Life: A User's Manual
Interconnected stories about the inhabitants of a Parisian apartment building.
Greatest Novels
150 summaries · Page 2 of 5
Lolita
The controversial story of Humbert Humbert's obsession with young Dolores Haze, told in brilliant prose.
Lord of the Flies
British schoolboys stranded on an island descend into savagery.
Madame Bovary
The tragic story of Emma Bovary's attempts to escape her boring provincial life through romance and spending.
Mason & Dixon
The surveyors who drew the Mason-Dixon line in colonial America.
Mating
An anthropologist's pursuit of a utopian leader in Botswana.
Memoirs of Hadrian
A fictional autobiography of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.
Middlemarch
A study of provincial life following many characters in the fictional town of Middlemarch.
Midnight's Children
Children born at India's independence with magical powers.
Moby-Dick
The epic tale of Captain Ahab's obsessive quest for revenge against the white whale that bit off his leg.
Modern Baptists
A tragicomic novel about life in small-town Louisiana.
Mrs. Dalloway
A day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares for a party in post-WWI London.
Native Son
The tragic story of Bigger Thomas in racist 1930s Chicago.
Never Let Me Go
A dystopian love story about clones raised for organ donation.
On the Road
The adventures of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty across America.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The struggle between Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched in a mental institution.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The multi-generational saga of the Buendía family in the mythical town of Macondo, blending magical realism with Colombian history.
Pale Fire
A 999-line poem with a delusional commentary by an unreliable narrator.
Pedro Páramo
A man's search for his father in a ghost town populated by spirits.
Pride and Prejudice
A witty romance centering on Elizabeth Bennet and her prejudiced relationship with the proud Mr. Darcy.
Rebecca
A young bride haunted by her husband's first wife at Manderley.
Season of Migration to the North
A Sudanese man's experiences between his village and London.
Snow
A poet investigates suicide among young women in a Turkish town.
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost
Love and myth in post-communist Albania.
Terra Nostra
A complex novel spanning Mexican history and beyond.
The Adventures of Augie March
A picaresque novel about a young man's adventures in Depression-era Chicago.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The journey of young Huck Finn and runaway slave Jim down the Mississippi River.
The Age of Innocence
A portrait of desire and betrayal in Gilded Age New York society.
The Alexandria Quartet
Four interconnected novels set in Alexandria, exploring love and modern life.
The Awakening
A woman's sexual and spiritual awakening in Creole society.
The Bell Jar
A semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman's descent into mental illness.
The Blind Assassin
A novel within a novel about love, betrayal, and family secrets.
The Book of Disquiet
A fragmentary masterpiece about the life of a Lisbon clerk.
The Box Man
A man who lives in a cardboard box observes society from the margins.
The Bridge on the Drina
Four centuries of Bosnian history centered around a bridge.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A Dominican-American nerd's quest for love and the family curse.