Short Classics

This is a list of short classic novels, many of which are under 200 pages.

Anderson, Sherwood.  Winesburg, Ohio.

Short vignettes, told with emotion and realism, chronicle life in a small town, (250 pages)

Austen, Jane. Emma.

A young heiress, fond of matchmaking, discovers that people don’t always fall in love according to plan.  (215 pages)

Balzac, Honore de. Eugenia Grandet.

Eugenie, a beautiful flower in a garden of miserliness and cunning, falls in love with Charles.  But her father will not allow a marriage with the son of a ruined man.  (238 pages)

Bradbury, Ray.  Fahrenheit 451

Fireman Guy Montag burns books to keep society happy.  But then he starts hoarding and reading books himself, until he is turned in.  (183 pages)

Camus, Albert.  The Stranger.

The narrator does not believe in God or a life after death.  When he is tried for murder, he faces the finality of his own death and realizes the absurdity of his life.  (154 pages)

Cather, Willa.  Alexander’s Bridge.

The ridges Bartley Alexander builds between riverbanks are charged with his genius and strength, as are the bridges between the two women in his life (136 pages)

Chopin, Kate – The Awakening

A woman in 19^th century New Orleans, married with children and respectable, realizes it might be a whole lot more fulfilling to live a life of sin.  (230 pages)

Crane, Stephen.  The Red Badge of Courage.

Henry Fleming, a young soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, learns about real fear in his first experience in combat.  (173 pages)

 Craven, Margaret.  I Heard the Owl Call My Name.

A young Anglican priest with only three years left to live is sent to work in a remote Canadian village.  (159 pages)

Dickens, Charles.  A Christmas Carol.

A wretched old man realizes how awful his life was, is, and will be when three ghosts pay him a visit.  (147 pages)

Elliot, George.  Silas Marner.

Being falsely accused of theft does not change the goodness of a man who opens his heart to a homeless child.  (240 pages)

Faulkner, William.  As I Lay Dying.

This experimental novel uses short interior monologues to explore the events surrounding the illness, death and burial of Addie Bundren, a wife and mother.  (250 pages)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott.  The Great Gatsby.

A racketeer and a romantic, Jay Gatsby buys a great house and throws lavish parties, all to win the heart of a girl named Daisy.  (182 pages)

Golding, William.  Lord of the Flies. 

A group of schoolboys struggle to survive on an island after their plane crashes.  After a while, they’re not only hunting wild boar, they’re hunting each other.  (182 pages)

Hawthorne, Nathanial.  The Scarlet Letter.

Adultery can be a capital offense in Puritan New England, so when young Hester Prynne conceives a child outside of marriage, the entire village plays a part in her cruel punishment.  (226 pages)

Hemingway, Ernest.  The Old Man and the Sea.

Santiago is an old fisherman who wants to catch one more big fish before he dies.  When he catches a marlin, he fights the elements and attacking sharks to hold on to the fish.  (127 pages)

Hersey, John.  A Single Pebble.

In the mist-filled gorges of the Yangtze River, Old China and New West learn of each other.  (181 pages)

Hesse, Herman.  The Journey to the East.

Membership in the League offers travel in space and time.  But a lapse in faith means desolation.  (117 pages)

Hesse, Herman.  Siddhartha

An allegory in which Siddhartha achieves peace and understanding of mankind’s rule on earth by experiencing the lives of others.  (122 pages)

Hinton, S.E.  The Outsiders. 

Ponyboy’s friend Johnny kills a “social” during a rumble, and they have to go into hiding.  (180 pages)

Irving, Washington.  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Ichabod Crane wants to marry the beautiful Katrina, but Brom Bones wants her too.  (80 pages)

James, Henry.  Daisy Miller.

Daisy, an American tourist in Europe, shocks and offends others with her carefree American approach to her friendship with an Italian man.  (95 pages)

James, Henry.  The Turn of the Screw

A young governess must battle evil ghosts to save the souls of children in her care.  (165 pages)

Kafka, Franz.  Metamorphosis.

A young man wakes up one morning and finds he has become a beetle.  (95 pages)

Kipling, Rudyard.  Captains Courageous.

Young man is swept overboard, picked up by a fishing boat and forced to join its crew.  (165 pages)

Knowles, John.  A Separate Peace.

Sixteen-year old Gene Forrester maims his best friend, a budding athlete, and must face the turmoil of World War I while facing his inner guilt about the accident.  (196 pages)

London, Jack.  The Call of the Wild.

Raised to fight in the brutal Yukon, a dog named White Fang is brought to California and with kind treatment becomes tame.  (250 pages)

Mann, Thomas.  A Death in Venice.

An intense story of an artist facing emotional upheaval.  (60 pages)

McCullers, Carson.  Member of the Wedding.

Twelve-year old Frankie’s brother is getting married, and she decides to join the new couple their honeymoon.  (118 pages)

O’Conner, Flannery.  Wise Blood.

A zany Southern story that chronicles a search for God and Faith and includes a false prophet and a gorilla! (232 pages)

Orwell, George.  Animal Farm.

A farmer is driven away by his animals, which set up an utopian government.  The animals’ selfishness and greed, however, soon turn the farm into a place as bad as it was in the beginning.  (128 pages)

Porter, Katherine Anne.  Pale Horse, Pale Rider.

The specter of death rides among the living as smoothly as air drifting between buildings, making no impression except upon those he claims.  (85 pages)

Rand Ayn.  Anthem.

In a future totalitarian society, the hero rediscovers individualism and his own ego.  (125 pages)

Richter, Conrad.  The Sea of Grass.

A beautiful wife leaves her husband and children on a huge cattle ranch to return to the city.  Twenty years later she returns to the man who loves her.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de.  Night Flight.

A night flight from Patagonia to Buenos Aires in the infancy of flying (198 pages)

Salinger, J. D.  The Catcher in the Rye.

He’s just been kicked out of prep school, he smokes and drinks and thinks he’s a pretty normal 17-year old boy; so why is Holden Caulfield going crazy:  (214 pages)

Saroyan, William.  The Human Comedy.

Small town life in the San Joaquin Valley during World War II.  (240 pages)

Schaefer, Jack.  Shane. 

The Starretts are unaware that their new hired hand is a gunfighter escaping his past.  (119 pages)

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft.  Frankenstein

Obsessed with discovering the secret of creating life, university student Victor Frankenstein brings to life an eight-foot monster he assembled from cadaver remains.  (224 pages)

Sillitoe, Alan.  The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

A young Englishman in prison uses running to show his defiance of authority.  (176 pages)

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Describes the day of a prisoner in a Stalinist Siberian labor camp; Ivan’s routine of self-preservation is real and gripping. (175 pages)

Spark, Muriel.  The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Miss Brodie has a tremendous influence over her students, but eventually one turns on her and brings about her dismissal; a story of hero-worship and treachery.  (187 pages)

Steinbeck, John.  Of Mice and Men.

Two California farm hands, George and Lenny, dream of their own farms.  Their plans are tragically disrupted by jealousy and misunderstanding.  (118 pages)

Steinbeck, John.  The Pearl.

The discovery and loss of a great pearl parallels the life of a family.  (118 pages)

Stevenson, Robert Louis.  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Convinced of man’s dual nature, a doctor concocts a mixture that turns him into an evil being.  (100 pages)

Stevenson, Robert Louis.  Treasure Island.

Young Jim Hawkins finds a mysterious map and signs on to sail in search of treasure, but finds mutiny, murder and misadventure instead.  (Also found in Juvenile fiction.) (175 pages)

Twain, Mark.  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

A story full of humorous observations about growing up and being a boy in 19^th century America.  (225 pages)

Twain, Mark.  The Prince and the Pauper.

When a prince and a beggar trade places, history, democracy and class values are examined in a humorous way.  (225 pages)

Voltaire, Francoise.  Candide.

An incurable optimist, who believes he lives in the best of all possible worlds, invites and receives disaster.  (155 pages)

Vonnegut, Kurt.  Cat’s Cradle.

A free-lance writer unearths the secret of ice-nine, an element more lethal than that produced by nuclear fission.  The search leads to the mythical island of San Lorenzo, where the writer also discovers the leader of a new religion, Bokonon.  (233 pages)

Wells, H. G.  The Invisible Man.

A young scientist experimenting with light refraction discovers a way to become invisible, but does not use his discovery wisely. (178 pages)

Wells, H. G.  The War of the Worlds.

Martians invade the earth in tall war machines and start vaporizing everyone in sight.  (219 pages)

Welty, Eudora.  The Optimist’s Daughter.

Laurel comes home to Mississippi and takes a second look at the people, living and dead, from her former life.  (180 pages)

West, Rebecca.  The Return of the Soldier.

Three women are bound reluctantly to each other because of their love for the same man.  (187 pages)

Wharton, Edith.  Ethan Frome.

In rural Massachusetts, a young husband, a talkative wife, and a pretty cousin share a household that comes to a tragic end.  (181 pages)

Wilde, Oscar.  The Picture of Dorian Gray.

A beautiful young man has a portrait of himself, which proves to have supernatural qualities.  (250 pages)

Wilder, Thornton.  The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

When a Peruvian bridge collapses, five travelers fall into the abyss.  Was it an accident or was it the culmination of the pattern of each life?  (148 pages)

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