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50 classics from (almost) everyone's high school reading list

Research shows that reading fiction encourages empathy. While more loftier school curriculums should include modern, diverse writers similar Amy Tan and Malala Yousafzai, certain classics—like John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and Sandra Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street"—suffer. George Orwell's "1984," a novel published in 1949 nearly a dystopian futurity where the government controls the truth, fifty-fifty surged to the Amazon all-time-sellers list in 2017, shortly after former President Trump's advisor Kellyanne Conway described falsehoods every bit "alternative facts."

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

Certain books deserve a first, 2d, or peradventure even a third read. Using data from Goodreads, Stacker compiled a listing of l timeless books, plays, and epic poems unremarkably found on high schoolhouse reading lists. A total of 1,002 voters picked the nearly 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 listing.

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one / 50

#50. Their Eyes Were Watching God

- Author: Zora Neale Hurston
- Score: iii,540
- Boilerplate rating: iii.90/five, based on 232,956 ratings

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

2 / 50

#49. A Raisin in the Lord's day

- Writer: 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 move to an all-white neighborhood during a time of desegregation. In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry became the first Black playwright to get a play produced on Broadway. The title of the play comes from "Dream Deferred," a poem by Langston Hughes.

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#48. Moby-Dick; or, the Whale

- Author: Herman Melville
- Score: 3,750
- Boilerplate rating: 3.49/v, 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 against Moby Dick, the white whale that bit off his leg at the knee. For those who didn't written report the tale in loftier school—or couldn't make information technology through the 135 capacity—critics say information technology really is worth a read. Some refer to it as the American Bible, amend approached after becoming an developed and non as a pupil in high school.

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#47. The Pearl

- Author: John Steinbeck
- Score: 3,821
- Boilerplate rating: iii.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 by until he happens upon a behemothic pearl. Kino thinks this discovery will finally provide him with the financial condolement and security he has been seeking, but information technology ultimately brings disaster. The story addresses the reader'south relationship to nature, the human being demand for connection, and the consequences of resisting injustice.

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#46. The Importance of Existence 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 wait at Victorian social values while following two men—Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff—every bit they tell lies to bring some excitement to their lives. "The Importance of Being Earnest" was Wilde's final play, and some consider it his masterpiece.

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#45. The Ruby-red Bluecoat of Courage

- Writer: Stephen Crane
- Score: 3,838
- Boilerplate rating: 3.23/v, based on 82,944 ratings

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

7 / 50

#44. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

- Writer: Edith Hamilton
- Score: iii,902
- Average rating: three.99/5, based on 40,876 ratings

Writer Edith Hamilton takes the reader on a journeying through Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology with tales of the Olympus and Norse gods in Valhalla and the Trojan War in Odysseus. For loftier school students, it can serve equally an important introduction to archetype mythology that tin can aid them ameliorate empathize the themes behind other works like "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." Hamilton's book is considered the standard past which all other books on mythology are measured.

8 / fifty

#43. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

- Author: Maya Angelou
- Score: iii,971
- Average rating: four.22/5, based on 351,852 ratings

Maya Angelou, who was raped by her mother'south boyfriend when she was 8, writes about her feel with sexual assault and racism while growing up in the Jim Crow Due south in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The autobiography, which Angelou wrote at the urging of her friend and fellow author James Baldwin, was one of the offset written by a Black woman to reach a wide general audience.

9 / fifty

#42. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

- Writer: Mark Twain
- Score: 4,073
- Average rating: 3.91/5, based on 686,551 ratings

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" takes identify in the fictional boondocks of Petrograd, Missouri, during the 1840s. Tom Sawyer and his friend Huck Finn witness a murder past Joe. Later on the boys stay silent, the wrong man is accused of the crime. When they flee, the whole town presumes them expressionless and the boys finish up attending their own funerals. Mark Twain's portrayal of Sawyer and Finn challenge the idyllic American view of childhood, instead showing children as fallible man beings with imperfections like anyone else.

10 / fifty

#41. Abattoir-Five

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

In "Slaughterhouse-5," 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 sure moments. He is first pulled out after he is drafted and is captured in Germany during World State of war II. The volume, which explores how humankind repeats history, has been banned or challenged in classrooms throughout the Usa. It even landed in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 in Lath of Didactics v. Pico, and the court held that banning the book violated the Commencement Subpoena.

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#40. The Taming of the Shrew

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 4,666
- Boilerplate rating: 3.80/v, based on 145,421 ratings

This five-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. Subsequently the wedding, Petruchio drags his new wife through the mud to their new home in the country. He proceeds to starve and deprive her of slumber to make his new bride submissive. The play, one of Shakespeare's virtually popular, has been both criticized for its calumniating and misogynistic attitude toward women, and praised as a challenging view of how women are supposed to behave.

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#39. A Split up Peace

- Author: John Knowles
- Score: 4,859
- Average rating: 3.57/5, based on 179,467 ratings

In "A Carve up Peace," John Knowles explores the friendship of two young men—the quiet, intellectual Gene Forrester and his extroverted, athletic friend Finny. Gene lives vicariously through Finny, merely his jealousy ultimately ends in tragedy after he commits a subtle human activity of violence. The volume examines themes of envy and the demand to achieve.

13 / 50

#38. The Little Prince

- Writer: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Score: 5,234
- Average rating: 4.30/5, based on 1,120,033 ratings

In "The Little Prince," a pilot whose plane has crashed in the Sahara desert meets a young male child from outer space. The male child is traveling from planet to planet in search of friendship. On the boy's home—an asteroid—he lived lonely, accompanied but by a solitary rose. In one case on Earth, the boy meets a wise fox who tells him he can only come across clearly with his heart. The book's somber themes of imagination and adulthood accept resonated with children and adults alike since it published—information technology is now one of the most-translated books of all time.

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#37. Law-breaking and Penalization

- Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Score: five,245
- Average rating: 4.xx/5, based on 543,309 ratings

This Russian classic, published in 1886, tells the story of a erstwhile student named Rodion Raskolnikov who is now impoverished and on the verge of mental instability. To get money—and to demonstrate his exceptionalness to himself—he comes upward with a murderous plan to impale a pawnbroker. Considered 1 of the get-go psychological novels, the plot is as well a political one that explores the grapheme'south pull toward liberal views and his rebellion against them.

15 / 50

#36. Decease of a Salesman

- Author: Arthur Miller
- Score: 5,567
- Boilerplate rating: 3.50/5, based on 165,933 ratings

Arthur Miller introduces readers to an aging Willy Loman, a traveling salesman nearing the end of his career. Loman decides he's tired of driving for work and asks for an office job in New York City, believing he is vital to the company. His boss ends upward 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 finish, Loman commits suicide so his son tin have the insurance coin to jumpstart a ameliorate life. After his death, only Loman's family attends his funeral. "Decease of a Salesman" won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

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#35. The Sometime Man and the Bounding main

- Author: Ernest Hemingway
- Score: v,822
- Average rating: iii.76/5, based on 715,980 ratings

"The Quondam Man and the Sea" was Ernest Hemingway's final major work. The story follows an one-time human being who catches a large fish, only to have it eaten past sharks before he can get it back to shore. Although many may come across symbolism about life and crumbling in the volume, Hemingway said in that location wasn't a deeper meaning in the prose.

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#34. Flowers for Algernon

- Author: Daniel Keyes
- Score: five,827
- Average rating: 4.11/v, based on 422,243 ratings

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

xviii / 50

#33. Othello

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

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

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#32. The Canterbury Tales

- Writer: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Score: 6,040
- Average rating: three.49/v, 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 journeying from London to Canterbury Cathedral. The cast of characters—including a carpenter, cook, and knight, among others—paint a varied picture of 14th-century society. The stories inspired the modern flick "A Knight'south Tale," starring Heath Ledger equally a poor knight, and Paul Bettany every bit Chaucer.

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#31. Beowulf

- Author: Unknown
- Score: half dozen,572
- Boilerplate 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 three,000 lines. Information technology was written in Sometime English somewhere between 700 and 1000 A.D., and tells the story of Beowulf, a nobleman, and warrior in Sweden who is sent to Kingdom of denmark to fight a swamp monster chosen Grendel.

21 / 50

#30. The Hobbit

- Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Score: vi,701
- Average rating: 4.27/5, based on 2,554,239 ratings

In this prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, readers tag forth with Bilbo Baggins, an unassuming hobbit who is convinced to go on an take chances past the magician Gandalf. Bilbo finds there is much more to himself than he idea—and he finds a sure ring, too. "The Hobbit," written in 1932, contains many of the edifice blocks—an ballsy quest, an unwilling hero, elves, and goblins—that modern fantasy writers still reference today.

22 / 50

#29. A Tale of 2 Cities

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

"A Tale of 2 Cities," famously starts out: "Information technology was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Set in the tardily 1700s, Charles Dickens vividly writes about the time leading up to and during the French Revolution. The historical novel describes death and despair, just besides touches on themes of redemption.

23 / 50

#28. Wuthering Heights

- Author: Emily Brontë
- Score: 7,222
- Average rating: 3.84/five, based on i,183,188 ratings

"Wuthering Heights," published in 1847, was the first and only novel past Emily Brontë, who died a twelvemonth later at the historic period of 30. Brontë tells the tragic dear story betwixt Heathcliff, an orphan, and Catherine, the girl of his wealthy benefactor. Considered a archetype in English literature, the novel shows readers how passionate and destructive love can exist.

24 / 50

#27. The Grapes of Wrath

- Writer: John Steinbeck
- Score: 7,540
- Average rating: 3.95/five, based on 666,190 ratings

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

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#26. Frankenstein

- Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Score: 7,931
- Average rating: 3.78/5, based on one,032,148 ratings

Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein," considered the determinative horror text and one of the greatest horror novels of all time, when she was only nineteen. The story was published in 1818 and introduced readers to Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who brings to life a creature he assembled from discarded corpse parts. Although Dr. Frankenstein is horrified by his creation and abandons it, the creature manages to brainwash itself and then seeks revenge on his creator. The novel explores humanity's desire for innovation and the fear 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's plays, "A Midsummer Nighttime's Dream" explores the theme of love. This one-act shows the events that surround the marriage of Theseus, the knuckles of Athens, to Hippolytus, a old Amazon queen. The play besides shares the stories of several other lovers who are influenced by the fairies who live in the woods about the wedding. The play is a favorite for actors and audiences, even today.

27 / fifty

#24. Great Expectations

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

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

28 / 50

#23. The Outsiders

- Author: Southward.E. Hinton (Goodreads Author)
- Score: viii,480
- Boilerplate rating: four.08/5, based on 816,572 ratings

S.E. Hinton introduced readers to fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis in "The Outsiders," a novel she wrote when she was fifteen. The plot centers around two rival gangs: the lower-form Greasers and the well-off Socials. Information technology touches on themes of teen malaise, including the frustrations young people have when they can't rely on adults to change things, while too not knowing how to fix things themselves. Hinton'due south publishers encouraged her to publish under her initials considering they didn't recall the public would respect a book near teenage boys by someone with a feminine name.

29 / 50

#22. Nighttime

- Author: Elie Wiesel
- Score: 9,166
- Boilerplate 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 Globe War Two. Wiesel and his family unit were deported to Auschwitz. His female parent, father, and younger sis all died. In "Nighttime," Wiesel's vivid and horrific descriptions of beatings, starving men, and death shine a chilling, personal light on the tragedy of the Holocaust.

xxx / 50

#21. Julius Caesar

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 9,413
- Boilerplate rating: 3.67/5, based on 153,978 ratings

Shakespeare takes on history with "Julius Caesar," a tragic story of power and betrayal. Brutus, who worked closely with Caesar, joined his young man conspirators to electrocute Caesar in guild to save the republic from a tyrannical leader. The events had the reverse effect when, just two years later, Caesar's grand nephew was crowned the get-go emperor of Rome. The play marked a political shift in Shakespeare's writing.

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#20. Brave New World

- Author: Aldous Huxley
- Score: nine,759
- Average rating: three.98/5, based on ane,276,116 ratings

In "Brave New World," published in 1932, Aldous Huxley paints a film of a dystopian future where people consume pills called soma to become a sense of instant bliss without side effects. Emotions, individuality, and lasting relationships aren't allowed. A preordained class system is decided at the embryonic stage, with certain people getting hormones for pinnacle mental and able-bodied fettle. Some historians believe the volume's plot could somewhat represent our bodily future in the next 100 years.

32 / 50

#19. The Crucible

- Author: Arthur Miller
- Score: 9,789
- Boilerplate rating: 3.57/5, 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 grouping of young girls are dancing in the forest. When they're caught, they fake affliction and shift arraign to avert penalty. Their lies set up off witchcraft accusations throughout the town. Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" as a protestation to the deportment of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who ready up a committee to investigate and prosecute the Communists he thought had infiltrated the U.S. authorities. It won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play.

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33 / 50

#18. The Giver

- Author: Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)
- Score: x,075
- Boilerplate rating: 4.13/5, based on 1,548,599 ratings

This 1993 young developed dystopian novel tells of a society that values similarity and not individuality. People are discouraged from existence dissimilar and are given jobs that volition best serve the community. Those who don't like their function are "released," which means they are forced to leave club. One person is assigned the part 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 film accommodation of the book was released in 2014.

34 / 50

#17. Fahrenheit 451

- Author: Ray Bradbury
- Score: 10,450
- Average rating: iii.98/five, based on 1,437,170 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 archetype in the 1950s, television sets were becoming ubiquitous in American households. The theme of the book was a warning about how mass media could interfere with people'south power or desire to think critically, a theme that many think resonates with the social media-obsessed world of today.

35 / 50

#16. Jane Eyre

- Author: Charlotte Brontë
- Score: 10,629
- Average rating: 4.11/five, based on ane,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 nether the pen proper name Currer Bell, is written in showtime person and introduced "the concept of the self" in writing.

36 / 50

#fifteen. Pride and Prejudice

- Author: Jane Austen
- Score: 11,884
- Boilerplate rating: 4.25/5, 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 relationship between the wealthy Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, who comes from meager means. Throughout the chapters, both alter for the better as they fall in love. The book has inspired at least more than than a dozen movie and tv adaptations.

37 / 50

#fourteen. The Diary of a Immature Girl

- Author: Anne Frank
- Score: 12,962
- Boilerplate rating: iv.thirteen/5, based on two,423,799 ratings

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

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#thirteen. The Odyssey

- Author: Homer
- Score: 13,345
- Average rating: 3.75/v, based on 791,715 ratings

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

39 / 50

#12. 1984

- Author: George Orwell
- Score: 13,721
- 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 Big Brother—controls the truth and snuffs out individual idea. 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

#11. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

- Author: Mark Twain
- Score: 14,430
- Average rating: 3.81/v, based on one,084,798 ratings

Blueberry Finn is the primary character in this follow-upwards novel to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." The volume explores themes of racism equally Huck Finn floats down the Mississippi River with a human being escaping slavery. Like Huck, Twain inverse his childhood views and rejected slavery equally an institution.

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#10. The Scarlet Letter

- Writer: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Score: 15,426
- Average rating: three.39/five, based on 642,352 ratings

Nathaniel Hawthorne published "The Scarlet 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 wearable a cherry-red "A" on her clothes later she conceives a child out of wedlock. She bears the punishment alone when she refuses to name the infant'due south begetter. Her character marked ane of the first where a strong woman was the protagonist. Hawthorne also touches on themes of hypocrisy, shame, guilt, and love.

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#nine. Of Mice and Men

- Author: John Steinbeck
- Score: 17,192
- Average rating: three.86/5, based on i,743,236 ratings

"Of Mice and Men" tells the story of George and his simple-minded friend, Lennie. The ii accept to go new jobs on a ranch because of some trouble in Lennie'southward past. The novel, set during the Groovy Low, tackles topics of poverty, sexism, and racism.

43 / fifty

#eight. Hamlet

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 17,276
- Average rating: iv.01/5, based on 657,227 ratings

Hamlet, the prince of Kingdom of denmark, becomes vengeful after attention his father's funeral, only to observe his mother has remarried his uncle, Claudius. The stepfather crowns himself rex, a role that should have gone to Hamlet. The prince finds out his father was murdered, after which he kills the new king. Ambiguity runs through the play and the grapheme of Hamlet, with his visions of ghosts upward for interpretation—are they real, or a figment of the troubled man'due south imagination? The tragedy, which launched the famous line "to be, or not to be," shines a low-cal on some of the worst traits of humanity. Some consider the play Shakespeare's greatest work.

44 / fifty

#7. The Catcher in the Rye

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

J. D. Salinger aptly captures teen angst in "The Catcher in the Rye" when the reader gets a expect at three days in the life of its narrator, the sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield. The book was an instant success, but some schools take banned it from their libraries and reading lists, citing vulgarity and sexual content.

45 / 50

#6. Animal Farm

- Author: George Orwell
- Score: 18,315
- Average rating: iii.92/5, based on 2,377,098 ratings

A group of farm animals organizes a revolt later 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 most animate being rights. It is a larger critique on Soviet Communism. Orwell wrote information technology as an set on confronting Stalinism in Russia.

46 / fifty

#5. Macbeth

- Author: William Shakespeare
- Score: 19,153
- Average rating: iii.89/5, based on 605,131 ratings

Another Shakespeare classic, "Macbeth" portrays the weakness of humanity. The character of Macbeth receives a prophecy that he will one twenty-four hours get king of Scotland. His unchecked ambition ends in murder; Macbeth kills King Duncan to steal the throne for himself. It shows the destructive influence of political appetite and pursuing power for its own sake.

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#iv. Lord of the Flies

- Author: William Golding
- Score: 20,677
- Average rating: 3.67/5, based on 2,002,142 ratings

"Lord of the Flies" tells the alarming story of a group of young boys who survive a plane 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 ability based on fear and segmentation can result in a collapse of social order, themes that might seem relevant today.

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#iii. The Great Gatsby

- Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Score: 24,750
- Average rating: iii.91/five, based on 3,322,289 ratings

Nick Carraway, a Midwest transplant and Yale graduate, moves to Due 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 excess.

49 / 50

#2. Romeo and Juliet

- Writer: William Shakespeare
- Score: 30,769
- Average rating: 3.74/5, based on one,878,322 ratings

Ii star-crossed lovers see and perish in this tragedy. Juliet, a Capulet, falls in love with Romeo, a Montague. Because their families are rivals, they are forbidden to marry. They secretly wed before misfortune leads to their deaths. Losing their children inspires a peace among the families. Some critics claim the play's childish view of love hasn't stood the exam of time, only others think the story is multilayered and deserves its classic status.

50 / 50

#1. To Kill a Mockingbird

- Author: Harper Lee
- Score: 39,482
- Boilerplate rating: four.27/5, based on 3,977,468 ratings

Harper Lee'due south outset novel, which was published in 1960, tackles problems of racial and social injustice in the Due south. Set in Alabama, it introduces readers to Atticus Finch, a lawyer who defends a Blackness human being accused of raping a white woman. The signal-of-view comes from Atticcus'due south daughter, Lookout man, while Boo Radley, their reclusive neighbour, adds another dimension to this archetype story of racism and childhood. Lee's work won her a Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Because of some racial language, the book has been challenged in many schools throughout America.

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