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Literature
Titles from classic literature which should be read by everyone.
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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4.26 avg rating — 6,737,386 ratings
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| 2 |
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Pride and Prejudice
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4.29 avg rating — 4,678,229 ratings
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| 3 |
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Jane Eyre
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4.16 avg rating — 2,276,211 ratings
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| 4 |
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1984
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4.20 avg rating — 5,288,158 ratings
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| 5 |
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Les Misérables
by
4.21 avg rating — 834,134 ratings
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| 6 |
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The Great Gatsby
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3.93 avg rating — 5,777,959 ratings
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| 7 |
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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4.32 avg rating — 1,000,360 ratings
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| 8 |
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Wuthering Heights
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3.90 avg rating — 1,975,597 ratings
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| 9 |
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
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4.30 avg rating — 4,374,582 ratings
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| 10 |
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Little Women (Little Women, #1)
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4.17 avg rating — 2,409,998 ratings
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| 11 |
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The Little Prince
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4.33 avg rating — 2,400,747 ratings
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| 12 |
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A Christmas Carol
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4.09 avg rating — 901,009 ratings
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| 13 |
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Great Expectations
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3.80 avg rating — 861,807 ratings
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| 14 |
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The Chronicles of Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia, #1-7)
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4.28 avg rating — 697,770 ratings
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| 15 |
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East of Eden
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4.43 avg rating — 611,804 ratings
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| 16 |
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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3.92 avg rating — 1,002,769 ratings
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| 17 |
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The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
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4.40 avg rating — 3,076,140 ratings
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| 18 |
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The Grapes of Wrath
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4.02 avg rating — 977,461 ratings
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| 19 |
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
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4.06 avg rating — 600,848 ratings
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| 20 |
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A Tale of Two Cities
by
3.88 avg rating — 1,000,750 ratings
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| 21 |
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Dracula
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4.02 avg rating — 1,427,641 ratings
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| 22 |
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The Catcher in the Rye
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3.80 avg rating — 3,825,235 ratings
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| 23 |
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Emma
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4.05 avg rating — 958,414 ratings
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| 24 |
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Of Mice and Men
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3.89 avg rating — 2,772,396 ratings
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| 25 |
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Frankenstein
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3.89 avg rating — 1,789,125 ratings
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| 26 |
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The Odyssey
by
3.83 avg rating — 1,165,598 ratings
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| 27 |
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
by
4.13 avg rating — 1,807,062 ratings
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| 28 |
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Gone with the Wind
by
4.31 avg rating — 1,248,079 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Scarlet Letter
by
3.44 avg rating — 905,577 ratings
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| 30 |
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Oliver Twist
by
3.88 avg rating — 421,736 ratings
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| 31 |
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Steppenwolf
by
4.13 avg rating — 209,095 ratings
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| 32 |
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Lord of the Flies
by
3.70 avg rating — 3,138,523 ratings
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| 33 |
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Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 926,100 ratings
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| 34 |
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Crime and Punishment
by
4.28 avg rating — 1,039,063 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Old Man and the Sea
by
3.81 avg rating — 1,278,208 ratings
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| 36 |
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Anna Karenina
by
4.10 avg rating — 913,210 ratings
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| 37 |
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Persuasion
by
4.15 avg rating — 758,459 ratings
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| 38 |
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by
3.84 avg rating — 299,122 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)
by
4.24 avg rating — 3,083,273 ratings
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| 40 |
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The Stranger
by
4.03 avg rating — 1,337,424 ratings
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| 41 |
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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)
by
4.32 avg rating — 1,088,337 ratings
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| 42 |
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Don Quixote
by
3.91 avg rating — 299,376 ratings
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| 43 |
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The Three Musketeers
by
4.10 avg rating — 346,403 ratings
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| 44 |
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Siddhartha
by
4.08 avg rating — 854,944 ratings
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| 45 |
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
by
4.22 avg rating — 1,981,817 ratings
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| 46 |
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Faust, First Part
by
3.83 avg rating — 84,596 ratings
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| 47 |
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Rebecca
by
4.25 avg rating — 704,849 ratings
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| 48 |
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Middlemarch
by
4.03 avg rating — 176,197 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)
by
4.58 avg rating — 1,014,076 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Sun Also Rises
by
3.79 avg rating — 485,338 ratings
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| 51 |
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The Complete Works
by
4.48 avg rating — 57,609 ratings
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| 52 |
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The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)
by
4.50 avg rating — 1,094,940 ratings
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| 53 |
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The Iliad
by
3.93 avg rating — 498,720 ratings
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| 54 |
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale
by
3.56 avg rating — 606,408 ratings
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| 55 |
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Animal Farm
by
4.01 avg rating — 4,406,549 ratings
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| 56 |
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All Quiet on the Western Front
by
4.10 avg rating — 509,195 ratings
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| 57 |
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Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
by
4.31 avg rating — 1,456,366 ratings
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| 58 |
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin
by
3.92 avg rating — 240,379 ratings
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| 59 |
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Around the World in Eighty Days
by
3.95 avg rating — 277,141 ratings
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| 60 |
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The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 269,759 ratings
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| 60 |
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Fahrenheit 451
by
3.97 avg rating — 2,749,098 ratings
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| 62 |
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The Complete Stories and Poems
by
4.40 avg rating — 292,644 ratings
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| 63 |
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The Canterbury Tales
by
3.52 avg rating — 235,486 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Man Without Qualities
by
4.19 avg rating — 7,236 ratings
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| 65 |
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Inferno
by
4.03 avg rating — 202,018 ratings
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| 66 |
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Collected Fictions
by
4.56 avg rating — 25,250 ratings
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| 67 |
|
War and Peace
by
4.17 avg rating — 359,245 ratings
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| 68 |
|
The Color Purple
by
4.28 avg rating — 741,438 ratings
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| 69 |
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The Lord of the Rings
by
4.54 avg rating — 720,289 ratings
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| 70 |
|
Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 112,834 ratings
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| 71 |
|
The Death of Ivan Ilych
by
4.14 avg rating — 209,744 ratings
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| 72 |
|
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
by
3.93 avg rating — 9,737 ratings
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| 73 |
|
A Tale of Two Cities / Great Expectations
by
4.02 avg rating — 17,489 ratings
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| 74 |
|
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3)
by
4.30 avg rating — 321,948 ratings
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| 75 |
|
The Republic
by
3.97 avg rating — 221,681 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Merchant of Venice
by
3.78 avg rating — 200,122 ratings
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| 77 |
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Catch-22
by
3.99 avg rating — 877,018 ratings
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| 78 |
|
Robinson Crusoe
by
3.68 avg rating — 326,831 ratings
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| 79 |
|
Sense and Sensibility
by
4.09 avg rating — 1,274,513 ratings
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| 80 |
|
The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairytales
by
4.23 avg rating — 219,752 ratings
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| 81 |
|
Far From the Madding Crowd
by
3.97 avg rating — 163,837 ratings
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| 82 |
|
The House of Mirth
by
3.97 avg rating — 104,190 ratings
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| 83 |
|
Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1)
by
4.16 avg rating — 66,848 ratings
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| 84 |
|
Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,335 ratings
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| 85 |
|
David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 254,483 ratings
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| 86 |
|
Northanger Abbey
by
3.85 avg rating — 442,877 ratings
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| 87 |
|
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
by
Mitch Albom (Goodreads Author)
4.20 avg rating — 1,166,552 ratings
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| 88 |
|
One Hundred Years of Solitude
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4.12 avg rating — 1,079,773 ratings
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| 89 |
|
Beowulf
by
3.50 avg rating — 340,060 ratings
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| 90 |
|
Hamlet
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4.03 avg rating — 1,027,093 ratings
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| 91 |
|
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Captain Nemo, #2)
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3.89 avg rating — 272,368 ratings
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| 92 |
|
Forty-Ninth
by
Boris Pronsky (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 128 ratings
score: 899,
and
9 people voted
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| 93 |
|
Common Sense
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 38,772 ratings
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| 94 |
|
The Woman in White
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4.01 avg rating — 163,519 ratings
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| 95 |
|
For Whom the Bell Tolls
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3.99 avg rating — 313,272 ratings
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| 96 |
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The Glass Menagerie
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3.74 avg rating — 141,670 ratings
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| 97 |
|
The Poetry of Robert Frost
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4.24 avg rating — 49,085 ratings
score: 843,
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9 people voted
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| 98 |
|
Dubliners
by
3.84 avg rating — 171,609 ratings
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| 99 |
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The Secret Garden
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4.17 avg rating — 1,271,886 ratings
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| 100 |
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The Pearl
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3.56 avg rating — 264,323 ratings
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Tags:
classic-literature
jb
2628 books
74 friends
74 friends
Lisa
7448 books
166 friends
166 friends
Nelda
181 books
51 friends
51 friends
DalalK.
266 books
9 friends
9 friends
Christina
228 books
22 friends
22 friends
Justine
316 books
1 friend
1 friend
Anajoy-rusticgirl
3565 books
27 friends
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Annie
862 books
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Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)
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message 1:
by
jb
(new)
Feb 05, 2010 02:07PM
This is a work in progress list.....
reply
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Lisa - I think you're my kind of literary girl. Is there some way we can chat through this site/list? I have been a voracious reader of quality literature for many years ( thanks to my upbringing, amazingly aewlf taught Welsh father, and finding my passion early) Have met very few people as eclectic in their tastes or widely read in the current canon ( and previous canons) . Language and what it reveals is my passion and while not confined to one genre or historical period - to me a book well written has an impact similar to what people claim music can do in their lives . Hope that doesn't seem to incoherent but time constriction here and have to sign off Jo
Great list. I'm very surprised you included Alan Watts, especially Does it Matter. Though it certainly is an interesting book.
Hmm...I'm having a hard time seeing Artemis Fowl as a classic at all, but multiples w/in the series?
NOT classic literatureThe Kite Runner (2003, if ever - modern classic)
Isn't it pretty to think so (2012)
Artemis Fowl
Ðɑηηɑ wrote: "The Narnia Chronicles is so Christian, I think you should wipe it off"Your comment is absurd and senseless. The Chronicles of Narnia will always be a classic, and trying to deny it that title simply because it is based off of Christianity is ridiculous. If you don't like to read anything that is considered Christian, then simply don't read it. But this classic literature should NOT be removed from this list. The Chronicles of Narnia will always be a classic, and that will never change just because it reflects Christianity.
Nicole wrote: "Ðɑηηɑ wrote: "The Narnia Chronicles is so Christian, I think you should wipe it off"Your comment is absurd and senseless. The Chronicles of Narnia will always be a classic, and trying to deny it ..."
That was a really stupid comment. I can't believe I wrote it!
Such a nice idea for a list.But. Whoever put in Coelho, the Hunger Games and John Green for the list does not understand the meaning of the term classic literature (I'm not saying those are in default bad books, but in no way classics).
Removed for not being classified as 'classic' under any circumstances:The AlchemistThe Fault in Our Stars
The classic novels that intrigued me the most are picture of dorian gray, lolita, and les miserables. The list actually gave a good tip on what to read next.
why do these lists always forget to include Dune by Frank Herbert it should definitely be up there
jennbunny wrote: "This is a work in progress list....."I sure hope so. The best ones are not listed.
Hi how could i read these literagures full version ? Pls help me
I dn't belive in the ratings,it dsn't indicates the worthness of a literary work.
Why would people of other countries need to read the American Constitution?
I just removed 11 (!) duplicates, which is quite a lot, considering there are 285 books on this list now.
George wrote: "This list is a joke."I'm afraid I tend to agree... There are books on this list which I would definitely not consider 'Best Classic Literature Ever'. I mean, Harry Potter?? Come on people. I loved the Harry Potter books, but they can't possibly be considered classic literature... And there are several other titles mentioned here which this applies to as well.
A list named "best classic literature ever" should have at least 5-6 Russian novels among top 30. The first Russian novel is listed as 37th; it should be a joke.
Anyone can add books to this list.
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