Timeless masterpieces that shaped literature
J.D. Salinger's 1951 masterpiece about Holden Caulfield, a troubled 16-year-old who gets expelled from prep school and spends three days wandering New York City, struggling with alienation, phoniness, and the loss of innocence—becoming the definitive voice of teenage rebellion.
British schoolboys stranded on an island descend from civilization into savagery faster than you'd think possible.
A poor student murders a pawnbroker to test his theory that extraordinary people are above morality, then suffers psychological torment.
Two migrant workers during the Depression dream of owning land, but the dream slips away in a devastating ending.
A woman in Puritan Boston wears a scarlet A for adultery while protecting her lover's identity in this tale of guilt and redemption.
The Buendía family's seven generations in the magical town of Macondo, where reality and fantasy blur constantly.
Orphan Pip receives mysterious wealth and learns harsh lessons about ambition, class, and what truly matters in life.
A riverboat captain travels into the African Congo to find a rogue ivory trader and confronts colonialism's brutal reality.
A brilliant young woman's descent into mental illness in 1950s New York, mirroring Plath's own struggles with depression.
Ernest Hemingway's 1926 masterpiece about Jake Barnes and the Lost Generation—American and British expatriates in 1920s Paris and Spain, damaged by WWI and searching for meaning in a world where traditional values have collapsed.
John Steinbeck's 600-page magnum opus retelling the biblical Cain and Abel story across two generations of the Trask family in California's Salinas Valley, centered on the Hebrew word 'timshel' (thou mayest)—the freedom to choose between good and evil.
Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 classic about Mary Lennox, a spoiled orphan sent to her uncle's Yorkshire manor, who discovers a locked garden and transforms herself, her sickly cousin Colin, and the household through the healing power of nature and friendship.
Joseph Heller's 1961 darkly comic masterpiece about Captain John Yossarian, a WWII bombardier trying to stay alive by getting grounded for insanity—but the infamous Catch-22 prevents it: if you're sane enough to want to avoid combat, you're sane enough to fly missions.
Louisa May Alcott's 1868 classic following the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—as they grow from childhood to womanhood during the Civil War, learning about love, loss, ambition, and what it means to be a 'little woman' in 19th century America.
Jazz Age decadence, impossible love, and the dark side of the American Dream told through mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, who throws legendary parties on Long Island hoping to recapture a lost love—only to discover that wealth cannot buy the past.
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece about racial injustice in 1930s Alabama, told through young Scout Finch's eyes as her father Atticus defends a Black man falsely accused of rape—exposing the Deep South's moral complexities.
When the animals of Manor Farm overthrow their drunken master and seize control, they dream of building a society where all creatures are equal. But as the pigs consolidate power through propaganda, fear, and rewritten commandments, the dream of liberation curdles into a new and more insidious tyranny.