The Journal
Classic books for people who don't usually read classics
The assumption that classic literature is difficult, slow, or irrelevant to contemporary life is mostly wrong -- and mostly produced by the wrong entry points. These are the classics that consistently convert non-readers of classics into readers of classics, because they are genuinely gripping, short enough to finish before losing momentum, and deal with things that have not stopped being true.
If you want a page-turner#
The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) | 180 pages. A man in West Egg watches his mysterious neighbour throw extraordinary parties and begins to understand why. Fitzgerald's prose is the most immediately pleasurable in American fiction -- lush, precise, and moving at a pace that contemporary thrillers rarely match. Free on Foxing. For what the green light means and why the parties matter, those analyses are the companion pieces.
Dracula -- Bram Stoker (1897) | 418 pages, but told through letters and journal entries that read like dispatches. A Transylvanian nobleman comes to England. The investigation that follows is structured like a thriller with a supernatural antagonist. Free on Foxing.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle (1892) | Twelve short stories, each self-contained, each satisfying. The best mystery fiction ever written and still unmatched for the specific pleasure of watching a brilliant mind work. Free on Foxing.
If you want something emotionally direct#
A Christmas Carol -- Charles Dickens (1843) | 78 pages, two to three hours. Dickens wrote it in six weeks to make money and accidentally wrote the most morally direct thing he ever produced. The transformation of Scrooge is not subtle -- it is not supposed to be. Free on Foxing.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde -- Robert Louis Stevenson (1886) | 86 pages. The story of a man with two selves: the respectable doctor and the thing that comes out when the doctor is not watching. Readable in an afternoon. Free on Foxing.
If you want something that made people angry at the time#
A Doll's House -- Henrik Ibsen (1879) | A short play, two to three hours. Nora Helmer has been her husband's decorative possession for their entire marriage. When she leaves him at the end, audiences across Europe were outraged. The outrage itself is the argument. Free on Foxing.
The Picture of Dorian Gray -- Oscar Wilde (1890) | 220 pages. A young man's portrait ages and corrupts in his place while he stays eternally young. Wilde was accused of immorality for writing it. The novel is actually a moral argument in Gothic form. Free on Foxing.
If you want something funny#
The Importance of Being Earnest -- Oscar Wilde (1895) | A short play, about 90 minutes to read. The funniest play in the English language, in the view of many critics. Two men maintain elaborate false identities. Every line is calibrated. Free on Foxing.
The one principle that applies to all of them#
The classic that converts you is the one you read when you are ready for it, not the one assigned in school. Reading a novel you choose, at the pace you choose, without the pressure of a test or a deadline, is a completely different experience from the one most people associate with classic literature.
For the reading habit that makes this sustainable, how to start a reading habit that actually sticks covers the practical approach.
Further reading#
For more entry points at different lengths, short classics you can finish in a weekend covers everything under 150 pages.
For what to read after your first classic pulls you in, what to read after Pride and Prejudice, after Frankenstein, and after Gatsby each cover the next steps.
All of the above are free on Foxing.