CLASSICS AND NEAR CLASSICS*

This list is organized alphabetically by author.

• Adams, Richard WATERSHIP DOWN relates the story of a ragtag group of rabbits who set out to establish a new warren on the English downs after their home is threatened.

• Agee, James A DEATH IN THE FAMILY describes the impact of Jay Follet's death in a car accident on his close-knit Tennessee family.

• Algren, Nelson THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM is set in the slums of Chicago and chronicles the life of a hustler and addict, "Frankie Machine."

• Anderson, Sherwood WINESBURG OHIO is a collection of stories connected by George Willard, a reporter rebelling against the narrowness of small town life.

• Asimov, Isaac FOUNDATION is the first volume in a series on the fall of a galactic empire of the future and the struggle to preserve the learning and culture of the survivors.

• Auel, Jean THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR is the first in a series, "Earth's Children," relating the story of a young Cro-Magnon orphan girl, Ayla.

• Austen, Jane EMMA is a 19th century English girl who is pretty, yet willful. When she begins matchmaking, she greatly complicates her life.

• Austen, Jane PRIDE AND PREJUDICE contrasts the conflict between the prejudice of a young lady and the pride of the hero in this tale of a family trying to marry off five daughters.

• Baldwin, James GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN tells of the religious conversion of a young Harlem black youth contrasted against the story of three generations of his ancestors.

• Balzac, Honore de EUGENIE GRANDET, the only child of a rich miser, is in love with a spoiled, yet penniless young man.

• Balzac, Honore de PERE GORIOT is a devoted father who gives away money to see that his daughters are well married only to receive humiliation and ingratitude from them.

• Bellow, Saul HERZOG is a bitter Jewish scholar who, after his second divorce, vents his frustration through sarcastic letters to newspapers, former mothers-in-law, etc.

• Boll, Heinrich THE CLOWN is Hans Schnier who, after a disasterous performance tour, begins to contemplate the loss of meaning in his life. Flashbacks reconstruct his bitter experience in Hitler's Germany and during the post-war period.

• Boulle, Pierre THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI describes a British officer imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp, who, clinging to discipline, leads 500 prisoners in the construction of a bridge. He is so proud of their efforts that he actually resists the British saboteurs sent to destroy it.

• Bradbury, Ray FAHRENHEIT 451 A book burning official of a futuristic fascist state begins to secretly pursue reading until he is betrayed.

• Bronte, Charlotte JANE EYRE, the new governess at Thornfield, falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester, only to find out that he is still married to the madwoman locked up in the house.

• Bronte, Emily WUTHERING HEIGHTS is a tale of revenge and lost love as seen through the eyes of Mr. Lockwood. Forced by a storm to spend a night at the home of Heathcliff, he encounters the spirit of Catherine Linton, and learns of their doomed love affair.

• Buck, Pearl THE GOOD EARTH, the first and most famous of a trilogy set in pre-war China, follows the rise from poverty to power of Wang Lung and his patient wife, 0-Lan.

• Burgess, Anthony A CLOCKWORK ORANGE features future London and is narrated by a juvenile delinquent who has been brainwashed by the authorities to destroy his murderous tendencies.

• Butler, Samuel THE WAY OF ALL FLESH studies the relationships between parents and children of several generations of the Pontifex family and illustrates the hypocrisy and smug complacency of English middle class life.

• Caldwell, Erskine GOD'S LITTLE ACRE is set aside by a shiftless Georgia mountaineer who plans to use the profits from the land for the church. However, he tends to shift the location of the acre according to his own needs.

• Camus, Albert THE PLAGUE A small group of people find themselves shut off from the rest of the world when bubonic plague hits their coastal city.

• Camus, Albert THE STRANGER, Meersault, a simple clerk living in Algiers commits murder and is sentenced to be executed.

• Capote, Truman BREAKFAST AT TIFFANNY'S relates the tale of Holly Golightly, a friend of gangsters, child bride, party giver, and someone who likes to eat her breakfast in front of the famous jewelry store's window.

• Cather, Willa DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP after nearly 40 years of struggling to establish the Church in the American Southwest.

• Cather, Willa MY ANTONIA describes the attempts of Bohemian settlers to tame the harsh Nebraska prairie and focuses on young Antonia Shimerda.

• Cather, Willa O PIONEERS! relates the struggle of Alexandra Bergson to keep the land her father died to win, and of her love for a poor man her family rejects.

• Cervantes DON QUIXOTE, a simple countryman, considers himself to be called on to right the injustices he sees around him. Knighted by an innkeeper, he goes forth to tilt at the windmill dragons of the world.

• Clark, Walter Van Tilburg THE OX-BOW INCIDENT is set in the Nevada town of Bridger's Gulch in 1885. Upon learning that one of their members has been murdered by cattle rustlers, the townspeople form a posse to track them down.

• Clarke, Arthur C. CHILDHOOD'S END In the near future the earth is invaded and ruled by a kindly superior race who is preparing humanity for an evolutionary step, but must prevent the earthlings from destroying themselves in a nuclear holocaust.

• Collins, Wilkie THE MOONSTONE Long considered to be one of the first mysteries in English literature, this novel solves the disappearance of an enormous diamond that once belonged to a Hindu idol.

• Conrad, Joseph THE HEART OF DARKNESS Marlowe goes into the depths of the African Jungle to find Kurtz, a powerful white trader living with the natives.

• Conrad, Joseph LORD JIM Although branded as a coward among his peers, Jim finds himself to be considered as a demi-god among the Malay "savages."

• Cooper, James Fenimore THE DEERSLAYER records Natty Bumpo's attempts to save the Hutter family from the warring Iroquois Indians.

• Cooper, James Fenimore THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS The brave woodsman, Hawkeye, becomes caught in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War.

• Crane, Stephen THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE is the classic Civil War novel depicting a young soldier in his first battle.

• Dante THE INFERNO is volume one of THE DIVINE COMEDY in which Vergil conducts the narrator through the region of damnation where souls suffer eternal punishment appropriate to their sins.

• Defoe, Daniel MOLL FLANDERS is a 17th century woman who was married five times and branded as a thief and harlot by her peers.

• Defoe, Daniel ROBINSON CRUSOE Shipwrecked on an apparently uninhabited island, Robinson must fashion a home and life for himself.

• Dickens, Charles DAVID COPPERFIELD Banished to London by his harsh stepfather, young David finds himself working cruelly long hours and living with the poverty stricken Micawbers.

• Dickens, Charles GREAT EXPECTATIONS Pip comes into some money from an unknown benefactor and is to be raised as a gentleman, but the convict Magwich re-enters his life and alters the course of events.

• Dickens, Charles OLIVER TWIST falls into the hands of rogues who train him in the fine art of pick pocketing.

• Dickens, Charles A TALE OF TWO CITIES This novel of the French Revolution depicts London and Paris and two look-alike men in love with the same woman.

• Dos Passos, John U.S.A. is a trilogy describing the variety of life in America during the early part of the 20th century.

• Dostoevsky, Fyodor THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV Fyodor Pavlovich, a drunken wastrel has one illegitimate and three legitimate sons. When he is murdered, one son is arrested and brought to trial, but is he the only guilty one?

• Dostoevsky, Fyodor CRIME AND PUNISHMENT This classic psychological novel reveals the anguished mind of Raskolnikoff before, during and after he murders an old woman.

• Douglas, Lloyd THE ROBE chronicles the story of Christ's robe and the influence it has on the wealthy young soldier who won it playing dice.

• Dreiser, Theodore AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY A young man, trying to become successful, finds himself obsessed with the dazzling Sondra. When a pregnant co-worker threatens his future, he resorts to murder.

• Dreiser, Theodore SISTER CARRIE details the rise of a young working girl to worldly success and her ultimate fall.

• Dumas, Alexander THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO is a young sailor unjustly accused and imprisoned in the Chateau D’If for 15 years. After his escape, he finds the treasure of Monte Cristo and is determined to pay back his enemies.

• Dumas, Alexander THE THREE MUSKETEERS are three of the most famous fighters in 17th century France.

• DuMaurier, Daphne REBECCA When the new bride of Maxim de Winter arrives at Manderley, she finds not the happiness she seeks, but a mansion haunted by the sinister spirit of her husband's first wife, the beautiful and vibrant Rebecca.

• Edmonds, Walter D. DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK This fictionalized account of the Mohawk River settlers during the American Revolution, focuses on young Gil Martin and his wife and the destructiveness of the British and their Indian allies.

• Eliot, George ADAM BEDE is the story of a highly principled young man and his love for Hetty Sorrell who is seduced by a young squire and later tried for the murder of her child.

• Eliot, George THE MILL ON THE FLOSS Siblings Tom and Maggie Tolliver, after a quarrel find that the solution to their problems lies in death.

• Eliot, George SILAS MARNER, an embittered man who cares only for the gold hidden in his cottage is robbed. Finding a blond baby girl no one wants, he raises her and gradually loses his bitterness until someone comes to claim her.

• Ellison, Ralph THE INVISIBLE MAN depicts a young man's growing realization that in being black he is truly the "invisible" man.

• Farrell, James STUDS LONIGAN is the full life history of "Studs" a young lad of the Chicago streets.

• Faulkner, William AS I LAY DYING describes the death of Addie Bunden and the ordeals her family encounter in transporting her body to Mississippi for burial.

• Faulkner, William INTRUDER IN THE DUST When an "uppity negro” is accused of murdering a white man, a 16 year old and 70 year old woman set out to prove his innocence.

• Faulkner, William THE SOUND AND THE FURY The decadence and tragedy of a once aristocratic family is viewed through the eyes of the three Compson brothers and their black cook.

• Ferber, Edna CIMARRON depicts Oklahoma from the land rush of 1899 to the oil boom of the twentieth century.

• Ferber, Edna SHOWBOAT Set on the "Cotton Blossom Floating Palace Theatre," a Mississippi showboat, this novel follows the fortunes of the Hawks-Ravenal family.

• Ferber, Edna SO BIG relates the story of Selina De Jong, a farmer's wife, who gave up much to insure the success of her son. Even in the face of his ingratitude she retains her indomitable spirit and gaiety.

• Fielding, Henry THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES : A FOUNDLING Born as an orphan, Tom is raised by the squire to be a gentleman, but finds the dissolute life to be more appealing.

• Fitzgerald, F. Scott THE GREAT GATSBY is a novel about the "Roaring 20's" and Gatsby, a self-made man.

• Fitzgerald, F. Scott TENDER IS THE NIGHT Dick Diver is a young psychologist whose career is ruined by his marriage to a wealthy but unstable socialite.

• Flaubert, Gustav MADAME BOVARY is the history of the inevitable moral disintegration of a weak woman unhappy in her marriage to a good-hearted but naive village doctor.

• Forster, E.M. A PASSAGE TO INDIA concerns the reactions of two women to India, a scandal, and the misunderstandings which arise when two races live side by side but not together in the same country.

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES To get the land upon which he will build his pretentious house, Colonel Pyncheon has the owner, Matthew Maule convicted of witchcraft, but not before Maule puts a curse on him and his family.

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel THE SCARLET LETTER Hester Prynne, branded as an adulteress, is forced by her Puritan neighbors to always wear a scarlet letter "A" as a mark of her sin.

• Heller, Joseph CATCH-22 is a satiric yet comic novel exploring the hypocrisy and incongruities of war as a young captain attempts to stay alive despite the countless bombing missions he must fly.

• Hemingway, Ernest A FAREWELL TO ARMS is a love story between an English nurse and a wounded soldier during the Italian campaign of World War I.

• Hemingway, Ernest FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS chronicles a young American’s involvement with a guerrilla band of Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War, his love for Maria and his final test of courage.

• Hemingway, Ernest THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman who has not caught a fish in 84 days, struggles for two days to land a giant marlin and re-establish his dignity.

• Hemingway, Ernest THE SUN ALSO RISES Typical of the "lost generation", a band of expatriate Americans drifts from one European city to another.

• Hersey, John A BELL FOR ADANO Forced to occupy an Italian town during World War II, an American of Italian descent tries to replace the town's bell.

• Hersey, John THE WALL describes how the doomed Jews of the Warsaw ghetto turned and faced their oppressors.

• Hesse, Hermann STEPPENWOLF This allegorical novel depicts the conflicts that half man, half wolf Harry Haller must face between his nature and the civilization he inhabits.

• Howells, W.D. THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM is the story of a self-made businessman who seeks to establish his family in Boston society and still retain his integrity.

• Frazier, Charles COLD MOUNTAIN, his home and the woman he loves is the destination of the disillusioned young Confederate deserter on this elegiac Civil War odyssey.

• Gaines, Ernest J. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN relates the musings of a 110 year old black woman which reflect her memories of the last days of the Civil War to the day she takes her own "Freedom Walk."

• Galsworthy, John THE FORSYTHE SAGA is the first in a series about a large upper middle class family of conventional but materialistic businessmen and the ladies in their lives.

• Goethe, Wolfgang von THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER tells the tale of a young sensitive artist in love with a girl engaged to someone else.

• Golding, William THE LORD OF THE FLIES When a group of English schoolboys are stranded on a desert island, they resort to primitive savagery to survive.

• Goldsmith, Oliver THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD is a pastoral novel describing a gentle, generous vicar and the misfortunes that befall him and his family.

• Graves, Robert I, CLAUDIUS purports to be the autobiography of the emperor and historian and vividly depicts imperial Rome.

• Greene, Graham THE QUIET AMERICAN Living in Saigon during the 50's, a skeptical British journalist and his mistress become enmeshed in intrigue with an American on a secret mission.

• Guest, Judith ORDINARY PEOPLE The death of a promising son irretrievably disrupts his upper middle class family, especially the brother who didn't save him.

• Hardy, Thomas FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD Three men love the same woman in this novel of betrayal and murder in rural England.

• Hardy, Thomas RETURN OF THE NATIVE Fatal misunderstandings between relatives lead to crime and death on Egdon Heath.

• Hardy, Thomas TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES When an innocent dairymaid, seduced by the son of the house of her youth, confesses to her husband, he deserts her.

• Hudson, W.H. GREEN MANSIONS This romantic fantasy set in the jungles of South America reflects man's love of beautiful things.

• Hughes, Langston NOT WITHOUT LAUGHTER depicts a black youth growing up in a small Kansas town of the 1930's.

• Hugo, Victor LES MISERABLES Jean Valjean, a convicted criminal who has reformed and is now prosperous, finds himself hunted by a ruthless detective.

• Hugo, Victor THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAMEis set in medieval Paris and concerns Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer who is denounced as a witch, and the grotesque hunchback, Quasimodo, who tries to protect her from the mob.

• Huxley, Aldous BRAVE NEW WORLD in this satiric novel of the future set in 632 AF (After Ford), only test tube babies are deemed normal. All others are considered savages and sent to reservations.

• Jackson, Shirley WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN A CASTLE After being acquitted of the murders of her family, Constance Blockwood lives in a family mansion until the arrival of a cousin destroys their solitude.

• James, Henry THE TURN OF THE SCREW pits a young governess against the ghosts of two former servants who are determined to capture the souls of her young students.

• James, Henry THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY When Isabel Archer marries, she discovers her husband's mistress has arranged the marriage and intends to get control of Isabel's fortune.

• Joyce, James A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN This novel portrays Stephen Daedulus's youth, his growing self- awareness as an artist, and his ultimate rejection of the narrow world that formed him.

• Kafka, Franz THE CASTLE The hero, a land surveyor, is constantly frustrated by his efforts to gain entrance to a castle controlled by an inaccessible hierarchy.

• Kafka, Franz THE TRIAL describes a lowly bank official's conviction for a crime about which he knows nothing and his subsequent attempts to be exonerated.

• Kantor, MacKinley ANDERSONVILLE is an epic novel of the brutality of a Civil War prison camp.

• Kesey, Ken ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST To avoid the law, a rabble-rousing inmate of a mental hospital pretends insanity and then leads his fellow inmates in a struggle against the tyrannical Nurse Ratched.

• Kipling, Rudyard KIM An Irish orphan is raised as an Indian child during the days of the British rule in India.

• Knowles, John A SEPARATE PEACE In a boarding school during World War II, the rivalry between friends mirrors the tensions and tragedies of the war.

• Lawrence, D.H. SONS AND LOVERS Although there are two women in Paul Morel's life, neither can tear him away from his obsessive devotion to his mother.

• Lee, Harper TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Scout, a young girl, relates how her lawyer father defended a black man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town and the repercussions of the trial.

• LeGuin, Ursula THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS Ai, an emissary to the planet Winter, must deal not only with the hostile environment, but with a race of non-gendered mutants who can become either male or female at will. Unfortunately, he has fallen in love with one.

• Lewis, C.S. OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET A philologist who is kidnapped and forced to go to Malacandra (Mars), escapes his captors and tries to avoid capture on this alien planet.

• Lewis, C.S. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS Screwtape is a devil who, through a series of letters, advises his nephew just how to deal with human "patients."

• Lewis, Sinclair ARROWSMITH A young doctor must choose between material success and the biological research that he truly loves.

• Lewis, Sinclair MAIN STREET The young wife of the town doctor tries to rise above the dullness and hypocrisy of the small village of Gopher Prairie.

• Lewis, Sinclair ELMER GANTRY A brazen ex-football player uses his physical attractiveness and half-plagiarized sermons to become a successful evangelist.

• Llewellyn, Richard HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY A beautiful valley slowly begins to disintegrate once mining takes over and the slag heaps, strikes and hard times descend upon a close Welsh family.

• London, Jack THE SEA WOLF Wealthy ne'er-do-well Humphrey Van Weyden, a passenger on the ill-fated tramp steamer Ghost, comes under the power of the ruthless captain, Wolf Larsen while rivaling him for the love of a passenger.

• Mailer, Norman THE NAKED AND THE DEAD depicts the trials of an infantry platoon invading a Japanese held island during World War II.

• Malamud, Bernard THE FIXER Set in Czarist Russia, Yakov Box, a simple handyman is accused of a crime because of his Jewish background.

• Mann, Thomas THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN After spending 7 years in a TB sanitarium, Hans Castorp is cured of his illness and has been educated in art, philosophy and music only to be released to his fate in World War I.

• Maugham, W. Somerset OF HUMAN BONDAGE A disfigured aspiring artist, Philip Carey, must suffer the cruelty of schoolmates, a selfish uncle and several unhappy romances before he finds his place in life.

• Melville, Herman MOBY DICK Having previously lost a leg to the great white whale, Captain Ahab drives his crew to the edge seeking revenge against Moby Dick.

• Michener, James HAWAII traces the islands from their volcanic birth and interweaves the story of Tahitian natives, New England missionaries and oriental workers whose descendants make up the island's population today.

• Michener, James THE SOURCE is a fictionalized account of the people who inhabited Makor from 10,000 BC to the modern state of Israel.

• Mitchell, Margaret GONE WITH THE WIND The epic novel of the Civil War in which the dashing scoundrel Rhett Butler comes head to head with that defiant southern lady, Scarlett O'Hara.

• Monsarrat, Nicholas THE CRUEL SEA chronicles the bravery of the crew of the Compass Rose cruising the North Atlantic during World War II.

• Nordhoff and Hall MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY is based on the famous mutiny of the crew of the British vessel Bounty against their sadistic captain, Bligh.

• Ondaatje, Michael THE ENGLISH PATIENT Four people, all victims of war in one way or another find themselves in a deserted Italian villa in the waning days of the Second World War, drink together, love together and remember while trying to heal their physical as well as psychological wounds.

• Orwell, George 1984 pits the hero Winston Smith against a futuristic society in which Big Brother is always watching.

• Orwell, George ANIMAL FARM A satire on post-revolutionary Russia in which the animals revolt, drive out their human masters and are ruled by pigs.

• Pasternak, Boris DOCTOR ZHIVAGO tells of the life and loves of a Russian intellectual during the first 30 years of the 20th century and the Marxist revolution that changed his destiny forever.

• Paton, Alan CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY The plight of the native Africans in South Africa is depicted in this story of a Zulu minister's search for his relatives in the slums of Johannesburg.

• Plath, Sylvia THE BELL JAR This autobiographical novel concerns the mental breakdown of a young college student who is brilliant, beautiful and seemingly successful.

• Potok, Chaim THE CHOSEN are two Orthodox Jewish boys and their relationship that begins with the fierce rivalry of a baseball game.

• Proulx, E. Annie THE SHIPPING NEWS R.G. Quoyle an obese, ineffectual widower and newspaperman moves his family to Newfoundland to face his roots and the vagaries of a harsh yet beautiful climate, to find love and purpose and friendship with the indomitable inhabitants of Killick-Claw.

• Rawlings, Marjorie THE YEARLING A young boy living in the backwoods of Florida is ordered to kill the pet deer he has raised when it threatens their crops.

• Remarque, Erich ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT views the horror of war through the eyes of a young German soldier during World War I.

• Roberts, Kenneth NORTHWEST PASSAGE Major Robert Rogers leads an expedition in 1759 searching for an overland route to the Pacific.

• Rolvaag, O.E. GIANTS IN THE EARTH While Per Hansa finds freedom and a better life on the Dakota prairie, his lonely desperate wife finds solace in religion.

• Salinger, J.D. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE After being suspended from his school, 16 year old Holden Caulfield wanders New York City seeking adventures while wryly commenting on the hypocrisy and phoniness of adults.

• Scott, Sir Walter IVANHOE This story of medieval England features Wilfred, knight of Ivanhoe and his fair lady, Rowena, and is complete with conspiracies, tournaments and a flame engulfed castle.

• Sholokhov, Mikhail AND QUIET FLOWS THE DON This story of a young Cossack, his unhappy marriage and military exploits during the Revolution make a powerful tale of war.

• Shelley, Mary FRANKENSTEIN The classic story of a young German student who creates a monster and animates it through "modern technology", only to have it turn on him.

• Shute, Nevil ON THE BEACH it is 1953 and an atomic war has killed all life in the Northern Hemisphere. In Australia, the people realize they, too, will die soon and must decide what to do.

• Sienkiewicz, Henryke QUO VADIS deals with early Christians living and being martyred in the decadent and dangerous Rome of Nero.

• Sinclair, Upton THE JUNGLE vividly portrays the Chicago stockyards and the brutal experiences a young Slavic immigrant must suffer.

• Solzhenitsyn, Alexander ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH describes his life in a Soviet slave labor camp and his will to live despite the barbarous treatment he must endure.

• Steinbeck, John THE GRAPES OF WRATH The Joad family tries to escape the desolation of the Dust Bowl of the 30's by moving to California as migrant workers.

• Steinbeck, John OF MICE AND MEN Two migrant farm workers, the slowwitted Lenny, and his protector George, dream of one day owning their own farm, but tragedy strikes when Lenny accidently kills a woman who has seduced him.

• Steinbeck, John THE RED PONY A young boy discovers grief when his beloved pet dies.

• Steme, Laurence TRISTAM SHANDY This often chaotic and eccentric narrative relates the life story of Tristam interspersed with his philosophy of life.

• Stevenson, Robert Lewis THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE Dr. Jekyll discovers a drug which when taken brings out a separate personality, the evil Mr. Hyde.

• Stewart, Mary THE CRYSTAL CAVE is the first of a trilogy concerning King Arthur and concentrates on the adventures and education of Merlin the Magician.

• Stoker, Bram DRACULA The hero and his friends try to prevent the evil Baron Dracula and his Transylvanian band of vampires from preying on London.

• Stone, Irving THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY is a fictionalized account of the life of Michelangelo.

• Stowe, Harriet Beecher UNCLE TOM'S CABIN is the classic account of the plight of the slaves in the South.

• Styron William THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER unfolds the story of the short-lived but bloody rebellion of slaves in Virginia in 1831.

• Swift, Jonathan GULLIVER'S TRAVELS among the tiny Lilliputians, the giants of Brobdingnag, the Yahoos and Houyhnhnms form a devastating satire of 18th century society.

• Thackeray, William Makepeace VANITY FAIR Social climbing adventuress, Becky Sharp, aspires to enter the Victorian aristocracy.

• Theroux, Paul MOSQUITO COAST A cantankerous inventor dreams of living the simple life with his family in the jungles of Honduras only to have his dreams turn to disaster.

• Tolkien, J.R.R. THE LORD OF THE RINGS Three Hobbits travel to Middle Earth to prevent the magic ring from falling into evil hands in this epic fantasy.

• Tolstoy, Leo ANNA KARENINA is doomed from the moment she leaves her husband for the dashing Count Vronsky.

• Tolstoy, Leo WAR AND PEACE This epic novel concerns the fate of a Russian family and friends during the Napoleonic Wars.

• Trollope, Anthony BARCHESTER TOWERS is a novel of clerical intrigue pitting the Bishop's wife, Mrs. Proudie against the insidious chaplain, Mr. Slope for leadership in the town of Barchester.

• Turgenev, Ivan FATHERS AND SONS portrays the conflicts between the older more conservative generation and the more democratic youths.

• Twain, Mark THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER Tom, along with his friend, Huck, witnesses a murder, looks for buried treasure, and generally wreaks havoc on their small river town.

• Twain, Mark THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN Runaways Huck and Jim float down the Mississippi on a raft and encounter con men, lynch mobs, and southern gentility along the way.

• Twain, Mark A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT After a blow on his head, a Connecticut man finds himself back in the days of King Arthur and must use his Yankee ingenuity to battle the medieval superstition that surrounds him.

• Undset, Sigrid KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER Considered to be one of the great historical novels, this trilogy depicts the life of a Norwegian woman as child, wife and mistress.

• Uris, Leon EXODUS is a story of modern day Israel and the heroic immigrants who brought her into existence.

• Vergil THE AENEID follows the exploits of Aeneas and his Trojan followers, the ancestors of the Roman people.

• Voltaire CANDIDE is ejected from the castle of Thunder-ten¬Tronckh for kissing the baron's daughter and subsequently endures an unbelievable series of calamities.

• Vonnegut, Kurt SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE After being captured by aliens, Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist from upstate New York, gets unstuck from time and finds himself traveling back and forth between the present and war torn Dresden,Germany.

• Walker, Alice THE COLOR PURPLE relates the story of two black sisters abruptly separated during their teenage years, and consists of the letters Celie writes to God since she can't send them to her sister.

• Wallace, Lew BEN HUR, a young Jew who is falsely accused of attempted murder and sentenced as a galley slave, escapes to become a Roman soldier and ultimately meets his betrayer in the classic chariot race.

• Warren, Robert Penn ALL THE KINGS MEN Seen through the eyes of a young journalist, this novel follows the rise and fall of Willie Stark, a Louisiana politician of the 20's.

• Wharton, Edith ETHAN FROME seems doomed to a loveless marriage with a whining wife until he falls in love with her visiting cousin. The lovers form a suicide pact, but their plans go awry.

• White, T.H. THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING a quartet of stories concerning Merlin and the boy Wart who becomes King Arthur.

• Wilde, Oscar THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY When a beautiful youth has his portrait painted, the picture visibly ages from the corruption and degeneracy of his life, while the youth outwardly remains handsome.

• Wilder, Thornton THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY When five people are killed on a collapsing bridge, a Franciscan brother investigates each of the five lives to prove that it was God's will that they die rather than mere chance.

• Wolfe, Thomas LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL Stifled by the prejudices and pettiness of his family, Gene Gant decides he must leave home to fulfill his dreams.

• Wouk, Herman THE CAINE MUTINY The heroic crew of a mine sweeper during World War II are driven to mutiny against the paranoid Captain Queeg.

• Wright, Richard NATIVE SON is the story of Bigger Thomas, victimized by the white society which surrounds the slums of his Chicago home and of the brutal crime he commits.

*This list was created by the Adult Reading Round Table which is made up of librarians and library staff in the Chicago metropolitan area who aim to promote literature and reading for pleasure.