The 50 best classic books everyone should read
The best classic books ranked: essential novels from Austen, Dickens, Dostoevsky and more. A top 50 with short reviews and where to read each one.
Classics are the books that have stayed in print for generations. The 50 below include the novels most often taught in school and most often recommended by readers, from Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre to Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby, with short notes that make a long book easier to choose.
These are editorial picks, ranked for readability and lasting appeal, and nobody pays to be on the list. Not sure where to start? Try the book finder and get three picks for your mood.
Top 50 classic books, ranked
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Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy must move past first impressions and pride to find love.
- Cozy
- Funny
Where to read
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Jane Eyre
An orphaned governess holds on to her independence while falling for her mysterious employer.
- Thoughtful
- Inspiring
Where to read
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Wuthering Heights
A stormy love and revenge story on the Yorkshire moors.
- Moving
- Gripping
Where to read
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Great Expectations
An orphan called Pip is given a mysterious fortune and learns what it costs.
- Thoughtful
- Moving
Where to read
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Frankenstein
A scientist creates life and then rejects what he has made.
- Thoughtful
- Moving
Where to read
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Dracula
A solicitor's trip to Transylvania unleashes a vampire on England.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Great Gatsby
A mysterious millionaire throws lavish parties in the hope of winning back a lost love.
- Thoughtful
- Moving
Where to read
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To Kill a Mockingbird
A lawyer defends a Black man in a racially divided Alabama town, seen through his daughter's eyes.
- Thoughtful
- Moving
Where to read
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Nineteen Eighty-Four
A clerk in a surveillance state begins to question the Party.
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Brave New World
A society engineered for comfort and conformity is challenged by an outsider.
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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The Count of Monte Cristo
A wrongly imprisoned sailor escapes and plans an elaborate revenge.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Moby-Dick
Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for a white whale.
- Thoughtful
- Gripping
Where to read
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Les Miserables
A former convict tries to build a new life in 19th-century France.
- Moving
- Inspiring
Where to read
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War and Peace
Five Russian families live through the Napoleonic Wars.
- Thoughtful
- Moving
Where to read
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Anna Karenina
A married woman's affair unfolds against the society of imperial Russia.
- Moving
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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A Tale of Two Cities
Love and sacrifice in London and Paris during the French Revolution.
- Moving
- Gripping
Where to read
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Robinson Crusoe
A sailor is shipwrecked and spends years alone on a remote island.
- Thoughtful
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Odyssey
Odysseus spends ten years trying to get home after the Trojan War.
- Gripping
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Lord of the Flies
Boys stranded on an island descend into savagery.
- Gripping
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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The Old Man and the Sea
An aging fisherman battles a giant marlin.
- Thoughtful
- Inspiring
Where to read
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A boy and an escaped slave travel down the Mississippi.
- Funny
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Treasure Island
A boy finds a treasure map and sails with pirates to a remote island.
- Gripping
- Cozy
Where to read
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The Three Musketeers
A young Gascon joins the king's musketeers in 17th-century France.
- Gripping
- Funny
Where to read
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Gone with the Wind
A headstrong Southern woman survives the Civil War and Reconstruction.
- Moving
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Stranger
A detached man commits a murder in Algiers.
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Sense and Sensibility
Two sisters navigate love and money in Regency England.
- Cozy
- Moving
Where to read
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Emma
A confident young woman plays matchmaker and gets it wrong.
- Funny
- Cozy
Where to read
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Persuasion
A woman gets a second chance with the man she once rejected.
- Moving
Where to read
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Oliver Twist
An orphan falls in with London pickpockets.
- Moving
- Gripping
Where to read
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David Copperfield
A boy grows up and becomes a writer in Victorian England.
- Moving
- Funny
Where to read
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A Christmas Carol
Scrooge is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve.
- Moving
- Cozy
Where to read
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Middlemarch
Lives and marriages in a provincial English town.
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles
A poor girl is ruined by a rich relative and by fate.
- Moving
Where to read
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Crime and Punishment
A student commits murder and is consumed by guilt.
- Thoughtful
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Brothers Karamazov
Three brothers and their father in a story about faith and murder.
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
A young man stays young while his portrait ages.
- Gripping
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Little Women
Four sisters grow up in Civil War-era Massachusetts.
- Cozy
- Moving
Where to read
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Anne of Green Gables
An orphan girl with a big imagination comes to a farm in Prince Edward Island.
- Cozy
- Funny
Where to read
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The Scarlet Letter
A woman is shunned in Puritan Boston for adultery.
- Thoughtful
- Moving
Where to read
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Don Quixote
An old man sets out as a knight-errant.
- Funny
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Madame Bovary
A doctor's wife seeks romance and ruin.
- Thoughtful
- Moving
Where to read
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The Metamorphosis
A man wakes up as an insect.
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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The Catcher in the Rye
A teenager wanders New York after leaving school.
- Thoughtful
- Funny
Where to read
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Of Mice and Men
Two migrant workers dream of a farm of their own.
- Moving
Where to read
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The Grapes of Wrath
A family leaves the Dust Bowl for California.
- Moving
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Animal Farm
Farm animals overthrow their owner and the revolution goes wrong.
- Thoughtful
- Funny
Where to read
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The Importance of Being Earnest
A comedy of mistaken identity and double lives in Victorian London.
- Funny
Where to read
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Heart of Darkness
A sailor travels up the Congo River to find Kurtz.
- Thoughtful
- Gripping
Where to read
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Rebecca
A new bride is haunted by her husband's first wife.
- Gripping
- Moving
Where to read
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The Secret Garden
A lonely girl discovers a hidden garden.
- Cozy
- Inspiring
Where to read
Each link opens that store’s search for the book. Availability and prices vary by store and country. We may earn a commission from some stores, which never changes the ranking.
Types of classics books
Looking for something more specific? These are the main kinds of classics, with the sort of story or subject each one covers.
English classics
Austen, Dickens, Brontë and Hardy.
Russian classics
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov.
American classics
Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Lee and Twain.
French and European classics
Hugo, Flaubert and Dumas.
Short classics
Under 200 pages and a good place to start.
Gothic classics
Dracula, Frankenstein and Rebecca.
Want to write and publish your own classics book?
Many readers of this page are also writers. The stores in the lists above are where readers find books, while Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, IngramSpark, Lulu and Draft2Digital are the tools authors use to publish and distribute a book to those stores. You can also publish to Barnes & Noble Press and Google Play Books directly.
Our free KDP calculators help with print cost, royalties and cover size, and our publishing services can take care of setup for you.
Frequently asked questions
Which classic book should I read first?
Pride and Prejudice, Animal Farm and The Great Gatsby are short, readable and a good first step.
Are classics worth reading today?
Yes. Most of them have lasted because they say something true about people, and several are shorter and funnier than reputation suggests.
Where can I read or buy the best classic books?
Each of the 50 books has links to Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble and Google Play Books. Authors who want to publish their own classics book can start with our free guides to Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu and Draft2Digital.
Not sure what to read next?
Pick a genre and a mood and the book finder will suggest three books to try.