Read the Classics

What do you mean by “classics” of literature? A Handbook to Literature (Holmon and Harman) defines a classic as “a piece of literature that by common consent has achieved a recognized superior status in literary history; also an author of similar standing.” (from Holman, C. Hugh and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. 6th ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.)

The phrase “by common consent” is the tricky part here; not everyone agrees on what the classics are. But lots of people have created lists of what they believe to be the most important books. Below is a list of some of the books that our library considers as classics. And you can read them online!

• Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• The Iliad by Homer
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri
• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
• Aesop’s Fables by Aesop
• Stories from Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
• The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
• The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. Wells
• The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne
• The Gorilla Hunters by R. M. Ballantyne
• Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
• The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
• Kim by Rudyard Kipling
• The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London
• White Fang by Jack London
• The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
• Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

[Online eBooks courtesy: Project Gutenberg]