The best and most memorable classic English literature
Robinson Crusoe By Daniel Defoe Defoe’s most celebrated story of Crusoe’s shipwreck, his resourcefulness and ingenuity in his solitary life on a desert island, and his rescue of Man Friday has been abridged and retold many times since its publication (in two volumes) in 1719.
Brave New World By Aldous Huxley Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in harboring an ill-defined longing to break free. But a visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues may be the cure for his distress.
Lord of the Flies By William Golding Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favourite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature.
Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad “The mind of man is capable of anything…” Marlow, a seaman, tells of a journey up the Congo. His goal is the troubled European and ivory trader Kurtz. Worshipped and feared by invaders as well as natives, Kurtz has become a godlike figure, his presence pervading the jungle like a thick, obscuring mist. …
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D. H. Lawrence Constance Chatterley finds herself trapped in an unfulfilling marriage to a rich aristocrat whose war wounds have left him paralyzed and impotent. After a brief but unsatisfying affair with a playwright, Lady Chatterley enjoys an extremely passionate relationship with the gamekeeper on the family estate, Oliver Mellors….
Animal Farm By George Orwell Its account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind, can fairly be said to have become a universal drama. Taking as his starting point the betrayed promise of the Russian Revolution, Orwell lays out a vision that, in its bitter wisdom, gives us the clearest understanding we possess of the possible consequences of our social and political acts.
Mrs. Dalloway By Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional high-society woman in post-World War I England. It is one of Woolf’s best-known novels.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde By Robert Louis Stevenson When Edward Hyde tramples an innocent girl, two bystanders catch the fellow and force him to pay reparations to the girl’s family. A respected lawyer, Utterson, hears this story and begins to unravel the seemingly manic behavior of his best friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and his connection with Hyde…
Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice is one of the best-loved and most intimately known of Jane Austen’s novels. Her sense of comedy and satire makes this an enduring classic of English literature.
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens Great Expectations is a Bildungsroman*, telling the story of the orphan Pip and his growth to maturity through many trials and tribulations. It distills and refines themes from earlier Dickens novels, and features a remarkable cast of supporting characters. * El bildungsroman es un género narrativo que se caracteriza por presentar una evolución en el personaje protagonista a lo largo de sus páginas. También es conocido como novela de formación o novela de aprendizaje.
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë’s most beloved novel describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester. The loneliness and cruelty of Jane’s childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a heartwrenching choice.
Wuthering Heights By Emily Brontë It´s a multigenerational story of love and revenge that revolves around the inhabitants of a desolate farmhouse called Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, an orphan boy, and Catherine are raised together at Wuthering Heights. Despite the difference in their social position, they eventually fall in love.
Gulliver's Travels By Jonathan Swift Considered the greatest satire ever written in English, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels chronicles the fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, principally to four marvellous realms: Lilliput, where the people are six inches tall; Brobdingnag, a land inhabited by giants; Laputa, a wondrous flying island; and a country where the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses, are served by savage humanoid creatures called Yahoos.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley Mary Shelley started writing this story when she was 18 and the novel was published when she was 20. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended incorrectly to refer to the monster as “Frankenstein.”
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland By Lewis Carroll Alice is feeling bored while sitting on the riverbank with her sister when she notices a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a pocket watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when suddenly she falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit through, but through it she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle on a table labelled “DRINK ME,” the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key which she has left on the table. A cake with “EAT ME” on it causes her to grow to
such a tremendous size that her head hits the ceiling. Alice is unhappy and cries as her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again due to a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse.