British

Charles Dickens

David Copperfield – a semiautobiographical novel set in Victorian England. It’s really good. It starts with David as a young boy and follows him into adulthood. It has twists, turns, tragedy, and romance. It’s funny, has hilarious and memorable characters, and some really touching moments.  It was wildly popular when it was initially published. (Like a TV show, individual chapters were published every month or so. People went crazy for the newest “episode.”)

 From Wikipedia: “The novel has a primary theme of growth and change, but Dickens also satirizes many aspects of Victorian life. These include the plight of prostitutes, the status of women in marriage, class structure, the criminal justice system, the quality of schools, and the employment of children in factories.”

Dickens is a slow, descriptive writer, and the book is long. But once you get invested, it’s hard to put down and is an excellent text to improve your reading skills. 

 

DH Lawrence

Sons and Lovers – DH Lawrence is the guy who wrote “A Rockinghorse Winner,” the short story I likely gave you in class. In this book, Lawrence “traces emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with a demanding mother and two very different lovers, which exert complex influences on the development of his manhood” (Wikipedia).  I love DH Lawrence's writing style and the way he gets deep into the minds of his characters. 

Lady Chatterly’s Lover –  I haven’t read this one yet, but I know it is one of his most famous novels, and at the time, was the subject of censorship due to “obscenity” (in 1929). According to Wikipedia, “The story concerns a young married woman, the former Constance Reid (Lady Chatterley), whose upper-class Baronet husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley, described as a handsome, well-built man, is paralyzed from the waist down because of a Great War injury. Constance has an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. The class difference between the couple highlights a major motif of the novel. The central theme is Constance's realization that she cannot live with the mind alone. That realization stems from a heightened sexual experience that Constance has felt only with Mellors, suggesting that love requires the elements of both body and mind.”

 

Thomas Hardy

Hardy is really tough, but he’s one of my favorite authors. He uses lots of thick descriptions and can be a struggle to get through. However, his descriptive, dense writing is totally worth it. The plots of his novels are excellent. I read my first Hardy novel in AP Lit and it’s stuck with me ever since. 

Tess of the d'Urbervilles - An absolutely heartbreaking novel about a poor young woman. She is raped (maybe. It’s very ambiguous), gives birth to a child, starts over, almost finds happiness, and then things get absolutely bonkers at the end. My favorite Hardy novel. 

Jude the Obscure- A bright young man is seduced by a woman who pretends to be pregnant with his child. Things get wild from there, and the ending of the book is also absolutely bonkers. 

A Pair of Blue Eyes – A girl must decide between two men: one older and successful and one who is ambitious but “below” her station. 

Far From the Madding Crowd - One of his only happy novels. A young woman inherits a farm and instead of marrying, decides to run the estate herself. She must make the choice between three different men. 

 

American:

 

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck writes some great fiction set in early 20th-century America, often during the Great Depression. Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row are some of his most famous novels. You may read Of Mice and Men junior year, but that’s a good introduction to Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath is excellent, but long. 

 

Earnest Hemingway

Hemingway was a man’s man in every respect of the world. Seriously. Go read his biography on Wikipedia. It’s insane. His writing is sparse, direct, and simple, but there is always a ton of stuff simmering under the surface. He’s best known for stories and books like “Old Man and the Sea,” For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, and The Sun Also Rises. I’ve read a number of his short stories, but have yet to finish one of his novels.

 

Scott Fitzgerald

Scott Fitzgerald is known as an early 20th-Century author who was obsessed with wealth, ego, and the “Golden girl” – the girl every other girl wants to be and the girl every guy wants to be with. Start with his short story “The Offshore Pirate.” While he is best known for his novel The Great Gatsby, I like his first novel, This Side of Paradise way more. It’s a semi-autobiographical account of a young, upper-middle-class young man who learns more about himself, love, status, and meaning in the ballrooms and campuses of the rich in America. I always feel like a brilliant, sophisticated, tortured soul after I read his fiction. 

 

E.B. White

E.B. White, largely known for “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little,” is one of the best American essayists of the 20th century. He published a lot of stuff; find something that interests you. I particularly love his autobiographical story “The Years of Wonder” about being a broke young man, convinced he was an unappreciated genius, who boards a cruise ship bound for Alaska. If you read it carefully, it’s laugh-out-loud funny. 

 

Judith Wharton 

Ethan Frome is a novella about a man in and New England town who is unhappily married to a sick wife. His wife’s younger cousin, full of vibrance of life and passion, comes to stay with them and care for her. He falls for the cousin, and when she is about to be sent away, Ethan considers running away with her. The story ends tragically. This one hits hard. 

 

Other:

 

Chekhov

Largely considered the world’s best short story writer and writer in general. He was a realist writer from Russia. His stories give “a reflection of ourselves in our unadorned ordinariness as well as our unfathomable strangeness” (Lasdun). His stories aren’t dramatic, but they’re full of nuance and moodiness. I would Google famous Chekhov stories and see if you like them!

 

Hermann Hesse

Steppenwolf - This is the first Hermann Hess novel I’ve read, but I’ve liked most of them. Hesse writes a lot about purpose, spirituality, and self-development; according to Wikipedia, many of his novels explore “an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality.” In this novel, a middle-aged, middle-class man lives a miserable existence. He is given a pamphlet for a “Magic Theater” and a pamphlet called “The Treatise of the Steppenwolf” which is about “a man who believes himself to be of two natures: one high, the spiritual nature of man; the other is low and animalistic, a ‘wolf of the steppes.’ This man is entangled in an irresolvable struggle, never content with either nature because he cannot see beyond this self-made concept. The pamphlet gives an explanation of the multifaceted and indefinable nature of every man's soul, but Harry is either unable or unwilling to recognize this. It also discusses his suicidal intentions, describing him as one of the ‘suicides’: people who, deep down, knew they would take their own life one day. But to counter that, it hails his potential to be great, to be one of the ‘Immortals’” (Wikipedia).

Other Hesse novels I like:

Siddhartha - You may read this one sophomore year. A young man in India searches for Enlightenment at the same time the Buddha has reached enlightenment, but Siddhartha’s path is much different. This on hits hard. 

Narcissus and Goldmund - Two young men search for meaning and take two totally different paths. That’s kind of a shitty summary that doesn't do it justice. It’s really, really good. 

Beneath the Wheel - A young, intellectually gifted man pursues knowledge but not personal or social development. Also a very good novel and, perhaps, a cautionary tale for young people who place ALL their value on academics. 

 

Poetry:

Poetry is tough to recommend. Everyone likes different types of poetry. I’m a big fan of the Romantic poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, Shelley), but they’re tough and are probably best read with an explanation from a teacher/video/website to fully understand. If you’re looking for more “Classic” poetry, consider looking at a poetry anthology like the ones published by Norton. You can even just look at the table of contents in such anthologies and often find the poems online for free. 

If you’re looking for more modern, accessible poetry, there’s actually a lot of good stuff out there. In fact, I’m increasingly seeing young people sharing their original poetry on Instagram. If you’re looking for short, simple, hard-hitting, and occasionally spicy poems written from a female perspective, consider the book of poems Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur.