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Readable Fiction Classics

‘Readable’ and ‘classic’ can mean different things to different people. To avoid confusion, Madison Public Library’s librarians have defined what we mean by them. A ‘classic’ is a work of enduring interest and appeal in which successive generations can find truths that will not age. ‘Readable’ includes those classics whose appeal is immediately apparent and continues throughout.

 

ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY. LITTLE WOMEN. 1868-69.
The lives of the four March young ladies: tomboyish, literary Jo, who retires to the attic when “genius burns”; pretty Meg, who marries a young tutor; gentle Beth, who dies young; and fashionable Amy, who marries Jo’s boon companion.

ATWOOD, MARGARET.  CAT’S EYE. 1988.
A famous painter returns to Toronto for a retrospective of her work; this event brings her past, especially her childhood , back to her.

AUSTEN, JANE. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. 1813.
A masterpiece of gentle humor concerning the prejudice of a middle-class young lady and the misinterpreted pride of an aristocratic hero.

BALDWIN, JAMES. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN. 1953.
Seen through the eyes of a 14-year-old boy, this is a probing account of Harlem’s physical bleakness, emotional tensions, and psychological and spiritual despair, in the midst of which only a fundamentalist church offers a kind of hope.

BELLOW, SAUL. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH. 1953.
The picturesque tale of a kind of “Chicago Tom Jones” who experiences the ups and downs of fortune, always involving women.

BRONTE, CHARLOTTE. JANE EYRE. 1847.
A strong-willed orphan takes a position as governess for the ward of Mr. Rochester, only to fall in love with her employer, the moody master of Thornfield.

BRONTE, EMILY. WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 1847.
A tale of terror on the Yorkshire moors, where Heathcliff gradually works his revenge against those who separated him from the daughter of his benefactor.

BUCK, PEARL. THE GOOD EARTH. 1931.
Pulitzer Prize winning Buck realistically and sympathetically portrays a long lost China in which Wang Lung, a peasant, rises from poverty to the position of rich landowner, helped by his wife O-lan..

CHABON, MICHAEL. THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY. 2000
Two cousins write comic books during the Golden Age of comics, the 1930’s. Their lives and the times they live in are described in great detail. It is not necessary to be a comic book fan to enjoy this book.

BURGESS, ANTHONY. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. 1962.
In the nightmare nation of Britain in the future, overrun by teen-age gangs, a young psychopath undergoes a corrective brainwashing that makes him allergic to violence.

BURNS, OLIVE ANN. COLD SASSY TREE. 1984.
Young Will Tweedy describes his life and his family in a small Georgia town called Cold Sassy in the early 1900s.

CAPOTE, TRUMAN. BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S. 1958.
This novelette that bears the Capote trademarks of neat prose and unusual atmosphere features the story of Holly Golightly, girl-about-New York.

CATHER, WILLA. MY ANTONIA. 1918.
Antonia, forced to work as a servant on a frontier farm in Nebraska, elopes with a railway conductor but returns home to become a strong wife, mother of a large family, and a typical woman of the pioneer West.

CHEKHOV, ANTON PAVLOVICH. SELECT TALES. 1884-1904.
Short stories by a major Russian writer reflect a world now vanished and concentrate on the reality of man unsupported by the comfort of false hopes.

DICKENS, CHARLES. DAVID COPPERFIELD. 1849-50.
After his mother’s death, a young boy is sent to London to make his living. He meets a variety of characters and has many experiences before he finds literary success, love and happiness.

DOCTOROW, E. L. RAGTIME. 1975.
Fact and fiction are mixed in this portrayal of the ragtime era.

DOIG, IVAN. DANCING AT THE RASCAL FAIR. 1987.
The first in Doig’s Montana trilogy recounts the life of Angus McCaskill, a young Scotsman who travels to Two Medicine County to homestead.

DORRIS, MICHAEL. YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER. 1987.
Three generations of American Indian women tell their life stories in reverse chronology in a tale rich with detail about Native American culture.

DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. 1879-80.
Dissolute Mitya, materialistic Ivan, and lovable, mystical Alyosha are the three sons of an old drunkard and sensualist. Dostoyevsky’s profound understanding of human nature illumines this tale of the father’s murder and the false conviction of Mitya for the crime.

DOYLE, ARTHUR CONAN. THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES. 1887-1927.
The most famous detective of fiction has such brilliant analytical faculties that he and his friend, Dr. Watson, regularly put Scotland Yard to shame.

DUMAS, ALEXANDRE. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. 1844.
Imprisoned for 15 years on a false political charge, Edmond Dantés finally escapes and flees to an island where he unearths a treasure and becomes a powerful and mysterious figure of revenge.

DU MAURIER, DAPHNE. REBECCA. 1938.
After marrying a widower, a timid young woman is oppressed by the contrast of her own inexperience and her predecessor’s accomplishments until she learns the truth about Rebecca’s evil character.

ELLISON, RALPH. INVISIBLE MAN. 1952.
The dramatic portrayal of a young black man’s progression from youthful affirmation of life to his sense of total rejection by both white and black society.

FAULKNER, WILLIAM. THE REIVERS; A REMINISCENCE. 1962.
Not “serious’’ Faulkner, this tale is a good introduction to the author. It is an earthily humorous story of the loss of innocence by a young white boy and the loss of subservience by a young black man.

FIELDING, HENRY. THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES; A FOUNDLING. 1749.
A “comic epic’’ about the adventures of a young man of “strong natural impulses, a good disposition, and no overwhelming sense of morality.”

FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT. THE GREAT GATSBY. 1925.
Outsider Jay Gatsby pursues his one dream—to win Daisy Buchanan away from her husband—against the background of false glamour and glittering amorality that was wealthy Jazz Age America.

FORSTER, E. M. HOWARDS END. 1910.
An English country house influences the lives of the materialistic Wilcoxes, the cultured and idealistic Schlegel sisters, and the poor bank clerk, Leonard Bast.

GAINES, ERNEST. A LESSON BEFORE DYING. 1993.
An innocent young African American man is falsely accused of murder during a shoot-out in which he was an innocent bystander; a teacher visits him in jail and helps him face his death with dignity.

GARCIA MARQUEZ, GABRIEL. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. 1967.
The exotic story of the Buendia family, founders of the fictional Colombian city, Macondo. Nothing that happens to these fairy-tale characters is ever ordinary, from their incestuous unions to their wildly improbable adventures.

GOLDING, WILLIAM. LORD OF THE FLIES. 1954.
A powerful and chilling novel about a group of schoolboys stranded on an island after a plane crash. Despite some efforts to form an organized society, the group reverts to primitive religious rites and ritual murder.

GREENE, GRAHAM. THE POWER AND THE GLORY. 1940.
A Mexican Catholic priest, profoundly religious but too weak to resist whiskey, alternately runs from political persecution and risks his life to bring comfort to fearful peasants.

HAMILTON, JANE. MAP OF THE WORLD. 1994.
After a two- year-old drowns in her pond, Alice Goodwin, the farm owner, and an outsider in a small town, is charged with abusing children in her part-time job as a school nurse.

HAMMETT, DASHIEL. THE MALTESE FALCON. 1930.
This mystery features Sam Spade and an assortment of odd characters, all searching for the stature of a black bird about a foot high, said to be very valuable.

HELLER, JOSEPH. CATCH-22. 1961.
A serious but outrageously funny novel of a bombardier’s attempt to avoid bombing missions during World War II, this confronts the hypocrisy, cruelty and stupidity of our society.

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. 1940.
Robert Jordan, an idealistic American, joins a band of Republican guerrillas to blow up a bridge during Spain’s Civil War. In the three days before the bridge is blown up, he falls in love with Maria, a refugee, and they attempt to forget war and human failings.

HENRY, O. THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF O. HENRY. 1899-1910.
Sentimental, semi realistic stories of the lives of modest people, this collection includes “The Ransom of Red Chief,” “The Gift of the Magi” and other tales.

HESSE, HERMAN. SIDDHARTHA. 1951.
Siddhartha endures many experiences in his search for the meaning of humankind’s role on earth, as well as the solution to loneliness and discontent.

HOSSEINI., KHALED. THE KITE RUNNER. 2003.
An American writer returns to Afghanistan, his war-torn homeland, to rescue the son of a childhood friend after the friend and his wife are killed by the Taliban.

HUGO, VICTOR. LES MISERABLES. 1862.
A panoramic tale of France that contrasts human courage with social oppression in the conflict between noble petty thief Jean Valjean and the detective Javert.

HURSTON, ZORA NEAL. THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD. 1937.
At 42, and after two marriages, a light-skinned black woman finds the love she dreamed of with a joyous young gambler.

HUXLEY, ALDOUS. BRAVE NEW WORLD. 1932.
A “savage” who believes in spirituality and moral choice is imported into the passive, collectivist society of the grim future of 632 AF (After Ford).

IRVING, JOHN. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP. 1978.
Jenny Fields becomes a feminist leader ahead of her time; she and her son, T. S. Garp, are surrounded by a wide assortment of eccentric characters.

JACKSON, SHIRLEY. THE LOTTERY. 1949.
The title story is a quietly told, chilling tale of the annual lottery held since time immemorial in a small American town.

JAMES, HENRY. THE TURN OF THE SCREW. 1898.
A governess on an isolated English estate has charge of Miles and Flora, two attractive children who, she comes to realize, are under the evil influence of the ghosts of a former steward and former governess.

JEWETT, SARAH ORNE. THE BEST STORIES OF SARAH ORNE JEWETT. 1925.
Short stories capturing the language, customs, mannerisms and humor particular to New England.

KEROUAC, JACK. ON THE ROAD. 1957.
A semi-autobiographical novel describing the wanderings across America of a young writer and his friends.

KIDD, SUE MONK. SECRET LIFE OF BEES. 2002.
In this coming of age story set in the 60’s, a motherless and neglected girl flees with her black nanny after the nanny insults a group of white angry white men on her way to register to vote.

KINGSOLVER, BARBARA. THE BEAN TREES. 1988.
While on the road, Taylor Greer becomes responsible for an abandoned two-year-old Cherokee girl she names Turtle.

KIPLING, RUDYARD. BEST SHORT STORIES OF RUDYARD KIPLING. 1887-1925.
Stories of English rule and Anglo-Indian life in India and tales of the supernatural, including “The Phantom Rickshaw,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” “The Eye of Allah” and “They.”

KNOWLES, JOHN. A SEPARATE PEACE. 1959.
The rivalry of two roommates at a New Hampshire boarding school during World War II leads to a tragedy.

LAWRENCE, D. H. SONS AND LOVERS. 1913.
An autobiographical novel of family life in an English mining district. Paul Morel’s intense relationship with his mother keeps him from wholly devoting himself to either of the two young women who love him passionately.

LEE, HARPER. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. 1960.
Eight-year-old Scout and her brother, Jem, happily occupy themselves in a small town in Alabama in the 1930s until their father’s courageous defense of a Negro accused of rape brings adult injustice and violence into their world.

LEWIS, SINCLAIR. MAIN STREET. 1920.
Marriage takes Carol Milford to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota where the townspeople do not accept her efforts to improve their lives.

LONDON, JACK. THE CALL OF THE WILD. 1903.
The story of a dog, Buck, stolen from a comfortable home, abused by men and other animals until he learns to fight, adopted and loved by one man who is eventually murdered. Buck finally reverts to being wild and becomes the leader of a wolf pack in the Klondike.

MCCARTHY, CORMAC. ALL THE PRETTY HORSES. 1992
Two boys ride to Mexico on horseback and find work on a ranch in the first volume of the Border trilogy.

McCULLERS, CARSON. THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING. 1946.
Twelve-year-old Frankie is utterly bored until she learns of her brother’s impending marriage and decides she will go along on the honeymoon.

MCEWAN. IAN. ATONEMENT. 2002.
An epic story of the life of Briony Tallis, who tries to atone for a mistake she made as an adolescent that had devastating consequences.

MCMURTRY, LARRY. LONESOME DOVE. 1985.
Two former Texas Rangers break camp and begin a dusty and violent trek north to opportunities in newly opened territory.

MALAMUD, BERNARD. THE FIXER. 1966.
A powerful story, based on a true incident, in which an innocent man is accused of ritual murder and jailed for three years. He endures his suffering and manages to stay alive when death would have been easier.

MANN, THOMAS. DEATH IN VENICE. 1913.
A successful author, proud of his self-discipline, succumbs to mysterious decadent potentialities within himself when he falls in love with a young boy and finds he cannot leave Venice even though he is in danger.

MANSFIELD, KATHERINE. THE SHORT STORIES OF KATHERINE MANSFIELD. 1911-23.
Notable for their poetic delicacy and sensitive understanding of women and children, Mansfield’s stories were chiefly responsible for the renaissance of the English short story during her lifetime.

MAUGHAM, W. SOMERSET. OF HUMAN BONDAGE. 1915.
A talented, handicapped orphan struggles for independence and intellectual development and attempts to become an artist. After years of hard work as a medical student, he marries, gives up his aspirations, and becomes a country doctor.

MILLER, WALTER M., JR. A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. 1960.
An exciting, haunting, sometimes comic novel set in three futures: the grim, dark ages following the first atomic war; a period of new birth when scholars exist and seek out the old learning; and the second atomic age, when humans again risk destruction.

MITCHELL, MARGARET. GONE WITH THE WIND. 1936.
Scarlett O’Hara, raised as a ladylike southern belle, becomes a forceful, ruthless woman during and following the Civil War.

MORRISON, TONI. BELOVED. 1987.
Sethe sacrifices a child to save her from a terrible life as a slave. The child’s spirit returns and appears as Beloved.

NABOKOV, VLADIMIR. LOLITA. 1955.
Humbert Humbert’s sexual attraction to and winning of 12-year-old Lolita, their transcontinental travels together, and his loss of her to another man of similar tastes are the externals of this funny serious novel.

O’BRIEN, TIM. IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS. 1994.
A politician whose career has been destroyed because of his misconduct in Vietnam retreats to the woods with his wife and their partnership explodes.

ORWELL, GEORGE (ERIC BLAIR). ANIMAL FARM. 1945.
A stinging satire on communism, Animal Farm tells of Farmer Jones’ farm, where the animals overthrow their cruel owner and attempt to set up a utopian government that gradually becomes something else entirely.

PASTERNAK, BORIS. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. 1957.
Dr. Zhivago and the many characters whose lives are intertwined with his live through the Russian Revolution, the violent proletarian upheaval and the Communist succession, suffering greatly but with humanity intact.

PATON, ALAN. CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY. 1948.
A moving and influential story of a Zulu country parson who goes to Johannesburg, only to discover that its social environment has forced his sister to become a prostitute and his son a murderer.

POE, EDGAR ALLAN. COMPLETE STORIES AND POEMS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. 1831-49.
A master of the short story and a lyric poet, Poe incorporates horror, suspense, mystery, humor, satire, fantasy and adventure in his work. Includes his well-known stories: “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

PROULX, ANNIE. THE SHIPPING NEWS. 1993.
A newspaperman resettles in the Newfoundland town of his ancestors; he progresses from a bumbling outsider to capable journalist.

REMARQUE, ERICH MARIA. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. 1929.
A 19-year-old German boy is snatched from school to serve in the trenches during World War I. All the comradeship, coarseness, humor, pathos and horror of war are exposed in this realistic portrayal.

ROBINSON, MARILYNNE. HOUSEKEEPING. 1980.
An eccentric and transient aunt returns home to raise her two young nieces in this well written and literate novel.

ROLVAAG, O. E. GIANTS IN THE EARTH. 1927.
Part adventure story describing pioneer life on the plains of North Dakota and part psychological study of these Norwegian immigrants, the novel focuses on Per Hansa and his beloved wife, Beret.

ROTH, PHILLIP. PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT. 1969.
A humorous story of a man torn between his traditional Jewish values and his desires for WASP women.

RUSSO, RICHARD. EMPIRE FALLS. 2001.
The story of two intertwined families living in a depressed mill town in Maine.

SALINGER, J. D. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. 1951.
The story of Holden Caufield who runs away from boarding school to New York City where he preserves his innocence.

SAYERS, DOROTHY. GAUDY NIGHT. 1936.
Harriet Vane has returned to Oxford for the Gaudy Dinner and is welcomed by poison-pen letters and blackmail. Lord Peter Whimsey must find the perpetrator.

SHELLEY, MARY. FRANKENSTEIN; OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS. 1818.
A young German student creates a monster, repulsive to people, but capable of feeling loneliness. The monster eventually turns to killing and brings revenge upon his creator.

SHIELDS, CAROL. THE STONE DIARIES. 1994.
Written in a diary format, this book tracks the long and seemingly ordinary life of Daisy Goodwill Fleet.

SMITH, BETTY. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. 1943.
A young girl flourishes despite poverty and life in a rough section in Brooklyn in the early 1900’s.

SPARK, MURIEL. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE. 1962.
Set in Edinburgh in the 1930s, this is the story of a schoolteacher, her unorthodox approach to life and its indelible mark on the lives of a select group of adolescent girls.

STEGNER, WALLACE. CROSSING TO SAFETY. 1987.
Two young couples become friends when the men are teaching at the University of Wisconsin in this testament to friendship and marriage.

STEINBECK, JOHN. THE GRAPES OF WRATH. 1939.
The hardships of a family of Oklahoma farmers forced by economic desperation to leave their dust-bowl region to search for work in California as fruit pickers.

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. 1886.
A master of atmosphere and imagery writes the classic dual-personality tale of a man whose characteristics go to two extremes.

TAN, AMY. JOY LUCK CLUB. 1989.
When her mother dies, a Chinese-American woman takes her place in her mah-jongg club and gains an appreciation of her mother’s Chinese friends and their culture.

THACKERAY, WILLIAM. VANITY FAIR. 1848.
A picture of mankind with all its faults and cruelty in the contrast between the careers of two boarding school friends: the scheming adventuress Becky Sharpe and the good but humdrum Amelia Sedley.

TOLKIEN, J.R.R. THE LORD OF THE RINGS. 1954-56.
A trilogy, consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King tells of Frodo Baggins’ journey to prevent his magic ring from falling into the hands of the powers of darkness. He is aided by elves, dwarfs, other hobbits and men against sundry evil beings in an enthralling tale.

TOLSTOY, LEO. ANNA KARENINA. 1873-76.
Her adulterous love for a young officer leads Anna to abandon her husband and child, but she finds she cannot live outside the moral law.

TOOLE, JOHN KENNEDY. A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. 1980.
Ignatius J. Reilly’s fortunes take a downturn when he is nearly arrested for being a “suspicious character.”

TWAIN, MARK. THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. 1885.
Huck escapes from his brutal, drunken father and, with Jim, a runaway slave, begins floating down the Mississippi. Their rollicking encounters with various characters teach them something about corruption and moral decay, but their friendship also reveals human dignity and worth.

TYLER, ANNE. THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST. 1985.
Macon separates from his wife of 20 years and he finds his once orderly existence thrown into disorder.

UPDIKE, JOHN. RABBIT RUN. 1960.
The first of four books chronicling the life and times of car salesman Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom.

VONNEGUT, KURT. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE. 1969.
The author, lightly disguised as “Billy Pilgrim,” describes the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, which he witnessed as a prisoner of war, and intermittently travels to the planet Tralfamadore.

WALKER, ALICE. THE COLOR PURPLE. 1982.
A series of letters from Celie to God and then back and forth between Celie and her sister, Nettie dramatizes the life of a young black woman in the American South of the early 20 th century.

WARREN, ROBERT PENN. ALL THE KING’S MEN. 1946.
The rise and fall of a back-country southern lawyer who becomes a power in his state and then abuses his position, narrated by a young intellectual who is forced to confront the problem of good and evil.

WAUGH, EVELYN. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. 1945.
Billeted in the great house during World War II, Charles Ryder recalls his earlier visits to Brideshead with the charming, eccentric Marchmain family.

WHARTON, EDITH. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. 1920.
A psychological novel of manners set in New York during the 1870s in which a woman who has incurred scandal is loved by a married man who lacks the courage to break with convention.

WILDER, THORNTON. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY. 1927.
Brother Juniper investigates the secret lives of five people killed when a bridge collapses, his purpose being to prove that this was not a mere accident but a deliberate plan of the Almighty.

WRIGHT, RICHARD. NATIVE SON. 1940.
Bigger Thomas, an embittered black youth, works hard just to survive until a wealthy realtor and his daughter befriend him , but an unintentional murder changes his life forever .

ZOLA, EMILIE. GERMINAL. 1885.
A socialist is forced to work in the mines; low wages and fines cause a strike which he helps lead. Hunger drives the miners to desperation and force is met by force.

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