Timeless Classics for Grades 9 through 12 (1993)

[KevinS]

If you want to be embarrassed, ashamed, prideful, or defiant, count how many of these books you have read and tell us.

Agee, James A Death in the Family
Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio
Austen, Jane Emma Northanger Abbey; Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility
Baldwin, James Go Tell lt on the Mountain
Balzac, Honoré de Le Père Goriot
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
The Bible Old Testament; New Testament
Bolt, Robert A Man for All Seasons
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Browning, Robert Poems
Buck, Pearl The Good Earth
Butler, Samuel The Way of All Flesh
Camus, Albert The Plague; The Stranger
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop; My Antonia
Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Collins, Wilkie The Moonstone
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness; Lord Jim; The Secret Sharer; Victory
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Dante The Divine Comedy
Defoe, Daniel Moll Flanders
Dickens, Charles Bleak House; David Copperfield; Great Expectations; Hard Times; Oliver Twist; A Tale of Two Cities
Dickinson, Emily Poems
Dinesen, Isak Out of Africa
Dostoevski, Fyodor The Brothers Karamazov; Crime and Punishment
Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy; Sister Carrie
Eliot, George Adam Bede; Middlemarch; Mill on the Floss; Silas Marner
Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral
Ellison, Ralph lnvisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo Essays
Faulkner, William Absalom, Absalom; As I Lay Dying; lntruder in the Dust; Light in August; The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry Joseph Andrews; Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby; Tender Is the Night
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Forster, E.M. A Passage to India; A Room with a View
Franklin, Benjamin The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Galsworthy, John The Forsyte Saga
Golding, William Lord of the Flies
Goldsmith, Oliver She Stoops to Conquer
Graves, Robert l, Claudius
Greene, Graham The Heart of the Matter; The Power and the Glory
Hamilton, Edith Mythology
Hardy, Thomas Far From the Madding Crowd; Jude the Obscure; The Mayor of Casterbridge; The Return of the Native; Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The House of the Seven Gables; The Scarlet Letter
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms; For Whom the Bell Tolls; The Sun Also Rises
Henry, O. Stories
Hersey, John A Single Pebble
Hesse, Hermann Demian; Siddhartha; Steppenwolf
Homer lliad Odyssey
Hughes, Langston Poems
Hugo, Victor Les Miserables
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik A Doll's House; An Enemy of the People; Ghosts; Hedda Gabler; The Master Builder; The Wild Duck
James, Henry The American; Daisy Miller; Portrait of a Lady; The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Dubliners
Kafka, Franz The Castle; Metamorphosis; The Trial
Keats, John Poems
Kerouac, Jack On the Road
Koestler, Arthur Darkness at Noon
Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers
Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee lnherit the Wind
Lewis, Sinclair Arrowsmith; Babbitt; Main Street
Llewellyn, Richard How Green Was My Valley
Machiavelli The Prince
MacLeish, Archibald J.B.
Mann, Thomas Buddenbrooks; The Magic Mountain
Marlowe, Christopher Dr. Faustus
Maugham, Somerset Of Human Bondage
McCullers, Carson The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Melville, Herman Billy Budd; Moby-Dick; Typee
Miller, Arthur The Crucible; Death of a Salesman
Monsarrat, Nicholas The Cruel Sea
O'Neill, Eugene The Emperor Jones; A Long Day's Journey into Night; Mourning Becomes Electra
Orwell, George Animal Farm; 1984
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago
Poe, Edgar Allan Short stories
Remarque, Erich All Quiet on the Western Front
Rolvaag, O.E. Giants in the Earth
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Sandburg, Carl Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years Abraham Lincoln: The War Years
Saroyan, William The Human Comedy
Sayers, Dorothy The Nine Tailors
Shakespeare, William Plays and sonnets
Shaw, George Bernard Arms and the Man; Major Barbara; Pygmalion; Saint Joan
Sheridan, Richard B. The School for Scandal
Shute, Nevil On the Beach
Sinclair, Upton The Jungle
Sophocles Antigone Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John East of Eden; The Grapes of Wrath; Of Mice and Men
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William M. Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
Tolstoy, Leo Anna Karenina; War and Peace
Trollope, Anthony Barchester Towers
Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark Pudd'nhead Wilson
Updike, John Rabbit Run
Vergil Aeneid
Voltaire Candide
Warren, Robert Penn All the King's Men
Waugh, Evelyn Brideshead Revisited; A Handful of Dust
Wharton, Edith The Age of Innocence
White, T.H. The once and Future King; The Sword in the Stone
Wilde, Oscar The Importance of Being Earnest; The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wilder, Thornton Our Town
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie; A Streetcar Named Desire
Wolfe, Thomas Look Homeward, Angel
Woolf, Virginia Mrs. Dalloway; To the Lighthouse
Wouk, Herman The Caine Mutiny
Wright, Richard Black Boy Native Son

From: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c3074382&view=1up&seq=3

[KevinS]

I only had 58, though I didn't count all the Shakespeare, which would only take me up to 63 or so. So ... less than half! Fail!

[Peter Why]

I was surprised to find that I had read any of them, as my tastes in fiction have been more into fantasy and science fiction for most of my life.

Lord of the Flies - for an examination, not by choice .. I'd never read it again
I Claudius - for pleasure
Brave New World - out of curiosity ... didn't enjoy it
Animal Farm - as above
The Once and Future King - for pleasure
The Sword in the Stone - for pleasure


Plus less than ten which I've tasted, but never completed.

It's just that I don't share the liking for "classical literature". I don't expect the stories that I've liked to be liked by anyone else. It's like LibriVox; I look at some of the books being read, and think "why on earth is anyone reading that?" ... and no doubt someone is thinking that about what I read. We're all different.

Peter

[KevinS]

I was surprised to find that I had read any of them, as my tastes in fiction have been more into fantasy and science fiction for most of my life.

Would you mind making a list for me (and others, if they have an interest) of must read sci-fi and fantasy works. A list of ten, say?

I've read White, Tolkien, LeGuin, and Bradbury mostly.

[mightyfelix]

I got about 23 or so. Some of them I quite enjoyed, some I detested. Some I barely remember. Should they count?

I'm with Peter on this, though: I'll never again read Lord of the Flies.

[DACSoft]

Interesting exercise. I'm surprised I had read as many as I did. Most of them in my teens, so they were probably required reading. It's a good thing I decided, when I was 12 (50 years ago), to keep a list of every book I read as I don't remember reading most of these classics, nor what they were about, but my list tells me I did.

Drum Roll ...

20 books from the list. However, I did read one or more books from 16 other authors on the list. Like Peter, my tastes in fiction were in other directions.

Don

[KevinS]

However, I did read one or more books from 16 other authors on the list.

I read other titles by some of these authors too! Hard to know how the list was assembled or how one author's books are selected. I would have added more Hesse for a start.

[Peter Why]

Kevin, I'll PM you my full list, but here are the extracted ten (now eleven) favourites. The first four are "hard" SF, the other six, soft SF or fantasy.

I'm not particularly knowledgeable or widely read; these are books that I either have now or have owned in the past .... and that I'd lend to a friend to introduce him/her to SF and fantasy (as long as I was certain that I'd get them back!). So these are mainly books that I've enjoyed, rather than being "worthy".

Peter

****

[1] The Chanur Saga, by C.J. Cherryh. Set in a universe which includes other story series and novels (such as Downbelow Station, which I read a long time ago, but that I found uncomfortable enough to avoid rereading ... for reasons which I can't recall).
The series involves an initial group of four books (The Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, Chanur's Homecoming), plus a follow-up novel some years later, Chanur's Legacy, involving one of the main characters from the earlier stories.

[2] Mission of Gravity, by Hal Clement. Set on a discus-shaped world, with massively variable gravity across its surface.

[3] Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. A prison colony on the Moon rebels against the power of the Earth administration. Close friendships and love; unusually well-developed for a "hard" SF author.

[4]The Serrano Legacy series, starting with Sporting Chance, by Elizabeth Moon.

[A1] Bride of the Rat God (and some short ebook stories following it). Wonderful story set in Hollywood of the twenties; the film industry, demon gods, love ... what more can you want?

[A2] Keith Clare. The Otherwise Girl. Beautiful short novel, involving a girl who died a while ago, who's trapped half way between this world and the next, and a boy who meets her, at first not knowing anything about her. Long out of print, but there are plenty of copies out there (I have three copies, in case I lend a copy and don't get it back).

[A3] Those Who Hunt the Night, and following novels (still being added to). Very strong stories involving vampires and the university lecturer and his wife who get too closely involved with them.

[A4] Diane Duane. The series starting with The Door Into Fire. I've been waiting twenty years for her to publish the last in the series; she does say that it's on its way.

[A5] Time and Again, by Jack Finney. The perfect time travel story, complete with illustrations. An artist is taught to shift back into the 1880's.

[A6] By Randall Garrett. The Lord D'Arcy collection (also Ten Little Wizards, by Michael Kurland, set in the same universe). The main character is a crime investigator in an alternate universe, with little science, but lots of magic. He is assisted by an Irish forensic sorcerer.

[A7] EDIT: (added later). The first volume in the Dune series, by Frank Herbert, which I read when it was serialised in Analog, over forty years ago.

[KevinS]

Kevin, I'll PM you my full list, but here are the extracted ten favourites.

Thank you muchly! I think I'll look for the out-of-print story first. (The Otherworldly Girl?)

EDIT: The Otherwise Girl!

[JayKitty76]

I've read Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (surprisingly, I haven't read Les Mis though...)

[KevinS]

I've read Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (surprisingly, I haven't read Les Mis though...)

I don't read French, but the Hugo translations are great fun.

[JayKitty76]

I've read Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (surprisingly, I haven't read Les Mis though...)

I don't read French, but the Hugo translations are great fun.

No, I don't read French either, but I wish I could I'm limited to English and a little Spanish.
Hugo does go into pretty long descriptions of things, but I suppose it's to give the readers that fantastic historical context he's so famous for

[icequeen]

Kevin, I'll PM you my full list, but here are the extracted ten favourites. The first four are "hard" SF, the other six, soft SF or fantasy.

I'm not particularly knowledgeable or widely read; these are books that I either have now or have owned in the past .... and that I'd lend to a friend to introduce him/her to SF and fantasy (as long as I was certain that I'd get them back!). So these are mainly books that I've enjoyed, rather than being "worthy".

Peter

****

[1] The Chanur Saga, by C.J. Cherryh. Set in a universe which includes other story series and novels (such as Downbelow Station, which I read a long time ago, but that I found uncomfortable enough to avoid rereading ... for reasons which I can't recall).
The series involves an initial group of four books (The Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, Chanur's Homecoming), plus a follow-up novel some years later, Chanur's Legacy, involving one of the main characters from the earlier stories.

[2] Mission of Gravity, by Hal Clement. Set on a discus-shaped world, with massively variable gravity across its surface.

[3] Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. A prison colony on the Moon rebels against the power of the Earth administration. Close friendships and love; unusually well-developed for a "hard" SF author.

[4]The Serrano Legacy series, starting with Sporting Chance, by Elizabeth Moon.

[A1] Bride of the Rat God (and some short ebook stories following it). Wonderful story set in Hollywood of the twenties; the film industry, demon gods, love ... what more can you want?

[A2] Keith Clare. The Otherwise Girl. Beautiful short novel, involving a girl who died a while ago, who's trapped half way between this world and the next, and a boy who meets her, at first not knowing anything about her. Long out of print, but there are plenty of copies out there (I have three copies, in case I lend a copy and don't get it back).

[A3] Those Who Hunt the Night, and following novels (still being added to). Very strong stories involving vampires and the university lecturer and his wife who get too closely involved with them.

[A4] Diane Duane. The series starting with The Door Into Fire. I've been waiting twenty years for her to publish the last in the series; she does say that it's on its way.

[A5] Time and Again, by Jack Finney. The perfect time travel story, complete with illustrations. An artist is taught to shift back into the 1880's.

[A6] By Randall Garrett. The Lord D'Arcy collection (also Ten Little Wizards, by Michael Kurland, set in the same universe). The main character is a crime investigator in an alternate universe, with little science, but lots of magic. He is assisted by an Irish forensic sorcerer.

[A7] EDIT: (added later). The first volume in the Dune series, by Frank Herbert, which I read when it was serialised in Analog, over forty years ago.

I'm glad you put Dune on your list, because I would have added it.

[Availle]

Hyperion by Dan Simmons is missing too.

[Kitty]

interesting list, just out of curiosity I checked which books I read. Usually I fail dismally at such lists but here I was surprised how many I had read. Some books I even started, but since I gave up on them, I will not include them in my list.

in English:
Austen, Jane Emma Northanger Abbey; Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility (and others)
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Bolt, Robert A Man for All Seasons
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre (and others)
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales (not all of them, but in Middle English at least)
Collins, Wilkie The Moonstone (and others)
Dickens, Charles Great Expectations (and others)
Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
Golding, William Lord of the Flies
Goldsmith, Oliver She Stoops to Conquer
Henry, O. Stories (some of them at least, but not many)
Homer lliad Odyssey (not the original, but read all the myths as a kid)
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw
Keats, John Poems (not all but a fair selection)
Miller, Arthur The Crucible
Orwell, George Animal Farm; 1984
Poe, Edgar Allan Short stories (not all of them, but a fair amount)
Shakespeare, William Plays and sonnets (not all of them, but many)
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Wilde, Oscar The Importance of Being Earnest; The Picture of Dorian Gray (and others)

in French:
Balzac, Honoré de Le Père Goriot (and others)
Camus, Albert The Plague; The Stranger
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Voltaire Candide (and others)

in German:
Hesse, Hermann Demian
Kafka, Franz Metamorphosis

in Italian:
Machiavelli The Prince

authors I read other books from than mentioned:
Greene, Graham
Hugo, Victor
Mann, Thomas
Sayers, Dorothy
Shute, Nevil

Not a bad result. I was surprised to find William Blake missing on this list.

Sonia