15 Classic Books That Are Still Worth Reading Today

Today we’re sharing 15 classic books everyone should read in their lifetime. We always tell you to study books on business, self-help and productivity in order to improve yourselves but reading a fiction novel once in a while can relax and clear your mind. Even though most of these novels contain great lessons within their pages and some maybe even life-altering. Let’s jump straight in and see the 15 classic books everyone should read in their lifetime.

1. Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen

This timeless tale has captured reader’s imaginations for many years now and is destined to do so for many more to come. Pride and Prejudice is such an incredible book because even though it was initially published over 200 years ago, the main themes are still relevant in our society today. Social class and reputation were crucial factors to determine whether someone would speak to you, associate with you in business and even marry you.

Through the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennett millions of readers have learned the importance of staying true to yourself. In an English society, where no one would marry you beneath their social class, even when love was involved. Honestly, we could go on talking about how social norms affect people’s interactions with one another and how love stories sometimes bloom. When you don’t expect and overall, about how great this book is but we’ll just let you see for yourself.

2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

We’re not really sure, you’re either going to love this striking novel or hate it. But one thing’s for sure the Picture of Dorian Gray will glue you to the book for hours. The novel follows the story of a susceptible young man, who inherits a great fortune and becomes a notorious symbol of evil and depravity.

Oscar Wilde takes the reader on a journey starting with the heights of asceticism and ending with the depths of decadence and moral corruption. Written in a sharp and penetrating way, this portrayal of a Faustian deal and its consequences will dazzle anyone who picks up this book.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is a deeply moving book, full of drama and compassion which takes the readers down the roots of human behavior. Lee’s unforgettable novel mixes opposing feelings of love and hatred, humor and sadness, kindness and cruelty all wrapped up in a man’s relentless quest for justice. Plagued by prejudice hypocrisy and violence.

4. Bleak House by Charles Dickens

This is one of Dickens’s most critically acclaimed novels, that indelibly dramatizes our most basic human discord. With a vast array of colorful characters, the author portrays London society of rich and poor in a masterful manner. This fascinating novel contemplates love, fear and betrayal while revolving around an insidious conflict that arose from an inheritance.

5. War and peace by Leo Tolstoy

Sometimes you read a book and it makes you think about everything that’s happening around you and you remind yourself to be more appreciative of everything you have. War and peace are a thrilling examination of history.

Where the author brilliantly follows the lives of many characters from a variety of backgrounds, from peasants and nobles to soldiers and civilians, as they struggle with the obstacles in their path in that era. This sizeable novel has plenty of contradictory aspects of life such as love and hate, happiness and sadness, peaceful times and times of conflict all wrapped up in the one idea that, this book is one big celebration of life.

6. Persuasion by Jane Austen

This is the second entry from Austin on this list, which goes to show you just how epic of a writer this woman was. Persuasion is another delightful novel that revolves around love and societal hierarchy, that’s regarded by some critics as Austin’s most sentimental work.

Readers of this book will definitely notice that even in her last masterpiece Jane Austen’s skill for fine ironic observations on social norms love and marriage is as keen as it ever was.

7. The color purple by Alice Walker

This modern classic brings to light another great story about freedom, passion, inspiration and an impressive love for life. The story revolves around a young black girl, who is born in poverty and segregation that discovers the power of her own spirit, while taking charge of her own fate and heading toward freedom.

8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The author was inspired to write this endearing novel from her own life experience. The action is placed in the mid-19th century in New England. Where four sisters show their love and devotion for each other, while overcoming the hardships brought along with the Civil War.

Generations of readers have explored along with this novel the timeless themes of love, death and conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities. Alcott had an irrefutable knack for pointing out the problems in society, when it came to how women fit in and that they too can contribute to the bettering of everyone.

9. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Here we have a novel with an incredibly powerful conflict between good and evil. Dumas utilizes every possible element to create a captivating drama love, suspense, intrigue, vengeance, triumph of good over evil and a hero, whose life gets incredibly complicated due to his own actions.

Pretty much every reader has something to learn from either the moral of the story or the characters and apply it in their life.

10. The Outsiders by Susan Eloise Hinton

Here comes the writer, that’s not afraid to confront big issues and talk about hard truths in their work. Hinton gives America a new kind of antihero that finds himself on the unlawful side of society’s divide.

The Outsiders is one of those very first fictional novels meant for young adults and since most of them struggle to find their place within their peer groups the main theme of this novel is acceptance. I guess pretty much every reader can identify with this novel, since we all dealt with the same issues at one point or another in our lives.

11. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

This epic tale of the Karamazov family, that’s over loaded with drama, a murder, mystery and a series of love affairs. Anyone who tries to read this novel must be warned that every page will keep you on your toes, because you’ll not know what’s going to come next. With all the captivating events Dostoevsky perfectly paints a vivid picture of Russian society at the time, which is pretty much considered the Russian Golden Age.

12. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

This beloved classic pretty much guarantees to cause any reader to shed a tear or two once you enter the cruel world of our heroine, Jane Eyre. As you follow the story of Jane, you’ll see the incredible strength this girl possesses, which she uses on her long quest for dignity and self-respect.

Bronte wrote a pretty great novel packed with many lessons taught with the help of Jane Eyre and her strenuous life.

13. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

This masterpiece is the final work of Eliot and the most ambitious novel she ever wrote. The protagonist Daniel Deronda is used to convey to the reader, a time where the moral laxity of English aristocracy mixed with the fervor of Jewish nationalists. His destiny gets intertwined with another main character Gwendolen harloff, while trying to achieve his goal of finding out his origins and his ancestry.

George Eliot’s controversial way of creating a narrative generates a constant challenge for all of her characters, making it a guilty pleasure for any reader.

14. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

This book is very popular, even among the most influential people in the world. Such as Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Morgan Freeman Oprah and the list go on. This incredible novel follows the journey of a man who finds himself on a quest for revenge. The obsession of our protagonist to capture the white whale which bit off part of his leg turns him into a beast which can no longer lead his crew. This leaves them to depend on one another without the leadership of their captain.

There are many great lessons to take away from this timeless novel some of which being knowing when to quit, because there’s always a new opportunity on the horizon and to avoid hurt like mentality, which can often be a very dangerous thing.

15. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

This fictional novel will surely take the reader on a surreal experience unlike any other. The main focus of this novel, is the exploration of a possibility of what might happen when a person suddenly jumps by leaps and bounds over the social territory they were in all their life.

Keyes takes us on a journey of being placed in the mind of a handicapped man, who participates in an expert and suddenly increases his IQ exponentially. Along with this experiment goes a mouse who gets a similar boost in intelligence as our main character. The light and darkness which are represented by intelligence and ignorance respectively begin to take a crisp shape when Charlie Gordon finds himself on a roller coaster from mentally handicapped to really intelligent back to mentally handicapped once again.

Conclusion:

Well, we hope you found this post insightful and enjoy the classic books everyone should read in their lifetime. Have you read any of these books let us know which ones in the comments.