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Classic books everyone has read (and you should too)
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items The other day I was chatting with some friends at a café. We ended up talking about culture and books, and I realized that many people have never actually read a classic. Since I’m a big fan of them, and my friends asked me which ones I’d recommend, ...
Sections
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Coming-of-age novels
Realist and Romantic 19th-century novels
Psychological and philosophical novels
Gothic and horror literature
Adventure and travel
Mystery and detective fiction
Coming-of-age novels
Oh, Little Women is so sweet! It’s all about the March sisters growing up, falling in love, and chasing their dreams. There’s so much drama, romance, and sisterly love—you can’t help but root for them!
Little Women and Other Novels
Mary discovers a hidden garden, and watching her and her friends grow and heal is so heartwarming. It’s full of hope, magic, and sweet moments—you just can’t put it down!
The Secret Garden
This is the kind of book I’d press into your hands and say, “Trust me, just read it.” It feels gentle at first, almost like a warm summer afternoon in a small Southern town, but then it quietly unfolds into something far deeper and more powerful.
Wha...
To Kill a Mockingbird
Realist and Romantic 19th-century novels
Pride and Prejudice is hilarious and romantic! Elizabeth Bennet is smart, witty, and totally unafraid to speak her mind, and Mr. Darcy… well, he’s such a grump but also swoon-worthy. The social drama and romantic tension are just chef’s kiss!
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility is all about love, heartbreak, and so much drama! The Dashwood sisters are complete opposites—one is all emotion, the other all logic—and watching them deal with romance, secrets, and scandal is just deliciously addictive
Sense and Sensibility
Anna Karenina is so intense! It’s full of passion, scandal, and heartbreak. Anna’s love affair shakes up society, and you can’t help but get totally wrapped up in all the drama!
Anna Karenina
Oh girl, you have to read Madame Bovary! Emma is totally restless and dreamy, always chasing romance and excitement, and the drama that comes from her choices… wow, it’s scandalous and kind of tragic.
Madame Bovary
Oh my gosh, have you read War and Peace? It’s like, this massive saga about Russian aristocrats during Napoleon’s wars, but honestly, the drama is insane! People are falling in love, having secret affairs, making all these moral choices… and you tota...
War and Peace
Jane’s strong and independent, and her romance with Mr. Rochester is full of secrets, drama, and passion. You totally get hooked on her journey and can’t wait to see what happens!
Jane Eyre
Psychological and philosophical novels
You won’t believe how intense Crime and Punishment is! Raskolnikov commits this huge crime, and then the guilt and paranoia just eat him alive. It’s dark, dramatic, and totally gripping—you feel every twist in his mind!
Crime and Punishment
Heart of Darkness is seriously wild and haunting! Marlow goes up the river into Africa to find Kurtz, and what he discovers shakes him to his core. It’s all about darkness, outside and inside the human soul
Heart of Darkness
this book is so dark and intriguing! Dorian stays young and beautiful while, secretly, his portrait shows all his sins. It’s full of scandal, vanity, and totally twisted drama—you won’t be able to stop thinking about it!
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Girl, you won’t believe this book. One Hundred Years of Solitude is pure magical chaos. The Buendía family? Total drama for generations: ghosts, forbidden love, babies with tails, you name it. The town of Macondo feels alive and cursed all at once. I...
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Magic Mountain is like the ultimate intellectual spa (but make it existential). You’ve got Hans Castorp, a totally average young man who goes to a Swiss sanatorium just for a visit. But surprise: he stays seven years. In that high-altitude bubble...
The Magic Mountain
Gothic and horror literature
Dracula is so spooky and dramatic! There’s this mysterious count in Transylvania, and when his dark secret comes out, it’s all danger, romance, and eerie suspense.
Dracula
Frankenstein is so haunting and full of tension! Victor creates this monster who just wants connection, and when everything goes wrong—betrayal, tragedy, guilt—you feel every bit of the horror and heartbreak. It’s a dark, emotional rollercoaster
Frankenstein
Adventure and travel
This book is such an adventure! Captain Nemo takes everyone on this crazy journey in his submarine, exploring the ocean’s mysteries, facing dangers, and uncovering secrets. It’s dramatic, thrilling, and feels like real-life science mixed with adventu...
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas
Moby-Dick is epic and a little wild! Captain Ahab’s obsession with the white whale drags everyone into all kinds of danger. there’s adventure, madness, nature’s power, and philosophical depths that’ll totally mess with your head. Also, this edition h...
Moby-Dick
Around the World in Eighty Days is such a blast to read with all its wild bets and nonstop travel! Phileas Fogg wagers he can circle the globe in just eighty days, drags along his ever-anxious valet Passepartout, and bam—it’s one obstacle after anoth...
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Mystery and detective fiction
And Then There Were None is wild! Ten strangers stuck on an island start dying one by one, and everyone’s a suspect. It’s super tense, full of secrets, and you’re constantly guessing who’s behind it all!
And Then There Were None
Fahrenheit 451 is wild and unsettling! In a world where firemen burn books instead of putting out fires, Guy Montag starts questioning everything when he meets Clarisse and sees what reading could mean. It’s full of rebellion, secrets, and dangerous ...
Fahrenheit 451: A Novel
Animal Farm is such a sharp little beast of a book! On the surface it’s about farm animals overthrowing humans, but the twist? It’s all this clever allegory about power, corruption, and how revolutions can go so wrong. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, an...
Animal Farm: 75th Anniversary Edition
Science fiction and dystopias
1984 is absolutely chilling! It plunges you into a world where Big Brother is always watching, truth is twisted, and freedom is almost just a memory. It’s dark, intense, and leaves you thinking about how fragile our minds and society really are.
1984