Rory Gilmore’s reading list
Items in this hypelist
To Read
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens · 2007
On the Road Jack Kerouac (English Edition)
Editorial Aleph, Jack Kerouac · 2015
The Shining
Stephen King · 1977
Othello
William Shakespeare · 1993
<b>The authoritative edition of<i> Othello </i>from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.</b><br><br>In <i>Othello</i>, Shakespeare creates powerful drama from a marriage between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona that begins with elopement and mutual devotion and ends with jealous rage and death. Shakespeare builds many differences into his hero and heroine, including race, age, and cultural background. Yet most readers and audiences believe the couple’s strong love would overcome these differences were it not for Iago, who sets out to destroy Othello. Iago’s false insinuations about Desdemona’s infidelity draw Othello into his schemes, and Desdemona is subjected to Othello’s horrifying verbal and physical assaults.<br> <br> This edition includes:<br> -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play<br> -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play<br> -Scene-by-scene plot summaries<br> -A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases<br> -An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language<br> -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play<br> -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books<br> -An annotated guide to further reading<br> <br> Essay by Susan Snyder<br> <br> The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.
Great Expectation
Charles Dickens · 2021
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote · 1994
Beloved Pulitzer Prize Winner
Toni Morrison · 2004
The Joy Luck Club A Novelty
Amy Tan · 2006
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse · 2022
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey · 2007
Candide
Voltaire · 2019
The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd · 2003
The House of the Spirits A Novel
Isabel Allende · 2015
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 2011
The Iliad
Homer · 2017
A Room with a View
Edward Morgan Forster · 2020
Don Quixote
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra · 2018
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy · 2017
<b>A stunning clothbound Hardcover Classics edition of Tolstoy’s great novel, one of the undisputed masterpieces of world literature. <b>Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s <i>The Great American Read</i></b></b><br> <br> At a glittering society party in St. Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon’s army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey, and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself. In <i>War and Peace</i>, Tolstoy entwines grand themes—conflict and love, birth and death, free will and fate—with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur.<br> <br> For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens · 2003
The Art of War
Sunzi · 2006
Franny and Zooey
J. D. Salinger · 1991
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco · 2014
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath · 2000
The Awakening
Kate Chopin · 2015
Beowulf
Anonymous · 2008
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou · 2009
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville · 2003
Letters to a Young Poet
Rainer Maria Rilke · 2018
<p>Facsimile of 1943 Edition. Born in 1875, the great German lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke published his first collection of poems in 1898 and went on to become renowned for his delicate depiction of the workings of the human heart. Drawn by some sympathetic note in his poems, young people often wrote to Rilke with their problems and hopes. From 1903 to 1908 Rilke wrote a series of remarkable responses to a young, would-be poet on poetry and on surviving as a sensitive observer in a harsh world. Those letters, ten in all, remain a fresh source of inspiration and insight to the poetic sensibility to this day.</p>
Night
Elie Wiesel · 2006
Dead Soul
James D. Doss · 2025
Angelas Ashes
Mccourt, Frank
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess · 2019
Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes · 1994
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith · 2005
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Victor Hugo · 2021
Set in medieval Paris, Victor Hugo's powerful historical romance has resonated with succeeding generations ever since its publication in 1837. It tells the story of the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda, condemned as a witch by the tormented archdeacon Claude Frollo, who lusts after her. Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral, having fallen in love with the kindhearted Esmeralda, tries to save her by hiding her in the cathedral's tower. When a crowd of Parisian peasants, misunderstanding Quasimodo's motives, attacks the church in an attempt to liberate her, the story ends in tragedy.
Pygmalion
George Bernard Shaw · 2014
High Fidelity
Nick Hornby · 1996
Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Gregory Maguire · 1996
The Godfather
Mario Puzo · 1969
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad · 2020
The Metamorphosis: The Original Classic by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka · 2024
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
J.K. Rowling · 2015
<p><i>Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'.</i><br><br>Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!<br><br><br><i>Having become classics of our time, the Harry Potter eBooks never fail to bring comfort and escapism. With their message of hope, belonging and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new readers.</i></p>
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy · 2014
The Da Vinci Code Featuring Robert Langdon
Dan Brown · 2003
The Return of the King Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien · 2012
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck · 1993
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · 1965
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini · 2013
Charlotte’s Web
E. B. White · 2015
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier · 2013
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert · 2002
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon · 2004
Lord of the Flies
William Golding · 2003
Macbeth
William Shakespeare · 2003
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez · 2006
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1993
<b>Hailed by <i>Washington Post Book World</i> as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition of <i>Crime and Punishment </i>has been updated in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth. • <b>ONE OF <i>TIME MAGAZINE</i>'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME</b></b><br><br>With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of <i>The Brothers Karamazov</i> the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of <i>Crime and Punishment, </i>Dostoevsky's astounding pyschological thriller, newly revised for his bicentenniel. <br><br>In <i>Crime and Punishment</i>, when Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, commits an act of murder and theft, he sets into motion a story that is almost unequalled in world literature for its excruciating suspense, its atmospheric vividness, and its depth of characterization and vision. Dostoevsky’s drama of sin, guilt, and redemption transforms the sordid story of an old woman’s murder into the nineteenth century’s profoundest and most compelling philosophical novel.
The Two Towers Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien · 2012
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Illustrated First Edition) 100th Anniversary OZ Collection
Lyman Frank Baum · 2019
A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf · 2023
"A Room of One's Own," refers to the core argument of the essay: Woolf contends that for women to excel as writers and artists, they need a literal and figurative space of their own, both physical and mental. This space allows them the freedom to think, create, and explore their own ideas without being constrained by societal expectations and limitations. Woolf examines the history of women's writing and highlights the lack of opportunities for women to pursue intellectual and creative endeavors throughout the centuries. She discusses how patriarchal systems and gender bias have marginalized women's voices and restricted their access to education and resources. Throughout the essay, Woolf uses the fictional character of "Shakespeare's sister" to illustrate the challenges women faced in pursuing literary ambitions during the Elizabethan era. She imagines a talented and creative sister of William Shakespeare who, despite having the same abilities as her famous brother, is denied the opportunities and support needed to develop her talent, ultimately leading to her tragic fate. "A Room of One's Own" also addresses the importance of economic independence for women. Woolf argues that financial autonomy is crucial for women to have the freedom to pursue their intellectual and artistic aspirations without relying on the support and validation of men.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - the Original 1886 Classic (Reader's Library Classics)
Robert Louis Stevenson · 2022
The Virgin Suicides
Jeffrey Eugenides · 2021
The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe · 2013
The Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafon · 2005
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold · 2004
Life of Pi A Novel
Yann Martel · 2002
The Outsiders
S. E. Hinton · 1967
Atonement A Novel
Ian McEwan · 2003
Slaughterhouse-Five A Novel
Kurt Vonnegut · 1999
Mrs. Fallows
Virginia Woolf · 1990
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Dr. Seuss · 1957
Carrie
Stephen King · 2011
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck · 2006
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas · 2003
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1994
Northhanger Abbey
Jane Austen,Jane Austen · 2009
Emma (Jane)
Jane Austen · 2020
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell · 2011
Since its original publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time—has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel.<br/><br/>Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.<br/><br/>This is the tale of Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled, manipulative daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, who arrives at young womanhood just in time to see the Civil War forever change her way of life. A sweeping story of tangled passion and courage, in the pages of Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell brings to life the unforgettable characters that have captivated readers for decades.<br/><br/>Widely considered an American classic, and often remembered for its epic film version, Gone With the Wind explores the depth of human passions with an intensity as bold as its setting in the red hills of Georgia. A superb piece of storytelling, it vividly depicts the drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens · 2013
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley · 2006
Now more than ever: Aldous Huxley's enduring masterwork must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit<br/>"A masterpiece. ... One of the most prophetic dystopian works." —Wall Street Journal<br/>Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.<br/>"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen · 2003
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 2001
Hamlet
William Shakespeare
Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley · 2015
Alice in Wonderland The Original 1865 Edition with Complete Illustrations by Sir John Tenniel (a Classic Novel of Lewis Carroll)
Lewis Carroll · 2021
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · 2004
The Fellowship Of The Ring Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien · 2012
Fahrenheit 451 A Novel
Ray Bradbury · 2012
"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.
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath · 2005
<p><i>The Bell Jar</i> chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made <i>The Bell Jar</i> a haunting American classic.</p> <p>This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.</p>
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky · 2012
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte · 2002
<b>Coming soon to the big screen is Emerald Fennell’s feature film “<i>Wuthering Heights</i>,” which captures the spirit of this epic love story and stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff.<br></b><br>Emily Brontë's only novel endures as a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence. The Penguin Classics edition is the definitive version of the text, edited with an introduction by Pauline Nestor.<br><br>Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before. What unfolds is the tale of the intense love between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past. <br><br>In this edition, a new preface by Lucasta Miller, author of <i>The Brontë Myth</i>, looks at the ways in which the novel has been interpreted, from Charlotte Brontë onwards. This complements Pauline Nestor's introduction, which discusses changing critical receptions of the novel, as well as Emily Brontë's influences and background.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · 2014
<b>Louisa May Alcott's classic tale of four sisters in a deluxe hardcover edition, with beautiful cover illustrations by Anna Bond, the artist behind world-renowned stationery brand Rifle Paper Co.<br></b><br>Grown-up Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. The four March sisters couldn't be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Whether they're putting on a play, forming a secret society, or celebrating Christmas, there's one thing they can't help wondering: Will Father return home safely?
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank · 2010
<b>THE DEFINITIVE EDITION <b>•</b> Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, the remarkable diary that has become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.<br></b><br><b>Updated for the 75th Anniversary of the <i>Diary</i>’s first publication with a new introduction by Nobel Prize–winner Nadia Murad<br><br>“The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust ... remains astonishing and excruciating.”—<i>The New York Times Book Review</i></b><br><br>In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë · 2003
Charlotte Brontë characterized the eponymous heroine of her 1847 novel as being "as poor and plain as myself." Presenting a heroine with neither great beauty nor entrancing charm was an unprecendented maneuver, but Brontë's instincts proved correct, for readers of her era and ever after have taken Jane Eyre into their hearts. The author drew upon her own experience to depict Jane's struggles at Lowood, an oppressive boarding school, and her troubled career as a governess. Unlike Jane, Brontë had the advantage of a warm family circle that shared and encouraged her literary pursuits. She found immediate success with this saga of an orphan girl forced to make her way alone in the world, from Lowood School to Thornfield, the estate of the majestically moody Mr. Rochester, and beyond. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
The Picture of Dorian Gray The Original 1890 Edition
Oscar Wilde · 1890
“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray<br/><br/>The Picture of Dorian Gray is a 1891 gothic and philosophical novel by Irish writer and playwright Oscar Wilde. First published as a serial story in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, the editors feared the story was indecent, and without Wilde's knowledge, deleted five hundred words before publication.<br/><br/>Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding the public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press.<br/><br/>Wilde revised and expanded the magazine edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) for publication as a novel; the book edition (1891) featured an aphoristic preface — an apologia about the art of the novel and the reader. The content, style and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own literary right, as social and cultural criticism. In April 1891, the editorial house Ward, Lock and Company published the revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.<br/><br/>A True Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf!
1984
George Orwell · 1950
<b>Written more than 70 years ago, <i>1984</i> was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever...<br><br><b>• Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s <i>The Great American Read •</i></b><br></b><br>“<i>The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.</i>”<br><br>Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...<br><br>A startling and haunting novel, <i>1984</i> creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the novel’s hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Harper Lee
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1961), a classic of modern American literature. Although the novel deals with controversial issues such as rape and racial inequality, it is also praised for its warmth and humor.
The Great Gats
Fitzgerald · 2020
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, Book 4) (Interactive Illustrated Edition)
J. K. Rowling · 2025
Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics)
Jane Austen · 1813
