A literary classic is infamously hard to define. More difficult is the idea of a “literary canon” ー a collection of literature recognized as the most influential and important works ever produced both stylistically and culturally. The “literary canon” has been a pretty exclusive club for quite a while, housing predominately white male authors, such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Milton, and Tolstoy, among others. These authors, of course, are iconic and deserving of their renown; however, the literary canon is not a stagnant thing. It is ever evolving.
To me, a literary classic is a timeless piece of work, beautifully written and constructed, that carries an enduring significance and resonance with its readers. I don’t think a classic needs to have been written two hundred years ago or even be a well-known name. There are also hundreds of classics; no one can be the judge and jury of the best works of all time. It’s a subjective task and an infinitely difficult one. Trying to choose just ten to include in this list was honestly painful, and I’ll probably spend the coming weeks debating my choices. But for now, here are ten novels that I deem as timeless literature.
Trigger Warning: Many of these recommendations have mentions of violence, racism, sexism, sexual assault, and psychologically challenging imagery. We advise you to proceed through this content with caution.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Read Alongside Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
I strongly recommend reading the renowned Jane Eyre, published in 1847, alongside Jean Rhys’ 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Charlotte Brontë’s classic gothic novel depicts the coming-of-age story of a young orphan, Jane Eyre, who undergoes hardship and abuse unwaveringly in search of independence. It’s a bildungsroman, a love story, a mystery, and a horror. Beautifully written and meticulously conceptualized, Jane Eyre is an essential read.
However, as in so many other novels from the period, there are outdated and harmful representations in Jane Eyre, most specifically in the form of Mr. Rochester’s former wife, “Bertha,” or as she is infamously known, “the madwoman in the attic,” who is of Creole origin. Jean Rhys, who too was born in the Caribbean Islands, sought to rectify Bronte’s colonialist representation of “Bertha” by writing a history for her in Wide Sargasso Sea as Antoinette Cosway. Rhys complicates the reductionist image of Antoinette as simply a madwoman by bringing the readers through the cultural unrest she was raised in, the traumatic experiences of her childhood, the rife sexism she endured, and her obligatory marriage to Mr. Rochester. An inspired wielding of language and form and a critical cultural commentary, Wide Sargasso Sea remains one of my favorite novels of all time.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye is a masterpiece. Morrison has other, potentially better-known novels, such as Beloved or Song of Solomon, but The Bluest Eye will change you. This novel captures resilience, grief, and trauma viscerally, sewn together through an intricately drawn plot that will surely move your soul. Morrison’s first novel, published in 1970, tells the story of an 11-year-old African-American girl, Pecola Breedlove, growing up in Lorain, Ohio in 1941, who is convinced of her ugliness and desperately yearns for lighter skin and blue eyes. An unforgettable deep dive into generational trauma, how hatred and evil can be created, and the harrowing effects of white beauty standards, Morrison’s never-before-seen literary endeavor challenges readers’ perspectives and exposes them to hard, but necessary, truths. If you read one novel from this list, let it be this one.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
A lot of people would pick Ulysses or Finnegan’s Wake as Joyce’s literary masterpieces. This may very well be the case, but A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is what made me fall in love with literature, or, more specifically, language and what it has the power to convey. Released in 1916, Joyce’s autobiographical novel debut follows the childhood and young adulthood of Stephen Dedalus, a fixture in Joyce’s later novels, as he navigates religious, sexual, and intellectual awakenings at the close of the 19th century in Ireland. Part political exposé, part religious indictment, part coming of age, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is an awe-inspiring reflection on how identity is forged.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
“It is as if Emily Brontë could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality.”
ー Virginia Woolf
Emily Brontë’s 1847 gothic novel has stood the test of time for its captivating and twisted romance plot and its unflinching examination of morality and social convention. Wuthering Heights follows the tragic love story of Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff. Unrequited love (whether it be familial or romantic), the resentment it builds, and its consequences fuel the fire that burns so bright in Brontë’s novel. To this day, one of my favorite lines ever capturing twisted devotion and helpless love is Catherine’s: “Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Despite nearing its 200th birthday, Wuthering Heights still so aptly captures the complexity and darkness of human nature and continues to resonate with readers around the globe. As we await the upcoming Emerald Fennell film reimagining, go read — or reread — Brontë’s genius novel and join me in a collective sigh for another adaptation that will likely fail to replicate the enchantment of the original.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was just 18 when she began writing what is widely considered the first true science fiction novel. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a natural science student who creates an artificial man from corpses and then animates him. The monster initially seeks affection and comradery, but with constant rejection and alienation from all that meet it, the monster soon turns on his creator. Shelley’s tale warns that not all science and knowledge create progress and imagines the painful consequences of playing God. Frankenstein birthed a groundbreaking genre and continues to inspire storytellers to this day. I’m currently reading Jeanette Winterson’s 2019 novel Frankissstein, which builds off of Shelley’s work by applying the messages of the original to the concepts of transhumanism and artificial intelligence.
Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins
Most likely the least known of the list is Pauline Hopkins’ novel Of One Blood, published between 1902 and 1903. Hopkins set out to write a novel that highlighted the biological kinship of all races to address and eliminate the degradation and abuse against Black people rife throughout the United States. Of One Blood follows Reuel Briggs, a Black medical student who disregards his culture and often passes for white, as he joins an archaeological trip exploring the lost treasures of Ethiopia. He initially goes for financial gain but ends up on a mind-bending exploration where he discovers truths about blood, race, and forgotten African histories. Hopkins’ plot is so easy to get sucked into and impossible to forget, complete with adventure, murder, incest, bigamy. The closing lines are a lesson that continues to hold immense importance:
“Caste prejudice, race pride, boundless wealth, scintillating intellects refined by all the sets of the arts of the intellectual world, are but puppets in His hand, for His promises stand, and He will prove His words, ‘Of one blood have I made the races of men.’” ー Of One Blood, 198
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Considered one of the most significant achievements in the literary world, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a magical realism novel grappling with the cyclical nature of history, the consequences the past can have on the present, and how tradition can be a barrier to progress. Gabriel García Márquez’s 1967 landmark novel is the epic story of the mythical town of Macondo painted through the rise and fall of seven generations of the Buendiá family. Marquez’s magnetic and transcendent use of language and his manipulation of the reader by forcing interpretation situate One Hundred Years of Solitude as one of the greatest novels of all time. As William Kennedy from the National Observer argues, Marquez’s masterpiece should be “required reading” for all human beings.
Passing by Nella Larsen
Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella Passing focuses on the reunion of two childhood friends, Clare Kendry and Irene Redford, in Harlem. Irene is a member of the African-American bourgeois, has a successful husband, and is an active figure in the Black community in Harlem. Clare, who is mixed race, is passing as a white woman and married to a white racist man unaware of her identity. Through a third-person limited perspective focusing on Irene, readers watch as the two women use each other as reflections for what’s missing in their lives. Passing is a story of fascination, obsession, and jealousy that is impossible to put down. Larsen skillfully displays the concept of “double jeopardy” 一 the multiplicity of discrimination against individuals due to overlapping identities like race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on 一 and lays the consequences bare. Passing is a critically underrated and under-discussed work of art.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.
From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” ーThe Bell Jar, 77
Sylvia Plath delivers a heart-wrenching, relentless, and honest depiction of mental illness and the realities of womanhood in a sexist and regulatory world in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. The fig tree quote above captures the magic of Plath, in my opinion. Her ability to capture such a complicated and raw part of the human experience with such beauty and simplicity takes the wind right out of your lungs. In The Bell Jar, we see the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, struggle to navigate her transition into the adult world and its social norms and constructions. Esther is talented, intelligent, and holds great potential, but the harsh reality of societal expectations and her aspirations leads her to come crashing down. A stunning use of language and form to mirror a fracturing psyche, The Bell Jar is an essential feminist social commentary.
My heart breaks for some of the names not spotlighted on this list. James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novels Giovanni’s Room and The Fire Next Time; Samuel Beckett’s absurdist and existential play Waiting for Godot; Alice Walker’s stunning and potent A Color Purple; Oscar Wilde’s scathing analysis of moral corruption The Portrait of Dorian Gray; Frank Kafka’s transcendent The Metamorphosis; Virginia Woolf’s sexuality and gender-bending Orlando, decades ahead of its time. I could go on for days.
That’s the beautiful thing about literature. The multiplicity, the voices, the stories that stick with us. The articulation of something you never even knew you needed articulated. I hope you find your next read from this list. If you think we’ve left out something crucial, let us know on our Instagram, Facebook, or Bluesky, and maybe I’ll be the one getting my next read from you.
Looking for more relaxing spring reads? Click here.
Browse more Classic Literature recommendations on our Bookshop!
