2023 Reading Schedule Builder

Create your reading list to tackle the best classic books in the new year, setting aside just 20 minutes a day! More info & examples →
Your Schedule

Days Remaining: 365


No books selected yet


Reset

Unsaved lists will expire in 30 days

Most Popular Genres Collections

Genres › 19th Century

A Scandal in Bohemia
Arthur Conan Doyle
3 days
1891 • Sherlock Holmes pits his cunning against a new adversary, Irene Adler, to help the King of Bohemia.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
72 days
1847 • Follow the life of Jane Eyre as she navigates an abusive family, trying schooling, and the pitfalls of love. Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of the private consciousness."
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Anne Bronte
69 days
1848 • A mysterious widow arrives at Wildfell Hall, stirring the interest of a local farmer who uncovers a dark world of debauchery and marital betrayal.
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens
11 days
1843 • Bitter old miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by spirits on Christmas Eve in this classic holiday tale.
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
59 days
1859 • Revolutions rock Paris and London with violence and rebirth. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
208 days
1844 • During turbulent times in France, Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned for years. He plots his revenge but is doomed to hurt the innocent as well as the guilty.
The Darling
Anton Chekhov
2 days
1899 • The story of Olenka , a "darling" who is engulfed by one man after the other.
The Queen of Spades
Alexander Pushkin
5 days
1834 • The secret to winning your fortune at cards lies with an old countess and just three playing cards. Hermann will stop at nothing to win the secret.
The Coming Race
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
25 days
1871 • Discover the Vril-ya, angel-like beings who - for now - live in an underground Utopia.
The Seagull
Anton Chekhov
8 days
1896 • In the words of Chekhov, this comedy has "much talk of literature, little action," and "five bushels of love."
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
84 days
1868 • The unforgettable tale of four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March - as they grow from childhood to womanhood and find their place in the world.
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
54 days
1811 • Sisters Marianne and Elinor Dashwood together navigate the pathways of society, status, and money to seek out personal happiness and love.
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell
83 days
1854 • Uprooted from her former life, Margaret is thrown in to a rough industrial town and finds herself pulled between the plight of local mill workers and the man she loves.
A Descent into the Maelström
Edgar Allan Poe
3 days
1841 • An old man, or so he appears, retells his adventure descending into a legendary ocean whirlpool.
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
74 days
1861 • Orphaned forge worker Pip dreams of rising to be a gentleman - and one day, his dreams seem to come true. Arguably Dickens’ best novel, jam-packed with unforgettable characters.
The Haunted Hotel
Wilkie Collins
26 days
1879 • A palace, refurbished as a hotel, haunts its guests with glimpses of its tragic and frightening past.
The Moonstone
Wilkie Collins
81 days
1868 • A glorious diamond, taken under mysterious circumstances from Inda, is handed down to Rachel Verinder. Soon it is stolen and a thrilling investigation to find the thief and uncover the diamond's mystery ensues.
Doctor Thorne
Anthony Trollope
91 days
1858 • Frank Gresham's mother and aunt are intent on his marrying a wealthy heiress. But Frank wants to marry Mary Thorne, who by all appearances is poor and illegitimate. Her watchful uncle keeps a secret about Mary, though.
Bleak House
Charles Dickens
144 days
1853 • A tumultuous court case takes its toll on all involved as Esther and a host of other characters try to find love and happiness in spite of the "curse" of the past.
The Country of the Pointed Firs
Sarah Orne Jewett
17 days
1896 • A visitor describes, in rich detail, a seaport on Maine's coast - from the sea to the spirit of the local people.
The Story of an African Farm
Olive Schreiner
42 days
1883 • The lives and adventures of three childhood friends in South Africa, who grapple with societal norms of religion, marriage, and sexuality.
The Wood Beyond the World
William Morris
22 days
1894 • Fleeing from murderous family feuds, Golden Walter enters a fantastic world of enchantresses, mini-giants, and strange cities.
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Herman Melville
6 days
1853 • Initially an impressively hard worker in the rat race on Wall Street, a new clerk suddenly refuses all work. "I would prefer not to" becomes his constant refrain.
Silas Marner
George Eliot
29 days
1861 • Abandoning his shattered life, Silas Marner settles in a rural village with his loom and his fortune of gold. But when his gold is stolen, and a young girl appears on his doorstep, he discovers new meaning in his life.
The Mill on the Floss
George Eliot
87 days
1860 • In this, one of Eliot's most moving works, fiercely intelligent Maggie Tulliver is forced into conflict with her family as her desires clash with their expectations.
Agnes Grey
Anne Bronte
27 days
1847 • Based on Anne Bronte's time as a governess, Agnes Grey experiences the precarious position of such employment overseeing spoiled children and the corrupting influence of wealth.
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Thomas Hardy
46 days
1886 • A successful grain merchant, the Mayor of Casterbridge nevertheless holds a dark secret: years ago, in a drunken rage, he sold off his wife and child. The mistakes of his past come to haunt his present.
A Crystal Age
W.H. Hudson
25 days
1887 • Following what he remembers as an accident in the mountains, Smith emerges into a utopia strange to him where so many of his concepts and beliefs - even love - are unknown.
Villette
Charlotte Bronte
76 days
1853 • Fleeing an unhappy life in England, Lucy Snowe starts anew in the cosmopolitan French city of Villette. Her desire for independence soon faces two tests in the form of a worldly doctor and autocratic schoolmaster.
The Pickwick Papers
Charles Dickens
115 days
1836 • The comic masterpiece that launched Charles Dickens to fame. Join the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle, and of course Mr Pickwick and his cockney sidekick Sam Weller.
Les Fleurs du mal
Charles Baudelaire
10 days
1857 • Declared by Victor Hugo to have created "un nouveau frisson" (a new shudder, a new thrill) in literature, this volume of poetry and its themes of decadence and eroticism is a critical work of the symbolist and modernist movements.
Colonel Chabert
Honoré de Balzac
9 days
1829 • Colonel Chabert, a Napoleonic War hero thought killed in the Battle of Eylau, returns to Paris after a long recovery to find his wife remarried and his pension gone.
The Body Snatcher
Robert Louis Stevenson
3 days
1884 • A chilling short story of medical students driven to horrifying acts in a need for bodies for dissection.
The Coral Island
R.M. Ballantyne
40 days
1858 • Shipwrecked on a coral reef, three young boys find survival no struggle at all. Until, that is, cannibals and a pirate ship arrive. The inspiration for William Goulding's Lord of the Flies.
Jude the Obscure
Thomas Hardy
52 days
1895 • Lowly stonemason Jude, frustrated in his intellectual aspirations, finds fulfillment in his love for his free-spirited cousin Sue. But the pressure of society's expectations lead to tragedy.
Mathilda
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
12 days
1820 • On her deathbed, Matilda tells of her life: the incestuous love of her father, suicide, and failed love. Shelley's second novel, finished in 1820 but suppressed until 1959.
The Lady with the Dog
Anton Chekhov
3 days
1899 • An adulterous affair at a summer beach town becomes something more in this classic short story, deemed by Vladimir Nabokov the greatest ever written.
The Portrait of a Lady
Henry James
85 days
1881 • American Isabel Archer arrives in Europe determined to shape her own life. But soon she is drawn into the cruelty of the Old World in this story of love and betrayal.
Moonfleet
J. Meade Falkner
32 days
1898 • An adventure of mystery, smuggling, and a hidden treasure amidst the downs of Dorset. A captivating adventure for children and adults alike.
Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy
51 days
1874 • When Bathsheba Everdene arrives to take over Weatherbury's largest estate, everyone takes notice - especially three suitors who threaten to unsettle her life and the entire community's stability.
Zofloya
Charlotte Dacre
38 days
1806 • A gothic tale of lust and murder set in 15th century Venice, chronicling Victoria's descent from spoiled aristocrat to criminal. It shocked contemporary readers with its transgressions against then-taboos of race and class.
Cranford
Elizabeth Gaskell
27 days
1851 • A moving story of friendship between middle-aged women in 19th century rural England, filled with sharp satire and affection.
Wives and Daughters
Elizabeth Gaskell
95 days
1864 • When her father suddenly remarries, the quiet life of Molly Gibson is rocked by the appearance of her new step-sister Cynthia. The narrative follows their lives and explores the role of women, Darwinism, and the hypocrisy of male moral authority.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Thomas De Quincey
12 days
1821 • A captivating account of addiction - describing both the pleasures and pains of opium - in which dreams, visions, memory, and pain are all interwoven.
The Return of the Native
Thomas Hardy
50 days
1878 • Clym Yeobright returns from cosmopolitan Paris to the wild haunted moors of Wessex, sparking a tale of love, chance, and tragedy.
Christmas Stories
Lucy Maud Montgomery
13 days
1911 • A collection of Christmas and holiday short stories filled with smiles, tears, and human kindness.
Father Goriot
Honoré de Balzac
37 days
1835 • In a Parisian society driven by ambition and greed, a father bankrupts himself for his two daughters as a mysterious criminal corrupts a naive law student.
Hard Times
Charles Dickens
42 days
1854 • Against the backdrop of a wretched industrial English city, two children are pulled into lives of crime and despair.
The Red and the Black
Stendhal
60 days
1830 • Driven to leave his humble beginnings behind, Julien Sorel finds the only way to rise in society's ranks is through deceit, hypocrisy, and crime.
Barchester Towers
Anthony Trollope
66 days
1857 • A newcomer bursts into Barchester, replacing the beloved bishop and bringing with him an ambitious chaplain and intimidating wife. Havoc in the church and town follows.
Roughing It
Mark Twain
57 days
1872 • A semi-autobiographical account of Twain's travels and adventures through the American west during the 1860s.
The Old Curiosity Shop
Charles Dickens
75 days
1841 • The story of little Nell Trent - one of Dickens' most beloved characters - who lives with her grandfather in his shop of oddities. They encounter bad luck and plotting villains in their struggle to avoid poverty.
Essays
Ralph Waldo Emerson
25 days
1841 • A collection of Emerson's essays, including Self-Reliance, Compensation, The Over-Soul, and The Poet.
The Lost Stradivarius
J. Meade Falkner
18 days
1895 • John Maltravers, a young aristocrat, happens upon a rare Stradivarius violin. The instrument's dark history captivates John.
Clotel; or, The President's Daughter
William Wells Brown
20 days
1853 • Clotel and her sister, though daughters of Thomas Jefferson, are slaves. Considered the first novel published by an African American in the U.S., this fast-paced story explores the horrors and hypocrisy of early America.
The Diamond Lens
Fitz James O'Brien
3 days
1858 • A scientist becomes obsessed with the microscope, both finding the perfect lens and the remarkable world he discovers looking through it. An early work of science fiction.
Maiwa's Revenge
H. Rider Haggard
12 days
1888 • A hunting expedition becomes a rescue operation for the heroic Allan Quatermain.
Tales of Space and Time
H.G. Wells
22 days
1899 • A collection of fantasy and sci-fi stories including runaway stars, stone age breakthroughs, and a mysterious glowing egg.
After Dark
Wilkie Collins
41 days
1856 • A collection of six exciting short stories, as told to poor traveling portrait-painter William Kerby.
Fanshawe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
14 days
1828 • Both strapping Edwards and reclusive Fanshawe seek to win the love of Ellen, but a third mysterious suitor arrives with dark intentions. Hawthorne's first novel.
The Spy
James Fenimore Cooper
49 days
1821 • In the midst of the American Revolution, the rebels hunt down a suspected British spy who has escaped capture twice. But not all is as it seems.
A Lady Of Quality
Frances Hodgson Burnett
29 days
1896 • A dark, melodramatic historical romance following Clorinda's tumultuous upbringing and challenging life.
Orley Farm
Anthony Trollope
101 days
1861 • When Joseph Mason dies, he mysteriously leaves his farm near London to his second wife and her son. Years later, mysterious details come to light sparking a complex fight among the family.
An Enemy of the People
Henrik Ibsen
13 days
1883 • The story of a man who dares to tell an uncomfortable truth, with surprisingly modern applicability to whistleblowing, environmental damage, and corrupt politicians.
Shirley
Charlotte Bronte
70 days
1849 • The tale of two women - the wealthy vivacious Shirley Keeldar and the oppressed shy Caroline Helstone - in a combination of social commentary with the literary style that made Jane Eyre so popular.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche
29 days
1883 • A philosophical novel in which the ancient prophet Zarathustra reveals God is dead, to be succeeded by a human embodiment of divinity: the Superman.
The Pathfinder
James Fenimore Cooper
59 days
1840 • One of Cooper's most picturesque novels, set on the Great Lakes, it finds Natty Bumppo finding his way through adventure and love.
The Pioneers
James Fenimore Cooper
55 days
1823 • On the borders of the ever-advancing frontier of New York state, elements of the wild old world clash with new European-style developments.
Fathers and Sons
Ivan Turgenev
24 days
1862 • The Kirsanov household will soon be turned upside down by the arrival of Bazarov and his bold new ideas.
The Heart of Princess Osra
Anthony Hope
20 days
1896 • A collection of stories serving as a prequel to The Prisoner of Zenda, centered on the love life of Orsa, Princess of Ruritania.
Rupert of Hentzau
Anthony Hope
22 days
1898 • A swashbuckling adventure taking place after The Prisoner of Zenda amidst the intrigue of Ruritania's royal family.
Hauntings
Vernon Lee
16 days
1890 • British author Violet Paget's atmospheric supernatural stories of passion, possession, and psychological terror.
Unveiling a Parallel
Alice Ilgenfritz Jones & Ella Merchant
15 days
1893 • A satirical feminist utopian novel contrasting two societies on Mars, both with equality between the sexes.
An Old-Fashioned Girl
Louisa May Alcott
35 days
1869 • Can country girl Polly's "simple" ways survive a clash with the wealthy, sophisticated, urban Shaw family?
The Adventures of Pinocchio
Carlo Collodi
14 days
1881 • The beloved story of the puppet come-to-life and his adventures on the road to becoming a real boy.
The Mystery of Orcival
Emile Gaboriau
32 days
1867 • Monsieur Lecoq strives to uncover the mystery of a countess' murder and the disappearance of a count.
Jo's Boys
Louisa May Alcott
33 days
1886 • Ten years after the events of "Little Men" Tommy, Emil, Demi, Nat, Dan, Rob, and Teddy are back - dealing with college, love, and scrapes.
Framley Parsonage
Anthony Trollope
62 days
1860 • Young vicar Mark Robarts' morals are put to the test when he and his family settle into the village of Framley in Barsetshire.
The Warden
Anthony Trollope
24 days
1855 • Zealous young reformer John Bold seeks the truth behind suspicious charity funds and the warden of Hiram's Hospital.
Rock Crystal
Adalbert Stifter
6 days
1845 • A suspenseful and beautiful parable about two children missing on Christmas Eve.
The Beetle
Richard Marsh
42 days
1897 • A shape-shifting horror from ancient Egypt stalks Victorian England, entangling a group of Londoners in a plot of cults, hypnosis, and revenge.
Romola
George Eliot
74 days
1862 • In Renaissance Florence amidst political and religious upheaval, Romola must choose her own path among shifting alliances, spiritual guidance, and betrayals by those closest to her.
The Leavenworth Case
Anna Katharine Green
35 days
1878 • Detective Ebenezer Gryce must investigate the baffling murder of wealthy merchant Horatio Leavenworth in New York City. An influence on Agatha Christie's mysteries.
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot
98 days
1876 • While gambling at the roulette table, Gwendolen spies Daniel Deronda - a man with as remarkable a life as her own - in an encounter that will change both their lives.
The Shining Pyramid
Arthur Machen
4 days
1895 • When strange stones appear in alarming patterns around his home, Vaughan enlists his friend's aid in deciphering the mystery before it's too late.
Waverley
Walter Scott
37 days
1814 • English soldier Edward Waverley journeys through the wilds of Scotland during the Jacobite Rising.
Hawaii's Story
Queen Liliʻuokalani
34 days
1898 • Five years after Hawaii's sovereignty was violated by the United States, the last monarch describes her ascent to the throne and the destruction of her country.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Henry David Thoreau
38 days
1849 • Thoreau describes a river trip he took with his brother John.
Our Nig
Harriet E. Wilson
7 days
1859 • Abandoned by her parents, Frado suffers abuse and neglect as a servant for a white family in the free North.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs
29 days
1861 • Jacobs shares her experiences as a slave, describing the particular horrors of being an enslaved woman, in an appeal to abolish slavery.
Why Is the Negro Lynched?
Frederick Douglass
6 days
1895 • Douglass attacks the concept of "the negro problem" in post-Civil War America, showing how it is instead "a great national problem" with racism entrenched in the systems of society.
Lady Audley's Secret
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
49 days
1862 • The "most sensationally successful of all the sensation novels" spanning insanity, accidental bigamy, lies, and murder all packed into one over-the-top drama.
On Liberty
John Stuart Mill
14 days
1859 • Philosopher John Stuart Mill and his wife Harriet Taylor in this essay apply the Utilitarian ethical theory to government, exploring individuality, authority, and freedom of speech.
Hospital Sketches
Louisa May Alcott
10 days
1863 • Four sketches based on experiences from Louisa May Alcott's time spent volunteering as a nurse for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
On War
Carl von Clausewitz
91 days
1832 • One of the most important works on political-military analysis and strategy, written after the Napoleonic Wars but left unfinished.
The Captain's Daughter
Alexander Pushkin
13 days
1836 • A deadly revolution, love, the generosity of an empress, and an act of kindness pull at the fate of Pyotr Andreyich Grinyov with his very life on the line.
An Ideal Husband
Oscar Wilde
11 days
1895 • Blackmail and political corruption forces a married couple to reexamine their moral standards in this, one of Oscar Wilde's best plays.
The Open Boat
Stephen Crane
4 days
1897 • A semi-autobiographical retelling of Crane's experience being shipwrecked and stranded for days off the coast of Florida.
Ninety-Three
Victor Hugo
45 days
1874 • In his final novel, Hugo follows three protagonists through the tumult of France in 1793: from the execution of Louis XVI to the Terror and brutal revolts.
Tales for the Bush
Mary Theresa Vidal
25 days
1845 • A series of novelettes sharing Christian virtues and accepting one's station in life. Mary Theresa Vidal was Australia's first female novelist.
Eureka: A Prose Poem
Edgar Allan Poe
12 days
1848 • An adaptation of Poe's lecture, describing his conception of the universe and of man's relationship with God. Many ideas presage 20th-century discoveries and theories on the beginnings of the universe.
The Convict Laundress
Mary Theresa Vidal
2 days
1852 • The sad descent of a working-class Irish woman, convicted of a crime and tempted by the "devils" of alcohol and opium.
The Goddess of Atvatabar
William R. Bradshaw
31 days
1892 • Discover an advanced underground civilization that can maintain youth and stop death. But civil war is brewing, sparked by outsiders from the surface.
Hunger
Knut Hamsun
20 days
1890 • A psychological novel exploring alienation, obsession, and self-destruction. Described as the first novel of the 20th century.
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Leo Tolstoy
7 days
1886 • A powerful man of the world is suddenly and shockingly confronted with his own mortality in this, arguably one of the finest novellas ever written.
The American Claimant
Mark Twain
21 days
1892 • A comedy of mistaken identifies peppered with mad scientist glimpses of DNA cloning, fax machines, and climate change.
A Corner In Lightning
George Griffith
2 days
1898 • When capitalists attempt to control lightning for profit, disastrous results ensue.
A Hero of Our Time
Mikhail Lermontov
20 days
1840 • A tribute to the tales of Lord Byron following the antihero Pechorin - both sensitive and cynical - through adventures, seductions, and duels.
A Pickle For The Knowing Ones
Timothy Dexter
3 days
1802 • Written by the eccentric businessman Timothy Dexter - who once faked his own death to see how people would react - this work discusses politics, the clergy, and more. Note it includes odd spelling and capitalization.
The Wreck of the Titan
Morgan Robertson
8 days
1898 • Written 14 years before the sinking of the Titanic, this novella follows deckhand John Rowland on the doomed April voyage of fictional British ocean liner Titan.
The Humbugs of the World
P.T. Barnum
40 days
1865 • The "Prince of Humbugs" himself describes a wide range of hoaxes, cons, swindles, and scams.
Twenty-Two Years a Slave
Austin Steward
26 days
1857 • An autobiography of Steward's enslavement, escape, and life as a free man before the Civil War.
Three Ghost Stories
Charles Dickens
8 days
1868 • A collection of spooky tales including the famous short story "The Signal-Man", "The Trial for Murder" and "The Haunted House"
A Voice from Harper's Ferry
Osborne Perry Anderson
7 days
1859 • A firsthand account of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry - a turning point in the fight against slavery - by the only surviving black combatant.
Kalevala
Elias Lönnrot
62 days
1835 • Epic poem compiling Finnish oral folklore including the creation of earth. An influence on J.R.R. Tolkien.
In the Midst of Life
Ambrose Bierce
26 days
1892 • A collection of short stories about soliders and civilians during the American Civil War.
A Journey in Other Worlds
John Jacob Astor
29 days
1894 • A vision of the far off future in the year 2000, with speculation on telephones, solar power, air travel, and adjusting the tilt of the Earth.
Noli Me Tángere (DUPLICATE)
José Rizal
46 days
1887 • Crisostomo Ibarra's idealistic visions collide with cruel Spanish repression, murder, and uprisings. Considered a national epic of the Philippines and artistic resistance to European colonialism.
Demons
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
76 days
1871 • A powerful allegory of ideology, murder, and nihilism in Russia as a fictional town is torn between aristocratic and Western-influenced idealism.
La Grande Bretèche
Honoré de Balzac
3 days
1831 • A curious neglected country estate hides a sordid and tragic history.
Tom Brown's School Days
Thomas Hughes
33 days
1857 • The classic English story of Tom Brown's trials, successes, and lasting friendships within a Victorian boy's boarding school.
Culture and Anarchy
Matthew Arnold
21 days
1869 • A series of Victorian-era essays examining the nature of culture, the value of classes, and the future of society.
Mastodon Mastodon