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Book List - All Countries, All Eras- Essential Classic Literature

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<?=$who;?> All Countries, All Eras- Essential Classic Literature Add your picks for the books that belong on the all-inclusive list of essential world literature. Anything goes with this list, prose, verse, ancient, modern (within reason), epic, short story, whatever... Edit
List created by sevenspiders - on Jul 18, 2010
List Votes: 15 Books: 90 Contributors: 16 Watchers: 29 List Type: Open
1
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by...  more

Book Votes: 21
2
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires.... The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning...along with the houses in which they were hidden. Guy Montag enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of...  more

Book Votes: 15
3
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Over seventy-five years since its first publication, Steinbeck’s tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one of America’s most widely read and taught novels. An unlikely pair, George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, grasp for...  more

Book Votes: 14
4
PhoenixFalls
PhoenixFalls - ,
Animal Farm by George Orwell
A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned--a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that...  more

Book Votes: 14
5
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
What's a girl to do? Scatterbrained, social climbing Mrs. Bennet makes one demand of her five daughters. Marry. Marry well. Marry RICH. But sweet Jane is hopelessly in love with Mr. Bingley, who doesn't seem to notice. Flighty Lydia wants a man--any man--preferably one in uniform. Kitty...  more

Book Votes: 12
6
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
George Orwell's "1984" by George Orwell
Approx. 60 Minutes Starring David Niven

Book Votes: 12
7
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
In his journal, John Steinbeck called 'East of Eden' "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and...  more

Book Votes: 11
8
PhoenixFalls
PhoenixFalls - ,
Jane Eyre (Signet Classics) by Charlotte Bronte
Cambridge Literature is a series of literary texts edited for study by students aged 14-18 in English-speaking classrooms. It will include novels, poetry, short stories, essays, travel-writing and other non-fiction. The series will be extensive and open-ended and will provide school students...  more

Book Votes: 11
9
Generic Profile avatar
TomeTrader -
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
When The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, America, still recovering from the Great Depression, came face to face with itself in a startling, lyrical way. John Steinbeck gathered the country's recent shames and devastations--the Hoovervilles, the desperate, dirty children, the dissolution...  more

Book Votes: 11
10
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This is the definitive, textually accurate edition of a classic of twentieth-century literature, The Great Gatsby. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan has been acclaimed by generations of readers. But the first edition contained a number...  more

Book Votes: 11
11
bup
Rick B. (bup) - ,
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky & Constance Garnett (Translator)
A desperate young man plans the perfect crime -- the murder of a despicable pawnbroker, an old women no one loves and no one will mourn. Is it not just, he reasons, for a man of genius to commit such a crime, to transgress moral law -- if it will ultimately benefit humanity? So begins one of the...  more

Book Votes: 9
12
bup
Rick B. (bup) - ,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain & Guy Cardwel...
Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. More than a century after its publication it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American...  more

Book Votes: 9
13
Generic Profile avatar
Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
In this classic novel of the 1960's, Ken Kesey's hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the...  more

Book Votes: 9
14
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
An American classic, the moving story set in the 1900's, about a young girl's coming of age at the turn of the century, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the...  more

Book Votes: 8
15
PhoenixFalls
PhoenixFalls - ,
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable...  more

Book Votes: 8
16
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe is credited with having pioneered the short story, having perfected the tale of psychological horror, and having revolutionized modern poetics.The entirety of Poe's body of imaginative work encompasses detective tales, satires, fables, fantasies, science fiction, verse...  more

Book Votes: 7
17
Generic Profile avatar
Jose Rodriguez (joserro) - ,
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez & Gregory Rabassa (Transl...
A best seller and critical success in Latin America, Europe, and the United States, One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of teh mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. It is a rich and billiant chronicle of life and death...  more

Book Votes: 7
18
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Count of Monte Cristo (Modern Library Classics) by Alexandre Dumas
A popular bestseller since its publication in 1844, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great page-turning thrillers of all time. Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, Dumas’s grand historical romance recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantès, a...  more

Book Votes: 6
19
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Acclaimed graphic artist Peter Kuper presents a brilliant, darkly comic reimagining of Kafka’s classic tale of family, alienation, and a giant bug. Kuper’s electric drawings—which merge American cartooning with German expressionism—bring Kafka’s prose to vivid life,...  more

Book Votes: 6
20
PhoenixFalls
PhoenixFalls - ,
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text (Collins) by William Sh...
Widely hailed on its first publication in 1951, this authoritative guide has long been established as one of the most esteemed and influential editions of Shakespeare's works. This edition includes: the recognized canon of Shakespeare's plays, sonnets, and poems; a new introduction; a brief...  more

Book Votes: 6
21
jscrappy
Janelle C. (jscrappy)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world in postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to...  more

Book Votes: 6
22
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Odyssey by Homer & E.V. Rieu (Translator) & D.C.H. Rieu (Translator)
The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats -- shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the ... sea-god Poseidon -- Odysseus must test his bravery and...  more

Book Votes: 5
23
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
"There in the middle of the broad, bright high-road-there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven-stood the figure of a solitary woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments."  Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in...  more

Book Votes: 5
24
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays by Tennessee Williams
Penguin Twentieth Century Classics Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays

Book Votes: 5
25
PhoenixFalls
PhoenixFalls - ,
Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, Bk 1) by L. M. Montgomery
This is the classic and immensely popular first novel in the series about Anne Shirley, an irrepressible red-headed orphan. The Cuthberts decide to adopt an orphan -- a strong, hardworking boy to help with the farm chores. Anne is sent to live with them by mistake. Talkative, romantic and...  more

Book Votes: 5
26
PhoenixFalls
PhoenixFalls - ,
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes Noble Classics Series) (BN Classics Trade Paper) ...
Oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social observation and sparkling prose to The Picture of Dorian Gray, his dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged—petulant, hedonistic, vain, and...  more

Book Votes: 5
27
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse & Hilda Rosner (Translator)
This classic novel of self-discovery has inspired generations of seekers. With parallels to the enlightenment of the Buddha, Hesse's SIDDHARTHA is the story of a young Brahmn's quest for the ultimate reality. His quest takes him from the extremes of indulgent sensuality to the rigors of...  more

Book Votes: 5
28
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, LES MISERABLES is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world...  more

Book Votes: 5
29
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Catch-22 (Catch-22, Bk 1) by Joseph Heller
Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary. At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes...  more

Book Votes: 5
30
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Travelling across America in search of who you are -- now they do it on cycles, in cars, by bus or in the time-honored tradition of foot and thumb. The wanderers of today may wear their hair long and speak a different jargon, but their trip is one that men (and women) have taken for as long as...  more

Book Votes: 5
31
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The House of the Seven Gables (Oxford World's Classics) by Nathaniel Hawthorne & ...
The sins of one generation are visited upon another in a haunted New England mansion until the arrival of a young woman from the country breathes new air into mouldering lives and rooms. Written shortly after The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables re-addresses the theme of human...  more

Book Votes: 4
32
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback. With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most...  more

Book Votes: 4
33
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
Leaves of Grass, Second Edition (Norton Critical Editions) by Walt Whitman & Mich...
This edition contains the most complete and authoritative collection of Whitman's work in one volume. The basic text is the "Comprehensive Reader's Edition" of Leaves of Grass, which includes the 1892 "deathbed" edition preferred by Whitman, all the prefaces to the editions of Leaves of...  more

Book Votes: 4
34
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Don Quixote De LA Mancha (Oxford World's Classics) by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
Don Quixote, originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, stands as Cervantes' belated but colossal literary success. A work which has achieved mythic status, it is considered to have pioneered the modern novel. Don Quixote, a poor gentleman from La Mancha, Spain, entranced by the code...  more

Book Votes: 4
35
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her...  more

Book Votes: 4
36
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
This is the story of young Victor Frankenstein, who longed to seek out the answers to life and death. Day and night he worked to create something that the world had never seen. But he did not know that one day his efforts would destroy him and everything he had.

Book Votes: 4
37
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
The Stranger by Albert Camus & Stuart Gilbert (Translator)
Thirty years after its original publication, THE STRANGER remains among the most influential books of our time. A terrifying picture of a man victimized by life itself -- he is a faceless man, who has committed a pointless murder -- it is a book whose unrelenting grip upon our consciousness has...  more

Book Votes: 4
38
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller seemed to capture the sometimes tragic plight of the common man with his Death of a Salesman. Bloom suggests the strength of the play is puzzling but beyond dispute, lying more in its presentation on stage than its written form. The play's continued vitality is unquestioned. The...  more

Book Votes: 4
39
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
A Room with a View (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by E. M. Forster
Visiting Italy with her prim and proper cousin Charlotte as a chaperone, Lucy Honeychurch meets the unconventional lower-class Mr. Emerson and his son, George. Upon her return to England she becomes engaged to the supercilious Cecil Vyse, but finds herself increasingly torn between the...  more

Book Votes: 4
40
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The story of The Trial's publication is almost as fascinating as the novel itself. Kafka intended his parable of alienation in a mysterious bureaucracy to be burned, along with the rest of his diaries and manuscripts, after his death in 1924. Yet his friend Max Brod pressed forward to prepare...  more

Book Votes: 3
41
PhoenixFalls
PhoenixFalls - ,
The Epic of Gilgamesh by N. K. Sandars (Translator)
Miraculously preserved on clay tablets deciphered only in the last century, the cycle of poems collected around the character of Gilgamesh, the great king of Ukruk, tells of his long and arduous journey to the Spring of Youth, of his encounters with monsters and gods and of his friendship with...  more

Book Votes: 3
42
Generic Profile avatar
TomeTrader -
The Way West by A. B. Guthrie & A.B. Guthrie
An enormously entertaining classic, THE WAY WEST brings to life the adventure of the western passage and the pioneer spirit. The sequel to THE BIG SKY, this celebrated novel charts a frontiersman's return to the untamed West in 1846. Dick Summers, as pilot of a wagon train, guides a group of...  more

Book Votes: 3
43
Generic Profile avatar
Bonnie A. (Mizzou) -
Things Fall Apart (Macmillan Reader) by Chinua Achebe & John Davey
Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a ?strong man? of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo?s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as...  more

Book Votes: 3
44
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one...  more

Book Votes: 3
45
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Perfume : The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion-his sense of smell-leads to murder. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste...  more

Book Votes: 3
46
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The hero is Pip, who is reared by his sister and her husband, Joe Gargery, the blacksmith. Later he is informed that he is to be reared as a gentleman of 'great expectations,' as an unknown person has provided money for his education and expects to make him his heir. This patron is...  more

Book Votes: 3
47
wendybird
Wendy R. (wendybird)
The Good Soldier Svejk : and His Fortunes in the World War by Jaroslav Hasek & Ce...
In The Good Soldier Svejk, celebrated Czech writer and anarchist Jaroslav Hasek combined dazzling wordplay and piercing satire in a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war. Good-natured and garrulous, Svejk becomes the Austrian army’s most loyal Czech soldier when he is...  more

Book Votes: 3
48
canadianeh
Rosemary F. (canadianeh)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Mark Twain's exhilarating Mississippi adventure story and the companion to Tom Sawyer. In hiding from his drunken and tyrannical father, Huck Finn escapes to Jackson's Island, where he meets Jim, a runaway slave. Together the boys set off on a raft...  more

Book Votes: 3
49
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
Metamorphoses by Ovid & A. D. Melville (Translator)
Metamorphoses -- the best-known poem by one of the wittiest poets of classical antiquity -- takes as its theme change and transformation, as illustrated by Greco-Roman myth and legend. Melville's new translation reproduces the grace and fluency of Ovid's style, and its modern idiom...  more

Book Votes: 2
50
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe, Bk 6) by Raymond Chandler
Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and who ends up dead. and now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.

Book Votes: 2
51
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise by Dante Alighieri
No description available.

Book Votes: 2
52
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
McTeague: A Story of San Francisco (Oxford World's Classics) by Frank Norris
Inspired by an actual crime that was sensationalized in the San Francisco papers, this novel tells the story of charlatan dentist McTeague and his wife Trina, and their spiralling descent into moral corruption. Norris is often considered to be the "American Zola," and this passionate tale of...  more

Book Votes: 2
53
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Norton Critical Editions) by Harriet Jacobs
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the first full-length narrative written by a former woman slave in America. The text is that of the 1861 first edition. Contexts includes contemporary responses to Incidents, selections from Jacobs's other published writings, and extracts from her...  more

Book Votes: 2
54
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
The Turn of the Screw: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism (Norton Critical Editi...
The Turn of the Screw remains one of Henry James's most remarkable narratives, one whose popularity when it was published is matched by its power to stir readers today. It is one of James's most teachable texts, an indispensable reference point for such critical concerns as point of view and...  more

Book Votes: 2
55
jscrappy
Janelle C. (jscrappy)
John Dos Passos : U.S.A. : The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money (Library of Ameri...
Unique for its epic scale and panoramic social sweep, Dos Passos' masterpiece comprises three novels--"The 42nd Parallel," "1919," and "The Big Money"--which create an unforgettable collective portrait of modern America. This one-volume edition includes detailed notes and a chronicle of the...  more

Book Votes: 2
56
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
“Hurston's prose is newly invigorated by Dee's reading . . . this tape succeeds in its rich descriptions and freshness of dialogue, delivering in terms that are alternately funny and moving.”'Publishers WeeklyIn this rediscovered classic, first published in 1937, you will meet the...  more

Book Votes: 2
57
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
This "bold...extraordinary...blockbuster..." (Newsweek magazine) begins with a birth in an African village in 1750, and ends two centuries later at a funeral in Arkansas. And in that time span, an unforgettable cast of men, women, and children come to life, many of them based on the...  more

Book Votes: 2
58
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Paradise Lost by John Milton & Gordon Teskey (Editor)
This Norton Critical Edition is designed to make Paradise Lost accessible for student readers, providing invaluable contextual and biographical information and the tools students need to think critically about this landmark epic. Gordon Teskey's freshly edited text of Milton's...  more

Book Votes: 2
59
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri & Sean O'Brien (Translator)
A new telling of Dante's Inferno, this translation is the most fluent, grippingly readable version of the famous poem yet, and -- with all the consummate technical skill that is the hallmark of Sean O'Brien's own poetry -- manages the near-impossible task of preserving the subtle...  more

Book Votes: 2
60
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Candide by Voltaire & Henry Morley (Translator) & Lauren Walsh (Translator) &...
One of the finest satires ever written, Voltaire's Candide savagely skewers this very "optimistic" approach to life as a shamefully inadequate response to human suffering. The swift and lively tale follows the absurdly melodramatic adventures of the youthful Candide, who is forced...  more

Book Votes: 2
61
wendybird
Wendy R. (wendybird)
Closely Watched Trains (European Classics) by Bohumil Hrabal & Josef Skvorecky
Hrabal's postwar classic about a young man coming of age in German-occupied Czechoslovakia is among his most beloved and accessible works.  Closely Watched Trains is the subtle and poetic portrait of Milos Hrma, a timid young railroad apprentice who insulates himself with fantasy...  more

Book Votes: 2
62
wendybird
Wendy R. (wendybird)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover--these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by...  more

Book Votes: 2
63
canadianeh
Rosemary F. (canadianeh)
The Canterbury Tales (Oxford World's Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer & David Wright...
David Wright's new translation of The Canterbury Tales into modern verse -- the first to appear in over thirty years -- makes one of the greatest works of English literature accessible to all readers while preserving the wit and vivacity of Chaucer's original text.

Book Votes: 2
64
canadianeh
Rosemary F. (canadianeh)
Goethe's Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A clever fellow's comfortable plan Is, " draw it cosily o'er head and ears, And play the fool as little...  more

Book Votes: 2
65
canadianeh
Rosemary F. (canadianeh)
Beowulf by John McNamara (Translator) & George Stade (Editor)
Widely regarded as the first true masterpiece of English literature, Beowulf describes the thrilling adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century. Its lyric intensity and imaginative vitality are unparalleled, and the poem has greatly influenced many important modern novelists...  more

Book Votes: 2
66
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Nobody knew the hypocrises of "old New York" better than Edith Wharton, and nobody portrayed them as well. In "The Age of Innocence," Wharton took readers on a trip through the stuffy upper crust of 1870s New York, wrapped up in a hopeless love affair. Newland Archer, of...  more

Book Votes: 2
67
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Ignatius J. Reilly, a grossly overweight medieval scholar who lives with his mother, is forced to seek employment when she can no longer tolerate his laziness. His disdainful encounters with the modern culture of New Orleans, his habitual misunderstanding of its inhabitants (some of them no less...  more

Book Votes: 2
68
Generic Profile avatar
Bonnie A. (Mizzou) -
Palace Walk (CairoTrilogy, Bk 1) by Naguib Mahfouz & William Maynard Hutchins (Tr...
The first volume in Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy looks into the lives of the family of al-Sayyid Ahmad, a merchant who forces his family to follow strict religious rules while he follows his desires, sampling the alluring nightlife of the city. The story is set in Cairo during Egypt's...  more

Book Votes: 1
69
Generic Profile avatar
Bonnie A. (Mizzou) -
Palace of Desire (Cairo, Bk 2) by Naguib Mahfouz
Al-Sayyid Ahmad is mellowing as he leaves middle age. As this second novel of "The Cairo Trilogy" opens, he is ending his self-imposed abstention from liquor and women, begun five years earlier upon the death of his son, Fahmy. With shouts of joy, his friends welcome him back to their...  more

Book Votes: 1
70
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Las aventuras picarescas de una Sherezade latinoamericana, relatando su nacimiento ilegÍtimo, su orfandad, su adolescencia sin rumbo, sus actividades contra el gobierno, y su romance con un problemÁtico director de pelÍculas documentales. Por medio de su don narrativo, Eva Luna inventa una...  more

Book Votes: 1
71
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Bilingual Edition) by Pablo Neruda & W. ...
First published in 1924, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada remains among Pablo Neruda’s most popular work. Daringly metaphorical and sensuous, this collection juxtaposes youthful passion with the desolation of grief. Drawn from the poet’s most intimate and...  more

Book Votes: 1
72
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
The Three Theban Plays: Antigone / Oedipus the King / Oedipus at Colonus by Bernard M...
Antigone defending her integrity and ideals to the death, Oedipus questing for his identity and achieving immortality--these heroic figures have moved playgoers and readers since the fifth century B. C. Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, these three plays are among the most enduring...  more

Book Votes: 1
73
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
Lysistrata by Aristophanes & Douglass Parker (Translator)
Aristophanes' comic masterpiece of war and sex remains one of the greatest plays ever written. Led by the title character, the women of the warring city-states of Greece agree to withhold sexual favors with their husbands until they agree to cease fighting. The war of the sexes that ensues...  more

Book Votes: 1
74
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
The Street by Ann Petry
THE STREET tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, The...  more

Book Votes: 1
75
canadianeh
Rosemary F. (canadianeh)
The Defined King James Bible (Genuine Leather, 10 point Medium Print) by The Bible fo...
We at the Bible For Today offices worked hard on what we consider to be the most important publication in our history! Our Defined King James Bible is the KING JAMES BIBLE (Cambridge edition) without any alteration in the text. Uncommon words, or words that have changed their meaning since 1611,...  more

Book Votes: 1
76
canadianeh
Rosemary F. (canadianeh)
The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics) by Ralph Wald...
The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life's work of a true "American Scholar." As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that...  more

Book Votes: 1
77
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevens...
Idealistic young scientist Henry Jekyll struggles to unlock the secrets of the soul. Testing chemicals in his lab, he drinks a mixture he hopes will isolate -- and eliminate -- human evil. Instead it unleashes the dark forces within him, transforming him into the hideous and murderous Mr....  more

Book Votes: 1
78
Generic Profile avatar
Kerry
A Wild Sheep Chase : A Novel (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami
A marvelous hybrid of mythology and mystery, A Wild Sheep Chase is the extraordinary literary thriller that launched Haruki Murakami’s international reputation. It begins simply enough: A twenty-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend, and casually appropriates...  more

Book Votes: 1
79
cricket75
Jennifer D. (cricket75) - ,
Don Quixote by Harold Bloom & Miguel de Cervantes
Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece. Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, and one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha...  more

Book Votes: 1
80
Generic Profile avatar
Bonnie A. (Mizzou) -
Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy, 3) by Naguib Mahfouz
Master storyteller Naguib Mahfouz crowns his best-selling Cairo Trilogy with this final chronicle of the Abdal-Jawad  clan, climaxing the story begun in Palace Walk and continued in Palace Of Desire.

Book Votes: 0
81
mrswalker
Danielle W. (mrswalker)
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady is the most stunning achievement of Henry James's early period--in the 1860s and '70s when he was transforming himself from a talented young American into a resident of Europe, a citizen of the world, and one of the greatest novelists of modern times. A kind of delight at...  more

Book Votes: 0
82
sevenspiders
sevenspiders -
The Pickwick Papers (Penguin English Library) by Charles Dickens
Paul Scofield, one of Britain's most distinguished actors reads The Pickwick Papers in a stunning presentation. Scofield evokes the warmth and laughter of the unlikely adventures of the immortal Samuel Pickwick, Esq., and the other members of the Pickwick Club. Enjoy as the loyal Pickwickians...  more

Book Votes: 0
83
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago
This is a skeptic’s journey into the meaning of God and of human existence. At once an ironic rendering of the life of Christ and a beautiful novel, Saramago’s tale has sparked intense discussion about the meaning of Christianity and the Church as an institution. Translated by...  more

Book Votes: 0
84
escapeartistk
Kristin K. (escapeartistk) -
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Introducing a major literary talent, The White Tiger offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen. Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant....  more

Book Votes: 0
85
knihomolsashka
Alexandra J. (knihomolsashka)
An Imaginary Life (Vintage International) by David Malouf
In the first century A.D., Publius Ovidius Naso, the most urbane and irreverent poet of imperial Rome, was banished to a remote village on the edge of the Black Sea. From these sparse facts, Malouf has fashioned an audacious and supremely moving novel. Marooned on the edge of the known world,...  more

Book Votes: 0
86
knihomolsashka
Alexandra J. (knihomolsashka)
The Blind Owl by Sadayat Hedayat
Considered one of the most important works of modern Iranian literature, The Blind Owl is a haunting tale of loss and spiritual degradation. Replete with potent symbolism and terrifying surrealistic imagery, Sadegh Hedayat's masterpice details a young man's despair after losing a mysterious...  more

Book Votes: 0
87
knihomolsashka
Alexandra J. (knihomolsashka)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov & Mirra Ginsburg (Translator)
Mikhail Bulgakov's devastating satire of Soviet life was written during the darkest period of Stalin's regime. Combining two distinct yet interwoven parts-one set in ancient Jerusalem, one in contemporary Moscow-the novel veers from moods of wild theatricality with violent storms, vampire...  more

Book Votes: 0
88
knihomolsashka
Alexandra J. (knihomolsashka)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family...  more

Book Votes: 0
89
cricket75
Jennifer D. (cricket75) - ,
The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) by Alessandro Manzoni
Considered one of the most important novels ever written in the Italian language, "The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi)" is Alessandro Manzoni's 1827 historical novel, which details the terribly oppressive rule of the Spanish over Italy in the early 1600s. At the center of the novel is the story of...  more

Book Votes: 0
90
ajdowning
Jay N. (ajdowning)
Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann
A new, "brilliant ...perfectly nuanced translation" of Thomas Mann's most famous and poignant collection of novellas and stories (The Boston Globe). Featuring his world-famous masterpiece, "Death in Venice," this new collection of Nobel laureate Thomas Mann's stories and novellas reveals his...  more

Book Votes: 0

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Comment added 11/21/17 by Jay N. (ajdowning):
I'm so happy to see George Orwell so high up on this list. He is one of my favorite authors.

Comment added 4/22/11 by Alexandra J. (knihomolsashka):
I agree with Wendy on Czech literature; I added some of my eclectic selection of favorite international authors. Great list.

Comment added 2/15/11 by Wendy R. (wendybird):
I've read some outstanding Czech literature lately, which I had to add to this list. So very, very underrated. Closely Watched Trains was my absolute favorite read from 2010.

Comment added 7/20/10 by Bonnie A. (Mizzou) - :
Mahfouz and Achebe were included in one of the World Literature classes I took in the late Eighties at an Ohio University. Both are excellent examples of African literature---Mahfouz wrote in Arabic, but Achebe wrote in English.

Comment added 7/20/10 by Bonnie A. (Mizzou) - :
Comment deleted 7/20/10 by Bonnie A. (Mizzou) -