Beginner Classics!
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Books
Lord of the Flies
William Golding · 1959
The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka · 2009
"The Metamorphosis" (original German title: "Die Verwandlung") is a short novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect.
Agnes Grey
Anne Bronte · 1847
Anne Brontë's first published novel, Agnes Grey tells the story of one woman's search for love and happiness within the boundaries of pre-Victorian society. Forced by her family’s declining circumstances to find employment, Agnes Grey takes the only position open to her—governess within a wealthy family—and faces hardships that challenge the boundaries of her experience. Published under the pseudonym Acton Bell, Agnes Grey is based on Anne Brontë's own time as a governess and her experience with the shallowness of the upper class as well as the oppression and abuse of women in powerless positions. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital form, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
Animal Farm
George Orwell · 1945
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · 1868
"Little Women was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. It follows the lives of the four March sisters--Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy-- from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters. Although Little Women was a novel for girls, it differed notably from the current writings for children, especially girls. The book was an immediate commercial and critical success and has since been adapted for cinema, TV, Broadway and even the opera." -- Amazon.com.
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury · 1953
"Sixty years after the original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel 'Fahrenheit 451' stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn't live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. This sixtieth-anniversary edition commemorates Ray Bradbury's masterpiece with a new introduction by Neil Gaiman ; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author ; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Nelson Algren, Harold Bloom, Margaret Atwood, and others ; rare manuscript pages and sketches from Ray Bradbury's personal archive ; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature."--taken from back cover.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · 1937
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby<br/>The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.<br/>A youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922 inspired the novel. Following a move to the French Riviera, he completed a rough draft in 1924. He submitted the draft to editor Maxwell Perkins, who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. After his revisions, Fitzgerald was satisfied with the text, but remained ambivalent about the book's title and considered several alternatives. The final title he desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue. Painter Francis Cugat's final cover design impressed Fitzgerald who incorporated a visual element from the art into the novel.<br/>Gatsby continues to attract popular and scholarly attention. The novel was most recently adapted to film in 2013 by director Baz Luhrmann, while contemporary scholars emphasize the novel's treatment of social class, inherited wealth compared to those who are self-made, race, environmentalism, and its cynical attitude towards the American dream. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterpiece and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel.<br/>A True Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf!
Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
Kurt Vonnegut · 1969
