Classics and Best Sellers Road Test



If you want to get stuck into some classics or best sellers but don't know where to start, this page could be a bit of a gauge, as I'm road testing them for you, to give you some idea. If I found them pompous and overrated, I'll say so. I'll also give you the thumbs up if I thought they were amazing and worth the hype.

I had a love/hate relationship with the classics in my past. As a school kid, I thought I loved them. As an uni student with an English major, I thought I hated them. So many of the selections didn't seem to live up to my optimistic expectations, but perhaps having to write essays about them was enough to curb my enthusiasm. At last I'm ready to carefully stick my neck out again. I'm going to put them under the microscope (well, my microscope), and explain whether or not I think they live up to their long-standing popularity. 

I've tried to keep the titles in alphabetical order. Hopefully it will make it easier for you to cast your eye down the list, especially if you want to see if I've reviewed a particular book. But if you're searching for books by a particular author all in one spot, check out my fiction and non-fiction review pages.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
A Tangled Web by Lucy Maud Montgomery
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Adam Bede by George Eliot
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Windy Willows by L.M. Montgomery
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Babette's Feast by Karen Blixen
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C Douglas
Big Magic  by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton
The Borrowers Afloat by Mary Norton
The Borrowers Aloft by Mary Norton
The Borrowers Avenged by Mary Norton
Boy by Roald Dahl
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Children of the New Forest by Captain Frederick Marryat
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Complete Adventures of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Devil's Disciple by George Bernard Shaw
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
Dubliners by James Joyce
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Emily Climbs by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Emily's Quest by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Emma by Jane Austen
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Evelina by Frances Burney
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Going Solo by Roald Dahl
The Golden Road by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
The Happy Prisoner by Monica Dickens
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne
The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Horse and his Boy by C.S. Lewis
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Jane of Lantern Hill by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
Kristin Lavransdattar by Sigrid Undset
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Steadman
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis
The Man who was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
March  by Geraldine Brooks
The Martian by Andy Weir
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
My Antonia by Willa Cather
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (translated by Alan Vermilye)
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Pollyanna by Eleanor H Porter
Poor Man's Orange by Ruth Park
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis
The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
Rainbow Valley by L.M. Montgomery
Rebecca  by Daphne du Maurier
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett 
Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
Silas Marner by George Eliot
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain
Spare by Prince Harry
The Story Girl by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Sun on the Stubble by Colin Thiele
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
The Thirteenth Tale  by Diane Setterfield
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Watership Down by Richard Adams
What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge
What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Work by Louisa May Alcott
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

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