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Unlock the classics and become a deeply well-read person with this list of top 101 classic books to read before you die. These best classic books will make you think, change the way you see the world, and most of all–change you.
Have you ever wished you could be well read in the classics? You can–and you don’t need to go back to school to do it! Great literature is for everyone, not just the critics or the academics.
But there are hundreds of great classics out there, and that fact alone makes becoming well read seem a gargantuan and impossible task.
That’s where this list comes in.
This list of best classic books is the product of years of research and curating, and it’s meant to work on two different levels: First, it’s meant to point you to reading some of the best and most worthwhile influential classics throughout history.
Second, this list and article is meant as an education in itself. Even if you never manage to read all the great books here, reading about them and seeing their position in the timeline will give you a sense of the scope and progression of literature through the centuries.
Before we dive in, let’s set up some parameters…
A classic is a work of literature that has proven itself, over the course of time, to engage with its own era in a meaningful way and to illuminate the universal human condition, while also being structurally, stylistically, and linguistically beautiful. Of course, a “classic” can also simply mean any book that is old. Perhaps it would be helpful if we had a more clear distinction between classic literature and vintage literature, but drawing those lines gets extremely complicated. “Classic literature” must always be a subjective term.
This list includes 101 best fiction classics that are representative of some of the world’s greatest literature published before 1970. I’ve focused on fiction and narrative in the form of epic poems, novels, plays, and short stories. (Nonfiction classics, general poetry, and emerging modern classics published in the last 50 years deserve their own dedicated posts.)
To make this a more comprehensive list, each author only gets one slot. Which means that unlike other lists of this sort Dickens, Woolf, and Faulkner won’t be leaping out at you at every turn! The only exceptions are Homer, because the Iliad and the Odyssey are both so foundational to world literature; and Luo Guanzhong, whose authorship of one of the books on this list is contested anyway.
Each book was picked for its cultural significance and impact, literary merit, and influence on its genre. For each author I tried to choose the book that’s regarded as their masterpiece, or that has had the most widespread influence. The list is arranged in chronological order to help you mentally ground them in their historical context and give you a sense of the development of literature over time.
I’ve included mostly classics from the Western canon of literature, but also a few foundational works of literature from non-Western cultures, such as the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, and the two great Indian epics. Reading these important non-Western classics will give you a key into further exploration of the rich literary traditions that flow from them.
You’ll also notice that there aren’t many children’s classics included here, and that’s because they get dedicated coverage in this list of 50 classic children’s chapter books.
When deciding which of these books you want to add to your own classic books “bucket list,” or what to give to your teenager, you might want to use this method to vet books for trigger warnings. Classic literature may be old fashioned in one sense, but content considerations abound nonetheless.
Reading the classics makes us more human. Meaning, reading classic books increases our ability to reason, to empathize with people in our daily lives, to grasp other cultures and times, and to live our own stories with more intention and joy. Reason, empathy, comprehension, purpose, joy: these are things that make us human, and these are what classic literature gives us.
For any book not originally published in English, you will likely have multiple options when it comes to translations. You might want to do a web search for “best translation of the Odyssey,” etc. to see what other readers suggest. However, I’ve also done a bit of research in this department, and I’ve intentionally linked to and pictured good translations and/or editions for each book.
There are tons of editions of classic novels, and many of them are abysmal quality. (Where do you think I get all that fodder for my bad book covers posts?) My go-to sources for good editions of classic books are Penguin and Oxford World’s Classics. Both include endnotes and helpful introductions. I slightly prefer the Oxfords because they generally have a bit more supplementary material, and I prefer the way they smell (if that doesn’t brand me as a book nerd, I don’t know what will!) But sometimes when choosing between the two for a particular title, it just boils down to which cover I like best!
Other good editions include Modern Library Classics (an imprint of Penguin Random House), and Norton Critical Editions. If you want to do a deep dive and basically get a college course in a book, get a Norton Critical. Each book is packed with secondary material like essays (both modern and contemporary to the book’s original publication), annotations, maps, or illustrations. If you want a more budget-friendly but still good option, try Signet Classics.
For everything on this list up to Pride and Prejudice, I recommend reading your book copy’s introduction before diving into the work. These older texts and epic poems will be so much more accessible if you get an overview and background before you begin.
Conversely, with everything from Pride and Prejudice on, I suggest that you don’t ever read the introductions first (with perhaps the exception of Ulysses)! They always presuppose familiarity with the novel, so you’ll actually find that they’re more confusing and spoil major plot points! But by all means, read the introductions after you finish the book to give you some good food for thought.
