Top 13 Classic Novels

Why not read a classic book in your spare time? It may just turn up in your English curriculum this year and you’ll be ahead of the class!

1. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, 1960
To Kill a Mocking Bird is a story about two innocent children who learn about human nature, love and the prejudice of mankind. Sympathy will fill your heart as Harper Lee tells a heartbreaking tale of racial injustice.

2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
The Great Gatsby showcases F. Scott Fitzgerald’s opinions on the American Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. A story about a mysterious millionaire and a thwarted romance, this great American novel is a critique of the era of decadence.

3. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951
J.D. Salinger tells the tale of Holden Caulfield, the icon for teenage rebellion all around the world. Catcher in the Rye deals with issues such as alienation, identity, and teenage angst and confusion.

4. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, 1726
Gulliver’s Travels is the story of a young traveller going on a journey around the world. Even though this classic book was written centuries ago, using satirical humour, Jonathan Swift manages to describe a fantastical journey that is essentially a tale of our own world.

5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 1890
Taking place in the late 1800’s, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a commentary on the trouble that arises when people value vanity and beauty over everything else. The unbelievably attractive Dorian Gray ultimately has to face the truth of how people see him and how he sees himself.

6. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, 1811
Elinor and Marianne are sisters with wildly different personalities who venture into a world of romance and heartbreak in Sense and Sensibility. This novel is just one such grand classic from famed author Jane Austen.

7. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 1859
Following the lives of many different protagonists in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is a story of human nature and the brutality of people in the early years of the revolution.

8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847
Wuthering Heights is the classic “anti-romance” featuring unresolved passion between its memorable characters, Heathcliff and Catherin Earnshaw. Their all-encompassing infatuation threatens to destroy themselves as well as those around them.

9. Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1954
Lord of the Flies is an allegory for the brutality of mankind. When a group of young British boys are stranded on a deserted island, a disagreement between two tribes breaks out sparking violence and deadly consequences.

10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886
Although Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reside on alternate ends of reality, they are actually one and the same person. This psychological thriller features the age-old battle of good versus evil in a struggle for identity and acceptance.

11. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969
Billy Pilgram is a WWII soldier whose life is severely affected by the bombings of Dresden. The author’s own experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war during WWII greatly influenced his writing of this anti-war science fiction classic.

12. Animal Farm by George Orwell, 1946
They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it’s proven correct in this allegorical study of the Russian Revolution. Filled with powerful symbolism and social commentary on the failure of communism, Animal Farm is a political satire, and far different from most stories about talking animals.

13. Carrie by Stephen King, 1974
Carrie is a girl with extraordinary telekinetic powers. However, she’s also a teenager who is cruelly bullied by students at her high school, who soon find out just how far they can push her before she loses control.