If you’re looking for a book to read over again, consider the works of Ernest Hemingway. Although any of his books could make the list, The Sun Also Rises is especially acclaimed for its distinctive style. It follows the story of Jake Barnes, an American expatriate who falls in love with a woman who is married to another man.
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations
Charles Dickens’ penultimate novel, Great Expectations, is a classic story about the education of an orphan. It is also Dickens’ second novel to be written in the first person. It is highly regarded by literature lovers for its realism and poignancy.
Great Expectations is not obviously historical, but the author clearly highlights the differences between the different periods. Though the title proclaims that “money” and “wealth” are very important, the novel also speaks to social class, gentility, and crime. It also reflects on the value of loyalty and forgiveness. It is a powerful tale that makes the reader question their own values and the values of those around them.
Great Expectations was a hit as soon as it was published in 1860. Famous critics like George Bernard Shaw hailed it as Dickens’ “most perfect book.” Various film and television adaptations have followed.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
One of Orwell’s most important political novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a warning against a totalitarian society. It also provides important insight into psychology and manipulating language. In many ways, it is a prophetic work and a nightmare vision.
Orwell’s life and career inspired this novel. He grew up in Suffolk, tramped around England, and taught in private schools. The novel has inspired many phrases and terms that we use today, including ‘doublethink’ and ‘Big Brother’.
Nineteen Eighty-Four reflects Orwell’s political beliefs and is an important zeitgeist work. His futuristic vision of the future reflects contemporary anxieties, as is evident in its dystopian world. The novel is set in a world of hidden microphones, which track every single word spoken. Dissidents are eliminated from society and are deemed ‘unpersons’. The dystopia he depicts is far from utopia, but a dystopia rooted in Orwell’s political morality and post-war Western Europe.
Stephen King’s The Shining
Stephen King’s The Shining is a psychological and supernatural thriller. It tells the story of the Torrance family, consisting of father Jack, mother Wendy and five-year-old Danny. The novel follows them through a traumatic experience at the Overlook hotel, a mysterious and isolated place. King’s book pushes the boundaries of the supernatural and questions the nature of family, love and father-son relationships.
King is a prolific author and is regarded as a master of horror fiction. Many of his early works have been adapted for film. The Shining is King’s most popular book. His other works include IT, Carrie, Misery, and Pet Sematary. His books are often adapted into popular films, and he has won numerous awards.
One of King’s first books, The Shining, went on to become one of the best-selling hardcover novels of all time. The novel has many smart moments, and good writing throughout. King never met an adverb he didn’t like, and many of his characters talk uncomfortably. One of the characters, Jack Torrance, has a history of alcoholism. King has been sober since the late 1980s and credits the group Alcoholics Anonymous for helping him stay sober.
Margaret Mitchell’s The Things They Carried
Margaret Mitchell’s The Things They Carried is a remarkably powerful novel. This novel takes the sex and gender dynamics of southern society and transforms them into powerful, empowering women. Although women are still subjected to patriarchal roles in this novel, Mitchell focuses on the strength and courage of these women. As a result, the novel reveals the spine of the southern matriarchy.
Mitchell, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, was raised in a family of storytellers. As a child, she was regaled with stories of the American Civil War, which ended 35 years before she was born. As a tomboy, Mitchell used to play in the earthen fortifications of Atlanta. She also went horseback riding with Confederate veterans. Mitchell was an avid reader, and she wrote several stories and plays in her youth.
Margaret Mitchell’s The Things They Carried was an instant bestseller. It was so popular that movie rights were sold to David O. Selznick for a record $100,000. Mitchell was not happy with this deal, and she resisted signing her books for several months. However, she did reply to a flood of fan letters.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best-known works of American literature. Originally published in 1960, the book became an instant hit and has since become a standard text for high school students in the United States. It was even awarded the Pulitzer Prize!
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of prejudice and injustice in the Deep South. It is a tale of heroism and resilience against hate and has been translated into forty languages. It has also been made into a motion picture and is currently one of the most popular works of fiction in the United States.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” was born from the experiences of Lee and her family. Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama, a town that served as the model for the town of Maycomb in the novel. The author lived in the area near the Mockingbird Grill and Radley’s Fountain (named after her character Boo Radley).
John Steinbeck’s On the Road
John Steinbeck, Jr., a prominent American author, grew up in a working class family in Salinas, California. His father worked a variety of jobs to make ends meet. He was inspired by his experiences growing up to write short stories, many of which were set in his hometown. They often dealt with the challenges faced by the migrant workers in the Dust Bowl.
Steinbeck’s characters inhabit a community, and they are all interconnected. Through the roads and towns they visit, they develop complex relationships with one another. He also explores human nature in the context of ecological cooperation. And his book reveals a more intimate side of ordinary Americans.
This novel is a journey through America. While the characters experience harsh and sometimes brutal conditions, they remain hopeful and optimistic. The main character, Tom Joad, experiences a life full of hardship. His wife, Rose of Sharon, tries to talk him out of the trip, but he refuses to give in. He travels in a camper van, named Rocinante, and brings along his pet poodle, Charley.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude
The novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is often hailed as one of the great works of world literature. It tells the story of the Buenda family, who settled in the town of Macondo. It is also known as “the supreme achievement” in world literature.
This enchanting book explores the complexities of life and death. It also explores the corruption of government, war and poverty. This novel was translated into more than a dozen languages and is a contemporary classic. The author demonstrates his innate talent for storytelling and the importance of reading.
The author was inspired by his life experiences while growing up in Colombia and his grandparents, who influenced him in many ways. His grandfather, Colonel Nicolas Ricardo Marquez Mejia, a retired liberal general, served as an inspiration for the novel. In addition to these two important influences on his writing, Tranquilina Iguaran – a Colombian novelist who wrote about the futility of myths and reality – had a profound influence on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s style.
Marcel Proust’s The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead is a masterpiece by French writer Marcel Proust. Its length has been compared to that of War and Peace, and it is officially the world’s longest novel – 1,267,069 words. Though not the first novel by Proust, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece and is considered by many to be one of the greatest works of literature of the century. Proust intersperses his brilliant descriptions with philosophical musings.
Throughout the novel, the narrator explores the nature of love in his quest for the meaning of life. While in his grandmother’s house, he develops a crush on Albertine, an attractive young woman with short hair, a boyish smile, and a casual way of speaking.
Ralph Ellison’s Story of Sinuhe
The Story of Sinuhe is a novel that uses every literary device known to that era to tell a tale. Its enchanting vocabulary and lush imagery make it one of the greatest books ever written. This novel puts the reader in the mind of a character four thousand years ago.
This classic novel was written by an African American writer who spent the middle of the twentieth century living in Europe. He spent two years in Rome, where he was an American Academy fellow, and then taught at New York University and Bard College. In between writing the novel, he also published two collections of essays. His second collection of essays, Flying Home and Other Stories, was published posthumously in 1996. His second novel, Juneteenth, was unfinished at the time of his death, but was eventually completed in 1999 and released in 2019. The collection of letters Ralph Ellison published after his death is also one of the greatest books of all time.
As a young man, Ellison was a budding artist. He began playing the cornet at age eight. His dream was to become a symphony composer, but his family did not have the means to afford that.