The Brothers Karamazov
A philosophical novel exploring faith, doubt, and morality through the story of four brothers.
Greatest Novels
150 summaries · Page 3 of 5
The Cairo Trilogy
Three generations of a Cairo family through Egypt's modernization.
The Call of the Wild
A domesticated dog's journey to become a wild animal in the Yukon.
The Canterbury Tales
A collection of stories told by pilgrims traveling to Canterbury.
The Catcher in the Rye
The story of alienated teenager Holden Caulfield's three-day journey through New York City.
The Color Purple
The story of Celie, an African American woman in the South, told through her letters to God.
The Corrections
The story of the Lambert family's struggles in late 20th-century America.
The Count of Monte Cristo
An epic tale of revenge and redemption in Napoleonic France.
The Day of the Locust
Hollywood's darker side during the Great Depression.
The Dead Father
A surreal journey dragging a giant father figure across a landscape.
The Death of Virgil
The last hours of the Roman poet Virgil's life.
The Divine Comedy
An epic poem following Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
The Emigrants
Four linked narratives about German-Jewish emigrants.
The Garden of Forking Paths
A collection of philosophical and metaphysical short stories.
The Glass Bead Game
A future intellectual society dedicated to mathematical and musical game.
The God of Small Things
Twins growing up in Kerala, India, amid political and social upheaval.
The Golden Notebook
A writer's attempt to make sense of her life through multiple notebooks.
The Good Earth
A Chinese farmer's rise from poverty to wealth.
The Good Soldier
The tragic tale of two wealthy couples told by an unreliable narrator.
The Grapes of Wrath
The Joad family's journey to California during the Great Depression.
The Great Gatsby
A portrait of the Jazz Age through the story of mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his obsession with Daisy Buchanan.
The Handmaid's Tale
A dystopian novel about a woman forced into reproductive servitude in a theocratic America.
The Hour of the Star
A meditation on writing and the life of a poor Brazilian girl.
The House of the Spirits
Three generations of the Trueba family in Chile.
The Kingdom of This World
The Haitian Revolution told through magical realism.
The Known World
The story of a black slave owner in antebellum Virginia.
The Leopard
A Sicilian prince witnessing the decline of his class during Italian unification.
The Lord of the Rings
An epic fantasy trilogy about the quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron.
The Lost Steps
A composer's journey into the South American jungle.
The Magic Mountain
Hans Castorp's seven-year stay in a tuberculosis sanatorium before World War I.
The Man of Feeling
An opera singer reflects on a past love affair.
The Man Without Qualities
A philosophical novel set in Vienna before World War I, exploring modern life's complexities.
The Master and Margarita
A satirical fantasy about the Devil's visit to atheistic Soviet Moscow.
The Master
A fictional account of Henry James's life and artistic development.
The Metamorphosis
Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a giant insect.
The Name of the Rose
A medieval murder set in an Italian monastery.