15 Classic Novels to Read Again

Whether you've read the actual novel or "just" seen the play or watched the movie, Victor Hugo's classic is sure to move you. It deserves to be read in its entirety.

You'll travel deep into the Parisian underworld, immerse yourself in a battle between good and evil, and carry yourself to the barricades during the uprising of 1832 with a breathtaking realism that is unsurpassed in modern prose.

Every bit as relevant today as it was the day Harper Lee published this classic novel, this is a staple on high school reading lists. Go. Read. It. Again.

A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Ok, so this isn't "a" classic novel to read again, but how do you choose just one Jane Austen book? Do you even have a favorite?

This deluxe boxed gift set containing six of her most popular and iconic novels: Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Emma, complete and unabridged.

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration.

Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

I almost failed to select just one classic John Steinbeck book, but I finally settled on East of Eden. But really, go read the rest, too.

The biblical stories of Cain and Abel and of original sin are stories of human response to fear—the fear of not knowing and the fear of rejection, which often cause people to act with anger, hatred, or violence. The stories and their themes are the inheritance of humanity, and each new generation much choose how to respond—with anger and violence or with something new.

Charles's unfinished killing of Adam transfers to Cal and Aron for resolution. And, although Cal destroys Aron, he cannot blame his actions on Cathy's evil bloodline. This destruction is not the inevitable fate of humanity. Each generation is given the choice to resolve the story differently.

1984 haunted me when I read it in high school, and I'm willing to bet that it haunts you when you read it again now.

Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality in a world where your own thoughts are prohibited.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife. But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

Louisa May Alcott's classic tale follows the March sisters as they come of age, and these unforgettable characters come alive in their letters and other writings.

When Laurie invites Jo to join him for a picnic and "all sorts of larks," the unbridled joy of their friendship shines through. Each of the girls' personalities is perfectly encapsulated in the letters they pen to Marmee.

So of course you're going to start with Anne of Green Gables and then read the rest of the series, right? Though this was originally aimed at tweens, this classic book is definitely one you want to reread as an adult.

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

This was Ernest Hemingway's debut novel, which is the only reason I was able to select just one. Like the majority of his writing, this focuses on his personal experiences in World War One in a fictionalized format.

This novel traces the doomed love story of Jake Barnes, a veteran wrestling with wounds both physical and emotional, and the beautiful Lady Brett Ashley. As they drift from the hedonistic nightlife of Paris to the macho world of bullfighting in Spain, these members of the Lost Generation face the loss of their illusions and the impossibility of love.

Humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman - and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations."

In this gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, the compelling characters include Magwitch, the fearful and fearsome convict; Estella, whose beauty is excelled only by her haughtiness; and the embittered Miss Havisham, an eccentric jilted bride.

Whether you've read this series or just seen the movies, it's time to revisit this classic novel.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

This introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent.

Technically, this is the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia, but it's my favorite. So reread just this classic novel, or go ahead and enjoy the whole series.

our adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change . . . and a great sacrifice.

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit.

Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior―such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce―no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness.

I know. You either love this book or hate it, but it's probably been long enough for you to give it another read either way.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life - from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy - to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction - to the philosopher who becomes a pirate - to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph - to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad - to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.