My favorite classical novels
9 stories
Emma (1815) by JaneAusten
Emma (1815)
JaneAusten
  • Reads 1,392,096
  • Votes 14,738
  • Parts 55
Emma Woodhouse, aged 20 at the start of the novel, is a young, beautiful, witty, and privileged woman in Regency England. She lives on the fictional estate of Hartfield in Surrey in the village of Highbury with her elderly widowed father, a hypochondriac who is excessively concerned for the health and safety of his loved ones. Emma's friend and only critic is the gentlemanly George Knightley, her neighbour from the adjacent estate of Donwell, and the brother of her elder sister Isabella's husband, John. As the novel opens, Emma has just attended the wedding of Miss Taylor, her best friend and former governess. Having introduced Miss Taylor to her future husband, Mr. Weston, Emma takes credit for their marriage, and decides that she rather likes matchmaking.
Romeo and Juliet by WilliamShakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
WilliamShakespeare
  • Reads 4,185,370
  • Votes 52,490
  • Parts 27
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Cover done by @zuko_42
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by MarkTwain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
MarkTwain
  • Reads 185,186
  • Votes 3,491
  • Parts 37
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River.
Great Expectations (1861) by CharlesDickens
Great Expectations (1861)
CharlesDickens
  • Reads 1,399,666
  • Votes 12,040
  • Parts 60
On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, an orphan who is about six years old, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard while visiting the graves of his mother, father, and siblings. The convict scares Pip into stealing food and a file to grind away his shackles, from the home he shares with his abusive older sister and her kind, passive husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. The next day, soldiers recapture the convict while he is engaged in a fight with another convict; the two are returned to the prison ships from which they escaped...
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by CharlesDickens
A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
CharlesDickens
  • Reads 360,925
  • Votes 4,756
  • Parts 46
The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a former French aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated English barrister who endeavors to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife. Cover art done by @orangedusk
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by MarkTwain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
MarkTwain
  • Reads 183,253
  • Votes 2,645
  • Parts 45
Pride and Prejudice (1813) by JaneAusten
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
JaneAusten
  • Reads 10,272,294
  • Votes 219,333
  • Parts 61
The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.
Jane Eyre (1847) by CharlotteBronte
Jane Eyre (1847)
CharlotteBronte
  • Reads 1,863,524
  • Votes 24,761
  • Parts 41
"Jane Eyre" follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous character, including her growth to adulthood, and her love for Mr. Rochester, the byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall.
Wuthering Heights (1847) by EmilyBronte
Wuthering Heights (1847)
EmilyBronte
  • Reads 1,979,576
  • Votes 21,531
  • Parts 34
Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.