Page Turners

Fiction Classics: Must-reads from fantastic, acclaimed authors

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Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen

While her mother plots advantageous marriages for her daughters, Elizabeth is at odds with wealthy Mr. Darcy, and they both must contend with their pride and prejudices.

The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck

Set in the 1920s, Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant, rises from poverty to become a rich landowner.

The Red Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane

Set during the Civil War, Henry Fleming, a young Union soldier, has conflicting emotions about the casualties of war and the nature of bravery.

A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens

Lucie Manette is loved by two men who look alike, and one takes the place of the other at the guillotine during the French Revolution for Lucie’s happiness.

Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

After a lengthly investigation, Sonya, a saintly prostitute, convinces Raskolnikoff to confess to the murders of an old moneylender and her sister.

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jay Gatsby risks everything to win back the woman he loves although she has married someone else.

The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne

A young woman suffers the consequences of her sin of adultery and spends her life in atonement in early colonial Massachusetts.

A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway

Set during World War I on the Italian front, an ambulance driver falls in love with an English nurse.

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

The story of Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in the 1930s, who’s quest for identity takes her on a journey to her roots.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

Atticus Finch, a lawyer in a small Alabama town during the 1930s, defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.

The Call of the Wild
Jack London

When he is kidnapped and shipped off to Alaska to work on the Klondike Gold Rush, Buck the dog learns how to survive in the wild.

Moby Dick
Herman Melville

Captain Ahab becomes obsessed with the great white whale that cripples him.

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

In a classic coming-of-age story, Holden Caulfield escapes the hypocrisies of his prep school and finds refuge in New York City.

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck

The Joad family tries to find work as migrant fruit pickers in California after being driven from their dustbowl home during the Depression.

War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy

Portrays the histories of five aristocratic Russian families during the war against Napoleon.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain

Outcast Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a runaway slave, have many adventures as they raft down the Mississippi River.

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

Centering on the fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

Native Son
Richard Wright

A young black man loses all hope of redemption after he kills a white woman in Chicago during the 1930s.