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Favorite Classics
A Suggested Reading List
Austen, Jane
Northanger Abbey
A slightly different Jane Austen work, this novel set in Bath as are most of
Jane Austen’s novels, presents the reader with a mystery. When Catherine Morland
falls in love with Henry Tilney, a young clergyman, she is invited to the family
home of Northanger Abbey. Her overactive imagination leads her to see trouble
and mayhem everywhere irritating her future father-in-law. YA PB Aus (Main)
Cather, Willa
My Antonia
For anyone looking for a positive affirmation of the American dream, this story
of the Bohemian immigrants who settle on the prairie of Nebraska is it. Told
through the eyes of the adult Jim Burden, Antonia Shimerda’s struggle unfolds
against a backdrop the pioneer West. As Jim makes clear, this is not a country
at all but the material out of which countries are made. FIC Cat or YA Cat (Main
& West)
Conrad, Joseph
Heart of Darkness
Marlow’s journey through the then Belgian Congo in search of the trader Kurtz is
a study of man’s search for the nature of evil. As the reader goes deeper and
deeper into the jungle with Marlow, he begins to see that the “heart of
darkness” is the primitive jungle of evil inflicting all mankind. This is the
true horror of man’s fate. YA PB Con (Main & West)
Dickens, Charles
Great Expectations
With the usual cast of characters typical of Dicken’s England, Pip, or Philip
Pirrip, overcomes a difficult childhood to become a man of depth and character.
All sorts of people influence him from the eccentric Miss Havisham to Abel
Magwitch, his benefactor and ex-convict as he grows from a self-centered youth
to a compassionate adult. YA PB Dic or FIC Dic (Main & West)
DuMaurier, Daphne
Rebecca
Set along the coast in the Cornwall area of England, this is the quintessential
mystery grabbing the reader from the opening line, “Last night I dreamt I went
back to Manderly .” As the new Mrs. DeWinter the main character does not measure
up to the previous Mrs. DeWinter especially in the eyes of the trusted
house-keeper. But slowly the tale unfolds as to the true nature of the first
Mrs. DeWinter. Fic DuM or SC/DUM (Main)
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
The Great Gatsby
“So we beat on, boats against the current, drawn ceaselessly into the past.”
This closing line of the novel reflects the death of the American dream, the
dream that was so alive and vibrant in My Antonia. Jay Gatsby invented himself
in order to attract Daisy. He is caught up in the world of the rich where people
are attracted to his parties “like moths”. Fitzgerald captures the emptiness and
boredom of the Jazz Age in some of the most beautiful prose in American
literature. FIC Fit (Main & West)
Forster, E. M.
A Passage to India
A compassionate story of the difficulty of friendship between races in British
ruled India. Propriety and traditional values and beliefs are stronger than the
truth until Mrs. Moore takes a stand for truth. A classic study of life under
British rule. FIC For (West)
Flaubert, Gustave
Madame Bovary
Unhappily married to a village doctor, Emma’s romantic dreams of love remain
unfulfilled. The precise details of her petty life reveal a vacuous woman unable
to face reality. This is a classic of 19th century French literature marking a
new trend in the development of the novel. FIC Flaubert (Main)
Gogol, Nikolai
Dead Souls
Considered one of the greatest novels in the Russian language, this novel
relates the adventures of a swindler who devises a plan to buy up all the serfs
who have died and then mortgage them to acquire real estate of his own. Gogol
reveals both the corruption in the government and in the individual. FIC Gog
(Main)
Hardy, Thomas
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Tess goes into service at the D’Urberville household where the son of the
household forces her into sexual relations resulting in her pregnancy. The child
dies and Tess leaves to work as a dairy maid on a farm where she falls in love
with a rector’s son. They marry but he soon abandons her when her learns of her
past. Victimized by her past Tess becomes the innocent victim of a social system
gone astray. FIC Har or YA PB Har (Main)
Hemingway, Ernest
The Sun Also Rises
Considered by many to be Hemingway’s finest work. Set in Spain Hemingway depicts
the expatriate Americans, the lost generation of Americans searching for an
elusive something to render their lives meaningful. Hemingway’s love of
bullfighting is revealed through Romero who enacts the death of a bull with
grace and control in the face of danger, qualities they all admire. The fact
that nothing happens is exactly the point of the novel. FIC Hem or YA PB Hem
(Main & West)
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
A novelette told from the viewpoint of a governess who goes to an isolated
estate in England to take charge of Miles and Flora, two bright but somewhat
sinister children. She soon discovers, or so she thinks, that the children are
under the influence of two ghosts. James never clarifies the reality of the
episodes leaving it to the reader to decide. FIC Jam (West)
Saroyan, William
The Human Comedy
Told with clarity and simplicity this short tale set in a small town on the West
coast during the Second World War shows how the lives of ordinary people reveal
what it means to live through the joys and sorrows of life. FIC Hum (Main)
Wharton, Edith
The Age of Innocence
A satirical picture of life in New York City during the 1870’s with its social
class structure. Propriety and conformity win out over personal happiness and
fulfillment. PB Wha or YA PB Wha (Main & West)
CP5/07
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