20th Century Classics
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant, rises from poverty to become a rich landowner with the aid of his patient wife in the 1920s.
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Antonia works as a servant for her neighbors after her father's death, elopes and then returns to marry a Bohemian farmer.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
When Sir Charles Baskerville is murdered, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the eerie howling on the moor.
Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner
When Thomas Sutpen returns from the war, he tries to continue his family name and complete his design to be a Southern aristocrat, but his children thwart his plan. Also available on audio by William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jay Gatsby still adores Daisy Buchanan although she has married someone else, and he risks everything to lure her back.
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
Two women come to Chandrapore, India, and their lack of understanding of the culture causes one of them to make an unjust accusation. Also available on audio by E.M. Forster: A Room With a View.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of a group of schoolboys marooned on a desert island.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front during World War I and his love for an English nurse. Also available on audio by Ernest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises.
Ulysses by James Joyce
This account of several lower-class citizens of Dublin describes their activities and tells what some of them were thinking one day in 1904. Also available on audio by James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Filled with scenes of intimate beauty, explores the emotions of a lonely woman trapped in a sterile marriage and her growing love for the robust gamekeeper of her husband's estate.
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch Shepherd, that was kidnapped and shipped off to Alaska to work on the Klondike Gold Rush. Buck, the dog, quickly learns how to survive in the wild and also learns the call of the wolf.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
A novel that studies the moral disintegration of a man whose obsessive desire to possess his stepdaughter destroys the lives of those around him.
1984 by George Orwell
Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities. Also available on audio by George Orwell: Animal Farm.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
Five German students are drafted into World War I.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant lured by appealing advertisements, comes to Chicago to make money in the stockyards, but the reality is different from what he expects.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A young girl in a shabby neighborhood lives with dreams in an innocent time before the war.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The tragic story of two itinerant ranch hands on the run – one is the lifelong companion to the other, a developmentally disabled man.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
Native Son by Richard Wright
Traces the fall of a young black man in 1930s Chicago as his life loses all hope of redemption after he kills a white woman.