Everyone adores a classic novel; however, the question is where to begin? From Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Toni Morrison to Fyodor Dostoevsky, the fiction genre is so vast that you are easily able to get lost in it.
Literary critics, historians, ardent readers, and even occasional readers will all have different opinions about which novel is – without a doubt – the “greatest book ever written”:
- Is it a novel with charming, mesmerising and figurative language?
- Or one with stark realism?
- A novel which has had an enormous social impact?
- Or one that has more artfully affected the world?
Here is a list of a number of the greatest tomes of all time.
Pride and Prejudice
It is a truth, which is universally acknowledged, that when individuals think of Jane Austen they think of this charming and witty story of love, difficult families as well as the challenging task of finding a handsome husband who has a good fortune.
Anna Karenina
Any fan of stories which involve juicy subjects such as adultery, gambling, marriage plots, and, well, Russian feudalism, would instantly put Anna Karenina at the peak of their “greatest novels” list.
Penned by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, the eight-part soaring work of fiction tells the story of two major characters: a tragic, disillusioned housewife, the titular Anna, who escapes her life with her young lover, and a lovelorn landowner named Konstantin Levin. Konstantin struggles in faith and philosophy.
Tolstoy moulds together introspective discussions on love, pain as well as family in Russian society with a sizable cast of characters who are viewed for their realistic humanity. The novel was particularly revolutionary in its treatment of women, showing prejudices as well as social hardships of the time with vivid emotion.
To Kill A Mockingbird
A novel that is before its time and long before you could buy Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, Harper Lee’s Pulitzer-prize winner addresses issues of race, inequality as well as segregation with both levity as well as compassion. Told through the eyes of delightful rogues Scout and Jem, it also produced one of literature’s most beloved heroes – Atticus Finch, who was a man determined to right the racial wrongs of the Deep South.
The Great Gatsby
Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is seen as one of the greatest books for introducing students to the art of reading literature in a critical manner (which means that you may have read it at school).
The novel is recounted from the point of view of a young man named Nick Carraway who has relocated to New York City and is supported by his eccentric nouveau riche neighbour with enigmatic origins, Jay Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby offers an insider’s look into the Jazz Age of the 1920s in United States history while simultaneously critiquing the idea of the “American Dream.” Possibly the most-famous part of the novel is its cover art—a piercing face which is screened onto a dark blue night sky and also lights from a cityscape. This is an image which can also be found, in a slightly different configuration, within the text itself as a fundamental symbol.
