Classic Books: Fiction

The Tale of Genji

by Murasaki Shikibu

First published early 11th century, widely considered the world's first novel.

Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes

Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe

Gulliver's Travels

by Jonathan Swift

Candide

by Voltaire

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - Collected Works

The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas

Moby Dick

by Herman Melville

The Bondwoman's Narrative

by Hannah Crafts

written in the 1850s, first published in 2002

Bulfinch's Mythology

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

Les Miserables

by Victor Hugo

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

by Friedrich Nietzsche

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

by Leis Carroll

Little Women

by Louisa May Alcott

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain

Birds Without a Nest: A Novel: A Story of Indian Life and Priestly Oppression in Peru

The Time Machine and the War of the Worlds

by H.G. Wells

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Initially published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman has, since its reissue in trade paper in 1978, been the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

The Call of the Wild

Kindred

All Quiet on the Western Front

Siddhartha

The Good Earth

Brave New World

The Stranger

The Fountainhead

Nineteen Eighty-Four

The Catcher in the Rye

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Catch-22

The Dutchman and The Slave

Centered squarely on the Negro-white conflict, both Dutchman and The Slave are literally shocking plays--in ideas, in language, in honest anger. They illuminate as with a flash of lightning a deadly serious problem--and they bring an eloquent and exceptionally powerful voice to the American theatre. Dutchman opened in New York City on March 24, 1964, to perhaps the most excited acclaim ever accorded an off-Broadway production and shortly thereafter received the Village Voice's Obie Award. The Slave, which was produced off-Broadway the following fall, continues to be the subject of heated critical controversy.

Atlas Shrugged

Things Fall Apart

Flowers for Algernon

Invisible Man

Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Roots

The Color Purple

The House of the Spirits

Indian Killer

Waterlily

A Raisin in the Sun

by Lorraine Hansberry

First Published: 1959

Beloved

by Toni Morrison

first published: 1987

Native Son

by Richard Wright

first published: 1940

Adventures of Don Quixote (DVD)

Dangerous Liaisons (DVD)

Cruel Intentions (DVD)

Modern interpretation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

A Tale of Two Cities (VHS)

Les Misérables (DVD)

Alice in Wonderland (Streaming)

The Wizard of Oz (DVD)

All Quiet on the Western Front (DVD)

1984 (DVD)

Fahrenheit 451 (DVD)

To Kill a Mockingbird (DVD)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (DVD)

Roots (DVD)