid
Metamorphoseon
Metamorphoses
8—Latin
- Franz Kafka
Die Verwandlung
The Metamorphosis
originally published 1915 in Die Weißen Blätter—German
- Charles Johnson
Middle Passage
1990—English
- George Eliot
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
originally published serially Dec. 1871-Dec. 1872—English
- Salman Rushdie
Midnight's Children
1981—English
- William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream
ca. 1595-1600—English
- George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss
1860—English
- Molière
Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire Amoureux
The Misanthrope
1666—French
- Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
1862—French
- Stephen Jay Gould
The Mismeasure of Man
1981—English
- August Strindberg
Fröken Julie
Miss Julie
written 1888—Swedish
- Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
published in part, Jul. 1923, as 'Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street', in the Dial; in its entirety, 1925—English
- Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
1851—English
- Jonathan Swift
A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public
originally anonymously published 1729—English
- Daniel Defoe
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
1722—English
- Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone
originally published serially 1868 in All the Year Round—English
- Thomas Malory
Le Morte d'Arthur
1485; revised through sixth edition, 1634—English
- William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
ca. 1598-99—English
- T S Eliot
Murder in the Cathedral
1935—English
- Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express
Murder in the Calais Coach
1934—English
'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'
originally published Apr. 1841 in Graham's Magazine; revised for inclusion in The Prose Romances of Edgar A Poe, 1843—English
'Musée des Beaux Arts'
originally entitled 'Palais des Beaux Arts', published Spring 1939 in New Writing; retitled for inclusion in Another Time, 1940; included in Collected Shorter Poems, 1927-1957, 1966, and Collected Poems, 1976—English
- Willa Cather
My Ántonia
1918—English
- Orhan Pamuk
Benim Adım Kırmızı
My Name Is Red
1998—Turkish
- Anne Radcliffe
The Mysteries of Udolpho
1794—English
- Umberto Eco
Il nome della rosa
1980—Italian
- Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
1845—English
- Richard Wright
Native Son
1940—English
- Bernard Malamud
The Natural
1952—English
- Jean-Paul Sartre
La Nausée
Nausea
1938—French
- Charles Dickens
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
originally published serially Mar. 1838-Sep. 1839 under the pseudonym, Boz—English
- Elie Wiesel
Un di Velt Hot Geshvign
Night
1954; abridged French translation, entitled La Nuit, published 1958; alternate abridged version, in English, entitled Night, published 1960—Yiddish
- George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
1949—English
- Jean-Paul Sartre
Huis Clos
No Exit
1944—French
- Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey
originally anonymously published 1817—English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Zapaski iz Podpol'â
Notes From Underground
1864—Russian
- Willa Cather
O Pioneers!
1913—English
'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'
originally published Jul. 1890 in the San Francisco Examiner; included in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, 1891—English
- Frank Norris
The Octopus: A Story of California
1901—English
'Ode: Intimations of Immortality From Recollections of Early Childhood'
originally entitled 'Ode', published in Poems, in Two Volumes, 1807; retitled and revised for inclusion in Poems, 1815; revised for inclusion in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, 1820—English
John Keats
originally anonymously published Jan. 1820 in Annals of the Fine Arts; included in Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, 1820—English
originally published Jul. 1820 in Annals of the Fine Arts; included in Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, 1820—English
'Hymn to Aphrodite'
lone complete poem among the fragments of the author's work; late Seventh-early Sixth centuries B C—Greek
- Homer
Odýsseia
The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B.C—Greek
Sophocles
- Oidipous epi Kolōnō
Oedipus at Colonus
401 B C—Greek
- Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B.C—Greek
- W Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage
1915—English
- John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men
1937—English
- Kawabata Yasunari
Koto
The Old Capital
1962—Japanese
- Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea
1952—English
- Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge
2008—English
- Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress
originally published under the pseudonym, Boz, serially Feb. 1837-April 1839 in Bentley's Miscellany—English
- John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
1859—English
- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
On Death and Dying
1969—English
- Titus Lucretius Carus
De Rerum Natura
On the Nature of Things
First Century B.C—Latin
- Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
1859—English
- Jack Kerouac
On the Road
published in part as 'The Mexican Girl', the Paris Review; 'Jazz of the Beat Generation', New World Writing; and 'A Billowy Trip in the World', New Dimensions; in its entirety, 1957; alternate version, 2007—English
- T H White
The Once and Future King
published in five volumes, 1938-71—English
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Odîn den' Ivána Denîsoviča
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
originally published Nov. 1962 in Nóvyj Mîr—Russian
- Ken Kesey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1962—English
- Gabriel García Márquez
Cien Anõs de Soledad
One Hundred Years of Solitude
1967—Spanish
'The Open Boat'
originally published Jun. 1897 in Scribner's; included in The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure, 1898—English
'The Open Window'
originally published in the Westminster Gazette; part of Beasts and Super-Beasts, 1914—English
- Aeschylus
Oresteia
The House of Atreus
458 B C—Greek
- Adam Johnson
The Orphan Master's Son
2012—English
- William Shakespeare
Othello
ca. 1604—English
- Thornton Wilder
Our Town
1938—English
- Isak Dinesen
Out of Africa
originally published under the author's given name, Karen Blixen, 1937; Danish version entitled Den Afrikanske Farm published the same year—English
'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'
originally published Jan. 1869 in Overland Monthly—English
- Colin Wilson
The Outsider
1956—English
'Šinel''
'The Overcoat'
1842—Russian
'Ozymandias'
originally published Jan. 1818 in the Examiner; included in Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; With Other Poems, 1818—English
- Vladimir Nabokov
Pale Fire
1962—English
- Katherine Anne Porter
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
1939—English
- Samuel Richardson
Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded
1740; later revised—English
John Milton
- Paradise Lost
1667; revised 1674—English
- Paradise Regained, a Poem, in IV Books, to Which Is Added Samson Agonistes
1671—English
- E M Forster
A Passage to India
1924—English
- William Carlos Williams
Paterson
published in five volumes: 1946, 1948, 1949, 1951, and 1958—English
'Paul's Case'
originally published 1905 in McClure's—English
--
- Pearl
probably the same author as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (the "Pearl poet" or "Gawain poet"); late Fourteenth Century—English
- Henrik Ibsen
Peer Gynt
1867—Norwegian
- Blaise Pascal
Pensées
Thoughts
1669—French
'A Perfect Day for Bananafish'
originally Jan. 1948 published in the New Yorker; included in Nine Stories, 1953—English
- J M Barrie
Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
1904—English
- Jean Racine
Phèdre
1677—French
- Gaston Leroux
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra
The Phantom of the Opera
originally published serially 1909-10—French
- Charles Dickens
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
The Pickwick Papers
originally published serially Apr. 1836-Nov. 1837 under the pseudonym, Boz—English
- Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Grey
originally published Jul. 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine; revised and expanded 1891; alternate earlier version published 2011—English
- William Carlos Williams
Pictures From Brueghel
1962—English
- John Bunyan
The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to That Which Is to Come
1678—English
'The Pit and the Pendulum'
originally published 1842 in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843; revised for inclusion in the Broadway Journal, May 1845—English
- Albert Camus
La Peste
The Plague
1947—French
- John Millington Synge
The Playboy of the Western World
1907—English
- Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin
1957—English
- Aristotle
Peri Poiêtikês
De Poetica; Poetics
Fourth Century B.C—Greek
- Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
1890—English
- James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
originally published serially Feb. 1914-Sep. 1915, in the Egoist—English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Besy
Demons; The Devils; The Possessed
1872—Russian
- James M Cain
The Postman Always Rings Twice
1934—English
- William James
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
1907—English
- Desiderius Erasmus
Stultitiae Laus
In Praise of Folly
1511; later revised—Latin
- John Irving
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
1989—English
- William Wordsworth
The Prelude or, Growth of the Poet's Mind: An Autobiographical Poem
1850; earlier versions written 1799 and 1805—English
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813—English
- Muriel Spark
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1961—English
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe
The Prince
1532—Italian
- Mark Twain
The Prince and the Pauper
1881—English
- William Goldman
The Princess Bride
1973—English
- Noël Coward
Private Lives
1930—English
- Aeschylus
Promētheus Desmōtēs
Prometheus Bound
disputed authorship; Fifth Century B C—Greek
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Prometheus Unbound
1820—English
'The Prussian Officer'
included in The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, 1914—English
'The Purloined Letter'
originally published 1844 in the The Gift for 1845; included in Tales, 1845—English
- George Bernard Shaw
Pygmalion
1913—English
- Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
1959—English
- Alexander Pope
The Rape of the Lock
originally anonymously published in Linot's Miscellany 1712; expanded 1714 and 1717—English
- Samuel Johnson
The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
1759—English
- Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca
1938—English
- Albert Camus
L'Homme Révolté
The Rebel
1951—French
- Stendhal
Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe Siècle
The Red and the Black
1830—French
- Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage
published in part serially Dec. 1894 in the Philadelphia Press; in its entirety, 1895—English
- John Steinbeck
The Red Pony
originally published in part serially 1933-36; in its entirety, 1937—English
- Anita Diamant
The Red Tent
1997—English
- Marcel Proust
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
In Search of Lost Time; In Remembrance of Things Past
originally published in seven volumes, two of which originally published as two books each, 1913-27—French
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Representative Men: Seven Lectures
1850—English
- Plato
Politeia
The Republic
early Fourth Century B.C—Greek
- Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1878 in Belgravia, the Magazine of Fashion and Amusement—English
William Shakespeare
- Richard II
1597—English
- Richard III
ca. 1592-7—English
- Thomas Paine
The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution
originally published in two volumes, 1791 and 1792—English
'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'
originally published in Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems, 1798; revised for inclusion in Sibylline Leaves, 1817—English
- Robert Browning
The Ring and the Book
published in four volumes, 1868-69—English
'Rip Van Winkle'
part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., published serially Jun. 1819-Jul. 1820, expanded 1848
- William Dean Howells
The Rise of Silas Lapham
1885—English
'The Road Not Taken'
originally published Aug. 1915 in the Atlantic Monthly; part of Mountain Interval, 1916seaEnglish
*Van Doren* *Fadiman* *Recommended*
- Daniel Defoe
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
originally anonymously published 1719—English
'The Rocking-Horse Winner'
originally published Jul. 1926 in Harper's Bazaar; included in The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories, 1928—English
- William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
ca. 1591-97—English
- E M Forster
A Room With a View
1908—English
'A Rose for Emily'
originally published Apr. 1930 in Forum—English
- Tom Stoppard
Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead
1966—English
- Omar Khayyam
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
ca. Eleventh-Twelfth centuries; compiled by Edward FitzGerald in five editions, 1859, 1868, 1872, 1879, and 1889—Persian
'Sailing to Byzantium'
part of October Blast, 1927; published Spring 1928 in the Exile; October Blast made part of The Tower, 1928—English
- George Bernard Shaw
Saint Joan
1923—English
'Samson Agonistes'
part of Paradise Regained, a Poem, in IV Books, to Which Is Added Samson Agonistes, 1671; *Recommended* lists both Paradise Regained and this poem separatelyEnglish
- William Faulkner
Sanctuary
1931—English
- Salman Rushdie
The Satanic Verses
1988—English
- Petronius
Satyricon
late First Century—Latin
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
1850—English
- Thomas Keneally
Schindler's Ark
1982; some later editions entitled Schindler's List—English
--
- The Seafarer
written ca. Tenth century—English
- Anton Chekhov
Čajka
The Seagull
1896—Russian
- Jack London
The Sea-Wolf
1904—English
- Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden
originally published serially 1910-11 in the American Magazine—English
'The Secret Sharer'
originally published 1910 in Harper's; included in Twixt Land and Sea, 1912—English
- Saul Bellow
Seize the Day
1956—English
- Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility
originally published under the pseudonym, A Lady, 1811—English
- Gustave Flaubert
L'Éducation Sentimentale
1869—French
- John Knowles
A Separate Peace
1959—English
- Isak Dinesen
Seven Gothic Tales
1934; Danish version entitled Syv Fantastiske Fortaellinger published 1935—English
- Oliver Goldsmith
She Stoops to Conquer
1773—English
- Katherine Anne Porter
Ship of Fools
1962—English
- Sǿren Kierkegaard
Sygdommen til Dǿden
The Sickness Unto Death
originally published under the pseudonym, Anti-Climacus, 1849—Danish
- Herman Hesse
Siddhartha
1922—German
'Signs and Symbols'
originally entitled 'Symbols and Signs', published May 1958 in the New Yorker; retitled for inclusion in Nabokov's Dozen, 1948—French
- George Eliot
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe
1861—English
- Mikhail Sholokhov
Tihij Don
originally published in four volumes: first-third (English title: And Quiet Flows the Don) serially 1928-32 in Oktâbr' (October); fourth (English title: The Don Flows Home to Sea) serially 1937-40 in Novyj Mir (The New World)—Russian
- Rachel Carson
Silent Spring
originally published Jun. 1962 in the New Yorker—English
'Un Cœur Simple'
part of Trois Contes, 1877—French
--
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
probably the same author as Pearl (the "Gawain poet" or "Pearl poet"); late Fourteenth Century—English
- Theodore Dreiser
Sister Carrie
1900—English
- Luigi Pirandello
Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore
Six Characters in Search of an Author
1921—Italian
- Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death
1969—English
- Ken Kesey
Sometimes a Great Notion
1964—English
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Song of Hiawatha
1855—English
- William Blake
Songs of Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul
published in part, 1789, as Songs of Innocence; in its entirety, 1794—English
- William Shakespeare
Sonnets
1609; two sonnets originally published in The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599—English
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnets From the Portuguese
1850—English
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Die Sonette an Orpheus
The Sonnets to Orpheus
1923—German
- D H Lawrence
Sons and Lovers
1913—English
- William Styron
Sophie's Choice
1979—English
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers
The Sorrows of Young Werther
1774; revised 1787—German
- John Barth
The Sot-Weed Factor
1960—English
- William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury
1929—English
- Thomas Kyd
The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo Is Mad Again
ca. 1587—English
- Mishima Yukio
Haru no Yuki
Spring Snow
1969—Japanese
- Herman Hesse
Der Steppenwolf
1927—German
- William Trevor
The Story of Lucy Gault
2002—English
- Eugene O'Neill
Strange Interlude
1928—English
- Albert Camus
L'Étranger
The Stranger
1942—French
- Robert A Heinlen
Stranger in a Strange Land
1961; alternate version published 1991—English
- Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire
1947—English
- Thomas Aquinas
Summa Theologiae
Summa Theologica
written 1265-74—Latin
- Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises
1926—English
'The Swimmer'
originally published Jul. 1864 in the New Yorker; included in The Brigadier and the Golf Widow, 1964—English
- Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
originally published serially Apr.-Nov. 1859 in All the Year Round—English
- Patricia Highsmith
The Talented Mr. Ripley
1955—English
- Christopher Marlowe
Tamburlaine the Great
1590—English
- William Shakespeare
The Taming of the Shrew
ca. 1592-94—English
- Lăozĭ (Lao-tzu) (Laocius)
Dàodéjĭng
Tao te Ching
ca. Sixth Century B.C—Chinese
- Molière
Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur
1664—French
'The Tell-Tale Heart'
originally published Jan. 1843 in the Pioneer; revised for inclusion in the Broadway Journal, Aug. 1845—English
- William Shakespeare
The Tempest
1611—English
- John Reed
Ten Days That Shook the World
1919—English
- F Scott Fitzgerald
Tender Is the Night
originally published serially Jan.-Apr. 1934 in Scribner's Magazine—English
- Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the Graphic—English
- Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God
1937—English
- Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
1958—English
- Tim O'Brien
The Things They Carried
1990—English
Sean O'Casey
- Juno and the Paycock
1924—English
- The Plough and the Stars
1926—English
- The Silver Tassie
1929—English
- Anton Chekhov
Tri Sestry
Three Sisters
1901—Russian
- Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
1871—English
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
Thus Spake Zarathustra
originally published in four volumes, 1883-85—German
- H G Wells
The Time Machine
1895—English
- Günter Grass
Die Blechtrommel
The Tin Drum
1959—German
- Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
1960—English
- Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse
1927 —English
- Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
1749—English
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island
originally entitled Treasure Island or, The Mutiny of the Hispaniola, published serially 1891-92 in Young Folks under the pseudonym, Captain George North—English
- Betty Smith
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
1943—English
Franz Kafka
- Der Prozess
The Trial
1925—German
- Laurence Sterne
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
originally published in nine volumes, 1759-67—English
- Euripides
Trōiades
The Trojan Woman
415 B.C—Greek
- Henry Miller
Tropic of Capricorn
1938—English
- Henry James
The Turn of the Screw
originally published in The Two Magics, with a second novella, Covering End, 1898—English
- William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
1602—English
- Jules Verne
Vingt Mille Lieues Souls les Mers
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
1870—French
- Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Two Years Before the Mast
1840; revised and expanded 1869—English
- James Joyce
Ulysses
published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922—English
- Milan Kundera
Nesnesitelná Lehkost Bytí
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
1984; originally published in its French translation, L'Insoutenable Légèreté de l'Être; the original Czech, 1985—Czech
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin
1852—English
- Anton Chekhov
Dâdâ Vanâ
Uncle Vanya
1897—Russian
- Dylan Thomas
Under Milk Wood
1953—English
- Malcolm Lowry
Under the Volcano
1947—English
John Dos Passos
- The 42nd Parallel
1930—English
- 1919
1932—English
- The Big Money
1936—English
- Thomas More
Libellus Uere Aureus, nec Minus Salutaris Quam Festivus, de Optimo rei Publicae Statu Deque Nova Insula Utopia
Utopia
1516—Latin
'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning'
written ca. 1611-12; part of Poems With Elegies on the Authors Death [1633]—English
- William Makepeace Thackeray
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848—English
- William James
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902
1902; edited lectures—English
- Oliver Goldsmith
The Vicar of Wakefield
1766—English
- Mary Wollstonecraft
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1792—English
- Jennifer Egan
A Visit from the Goon Squad
2010—English
- Ben Jonson
Volpone
1606—English
- Samuel Beckett
En Attendant Godot
Waiting for Godot
1953—French
- Henry David Thoreau
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
1854—English
'Le Mur'
'The Wall'
part of Le Mur, 1939—French
--
- The Wanderer
written ca. Fifth-Tenth centuries—English
- John Cheever
The Wapshot Chronicle
1957—English
- Leo Tolstoy
Voyna i Mir"
War and Peace
originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869—Russian
- H G Wells
The War of the Worlds
originally published serially 1897 in Pearson's Magazine—English
- Henry James
Washington Square
originally published serially 1880 in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine—English
'The Waste Land'
originally published Oct. 1922 in the Criterion—English
- Richard Adams
Watership Down
1972—English
- Virginia Woolf
The Waves
1931—English
- Samuel Butler
The Way of All Flesh
1903; written 1873-74—English
- William Congreve
The Way of the World
1700—English
- Dave Eggers
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentinno Achak Deng
2006—English=
- Robertson Davies
What's Bred in the Bone
1985—English
- Edward Albee
Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?
1962—English
- William Butler Yeats
The Wild Swans at Coole
originally entitled The Wild Swans at Coole, Other Verses and a Play in Verse, published 1917; includes the play, At the Hawk's Well; retitled and expanded 1919 to include Nine Poems [1918] and additional poems; At the Hawk's Well later included in Four Plays for Dancers, 1921—English
- Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows
1908—English
- Sherwood Anderson
Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life
1919; twenty-two stories, ten of which originally published in periodicals: 'The Book of the Grotesque', Feb. 1916 in Masses; 'Hands', Mar. 1916 in Masses; 'Paper Pills' (originally entitled 'The Philosopher'), Jun.-Jul. 1916 in the Little Review, ; 'The Strength of God', Aug. 1916 in Masses; 'Queer', Dec. 1916 in Seven Arts; 'The Untold Lie', Jan. 17 in Seven Arts; 'Mother', Mar. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Thinker', Sep. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Man of Ideas', Jun. 1918 in the Little Review; 'An Awakening', Dec. 1918 in the Little Review—English
- A A Milne
Winnie-the-Pooh
published in part serially 1924-25; in its entirety, 1926—English
- William Shakespeare
The Winter's Tale
ca. 1611—English
- Abe Kobo
Suna no Onna
The Woman in the Dunes
1962—Japanese
- Maxine Hong Kingston
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts
1976—English
- D H Lawrence
Women in Love
1920—English
- L Frank Baum
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
1900—English
*Learning* *Graphic* *Recommended*
- Madeleine L'Engle
A Wrinkle in Time
1962—English
- Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850—English
'Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy'
—Yiddish
- Thomas Wolfe
You Can't Go Home Again
1940—English
- Nikos Kazantzakis
Zorba the Greek
1946—Greek