Classics

All countries Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Chile China Colombia Czech Republic Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Egypt Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Ireland Italy Japan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Lebanon Lithuania Mexico Netherlands Norway Pakistan Palestine Peru Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Spain Sudan Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Türkiye Ukraine United Kingdom United States

Newest first Oldest first

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men follows George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant workers travelling through California during the Great Depression in search of employment. George is intelligent and practical, while Lennie is physically powerful but has an intellectual disability that makes it difficult for him to understand the consequences of his actions. Despite their differences, the two men share a dream of owning a small farm where they can live independently and escape the insecurity of migrant labour. When they find work on a ranch, their hopes appear briefly within reach, but tensions among the workers and Lennie’s inability to control his strength create mounting danger. Steinbeck explores friendship, loneliness, poverty, and the fragility of the American dream. The novella portrays how economic hardship and social isolation can undermine the hopes of people seeking dignity and security.

United States 1937

Snow Country

Yasunari Kawabata

Snow Country follows Shimamura, a wealthy Tokyo man who repeatedly visits a remote hot-spring town in Japan’s snowy mountains. There he develops a complicated relationship with Komako, a young geisha whose emotional commitment contrasts with his detached approach to life. Their encounters unfold against a landscape of snow-covered villages, quiet inns, and winter journeys that intensify the novel’s atmosphere of beauty and isolation. Shimamura is also fascinated by Yōko, another woman whose presence complicates his relationship with Komako. Through restrained dialogue and delicate descriptions of the natural world, Kawabata explores desire, loneliness, and the distance between people who cannot fully understand one another. The novel examines the tension between emotional attachment and detachment, revealing how beauty can coexist with sadness and how fleeting encounters can leave lasting impressions.美的に抽出されて描かれている。

Blind Owl

Ṣādiq Hidāyat

The Blind Owl is a landmark of modern Persian literature, exploring obsession, alienation, and the fragile boundary between reality and imagination. The novella follows an unnamed narrator, a reclusive artist who paints pen cases and becomes consumed by the image of a mysterious, beautiful woman. After an unsettling encounter with her, he recounts a series of disturbing events in a fragmented, dreamlike narrative that gradually dissolves into hallucination, violence, and psychological torment. Divided into two interconnected sections, the story moves between seemingly different realities, repeating images and experiences in ways that make it difficult to distinguish memory from fantasy. The narrator’s isolation deepens as he becomes trapped in cycles of obsession and despair, addressing his thoughts to a shadow resembling an owl. Through surreal imagery and an unreliable narrator, Hedayat explores loneliness, mortality, and the disintegration of identity. Dark and unsettling, the novella remains a powerful examination of the human mind and the impossibility of escaping one’s inner world.

Women

Mihail Sebastian

Originally published in 1933 as Femei, Mihail Sebastian’s Women explores love, desire, emotional independence, and the elusive nature of human relationships in interwar Europe. Structured as four interconnected stories, the novel follows Ștefan Valeriu, a young Romanian medical student whose encounters with women gradually reveal the contradictions of romantic attachment. From a summer resort in the French Alps to the sophisticated social circles of Paris, Ștefan becomes involved with women of different ages, temperaments, and expectations. Each relationship offers him a different experience of intimacy, from flirtation and seduction to vulnerability, rejection, and regret. Yet his desire to preserve his freedom repeatedly conflicts with his longing for connection. Through subtle psychological observations and an exploration of the shifting balance of power between lovers, Sebastian examines how people construct their identities through relationships and how every choice closes the door on other possible lives. Elegant, introspective, and occasionally melancholic, Women offers a portrait of romantic relationships in which love is as much about self-discovery as it is about understanding another person.

A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms follows Frederic Henry, an American ambulance officer serving with the Italian army during the First World War. While stationed near the front, he falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse whose emotional support offers him an escape from the brutality surrounding them. Their relationship deepens as the war intensifies, and Frederic becomes increasingly disillusioned with military duty and patriotic rhetoric. After a chaotic retreat from the front, he deserts the army and attempts to build a peaceful life with Catherine. However, their hopes for a future together are threatened by circumstances beyond their control. Hemingway explores love as a refuge from violence, while revealing its vulnerability in a world governed by chance and loss. The novel examines disillusionment, sacrifice, and the difficulty of finding lasting meaning in a time of war.

United States 1929

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque

All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier who enlists in the First World War alongside his school friends after being encouraged by patriotic teachers. Once at the front, the young men discover that the heroic ideals used to recruit them bear little resemblance to the reality of trench warfare. Constant bombardment, hunger, exhaustion, and the loss of comrades gradually destroy their innocence and their faith in the society that sent them to fight. When Paul returns home on leave, he finds himself unable to reconnect with civilians who cannot understand his experiences. Remarque portrays war as a force that damages not only bodies but also the emotional and moral foundations of a generation. The novel explores trauma, disillusionment, and the devastating distance between military rhetoric and the human cost of conflict.

Letters to a Young Poet

Letters to a Young Poet

Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet is a collection of ten letters written by Rainer Maria Rilke to Franz Xaver Kappus, a young aspiring poet who sought his advice on writing and life. Composed between 1903 and 1908, the letters offer reflections on creativity, self-discovery, love, loneliness, and the challenges of becoming one’s own person. Rather than providing practical instructions on how to write poetry, Rilke encourages the young writer to look inward, trust his own experiences, and resist the pressure to seek validation from others. At the heart of the collection is the idea that solitude can be a source of personal growth and artistic insight. Rilke also explores the complexity of love, describing it as a demanding process that requires two individuals to develop their independence rather than lose themselves in one another. Blending philosophical reflection with intimate advice, the letters offer a timeless meditation on patience, uncertainty, and the courage to live authentically. Note: The letters were first published in book form in 1929, after Rilke’s death. He was born in Prague, then part of Austria-Hungary, in 1875.

Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf follows Harry Haller, a middle-aged intellectual who feels profoundly alienated from bourgeois society and believes himself divided between two opposing natures: the civilised human being and the solitary wolf. Disillusioned with conventional life, Harry becomes increasingly withdrawn and struggles with thoughts of despair. His encounter with Hermine, a lively and unconventional woman, introduces him to new experiences, including music, dancing, and forms of pleasure he has long rejected. Through these encounters, he begins to question his rigid understanding of identity and the assumption that human beings can be divided into simple opposing parts. Hesse blends psychological exploration with surreal and philosophical episodes to examine loneliness, social conformity, and the possibility of personal transformation. The novel asks whether people can learn to embrace the contradictions within themselves rather than remain imprisoned by a fixed image of who they are.

Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises follows a group of American and British expatriates living in Europe after the First World War. Its narrator, Jake Barnes, is a journalist whose war injury has left him unable to pursue a conventional romantic relationship with Lady Brett Ashley, a charismatic woman whose independence and restlessness affect everyone around her. Their circle travels from Paris to the Spanish countryside, where fishing trips and the festivities of Pamplona’s bullfighting season offer temporary escape from emotional uncertainty. Beneath the characters’ drinking, flirtation, and restless movement lies a profound sense of disillusionment. Hemingway captures a generation struggling to find meaning after war, exploring unfulfilled desire, damaged masculinity, and the loneliness that can persist even among friends.

United States 1926

The Castle

The Castle follows a man known as K., who arrives in a remote village claiming to have been hired as a land surveyor by the authorities of a mysterious castle. However, the villagers question his appointment, and K. soon discovers that gaining access to the institution is far more difficult than he imagined. He attempts to establish his legitimacy through conversations with officials, messengers, and residents, but every encounter produces new obstacles and contradictory explanations. The castle remains physically visible yet effectively unreachable, representing an authority that governs people’s lives without making itself accountable. Kafka explores bureaucracy, exclusion, and the human desire for recognition and belonging. The unfinished novel portrays a world where rules seem endlessly complex and acceptance is perpetually deferred, capturing the frustration of individuals attempting to find meaning within systems that resist understanding.

Czech Republic 1926

The Trial

The Trial follows Josef K., a bank employee who is unexpectedly arrested one morning without being told what crime he has committed. Although he is allowed to continue his daily life, he becomes increasingly consumed by a mysterious legal process governed by inaccessible authorities and incomprehensible rules. As he attempts to defend himself, he encounters officials, lawyers, and other individuals who offer little clarity about the accusations against him. His efforts to understand the system only deepen his sense of helplessness. Published after Kafka’s death, the novel presents a disturbing vision of a world in which individuals are trapped within institutions they cannot comprehend or challenge. Kafka explores guilt, bureaucracy, power, and alienation, revealing how uncertainty itself can become a form of oppression. Josef K.’s struggle captures the anxiety of confronting an authority that demands obedience while refusing to explain its actions.

Czech Republic 1925

The Magic Mountain

The Magic Mountain

The Magic Mountain follows Hans Castorp, a young German engineer who visits his cousin at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. Initially intending to stay for only three weeks, Hans becomes absorbed in the institution’s unusual atmosphere and eventually remains there for seven years. Removed from the routines of ordinary society, he encounters patients and intellectuals whose conversations explore competing ideas about politics, philosophy, science, love, and human progress. The sanatorium becomes a miniature version of pre-war Europe, where debates about rationalism, humanism, nationalism, and radical ideology reveal the tensions shaping the continent. Through Hans’s gradual transformation, Mann examines the relationship between time, illness, and intellectual development. The novel explores the attraction of isolation and the difficulty of understanding a society approaching catastrophe, ultimately reflecting on the cultural and moral crises that preceded the First World War.