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fifty classics from (virtually) everyone's high school reading list

Research shows that reading fiction encourages empathy. While more than high school curriculums should include modern, various writers like Amy Tan and Malala Yousafzai, certain classics—similar John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and Sandra Cisneros'southward "The House on Mango Street"—endure. George Orwell'south "1984," a novel published in 1949 about a dystopian future where the government controls the truth, fifty-fifty surged to the Amazon best-sellers list in 2017, shortly after former President Trump's counselor Kellyanne Conway described falsehoods as "alternative facts."

Sometimes parents, teachers and school-board officials disagree on what kids should or shouldn't read in loftier school. In 2018, "To Impale a Mockingbird" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" were dropped in a Minnesota school district considering they contain racial slurs. Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," a book about an American soldier doomed to repeat history, has been controversial for decades. In 2011, a Missouri High School pulled it from library shelves after complaints it was anti-American.

Sure books deserve a first, second, or peradventure even a tertiary read. Using data from Goodreads, Stacker compiled a list of fifty timeless books, plays, and epic poems usually found on high school reading lists. A full of 1,002 voters picked the most essential reading required for students. The final ranking takes into business relationship how many times each volume was voted on and how highly voters ranked them. Read on to see which classics fabricated the list.

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#l. Their Eyes Were Watching God

- Author: Zora Neale Hurston
- Score: three,540
- Average rating: 3.90/5, based on 232,956 ratings

A coming-of-age tome set in early 1900s Florida, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" tackles a multitude of issues: racism, sexism, segregation, poverty, and gender roles. Initially overlooked upon its release, Hurston's best-known work is now considered a modern-American masterpiece, thanks to work done in Black studies programs in the 1970s.

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#49. A Raisin in the Sun

- Author: Lorraine Hansberry
- Score: 3,550
- Average rating: 3.76/5, based on 59,314 ratings

The story follows the Youngers, a working-class Black family living on the South Side of Chicago who motility to an all-white neighborhood during a time of desegregation. In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry became the first Black playwright to become a play produced on Broadway. The title of the play comes from "Dream Deferred," a verse form by Langston Hughes.

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#48. Moby-Dick; or, the Whale

- Author: Herman Melville
- Score: 3,750
- Average rating: 3.49/5, based on 445,669 ratings

Herman Melville uses the narrative of a sailor, Ishmael. He is on board with Captain Ahab who is trying to verbal revenge confronting Moby Dick, the white whale that bit off his leg at the knee. For those who didn't study the tale in high school—or couldn't make information technology through the 135 chapters—critics say it really is worth a read. Some refer to information technology as the American Bible, amend approached after becoming an adult and not equally a student in high school.

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#47. The Pearl

- Author: John Steinbeck
- Score: 3,821
- Boilerplate rating: 3.45/5, based on 171,505 ratings

John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" tells the story of Kino, a poor diver who is trying to support his family unit by gathering pearls from gulf beds. He is only barely scraping past until he happens upon a giant pearl. Kino thinks this discovery will finally provide him with the financial comfort and security he has been seeking, just it ultimately brings disaster. The story addresses the reader's relationship to nature, the human demand for connectedness, and the consequences of resisting injustice.

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#46. The Importance of Beingness Earnest

- Writer: Oscar Wilde
- Score: 3,825
- Average rating: 4.17/5, based on 277,734 ratings

This comedic play by Oscar Wilde takes a satiric expect at Victorian social values while following ii men—Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff—every bit they tell lies to bring some excitement to their lives. "The Importance of Being Hostage" was Wilde'due south last play, and some consider it his masterpiece.

6 / 50

#45. The Crimson Badge of Backbone

- Author: Stephen Crane
- Score: three,838
- Average rating: 3.23/5, based on 82,944 ratings

In "The Red Badge of Courage," Henry Fleming enlists in the Matrimony Army, enticed by visions of glory. When the reality of state of war and boxing set in, Fleming retreats in fright. In the end, he faces his cowardice and rises to leadership. This American war novel was published in 1895 and is and then accurate that it's easy to believe the author—who was born after the Ceremonious War concluded—was himself a veteran.

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#44. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

- Author: Edith Hamilton
- Score: 3,902
- Average rating: 3.99/5, based on 40,876 ratings

Author Edith Hamilton takes the reader on a journey through Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology with tales of the Olympus and Norse gods in Valhalla and the Trojan State of war in Odysseus. For high school students, information technology can serve as an important introduction to classic mythology that can assistance them better understand the themes behind other works similar "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." Hamilton's book is considered the standard by which all other books on mythology are measured.

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#43. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

- Author: Maya Angelou
- Score: iii,971
- Boilerplate rating: 4.22/5, based on 351,852 ratings

Maya Angelou, who was raped by her mother'due south boyfriend when she was 8, writes near her experience with sexual set on and racism while growing upward in the Jim Crow South in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The autobiography, which Angelou wrote at the urging of her friend and beau writer James Baldwin, was ane of the first written by a Blackness woman to achieve a wide general audience.

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#42. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

- Author: Mark Twain
- Score: 4,073
- Boilerplate rating: three.91/5, based on 686,551 ratings

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" takes place in the fictional town of Leningrad, Missouri, during the 1840s. Tom Sawyer and his friend Huck Finn witness a murder past Joe. After the boys stay silent, the wrong man is accused of the criminal offence. When they flee, the whole boondocks presumes them expressionless and the boys end upwardly attention their own funerals. Marker Twain'south portrayal of Sawyer and Finn challenge the idyllic American view of childhood, instead showing children equally fallible human beings with imperfections similar anyone else.

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#41. Slaughterhouse-Five

- Author: Kurt Vonnegut
- Score: 4,357
- Average rating: iv.07/5, based on 1,025,939 ratings

In "Slaughterhouse-Five," Kurt Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgrim—based on a real American soldier—who is "unstuck in time." He travels throughout the timeline of his life in a nonlinear fashion, forced to relive certain moments. He is first pulled out after he is drafted and is captured in Deutschland during World War II. The book, which explores how humankind repeats history, has been banned or challenged in classrooms throughout the Usa. Information technology even landed in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 in Board of Education five. Pico, and the court held that banning the book violated the Commencement Amendment.

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#40. The Taming of the Shrew

- Writer: William Shakespeare
- Score: 4,666
- Boilerplate rating: 3.lxxx/5, based on 145,421 ratings

This v-act comedy tells the story of the courtship of the headstrong Katharine and the coin-grubbing Petruchio, who is determined to subdue Katharine and make her his wife. After the wedding ceremony, Petruchio drags his new wife through the mud to their new home in the land. He proceeds to starve and deprive her of sleep to make his new bride submissive. The play, one of Shakespeare'southward most popular, has been both criticized for its abusive and misogynistic attitude toward women, and praised as a challenging view of how women are supposed to comport.

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#39. A Separate Peace

- Writer: John Knowles
- Score: 4,859
- Boilerplate rating: iii.57/5, based on 179,467 ratings

In "A Separate Peace," John Knowles explores the friendship of two young men—the placidity, intellectual Gene Forrester and his extroverted, athletic friend Finny. Cistron lives vicariously through Finny, simply his jealousy ultimately ends in tragedy after he commits a subtle act of violence. The book examines themes of envy and the need to achieve.

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#38. The Little Prince

- Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Score: 5,234
- Average rating: four.30/5, based on 1,120,033 ratings

In "The Little Prince," a airplane pilot whose airplane has crashed in the Sahara desert meets a young boy from outer space. The boy is traveling from planet to planet in search of friendship. On the boy'south habitation—an asteroid—he lived alone, accompanied only past a solitary rose. Once on Earth, the male child meets a wise fob who tells him he tin can just see clearly with his heart. The book's somber themes of imagination and machismo have resonated with children and adults alike since it published—it is now one of the about-translated books of all fourth dimension.

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#37. Crime and Penalty

- Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Score: 5,245
- Average rating: 4.20/5, based on 543,309 ratings

This Russian classic, published in 1886, tells the story of a former educatee named Rodion Raskolnikov who is at present impoverished and on the verge of mental instability. To get money—and to demonstrate his exceptionalness to himself—he comes up with a murderous program to kill a pawnbroker. Considered 1 of the get-go psychological novels, the plot is besides a political 1 that explores the character'due south pull toward liberal views and his rebellion against them.

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#36. Decease of a Salesman

- Author: Arthur Miller
- Score: 5,567
- Boilerplate rating: three.50/5, based on 165,933 ratings

Arthur Miller introduces readers to an aging Willy Loman, a traveling salesman nearing the terminate of his career. Loman decides he'southward tired of driving for piece of work and asks for an role task in New York City, believing he is vital to the company. His dominate ends up firing him. Loman is also faced with the fact that his son, Biff, has not turned into the success Loman had hoped for. In the stop, Loman commits suicide and so his son tin can have the insurance money to jumpstart a amend life. After his decease, only Loman's family unit attends his funeral. "Death of a Salesman" won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

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#35. The Onetime Man and the Sea

- Author: Ernest Hemingway
- Score: 5,822
- Boilerplate rating: 3.76/five, based on 715,980 ratings

"The Old Human and the Sea" was Ernest Hemingway's final major work. The story follows an old man who catches a large fish, only to have information technology eaten past sharks before he tin can become it back to shore. Although many may see symbolism about life and aging in the book, Hemingway said there wasn't a deeper meaning in the prose.

17 / 50

#34. Flowers for Algernon

- Author: Daniel Keyes
- Score: v,827
- Average rating: 4.eleven/five, based on 422,243 ratings

The chief grapheme in "Flowers for Algernon" is Charlie Gordon, a man of low intelligence who becomes a genius after undergoing an experimental procedure. The experiment has already been performed on a lab mouse named Algernon. Gordon'due south intelligence opens his optics to things he'south never understood before, but he eventually loses his newly caused knowledge. The mouse, who Gordon remembers fondly, dies. Daniel Keyes wrote the book after realizing that his education was causing a rift between him and his loved ones, making him wonder what information technology would be like if someone'due south intelligence could be increased.

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#33. Othello

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: v,992
- Average rating: 3.89/5, based on 286,333 ratings

Shakespeare wrote "Othello" in the early 17th century. The play tells the tragic story of Othello—a Moor and general in the Venetian army, and Iago—a traitorous low-ranking officer. Shakespeare tackles themes of racism, betrayal, and jealousy. While he refers to Othello as "Black," Shakespeare most likely meant he was darker-skinned than nigh Englishmen at the time and non necessarily of African descent.

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#32. The Canterbury Tales

- Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Score: 6,040
- Average rating: 3.49/5, based on 175,388 ratings

"The Canterbury Tales," written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, was i of the first major works of English literature. The story follows a group of pilgrims who tell tales during their journey from London to Canterbury Cathedral. The cast of characters—including a carpenter, cook, and knight, among others—paint a varied motion-picture show of 14th-century club. The stories inspired the modern film "A Knight'southward Tale," starring Heath Ledger as a poor knight, and Paul Bettany as Chaucer.

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#31. Beowulf

- Author: Unknown
- Score: 6,572
- Average rating: 3.43/5, based on 209,182 ratings

"Beowulf" is an epic poem—an original manuscript copy is housed in the British Library—of iii,000 lines. It was written in Old English somewhere between 700 and 1000 A.D., and tells the story of Beowulf, a nobleman, and warrior in Sweden who is sent to Denmark to fight a swamp monster chosen Grendel.

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#30. The Hobbit

- Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Score: 6,701
- Boilerplate rating: iv.27/5, based on ii,554,239 ratings

In this prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, readers tag forth with Bilbo Baggins, an unassuming hobbit who is convinced to get on an risk by the wizard Gandalf. Bilbo finds in that location is much more to himself than he thought—and he finds a certain band, besides. "The Hobbit," written in 1932, contains many of the building blocks—an epic quest, an unwilling hero, elves, and goblins—that modern fantasy writers withal reference today.

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#29. A Tale of 2 Cities

- Author: Charles Dickens
- Score: 7,077
- Average rating: 3.83/5, based on 750,394 ratings

"A Tale of Two Cities," famously starts out: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Ready in the belatedly 1700s, Charles Dickens vividly writes about the time leading up to and during the French Revolution. The historical novel describes decease and despair, just also touches on themes of redemption.

23 / 50

#28. Wuthering Heights

- Author: Emily Brontë
- Score: 7,222
- Average rating: three.84/5, based on i,183,188 ratings

"Wuthering Heights," published in 1847, was the commencement and only novel by Emily Brontë, who died a year subsequently at the age of 30. Brontë tells the tragic beloved story between Heathcliff, an orphan, and Catherine, the daughter of his wealthy distributor. Considered a archetype in English literature, the novel shows readers how passionate and destructive love can exist.

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#27. The Grapes of Wrath

- Author: John Steinbeck
- Score: vii,540
- Average rating: 3.95/v, based on 666,190 ratings

"The Grapes of Wrath" is considered a great American novel partly considering information technology brought to light the destruction and despair caused by the Dust Basin and the Neat Low. The story follows Tom Joad later he is released from prison house to find his family's Oklahoma farmstead empty and destroyed. Joad and his family later set off for a new life in California, just to face up struggles along the mode. The book, which focuses on the theme of difficult piece of work, won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Novel (now Fiction).

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#26. Frankenstein

- Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Score: vii,931
- Average rating: three.78/5, based on 1,032,148 ratings

Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein," considered the determinative horror text and one of the greatest horror novels of all fourth dimension, when she was only 19. The story was published in 1818 and introduced readers to Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who brings to life a animate being he assembled from discarded corpse parts. Although Dr. Frankenstein is horrified by his creation and abandons it, the creature manages to educate itself then seeks revenge on his creator. The novel explores humanity'south desire for innovation and the fright of change it brings.

26 / 50

#25. A Midsummer Night's Dream

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 7,999
- Average rating: 3.94/5, based on 409,141 ratings

Like many of Shakespeare'south plays, "A Midsummer Night'due south Dream" explores the theme of beloved. This comedy shows the events that surround the matrimony of Theseus, the knuckles of Athens, to Hippolytus, a former Amazon queen. The play also shares the stories of several other lovers who are influenced past the fairies who live in the forest near the wedding. The play is a favorite for actors and audiences, even today.

27 / 50

#24. Nifty Expectations

- Author: Charles Dickens
- Score: 8,479
- Average rating: 3.77/5, based on 590,620 ratings

This Charles Dickens archetype tells the story of Pip, an orphan who gets a run a risk at a better life through an anonymous distributor. The plot by and large centers effectually Pip's regular visits to Miss Havisham, a wealthy recluse, and his love for her adopted daughter Estella, who is cold toward Pip until years afterwards. Many consider the novel a great masterpiece.

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#23. The Outsiders

- Author: S.East. Hinton (Goodreads Author)
- Score: eight,480
- Average rating: 4.08/5, based on 816,572 ratings

S.E. Hinton introduced readers to 14-yr-old Ponyboy Curtis in "The Outsiders," a novel she wrote when she was 15. The plot centers around two rival gangs: the lower-grade Greasers and the well-off Socials. It touches on themes of teen angst, including the frustrations young people accept when they can't rely on adults to modify things, while also not knowing how to gear up things themselves. Hinton's publishers encouraged her to publish under her initials because they didn't call back the public would respect a volume about teenage boys by someone with a feminine name.

29 / 50

#22. Night

- Writer: Elie Wiesel
- Score: ix,166
- Average rating: 4.32/5, based on 868,121 ratings

Elie Wiesel gives a first-hand account of the atrocities experienced in High german concentration camps during World State of war II. Wiesel and his family were deported to Auschwitz. His mother, begetter, and younger sister all died. In "Night," Wiesel'southward brilliant and horrific descriptions of beatings, starving men, and death shine a chilling, personal light on the tragedy of the Holocaust.

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#21. Julius Caesar

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 9,413
- Average rating: three.67/5, based on 153,978 ratings

Shakespeare takes on history with "Julius Caesar," a tragic story of ability and betrayal. Brutus, who worked closely with Caesar, joined his boyfriend conspirators to assassinate Caesar in club to salvage the republic from a tyrannical leader. The events had the reverse effect when, just 2 years later, Caesar'south grand nephew was crowned the first emperor of Rome. The play marked a political shift in Shakespeare'south writing.

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#xx. Brave New World

- Author: Aldous Huxley
- Score: ix,759
- Average rating: iii.98/5, based on one,276,116 ratings

In "Dauntless New World," published in 1932, Aldous Huxley paints a pic of a dystopian future where people consume pills chosen soma to go a sense of instant bliss without side effects. Emotions, individuality, and lasting relationships aren't allowed. A preordained form arrangement is decided at the embryonic stage, with certain people getting hormones for peak mental and athletic fettle. Some historians believe the book's plot could somewhat correspond our actual time to come in the next 100 years.

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#nineteen. The Crucible

- Author: Arthur Miller
- Score: 9,789
- Average rating: iii.57/five, based on 291,382 ratings

This 1953 play is a dramatized version of the Salem witch trials of the late 1600s. In the novel, a group of young girls are dancing in the wood. When they're defenseless, they fake illness and shift blame to avoid punishment. Their lies set off witchcraft accusations throughout the town. Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" as a protest to the actions of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who set up a committee to investigate and prosecute the Communists he thought had infiltrated the U.S. government. It won the 1953 Tony Accolade for Best Play.

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33 / 50

#18. The Giver

- Author: Lois Lowry (Goodreads Writer)
- Score: ten,075
- Average rating: iv.thirteen/5, based on i,548,599 ratings

This 1993 young adult dystopian novel tells of a society that values similarity and not individuality. People are discouraged from existence dissimilar and are given jobs that will all-time serve the customs. Those who don't like their role are "released," which means they are forced to exit social club. 1 person is assigned the role of the Giver, and tasked with holding onto memories. Young Jonas becomes the new Giver. With his new memories, his sensation grows and he begins to question life. The motion picture adaptation of the book was released in 2014.

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#17. Fahrenheit 451

- Writer: Ray Bradbury
- Score: 10,450
- Boilerplate rating: 3.98/v, based on i,437,170 ratings

Ray Bradbury describes a futuristic world where books are banned and burned. Guy Montag, one fireman tasked with extinguishing the books, begins to question the practice. When Bradbury wrote the classic in the 1950s, tv set sets were becoming ubiquitous in American households. The theme of the book was a warning most how mass media could interfere with people's power or desire to think critically, a theme that many think resonates with the social media-obsessed world of today.

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#16. Jane Eyre

- Author: Charlotte Brontë
- Score: 10,629
- Average rating: 4.xi/v, based on 1,455,935 ratings

Charlotte Brontë—sister to Emily—speaks straight to the reader in "Jane Eyre." The Victorian novel follows the headstrong Jane, an orphan who lives with her aunt and cousins, on her quest to find her identity and true love. The novel, marketed as an autobiography and published in 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell, is written in first person and introduced "the concept of the self" in writing.

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#fifteen. Pride and Prejudice

- Author: Jane Austen
- Score: eleven,884
- Average rating: 4.25/five, based on two,607,645 ratings

Published in 1813, "Pride and Prejudice" was Jane Austen's second novel. The story follows the will-they-won't-they human relationship between the wealthy Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, who comes from meager means. Throughout the chapters, both change for the better every bit they fall in love. The book has inspired at to the lowest degree more than a dozen movie and television adaptations.

37 / 50

#fourteen. The Diary of a Immature Girl

- Author: Anne Frank
- Score: 12,962
- Average rating: 4.13/5, based on 2,423,799 ratings

In 1944, a young Anne Frank recorded her thoughts and feelings as she and other Jewish citizens hid from the German language Nazis during World War II. The coming-of-historic period diary, which chronicles Frank's time hiding in the Secret Annex while she became a immature woman, has been translated into 70 languages. While she and virtually of her family were killed, her father survived and helped publish her piece of work, making it possible for millions to learn her story.

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#13. The Odyssey

- Author: Homer
- Score: xiii,345
- Boilerplate rating: 3.75/5, based on 791,715 ratings

"The Odyssey," a Greek ballsy poem, follows Odysseus as he travels dorsum to the island of Ithaca after fighting in the state of war at Troy—something addressed in Homer's poem, "The Iliad." When he returns home, he and his son, Telemachus, kill all the men who are trying to ally Odysseus's wife, Penelope. In the end, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, victory, and war, intervenes. Like many Greek myths, it focuses on themes of dear, courage, and revenge.

39 / 50

#12. 1984

- Writer: George Orwell
- Score: xiii,721
- Average rating: 4.17/5, based on two,637,484 ratings

George Orwell describes a dystopian future rife with war and one where the government—led by Large Brother—controls the truth and snuffs out individual thought. The protagonist, Winston Smith, becomes disillusioned with the Party, and he rebels against it. Although it was published in 1949, the novel had a resurgence in 2017.

40 / 50

#eleven. The Adventures of Blueberry Finn

- Author: Marking Twain
- Score: 14,430
- Average rating: three.81/five, based on 1,084,798 ratings

Blueberry Finn is the main character in this follow-upward novel to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." The volume explores themes of racism as Huck Finn floats down the Mississippi River with a man escaping slavery. Similar Huck, Twain changed his childhood views and rejected slavery as an establishment.

41 / 50

#10. The Scarlet Letter

- Writer: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Score: 15,426
- Boilerplate rating: 3.39/5, based on 642,352 ratings

Nathaniel Hawthorne published "The Cerise Letter" in 1850. In the novel, which is based on historical events, readers follow the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who is forced to wear a red "A" on her dress afterwards she conceives a child out of matrimony. She bears the punishment alone when she refuses to proper noun the baby's father. Her character marked one of the starting time where a strong adult female was the protagonist. Hawthorne also touches on themes of hypocrisy, shame, guilt, and love.

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42 / 50

#nine. Of Mice and Men

- Writer: John Steinbeck
- Score: 17,192
- Average rating: 3.86/5, based on 1,743,236 ratings

"Of Mice and Men" tells the story of George and his simple-minded friend, Lennie. The two take to get new jobs on a ranch because of some trouble in Lennie'south by. The novel, set during the Great Low, tackles topics of poverty, sexism, and racism.

43 / 50

#8. Hamlet

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 17,276
- Average rating: 4.01/5, based on 657,227 ratings

Village, the prince of Denmark, becomes vengeful after attention his father's funeral, merely to notice his female parent has remarried his uncle, Claudius. The stepfather crowns himself rex, a office that should have gone to Hamlet. The prince finds out his father was murdered, after which he kills the new male monarch. Ambiguity runs through the play and the grapheme of Hamlet, with his visions of ghosts up for interpretation—are they real, or a figment of the troubled homo'due south imagination? The tragedy, which launched the famous line "to be, or non to be," shines a calorie-free on some of the worst traits of humanity. Some consider the play Shakespeare's greatest work.

44 / 50

#vii. The Catcher in the Rye

- Author: J. D. Salinger
- Score: 17,633
- Average rating: 3.80/5, based on 2,451,530 ratings

J. D. Salinger aptly captures teen malaise in "The Catcher in the Rye" when the reader gets a look at 3 days in the life of its narrator, the 16-yr-old Holden Caulfield. The book was an instant success, just some schools have banned it from their libraries and reading lists, citing vulgarity and sexual content.

45 / 50

#6. Fauna Subcontract

- Author: George Orwell
- Score: xviii,315
- Average rating: 3.92/five, based on 2,377,098 ratings

A group of farm animals organizes a revolt afterward they realize their principal, Mr. Jones, is mistreating them and offering them nothing in render for their work. When they challenge the leadership, they are disciplined for speaking out. This classic isn't about animal rights. It is a larger critique on Soviet Communism. Orwell wrote information technology equally an set on against Stalinism in Russia.

46 / 50

#v. Macbeth

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 19,153
- Average rating: 3.89/five, based on 605,131 ratings

Some other Shakespeare classic, "Macbeth" portrays the weakness of humanity. The character of Macbeth receives a prophecy that he will i day become rex of Scotland. His unchecked appetite ends in murder; Macbeth kills Male monarch Duncan to steal the throne for himself. It shows the destructive influence of political appetite and pursuing power for its ain sake.

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#4. Lord of the Flies

- Author: William Golding
- Score: 20,677
- Average rating: 3.67/5, based on two,002,142 ratings

"Lord of the Flies" tells the alarming story of a group of young boys who survive a airplane crash, only to descend into tribalism on the island where they landed. Two of the boys—Ralph and Jack—clash in their pursuit of leadership. The novel, which has been challenged in schools, shows how struggles for power based on fear and partition tin upshot in a plummet of social order, themes that might seem relevant today.

48 / l

#three. The Peachy Gatsby

- Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Score: 24,750
- Average rating: 3.91/five, based on 3,322,289 ratings

Nick Carraway, a Midwest transplant and Yale graduate, moves to West Egg, Long Island. Carraway enters a world of extravagance when he becomes entangled with millionaire Jay Gatsby and socialite Daisy Buchanan. The novel is viewed as a cautionary tale about achieving the American dream of wealth and backlog.

49 / fifty

#ii. Romeo and Juliet

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: xxx,769
- Average rating: three.74/5, based on 1,878,322 ratings

Two star-crossed lovers come across and perish in this tragedy. Juliet, a Capulet, falls in honey with Romeo, a Montague. Because their families are rivals, they are forbidden to marry. They secretly wednesday before misfortune leads to their deaths. Losing their children inspires a peace among the families. Some critics claim the play'southward kittenish view of dear hasn't stood the test of time, merely others think the story is multilayered and deserves its classic condition.

50 / fifty

#ane. To Impale a Mockingbird

- Author: Harper Lee
- Score: 39,482
- Average rating: 4.27/v, based on 3,977,468 ratings

Harper Lee'south get-go novel, which was published in 1960, tackles issues of racial and social injustice in the S. Set in Alabama, it introduces readers to Atticus Finch, a lawyer who defends a Black human accused of raping a white woman. The bespeak-of-view comes from Atticcus's girl, Scout, while Boo Radley, their reclusive neighbor, adds another dimension to this archetype story of racism and childhood. Lee's piece of work won her a Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Liberty. Considering of some racial language, the book has been challenged in many schools throughout America.

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