Inspired by the Classics Club blog, I’m sharing my list of classics on my TBR. The Classics Club challenges readers to create a list of 50 (or more) classics, and to commit to reading them within five years.

Note: Five years might be overly ambitious for me — but if I do four CCSpins per year, that would only require another six per year to meet the goal! Of course, I have a tendency to create lists and then add and add and add to them. We’ll see.

Classics are in the eye of the beholder, of course. Your definition and timeframe may vary! My list includes books published through the mid-20th century, give or take. I’ve also included several books that I’ve read already, but have been wanting to re-read.

As I read books on this list, I’ll add in the reading date and share a link to my review (if any).

Classics to read (arranged by author):

• Alcott, Louisa May – An Old-Fashioned Girl – 1870
• Alcott, Louisa May – Eight Cousins – 1875
• Alcott, Louisa May – Rose in Bloom – 1876
• Aleichem, Sholem – Tevye the Dairyman – 1894
• Asimov, Isaac – Foundation – 1951
• Benson, E. F.  – Queen Lucia  – 1920
• Bradbury, Ray – Something Wicked This Way Comes  – 1962
• Bronte, Anne – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall  – 1848
• Buck, Pearl S. – Peony  – 1948
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson – A Little Princess  – 1905
• Capote, Truman – In Cold Blood  – 1965
• Chopin, Kate – The Awakening  – 1899
• Christie, Agatha – The Mysterious Affair at Styles – 1920
• Collins, Wilkie – The Moonstone  – 1868
• Collins, Wilkie – The Woman in White  – 1859
• Cooper, James Fennimore – The Last of the Mohicans  – 1826
• Dick, R. A. – The Ghost and Mrs. Muir – 1945
• Dickens, Charles – David Copperfield  – 1850
• Dumas, Alexandre – The Count of Monte Cristo – 1844
• DuMaurier, Daphne – Frenchman’s Creek  – 1941
• Eliot, George – Daniel Deronda – 1876
• Forster, E. M.  – Howards End  – 1910
• Gaskell, Elizabeth – Cranford – 1853 (read 11/2023)
• Gibbons, Stella – Cold Comfort Farm – 1932 (read 9/2023)
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins – Herland  – 1915 (read 6/2023)
• Hardy, Thomas – The Return of the Native – 1878
• Hardy, Thomas – The Mayor of Casterbridge – 1886
• Hawthorne, Nathaniel – The Scarlet Letter – 1850
• Hulme, Keri – The Bone People  – 1984
• James, Henry – Daisy Miller  – 1879
• James, Henry – The Wings of the Dove  – 1902
• Larsen, Nell – Passing  – 1929 (read 7/2023)
• Le Guin, Ursula K.  – The Left Hand of Darkness  – 1969
• Llewellyn, Richard – How Green Was My Valley – 1939
• London, Jack – White Fang  – 1906
• Lord, Walter – A Night to Remember – 1955 (read 2/2024)
• Maugham, W. Somerset – The Painted Veil  – 1925
• Maugham, W. Somerset – Cakes and Ale – 1930
• McCullers, Carson – The Heart is a Lonely Hunter  – 1940
• Mishima, Yukio – The Sound of Waves  – 1954 (re-read)
• Porter, Katherine – Pale Horse, Pale Rider  – 1939
• Scott, Sir Walter – The Bride of Lammermoor  – 1819
• Scott, Sir Walter – Waverley  – 1814
• Sewell, Anna – Black Beauty  – 1877
• Shakespeare, William – The Tempest – 1610 (read 7/2023)
• Shaw, George Bernard – Pygmalion  – 1914 (read 6/2023)
• Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein – 1818 (re-read)
• Shute, Nevil – Pastoral  – 1944
• Smith, Dodie – I Capture the Castle  – 1948
• Steinbeck, John – The Grapes of Wrath – 1939
• Sterne, Laurence – The Life  & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman – 1767
• Stevenson, Robert Louis – Kidnapped – 1886
• Stoker, Bram – Dracula  – 1897 (re-read)
• Tolkien, J. R. R.  – The Hobbit  – 1937 (re-read)
• Tolkien, J. R. R.  – The Silmarillion – 1977
• Verne, Jules – Around the World in 80 Days  – 1872