100 Essential Penguin Classics

1.
The Odyssey
The Odyssey
by: Homer
3.82 avg rating — 1,156,755 ratings
2.
The Aeneid
The Aeneid
by: Virgil
3.87 avg rating — 139,148 ratings
3.
The Histories
The Histories
by: Herodotus
4.01 avg rating — 54,683 ratings
4.
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso 4.08 avg rating — 167,121 ratings
5.
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre 4.16 avg rating — 2,260,082 ratings
6.
Don Quixote
Don Quixote 3.91 avg rating — 297,052 ratings
7.
Frankenstein
Frankenstein 3.89 avg rating — 1,772,507 ratings
8.
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men 3.89 avg rating — 2,752,269 ratings
9.
Far From the Madding Crowd
Far From the Madding Crowd 3.97 avg rating — 162,879 ratings
10.
Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses
by: Ovid
4.10 avg rating — 76,412 ratings
11.
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories 3.90 avg rating — 1,338,717 ratings
12.
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice 4.29 avg rating — 4,634,048 ratings
13.
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath 4.02 avg rating — 971,691 ratings
14.
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina 4.10 avg rating — 906,395 ratings
15.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
by: Ken Kesey
4.20 avg rating — 767,697 ratings
16.
The Prince
The Prince 3.84 avg rating — 371,438 ratings
17.
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories 3.91 avg rating — 63,247 ratings
18.
On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual
On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual 4.25 avg rating — 1,275 ratings
18.
Siddhartha
Siddhartha 4.08 avg rating — 846,989 ratings
20.
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter 3.44 avg rating — 901,380 ratings
21.
The Tale of Genji
The Tale of Genji 3.72 avg rating — 14,370 ratings
22.
Candide
Candide
by: Voltaire
3.76 avg rating — 294,555 ratings
23.
The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto
by: Karl Marx
3.67 avg rating — 189,287 ratings
24.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 3.83 avg rating — 1,319,011 ratings
24.
Hamlet
Hamlet 4.03 avg rating — 1,020,241 ratings
26.
Treasure Island
Treasure Island 3.85 avg rating — 528,301 ratings
27.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Lady Chatterley’s Lover 3.50 avg rating — 134,638 ratings
28.
Twelve Years a Slave
Twelve Years a Slave 4.22 avg rating — 123,138 ratings
29.
On the Road
On the Road 3.61 avg rating — 438,550 ratings
30.
The Pillow Book
The Pillow Book 4.02 avg rating — 9,589 ratings
31.
Dubliners
Dubliners 3.84 avg rating — 170,162 ratings
32.
The Quiet American
The Quiet American 3.98 avg rating — 68,875 ratings
33.
The Aleph and Other Stories
The Aleph and Other Stories 4.33 avg rating — 46,750 ratings
34.
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair 4.20 avg rating — 79,725 ratings
34.
The Art of War
The Art of War
by: Sun Tzu
3.95 avg rating — 550,669 ratings
36.
Democracy in America
Democracy in America 4.05 avg rating — 26,629 ratings
37.
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo 4.32 avg rating — 992,163 ratings
38.
Dracula
Dracula 4.02 avg rating — 1,415,296 ratings
39.
Utopia
Utopia 3.55 avg rating — 80,700 ratings
39.
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe 3.68 avg rating — 325,008 ratings
39.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
by: Unknown
3.76 avg rating — 75,128 ratings
42.
Lysistrata and Other Plays
Lysistrata and Other Plays 3.87 avg rating — 52,374 ratings
43.
Middlemarch
Middlemarch 4.03 avg rating — 174,992 ratings
44.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass 4.06 avg rating — 597,704 ratings
45.
Gulliver’s Travels
Gulliver’s Travels 3.59 avg rating — 293,939 ratings
46.
The Last Days of Socrates
The Last Days of Socrates
by: Plato
4.12 avg rating — 44,777 ratings
46.
The Crucible
The Crucible 3.61 avg rating — 452,214 ratings
48.
Herzog
Herzog 3.76 avg rating — 22,521 ratings
48.
My Ántonia
My Ántonia 3.84 avg rating — 144,876 ratings
50.
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales 3.52 avg rating — 234,641 ratings
51.
Pygmalion
Pygmalion 3.89 avg rating — 108,308 ratings
52.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray 4.13 avg rating — 1,783,231 ratings
53.
Great Expectations
Great Expectations 3.80 avg rating — 857,600 ratings
54.
Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary 3.71 avg rating — 363,710 ratings
55.
Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Moby-Dick or, The Whale 3.56 avg rating — 602,846 ratings
56.
The River Between
The River Between 3.79 avg rating — 5,150 ratings
56.
The Souls of Black Folk
The Souls of Black Folk 4.31 avg rating — 44,286 ratings
58.
Les Misérables
Les Misérables 4.21 avg rating — 830,276 ratings
59.
The Poetics of Space
The Poetics of Space 4.18 avg rating — 10,888 ratings
59.
A Room with a View
A Room with a View 3.90 avg rating — 197,396 ratings
61.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 4.12 avg rating — 132,005 ratings
62.
My Inventions and Other Writings
My Inventions and Other Writings 3.93 avg rating — 817 ratings
63.
White Noise
White Noise 3.86 avg rating — 123,859 ratings
64.
North and South
North and South 4.15 avg rating — 179,602 ratings
65.
Revolutionary Suicide
Revolutionary Suicide 4.48 avg rating — 6,762 ratings
65.
The Jungle
The Jungle 3.78 avg rating — 152,245 ratings
67.
The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence 3.97 avg rating — 189,950 ratings
68.
The Snow Leopard
The Snow Leopard 4.07 avg rating — 19,815 ratings
68.
Walden & Civil Disobedience
Walden & Civil Disobedience 3.94 avg rating — 38,624 ratings
70.
The Analects
The Analects
by: Confucius
3.81 avg rating — 23,510 ratings
71.
Under the Sea-Wind
Under the Sea-Wind 4.15 avg rating — 1,588 ratings
71.
Little Women (Little Women, #1)
Little Women (Little Women, #1) 4.17 avg rating — 2,393,370 ratings
73.
Ceremony
Ceremony 3.84 avg rating — 25,795 ratings
74.
The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House 3.81 avg rating — 365,401 ratings
74.
The Last of the Mohicans (The Leatherstocking Tales, #2)
The Last of the Mohicans (The Leatherstocking Tales, #2) 3.70 avg rating — 101,128 ratings
76.
Gravity’s Rainbow
Gravity’s Rainbow 4.01 avg rating — 46,900 ratings
76.
Confessions
Confessions 3.99 avg rating — 71,276 ratings
78.
Twelve Angry Men
Twelve Angry Men 4.07 avg rating — 36,166 ratings
79.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 3.92 avg rating — 239,376 ratings
80.
The New York Trilogy (New York Trilogy, #1-3)
The New York Trilogy (New York Trilogy, #1-3) 3.86 avg rating — 84,278 ratings
80.
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass 4.11 avg rating — 114,644 ratings
82.
Thérèse Raquin
Thérèse Raquin 3.73 avg rating — 36,730 ratings
83.
The Song of Roland
The Song of Roland
by: Unknown
3.50 avg rating — 18,742 ratings
84.
Beowulf
Beowulf
by: Unknown
3.50 avg rating — 338,053 ratings
85.
Storm of Steel
Storm of Steel 4.15 avg rating — 20,488 ratings
86.
Sixty Stories
Sixty Stories 4.18 avg rating — 6,084 ratings
87.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by: Anonymous
3.75 avg rating — 114,191 ratings
88.
The Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita 4.19 avg rating — 78,229 ratings
89.
Passing
Passing 3.92 avg rating — 76,719 ratings
90.
Personal Memoirs
Personal Memoirs 4.13 avg rating — 9,497 ratings
91.
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York 3.73 avg rating — 3,047 ratings
92.
Fear and Trembling
Fear and Trembling really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 29,961 ratings
93.
The Three Theban Plays: Sophocles
The Three Theban Plays: Sophocles
by: Sophocles
3.99 avg rating — 69,740 ratings
94.
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene 3.58 avg rating — 17,147 ratings
95.
Notes from Underground & The Double
Notes from Underground & The Double 4.15 avg rating — 7,817 ratings
96.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches 4.02 avg rating — 6,179 ratings
97.
Medea and Other Plays
Medea and Other Plays
by: Euripides
4.02 avg rating — 19,121 ratings
98.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Thus Spoke Zarathustra 4.07 avg rating — 169,551 ratings
99.
The Travels
The Travels 3.58 avg rating — 7,904 ratings