Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy*
If Tolstoy wrote music, then Anna Karenina would sound a bit like Tchaikovsky. Russian balls, long train rides from Moscow to St. Petersburg, black evening gowns, simple necklaces, dashing soldiers, betrayal, and desire fill the nearly 1,000 pages of this lovely novel. Let Tolstoy sweep you away from the humid New Jersey summer into a wintry Russian landscape of farms, fields, and cities, and into the hearts of Levin and Anna.
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
A wonderful book, especially to lovers of boats and the ocean. Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled, snobby son of a multi-millionaire, falls off a steamer and is plucked from the sea and put to work by a Portuguese fisherman who does not believe Harvey's seemingly crazy tales about his father's vast wealth.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Framed as a Bonapartiste by men he thought were his friends, Edmond Dantes goes to prison, where he learns of a hidden treasure from a fellow prisoner. Years later, he escapes, finds the treasure, and uses his new-found wealth to reward those who helped him and punish those who betrayed him. Revenge, adventure, romance-many stories in one and a great read.
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
This magical novel of the travels and experiences of two French priests in the 1890s in New Mexico brings the southwest to life through Cather's loving and rich descriptions of the land and its native peoples. The book has a powerful spiritual overtone in the struggles and decisions facing the priests. This thought-provoking narrative will make you want to take the first plane to Sante Fe.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. New translation by Edith Grossman
Don't be put off by the length, as it's a fun, endearing mock-epic showing the adventures of the romantic Don Quixote and his squat sidekick Sancho Panza as he tilts at windmills and faces all sorts of fanciful (often fantasized) foes in search of his one true lady love. It kindles the romantic in all of us!
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck's angry and eloquent portrait of the lives of the "Okies," farm families from the midwest driven from their land by the Depression and the Dust Bowl, to become migrant workers in the fields and orchards of California.
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton*
A somewhat hard read but definitely worth the effort, this novel follows a beautiful woman who can't quite afford to live in New York high society in the early 20th century as she struggles to hold onto her lifestyle. Artfully well-written social commentary.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison*
Not the H. G. Wells turn-of-the-last-century science fiction thriller, Ellison's masterwork crafts a jazz symphony from the quintessentially American experiences of a talented, nameless southern black scholar. When his quest for the American Dream - through education, a move north, industry, political activism, and the arts - turns repeatedly into an absurd nightmare, he tries to design an environment in which his individual identity can be seen, recognized, validated.
Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert*
A 19th century novel about a woman who can't bear the discrepancy between her romantic dreams and her provincial life. For a 20th century version and commentary on this classic, try The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, with its clever stylistic twist at the end!
Middlemarch by George Eliot*
Dorothea, a wonderfully strong and intelligent heroine, is our guide through the complex social and emotional world of Victorian England. Through her decisions, marriage, mistakes, and learning, we come to question our own thoughts about family, relationships, love, society. Eliot's writing is brilliant yet subtle, and she pops out periodically as a narrator to comment on what's happening. You'll be glad it's so long; you won't want it to be over.
Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
This beautiful French novel (the title is often translated as Old or Father Goriot) is a stunning look into 19th century life in Paris. The main character, a young man from the country, is bedazzled, drawn in, and used by high society. All his values and morals come into question.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
This great English novel of the early 19th century is an engaging and intelligent love story and a witty, ironic exploration of character and emotion. The polite society of late 18th century England and the wry humor of Austen's narrative voice bring these characters into sharp relief, especially the strong (and headstrong) pair at the center of the story, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, whom Austen described as the favorite of all her heroines.
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser*
Just when a man thinks he has achieved success and can afford to stray just a bit to follow his heart's desire, he discovers how thin the line is that separates success from doom.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." Thus begins Dickens' classic tale of intrigue, betrayal, love, and redemption set in London and Paris (the two cities of the title) during the French Revolution. If you are plunging for the first time into the complexities of plot and character in a 19th century English novel, this gripping story is a great place to begin.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The "Gothic" novel at its best and one of the great novels of the English language, Wuthering Heights is centered around the mysterious and passionate figure of Heathcliff, who rises from an unknown past to become lord and master of Wuthering Heights and seeks revenge on those around him for the lost love of his youth. This book is remarkable for its romantic setting, its memorable characters, and a brilliant narrative structure in which the reader enters the dark past of Wuthering Heights through the sensibility of a recently arrived tenant (first narrator) who hears much of the story from the old housekeeper (second narrator).
