The Definitive List of 100 Classic Novels to Read Before You Die

And 25 Classics You Can Skip

Several weeks ago, I stumbled on an article by

Stephen Thomas

that made me absolutely lose my mind. Thomas, who describes himself as a “center-left literary thinker,” put together a list of 75 classic books that he categorizes as “good” and 25 classic books that he categorizes as “bad.” As one might expect from an author who makes several identity-based disclaimers before putting forth his picks, the list commits egregious sins such as categorizing works by William Faulkner under the “bad” category and works by James Baldwin under the “good” category. Because this list will circulate the Internet and lead many people astray, I must immediately save the general populace from living with the impression that The Handmaid’s Tale is a better book than The Master and Margarita—a grave error that might absolutely ruin your entire intellectual life. So, instead, I present the definitive list of 100 classics to read before you die—written by someone with a brain.

Listen—I have no doubt that Thomas is well-read. But given the overwhelming presence of leftist thinkers in the literary world, recent lists of the great classics have been hijacked by identity considerations and often privilege certain themes over others. And I am almost certain that a list that places Baldwin over Faulkner is motivated by themes rather than objective literary quality—The Sound and the Fury is a masterpiece; Giovanni’s Room is a terrible book.

Because I have made it my mission to write about great literature without such biases, a more objective list is in order.

I do generally try my best to respect different people’s opinions on literature because the field is by nature subjective, but I did absolutely lose my mind with the degradation of my favorite author—William Faulkner—and the classification of The Idiot as middling in quality, so in this particular case, I reserve the right to launch an ad hominem attack. You do not touch Faulkner (again—it is likely that he was placed in the “bad” category more for certain political views that he held than the quality of his work—and as readers of Pens and Poison know, these sorts of politically motivated judgements drive me absolutely mad). In any case, sir, I mean this with all due respect, but I have little patience for someone who attacks Faulkner and venerates Baldwin, so I will be going at this with maximal aggression.

N.B. My picks are ranked in no particular order (because you really should read all of them) and are meant to present a broad array of books to read before you die—and books that you can probably avoid.

I tried (and failed miserably) not to repeat authors on the list, but some authors are just so good (or so bad) as to merit two or even three mentions (Dostoyevsky took up four slots—oops). I have kept this particular list to novels or broader works of fiction in novelistic form (hence why Shakespeare is absent—otherwise he and several other poets and playwrights would, of course, make appearances).

Yes—I have read every single book on this list. I am sure there are a few additional books that I would add that I have not yet read, but I have read the vast majority of the great classics at this point, so I suspect that there are only a few that may be missing.

Without further ado—Liza’s expert judgement on the great classic works of literature.

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100 Books to Read Before You Die

1. The Master and Margarita

2. Crime and Punishment

3. The Brothers Karamazov

4. The Idiot

5. Notes from the Underground

6. Anna Karenina

7. War and Peace

8. Middlemarch

9. Daniel Deronda

10. Jane Eyre

11. Vanity Fair

12. The Way We Live Now

13. Bleak House

14. David Copperfield

15. Great Expectations

16. Madame Bovary

17. The Red and the Black

18. Far from the Madding Crowd

19. Tess of the d’Urbervilles

20. Portrait of a Lady

21. The Stranger

22. Wuthering Heights

23. The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling

24. The Sound and Fury

25. Absalom, Absalom!

26. As I Lay Dying

27. Heart of Darkness

28. Lolita

29. Pale Fire

30. The Sun Also Rises

31. For Whom the Bell Tolls

32. The Sorrows of Young Werther

33. Beware of Pity

34. Chess Story

35. Doctor Faustus (Mann)

36. The Magic Mountain

37. Death in Venice

38. Swann’s Way

39. White Noise

40. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

41. The Catcher in the Rye

42. Franny and Zooey

43. The Great Gatsby

44. Tender is the Night

45. East of Eden

46. Grapes of Wrath

47. American Pastoral

48. Portnoy’s Complaint

49. Darkness at Noon

50. Brideshead Revisited

51. The Picture of Dorian Gray

52. The Age of Innocence

53. The House of Mirth

54. Ethan Frome

55. Brave New World

56. 1984

57. Animal Farm

58. The Bell Jar

59. Dead Souls

60. The Count of Monte Cristo

61. Gone With the Wind

62. A Clockwork Orange

63. Of Human Bondage

64. Slaughterhouse-Five

65. The Forsyte Saga

66. Their Eyes Were Watching God

67. Pride and Prejudice

68. Emma

69. The Metamorphosis

70. Moby Dick

71. A Separate Peace

72. Fahrenheit 451

73. Woman in White

74. The New York Trilogy

75. Catch-22

76. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

77. To Kill a Mockingbird

78. The Little Prince

79. The Adventures of Augie March

80. Ulysses

81. Don Quixote

82. The Decameron

83. The Screwtape Letters

84. All Quiet on the Western Front

85. Dracula

86. Les Misérables

87. Doctor Zhivago

88. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

89. Siddhartha

90. A Room with a View

91. Night

92. Frankenstein

93. In Cold Blood

94. One Hundred Years of Solitude

95. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

96. The Immoralist

97. The Golovlyov Family

98. Stoner

99. Life and Fate

100. Ficciones

25 Classic Novels You Can Skip

1. Giovanni’s Room¹

2. The Handmaid’s Tale

3. Mansfield Park

4. Père Goriot

5. North and South

6. Three Lives

7. Mrs. Dalloway

8. To the Lighthouse²

9. Beloved

10. Song of Solomon

11. Sula³

12. The Crying of Lot 49

13. The Awakening

14. Walden

15. Candide

16. The Alchemist

17. Finnegans Wake

18. The Yellow Wallpaper

19. Play It As It Lays

20. The Turn of the Screw

21. Never Let Me Go

22. The Rainbow

23. Babbitt

24. Blood Meridian

25. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

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If you would like to contest my list—and call me an ignoramus and a dullard in the process—I readily accept the challenge and invite you to create your own definitive book ranking. Until then, I will operate under the assumption that this is the best list that you will ever find.

You can also fight it out in the comments, but that is less interesting.

I will be writing a follow-up article explaining why James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Virginia Woolf suck (hint—they tackle particularist rather than universal themes).

Thanks to Stephen Thomas for the inspiration in the work below.

“To think I might have died without having read it”: 100 good and bad classics

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1. Giovanni’s Room is legitimately the worst book I have ever read, and I read a lot. Would anyone read this book if it were not about a man of a certain race and a certain sexuality? The answer is no.

2. Virginia Woolf sucks, and I will die on this hill.

3. Toni Morrison somehow manages to suck more than Virginia Woolf, and I will also die on this hill.