The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)

118 Pages

I’ve had a most amazing time….

So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him his reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes…and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

180 Pages

The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, and lavish parties on Long Island.

It is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism, The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)

96 Pages

A pilot crashes in the Sahara Desert and encounters a strange young boy who calls himself the Little Prince.

The Little Prince has traveled there from his home on a lonely, distant asteroid with a single rose. The story that follows is a beautiful and at times heartbreaking meditation on human nature and the wisdom of the heart.

Read more about The Little Prince 

Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)

141 Pages

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality.

Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (1956)

178 Pages

Set in the contemporary Paris of American expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.

James Baldwin’s brilliant narrative delves into the mystery of loving with a sharp, probing imagination, and he creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the heart.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)

107 Pages

I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why.

They are an unlikely pair: George is “small and quick and dark of face”; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a “family,” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California’s dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

179 Pages

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. 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 then 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.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

Read more about Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1984)

110 Pages

Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty.

Esperanza doesn’t want to belong–not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza’s story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)

194 Pages

In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman’s life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with far-away remembrances. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices she has made, hesitantly looking ahead to growing old.

Undeniably triumphant, this is the inspired novelistic outline of human consciousness.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952)

96 Pages

Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway’s magnificent fable is the story of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish.

In a perfectly crafted story, which won for Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a unique and timeless vision of the beauty and grief of man’s challenge to the elements in which he lives.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (1958)

157 Pages

It’s New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany’s. And nice girls don’t, except, of course, Holly Golightly.

Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly ‘top banana in the shock department’, and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (1929)

112 Pages

In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf imagines that Shakespeare had a sister. A sister equal to Shakespeare in talent, and equal in genius, but whose legacy is radically different. This imaginary woman never writes a word and dies by her own hand, her genius unexpressed. If only she had found the means to create, argues Woolf, she would have reached the same heights as her immortal sibling.

In this classic essay, Virginia Woolf takes on the establishment, using her gift of language to dissect the world around her and give voice to those who are without. Her message is a simple one: women must have some money and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

71 Pages

Man is not truly one but truly two.

The good and evil are equal parts of a human; what happens when one loses control over their dark side, what chaos ensues then?

Set in Victorian London, Dr. Jekyll, a respected scientist, becomes consumed by the desire to understand the darker aspects of human nature. In an unchecked scientific experiment, he concocts a potion that transforms into his malicious alter ego called Mr. Hyde.

Through this experiment, Dr. Jekyll can observe why Hyde makes the choices he does and what drives the evil within him, which is also a reflection of what must drive the amoral actions of society at large.
While the experiment seems a success, the two personalities become increasingly intertwined, leading to a downward spiral of Dr. Jekyll’s morality, causing immense psychological turmoil.

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (1897)

192 Pages

“It’s very simple,” said the voice. “I’m an invisible man.”

With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin – the new guest at the Coach and Horses – is at first assumed to be a shy accident victim. But the true reason for his disguise is far more chilling: he has developed a process that has made him invisible, and is locked in a struggle to discover the antidote.

Forced from the village and driven to murder, he seeks the aid of his old friend Kemp. The horror of his fate has affected his mind, however – and when Kemp refuses to help, he resolves to wreak his revenge.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)

150 Pages

Life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating and sleeping in the golden sunshine. But one day a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, and he is forced into a life of toil and danger. Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh and freezing cold Yukon, Buck must fight for his survivial.

Can he rise above his enemies and become the master of his realm once again?

Candide by Voltaire (1759)

129 Pages

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in “the best of all possible worlds.”

On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher’s immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that — contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss — all is not always for the best.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1953)

143 Pages

“I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history,” Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts.

Based on historical people and real events, Miller’s drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town’s most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminates the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)

182 Pages

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything.

They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)

184 Pages

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. It tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a supernatural visit by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)

121 Pages

A very young woman’s first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate…

An estate haunted by a beckoning evil. Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls. But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil. For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (1967)

196 Pages

Ponyboy can count on his brothers and his friends, but not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids who get away with everything, including beating up greasers like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect–until the night someone takes things too far.

Written forty-five years ago, S. E. Hinton’s classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was written.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (1988)

182 Pages

Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago’s journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, most importantly, following our dreams.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915)

98 Pages

Waking after a night of troubled dreams, Gregor is surprised to find himself trapped in the body of a hideous man-sized bug. As he lies on his shell and gazes into space, his mother and father begin calling to him from outside his bedroom door. He must get out of bed, they tell him. He has to go to work. They need his money to live.

Gregor replies to them nervously, his voice sounding strange to his ears.

He’ll be out very soon, he says. He’s just getting ready…

But he can’t keep saying that forever.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (1975)

148 Pages

What if you could live forever? In this timeless story young Winnie Foster learns of a hidden spring in a nearby wood and meets the Tuck family, whose members reveal their astonishing discovery of the spring’s life-changing power. Now Winnie must decide what to do with her newfound knowledge—and the Tucks must decide what to do with her.

But it’s not just the curious girl who is interested in their remarkable tale. A suspicious stranger is also searching for the Tucks, and he will stop at nothing until he finds them and uncovers their secret.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980)

187 Pages

Ruth and Lucille are orphans in the desolate lakeside town of the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff.

Abandoned by a succession of relatives, the sisters find themselves in the care of Sylvie, their enigmatic aunt. Over time, the sisters grow up, and apart – until they must discover what it truly means to escape.

Slaughterhouse-FIve by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

181 Pages

Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller – these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse.

  Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

The Misanthrope by Molière (1666)

119 Pages

Molière’s most-admired comedy of manners, about a man whose quickness to criticise the flaws in others, and in himself, leads him into deep trouble.

Alceste, the ‘misanthrope’, hates all mankind, and despairs of its hypocrisy and falseness. He believes that the world could be perfected if people were more honest with each other.

But when his honesty starts to make him enemies, and the target of malicious gossips, it is his world and his life which suffer.

The Pearl by John Steinbeck (1947)

96 Pages

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence.

Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull’s egg, as “perfect as the moon.” With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security…

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)

166 Pages

Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear.

Mary Shelley’s chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron’s villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world’s most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Billy Budd by Herman Melville (1924)

100 Pages

Aboard the warship Bellipotent, the young orphan Billy Budd was called the Handsome Sailor. He was a fierce fighter and a loyal friend. All the men and officers liked him…

All but one: Master-at-Arms Claggart. Envious, petty Claggart plotted to make Billy’s life miserable. But when a fear of mutinies swept through the fleet, Claggart realized he could do more than just torment the Handsome Sailor…

He could frame Billy Budd for treason…

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)

195 Pages

Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South.

It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women’s issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating a mixed reaction from contemporary readers and critics.

The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)

123 Pages

Set in the sun-drenched streets of French Algiers, this thought-provoking literary classic takes readers on a journey of introspection, challenging societal norms and exploring the depths of human existence.

Meet Meursault, a dispassionate and detached protagonist, who finds himself caught in the chaos of an absurd and indifferent world. As the story unfolds, Meursault’s life takes an unexpected turn when he becomes embroiled in a fateful act of violence, leading to a gripping exploration of morality, identity, and the meaning of life itself.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911)

99 Pages

Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena.

But when Zeena’s vivacious cousin enters their household as a hired girl, Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent.

Passing by Nella Larsen (1929)

141 Pages

Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past–even hiding the truth from her racist husband.

Clare finds herself drawn to Irene’s sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself–and her deception–into every part of Irene’s stable existence.

The Trial by Franz Kafka (1925)

190 Pages

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K, an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him.

Once arrested, he is released but must report to court on a regular basis, an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life, including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door, becomes increasingly unpredictable.

As Joseph tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)

191 Pages

In this nightmare vision of youth in revolt, fifteen-year-old Alex and his friends set out on a diabolical orgy of robbery, rape, torture and murder. Alex is jailed for his teenage delinquency and the State tries to reform him – but at what cost?

Social prophecy? Black comedy? A study of free will? A Clockwork Orange is all of these. It is also a dazzling experiment in language, as Burgess creates “nadsat”, the teenage slang of a not-too-distant future.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)

152 Pages

Merricat Blackwood lives on her family’s estate with her sister Constance and uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods—until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night.

Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890)

175 Pages

Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society.

Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)

152 Pages

Okonkwo is the greatest warrior alive, famous throughout West Africa. But when he accidentally kills a clansman, things begin to fall apart. Then Okonkwo returns from exile to find missionaries and colonial governors have arrived in the village.

With his world thrown radically off-balance he can only hurtle towards tragedy. Chinua Achebe’s stark novel reshaped both African and world literature. This arresting parable of a proud but powerless man witnessing the ruin of his people begins.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899)

188 Pages

Marlow, a seaman and wanderer, recounts his physical and psychological journey in search of the infamous ivory trader Kurtz.

Travelling up river to the heart of the African continent, he gradually becomes obsessed by this enigmatic, wraith-like figure. Marlow’s discovery of how Kurtz has gained his position of power over the local people involves him in a radical questioning, not only of his own nature and values, but those of Western civilization.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)

196 Pages

Could the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations?

Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. And immersed in another case, he sends Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and observe the suspects close at hand.

With its atmospheric setting on the ancient, wild moorland and its savage apparition, The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the greatest crime novels ever written. Rationalism is pitted against the supernatural, good against evil, as Sherlock Holmes seeks to defeat a foe almost his equal.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (1913)

159 Pages

To the anger of her brothers, it is Alexandra who is entrusted to manage their family farm in the tough, hostile prairie of Hanover, Nebraska following the death of their father.

As the years pass, Alexandra rises heroically to the challenge, finding strength in the savage beauty of the land even as loneliness and personal tragedies crowd in.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966)

176 Pages

Born into an oppressive colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty.

After their marriage, disturbing rumours begin to circulate, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness.

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954)

154 Pages

The French Riviera: home to the Beautiful People.

And none are more beautiful than Cécile, a precocious seventeen-year-old, and her father Raymond, a vivacious libertine. Charming, decadent and irresponsible, the golden-skinned duo are dedicated to a life of free love, fast cars and hedonistic pleasures.

But then, one long, hot summer, Raymond decides to marry, and Cécile and her lover Cyril feel compelled to take a hand in his amours, with tragic consequences.

Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1864)

136 Pages

How far would you go to escape the real world?

The underground man had always felt like an outsider. He doesn’t want to be like other people, working in the ‘ant-hill’ of society. So he decides to withdraw from the world, scrawling a series of darkly sarcastic notes about the torment he is suffering.

Angry and alienated, his only comfort is the humiliation of others. Is he going mad? Or is it the world around him that’s insane?

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (1886)

113 Pages

Ivan Ilyich is a middle-aged man who has spent his life focused on his career as a bureaucrat and emotionally detached from his wife and children.

After an accident he finds himself on the brink of an untimely death, which he sees as a terrible injustice. Face to face with his mortality, Ivan begins to question everything he has believed about the meaning of life.

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (1911)

142 Pages

Gustave von Aschenbach is a successful but ageing writer who travels to Venice for a holiday.

One day, at dinner, Aschenbach notices an exceptionally beautiful young boy who is staying with his family in the same hotel. Soon his days begin to revolve around this boy and he is too distracted to pay attention to the ominous rumours that have begun to circulate through the city.

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (1948)

175 Pages

At an isolated mountain hot spring, with snow blanketing every surface, Shimamura, a wealthy dilettante meets Komako, a lowly geisha.

She gives herself to him fully and without remorse, despite knowing that their passion cannot last and that the affair can have only one outcome.

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (1955)

128 Pages

Pedro Páramo is the otherworldly tale of one man’s quest for his lost father.

That man swears to his dying mother that he will find the father he has never met—Pedro Páramo—but when he reaches the town of Comala, he finds it haunted by memories and hallucinations. There emerges the tragic tale of Páramo himself, and the town whose every corner holds the taint of his rotten soul.

Sula by Toni Morrison (1973)

174 Pages

Sula and Nel are born in the Bottom—a small town at the top of a hill. Sula is wild, and daring; she does what she wants, while Nel is well-mannered, a mamma’s girl with a questioning heart.

Growing up they forge a bond stronger than anything, stronger even than the dark secret they have to bear. Strong enough, it seems, to last a lifetime—until, decades later, as the girls become women, Sula’s anarchy leads to a betrayal that may be beyond forgiveness.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez (1981)

120 Pages

A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place twenty-seven years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister.

Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to try and stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, and as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion, an entire society–not just a pair of murderers—is put on trial.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (1966)

152 Pages

Oedipa Maas is made the executor of the estate of her late boyfriend, Pierce Inverarity.

As she diligently carries out her duties, Oedipa is enmeshed in what would appear to be a worldwide conspiracy, meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not-inconsiderable amount of self-knowledge.

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (1964)

186 Pages

Welcome to sunny suburban 1960s Southern California. George is a gay middle-aged English professor, adjusting to solitude after the tragic death of his young partner. He is determined to persist in the routines of his former life.

A Single Man follows him over the course of an ordinary twenty-four hours. Behind his British reserve, tides of grief, rage, and loneliness surge―but what is revealed is a man who loves being alive despite all the everyday injustices.

Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan (1967)

112 Pages

Trout Fishing in America is a pseudonym for the miraculous.

A journey which begins at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in San Francisco’s Washington Square, which wanders through the wonders of America’s rural waterways, and which ends, inevitably, with mayonnaise.

Funny, wild, and sweet, Trout Fishing in America is an incomparable guidebook to the delights of exploration—both of land and mind.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)

34 Pages

In a long-unoccupied mansion, a new mother is confined to what was once a nursery. She is assured by her physician husband that it is a necessary cure to ease her “nervous depression.”

Isolated and powerless, she becomes obsessed with the peeling, sickly colored wallpaper. In it, she sees what no one else can: a prisoner desperate to escape its maddening design.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970)

172 Pages

Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.

Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)

198 Pages

During an eventful season at Bath, young, naive Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time.

She is delighted with her new acquaintances flirtatious Isabella, who shares Catherines love of Gothic romance and horror, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their fathers mysterious house, Northanger Abbey. There, her imagination influenced by novels of sensation and intrigue, Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney.

Bluebeard’s Egg by Margaret Atwood (1983)

203 Pages

In this acclaimed collection of twelve stories, Margaret Atwood probes the territory of childhood memories and the casual cruelty men and women inflict upon each other and themselves.

She looks behind the familiar world of family summers at remote lakes, ordinary lives, and unexpected loves, and she unearths profound truths. A melancholy, teenage love is swept away by a Canadian hurricane, while a tired, middle-aged affection is rekindled by the spectacle of rare Jamaican birds; a potter tries to come to terms with the group of poets who so smother her that she is driven into the arms of her accountant; and, in the title story, the Bluebeard legend is retold as an ironic tale of marital deception.

The Street by Mordecai Richler (1969)

128 Pages

Mordecai Richler looks back on his childhood in Montreal, recapturing the lively panorama of St. Urbain the refugees from Europe with their unexpected sophistication and snobbery; the catastrophic day when there was an article about St. Urbain Street in Time; Tansky’s Cigar and Soda with its “beat-up brown phonebooth” used for “private calls”; and tips on sex from Duddy Kravitz.

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock (1912)

114 Pages

Set in the fictional landscape of Mariposa on the shores of Lake Wissanotti in Missinaba County, Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is an affectionate satire of small town life.

This series of humourous connected sketches about graft, high finance, religion, love and romance is, on one level, an intimate, comic portrait of town life and local politics. On another level, the narrative is a powerful commentary on the workings of community values and on Canada’s place within the British Empire.

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (1847)

168 Pages

When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meagre income and assert her independence.

But Agnes’s enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children and then with the painful disdain of the haughty Murray family; the only kindness she receives comes from Mr Weston, the sober young curate.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (1922)

152 Pages

Siddhartha, a handsome Brahmin’s son, is clever and well loved, yet increasingly dissatisfied with the life that is expected of him.

Setting out on a spiritual journey to discover a higher state of being, his quest leads him through the temptations of luxury and wealth, the pleasures of sensual love, and the sinister threat of death-dealing snakes, until, eventually, he comes to a river. There a ferryman guides him towards his destiny, and to the ultimate meaning of existence.

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole (1857)

135 Pages

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands is the autobiography of a Jamaican woman whose fame rivaled Florence Nightingale’s during the Crimean War.

Mary Seacole traveled widely before eventually arriving in London, where her offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war was met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, she set out independently to the Crimea, where she acted as doctor and ‘mother’ to wounded soldiers while running her business, the ‘British Hotel’.

Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay (2002)

208 Pages

Buried in the archive for almost ninety years, Claude McKay’s Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers–collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor.

While stowing away on a transatlantic freighter, Lafala is discovered and locked in a frigid closet. Badly frostbitten by the time the boat docks, the once-nimble dancer loses both of his lower legs, emerging from life-saving surgery as what he terms “an amputated man.” Thanks to an improbably successful lawsuit against the shipping line, however, Lafala scores big in the litigious United States.

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900)

154 Pages

Come along, Toto, she said. We will go to the Emerald City and ask the Great Oz how to get back to Kansas again.

Swept away from her home in Kansas by a tornado, Dorothy and her dog Toto find themselves stranded in the fantastical Land of Oz. As instructed by the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins, Dorothy sets off on the yellow brick road to try and find her way to the Emerald City and the Wizard of Oz, who can help her get home.

With her companions the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, Dorothy experiences an adventure full of friendship, magic and danger.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

145 Pages

Tricked by the uncle who has stolen his inheritance, young David Balfour is kidnapped and bound for America. Or at least that was the plan, until the ship runs into trouble and David is rescued by Alan Breck Stewart, fugitive Jacobite and, by his own admission, a ‘bonny fighter’.

Balfour, a canny lowlander, finds an echo of some wilder and more romantic self in the wilful and courageous Highland spirit of Alan Breck. A strange and difficult friendship is born, as their adventures begin.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (1877)

195 Pages

As a young horse, Black Beauty is well-loved and happy. But when his owner is forced to sell him, his life changes drastically. He has many new owners—some of them cruel and some of them kind. All he needs is someone to love him again….

Whether pulling an elegant carriage or a ramshackle cab, Black Beauty tries to live as best he can. This is his amazing story, told as only he could tell it.

Persuasion by Jane Austen (1817)

188 Pages

At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank.

What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen’s last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1845)

158 Pages

Born a slave circa 1818 (slaves weren’t told when they were born) on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies.

This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape.

Silas Marner by George Eliot (1861)

192 Pages

Wrongly accused of theft and exiled from a religious community many years before, the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe, living only for work and his precious hoard of money.

But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate, and that of the little girl he adopts, is entwined with Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire, who, like Silas, is trapped by his past.

Silas Marner, George Eliot’s favourite of her novels, combines humour, rich symbolism and pointed social criticism to create an unsentimental but affectionate portrait of rural life.