Classic books can seem a little intimidating. The severe covers, the unfamilliar language and world long gone by, is usually why people quit before they even begin. But the truth is, classic books are just the best, most evergreen stories ever written and you can find a lot to love in them.
If you don’t know where to begin, this guide will take you through some easy to read classics like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice or White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky, to hidden gems that feel modern and are so much fun to read even though they’re actually classics.
And if you’re still not sure where to start, you can check out my guide to getting started with classic books, which has helpful tips for finding the kind of book you’d enjoy!
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
| Genre | romance, regency, marriage plot, social commentary |
| Page count | 279 pages |
| Read if | You’re already a romance fan and you’re looking for a classic that will suit your tastes |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online. |
This is one of my favorite classics ever written, and you’ve probably heard of it before. If you’ve only ever seen the adaptations, this will be a treat! So, Elizabeth Bennet and her family are excited because a rich man is moving into the neighborhood and he could be a good catch for one of the sisters. Things go very badly due to one overeager mother, a few embarassing sisters, and one very grumpy, socially anxious man. Elizabeth must face her own pride and prejudice (heh) to finally find love and happiness. It’s a perfect first classic to read and one that will stay with you forever.
“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
“And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.”
“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand them.”
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
| Genre | short story, fiction, discussion of women’s mental health, feminist |
| Page count | 64 pages |
| Read if | You want to dip your toes into classics with something short and powerful |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online. |
If you want a short classic you can read in one sitting, this is your perfect pick! The Yellow Wallpaper is only 64 pages long but it packs a powerful punch. In this story, a woman is sequestered in a room with a yellow wallpaper after a difficult childbirth and what her husband perceives as failing mental health. However, being trapped there is making her mental health worse, and she keeps seeing a woman trapped in the wallpaper. It’s a magnificent, feminist story that I can’t recommend enough.
“You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream.”
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
| Genre | gothic fiction, horror, mystery, a smidge of a romance |
| Page count | 449 pages |
| Read if | You like moody, gothic books with lush descriptions of nature and you enjoy mysteries |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online. |
Rebecca is one of my favorite classics and easily one of the most readable ones. If you want something moody, gothic and kind of spooky, this is it. So, in Rebecca, a young woman is swept off her feet and out of her miserable life as a companion to a horrible lady by Maxim de Winter. He’s charming, handsome and rich, and they end up in a whirlwind romance. But when they finally get to his famous home, Manderley, she realizes not all is at it seems and Maxim becomes different. There’s the ghost of the previous wife to contend with, hateful staff, and the mystery of what happened to Rebecca.
“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky
| Genre | short story, Russian classic, love story |
| Page count | 113 pages |
| Read if | You want an intro to Russian classics that’s not intimidating; a love story |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online. |
While I famously disliked White Nights, it’s undeniable this book is a good intro to Russian writers and their style (melancholy, philosophical). This is a pretty short one at 113 pages, but it does give you a lovely, sad love story between our unnamed narrator and the much-mentioned Nastenka, who meet on one of those famous Russian white nights and strike up a friendship borne of loneliness and desperation. I won’t spoil anything, but I do hope you love this book much more than I did.
“I am a dreamer. I know so little of real life that I just can’t help re-living such moments as these in my dreams, for such moments are something I have very rarely experienced. I am going to dream about you the whole night, the whole week, the whole year. I feel I know you so well that I couldn’t have known you better if we’d been friends for twenty years. You won’t fail me, will you? Only two minutes, and you’ve made me happy forever. Yes, happy. Who knows, perhaps you’ve reconciled me with myself, resolved all my doubts.”
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
| Genre | gothic fiction, love story, tragedy |
| Page count | 359 pages |
| Read if | You usually read dark romance, romantasy or sad girl books |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online. |
I first read Wuthering Heights when I was 13 and I’ve been an absolute fan of this book ever since. And since I read and loved it at such a young age, you know it’s easy to read. This book is about Catherine and Heathcliff, who fall in love as children and get separated by life and their own hubris, and then make it everyone else’s problem. Jokes aside, this book has a lot to say on class, race, injustice of certain systems, how abuse travels through generations, and more. Read it, love it, ignore the Emerald Fennel movie, it doesn’t do this book justice! And you can see my full review and analysis of Wuthering Heights here.
“Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you–haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe–I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
| Genre | love story, fiction, modernist |
| Page count | 160 pages |
| Read if | You want something short, well-loved, and with a movie you can watch |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online. |
This is a mandatory addition, and one that you’ll find both easy to read and relatively short at only 160 pages. I got seriously obsessed with this at about 15 and I desperately wanted to live in this era, but alas, it is not to be. Great Gatsby tells you a story about a young man getting roped into the toxic, decades-old romance between his rich neighbor and his cousin Daisy. There’s parties and drinking and tragedy, of course, so you’ll have fun with this book.
“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams — not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
| Genre | love story, coming of age |
| Page count | 160 pages |
| Read if | You want a lovely romance, some growing up, and something both funny and heartfelt |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online. |
I adore The Blue Castle and I cannot imagine anyone wouldn’t. It’s a wonderful, romantic story about Valancy Stirling who has lived her whole life under her family’s thumb, afraid to be herself. And then she gets a diagnosis that changes everything. She takes off on her own, and in the process finds love, friendship, and the life she always dreamed of. This is one of my favorite books ever and I cannot recommend it enough. Plus, it’s only about 200 pages long, so you know Valancy’s brilliant narration will keep you glued to the page.
“Love you! Girl, you’re in the very core of my heart. I hold you there like a jewel. Didn’t I promise you I’d never tell you a lie? Love you! I love you with all there is of me to love. Heart, soul, brain. Every fibre of body and spirit thrilling to the sweetness of you. There’s nobody in the world for me but you, Valancy.”
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
| Genre | love story, queer, 20th century (set in the 60s) |
| Page count | 186 pages |
| Read if | You want something literary but easy to read, with an underlying love story |
| Free to read? | No |
This is another one of my favorite classics and I implore you to read it. It’s a brilliant story about a grieving professor whose partner of many years has recently died. He cannot talk about it to anyone because being gay in the 60s is a crime, and he moves through life with indifference. We follow him through one of his days as he realizes that maybe life isn’t so bad and maybe it’s worth living. It’s so beautifully written and I just don’t know how to explain the way this book makes me feel. Just read it, it’s only 180 pages! Find my full review of A Single Man here!
“Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same small stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, shaving in front of the same small bathroom mirror, constantly jogging, jostling, bumping against each other’s bodies by mistake or on purpose, sensually, aggressively, awkwardly, impatiently, in rage or in love – think what deep though invisible tracks they must leave, everywhere, behind them!”
Passing by Nella Larsen
| Genre | race, set in New York, 1920s, modernist |
| Page count | 150 pages |
| Read if | You read and liked the Vanishing Half and you want some food for thought |
| Free to read? | Yes, you can find it in public domain libraries online |
This is another quite short classic book at only about 150 pages, but I feel like it’s easy enough to read while dealing with some serious topics. If you enjoyed The Vanishing Half, this book might be for you. So, this book centers on a chance encounter of two childhood friends. Both are white-passing, but Clare has forsaken her heritage and family, and is married to a white man, while Irene has stayed with the African American community, though she doesn’t acknowledge the racism her family has to go through.
“And yet she hadn’t the air of a woman whose life had been touched by uncertainty or suffering. Pain, fear, and grief were things that left their mark on people. Even love, that exquisite torturing emotion, left its subtle traces on the countenance.”
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
| Genre | sci-fi, philosophical, psychology |
| Page count | 311 pages |
| Read if | You want something kind of sad, kind of philosophical, but very readable |
| Free to read? | No |
Flowers for Algernon is compulsively readable because of the way it was written: in diary entries of a low IQ man who gets a treatment which makes his IQ grow. The more it grows, the more his writing changes. From simple, gramatically incorrect sentences, to philosophical writing and back again. It tells you a story of loneliness, and how being on either end of the spectrum is isolating and crushing. This book made me cry more times than I can count (more than that, it made my dad tear up! my dad never tears up!) and it’s quite short as well at around 300 pages.
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
| Genre | horror, gothic, mystery |
| Page count | 182 pages |
| Read if | You want something kind of scary and psychological, but short |
| Free to read? | No |
Shirley Jackson is the queen of horror and uneasy-feeling books, and this one is legendary in the genre. In this story, Dr. Montague wants to investigate ghostly sightings in the mysterious Hill House and he brings along Eleanor, Theodora and Luke. I won’t spoil a thing, just go into it and enjoy seeing what fear does to people. This book is also short, so you can read it in an afternoon.
“Don’t do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don’t do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl.”
The Remains of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
| Genre | fiction, morality, literary fiction, set in 1950s |
| Page count | 258 pages |
| Read if | You want something beautifully written, self-searching, with a kind of love story on the side |
| Free to read? | No |
Though I prefer Never Let Me Go (another great book you should read), I highly recommend this one as well. It’s shorter, at just about 250 pages, and it tells you a story about an ageing butler who takes a holiday in the countryside and faces his past. While Never Let Me Go gets more mixed reactions, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t like this book. And Ishiguro’s prose is so melancholy and lovely that you’ll sink into this book like a warm bath.
“But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself to distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of ‘turning points’, one can surely only recognize such moments in retrospect. Naturally, when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one’s life; but of course, at the time, this was not the impression one had. Rather, it was as though one had available a never-ending number of days, months, years in which to sort out the vagaries of one’s relationship with Miss Kenton; an infinite number of further opportunities in which to remedy the effect of this or that misunderstanding. There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable.”
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
| Genre | historical, literary fiction, poverty, friendship |
| Page count | 107 pages |
| Read if | You want to get into Steinbeck but don’t want to commit to a longer book |
| Free to read? | No |
Steinbeck is notoriously difficult to get into, so I recommend this book of his if you’d prefer something shorter and more easily accessible. It’s about 100 pages long, so you can read it in an afternoon, but it touches on some of the same topics that his longer books do. We have two very different men working together across the dusty vegetable fields, facing cruelty and petty tyranny. Their goal is to have an acre of their own land and a shack, and their friendship and shared goals are what help them face life with hope rather than despair.
“Ain’t many guys travel around together,” he mused. “I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”
The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
| Genre | philosophical, adventure |
| Page count | 96 pages |
| Read if | You want something short, kind of philosophical, and easy to read |
| Free to read? | No |
The Old Man and The Sea is one of my favorite books they made us read in high school. It was no hardship for me, though there’s not much of a plot here. Across about 100 pages, you follow an old, down-on-his-luck man who struggles to capture a giant marlin. He’s joined by a boy and they share some conversations which may make you think as well. I absolutely adore Hemingway’s economical prose and would highly recomend this book if you want something easy to read, but philosophical at the same time.
“You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?”
Final Thoughts
I hope you find a classic book to love on this list! I keep it constantly updated so there will always be something new that I’ve read and thought would be a good choice for a beginner.
Have you tried any of these? Did you like them or not? Let me know in the comments below and let’s chat!
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Great article and book list. I also found an article which is really helpful for beginners like me if they wanna get into classics -https://deadauthorsnation.blogspot.com/2026/06/Classic%20Literature%20Reading%20Order%20for%20Beginners%20By%20Difficulty%20Not%20Date.html