Today's topic is What are the top 10 best classic novels of all time? In a poll of 100,000 readers across five continents in Europe, Asia, the United States, Australia, and Africa organized by the "New York Times" and "Reader's Digest" in the United States, the best classic novels of all time were selected.
These top 10 classic books are the most influential masters of world literature from Britain, France, Russia, and the United States.
In the past two decades, many classic works have emerged, which affect our thinking and even our lives.
This time, the editor will recommend you a list of classic books everyone should read that have appeared in the past two decades, and see which books have played an important role in the development of novels.
Top 10 Best Classic Books of All Time
Words carry too many stories, so classic novels have become unchanging things through the ages. Classic novels are composed of words.
According to different forms of writing, the subject matter of novels is also diverse. Some novels will be adapted into movies or It is TV series, which is the success of the novel.
For the best classic novels to read, it is not only as simple as the adaptation but has formed a literary meaning in it, which has a good historical significance.
Literature The meaning is very important, and classic novels to read before you die may appear to cater to the meaning of the times. The editor of this article will introduce you top 10 must-read books of all time.
I recommend the top 10 classic novels of all time that should not be missed, yes, just not to be missed! Because it's really beautiful!
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- 15 Modern Books That Will Become Classics
- 25 Classic Books Everyone Should Read in Their Lifetime
- 20 Classic Books That Are Actually Good
- 15 Best Classic Books that College Students Should Read
- Top 10 best-selling classic books you must read
1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
In 1812, Russia and France fought again. Andrei Paulkansky was seriously injured in the battle. However, the Russian army was retreating steadily and saw that Moscow would fall into the hands of the enemy.
Rostov changed the carriage that was originally used to carry family properties to carry the wounded soldiers so that Natasha could find Andrei Paulkansky who was about to die among the wounded soldiers.
She apologized to him and looked after him enthusiastically, but everything was in vain, and Andrei Paulkansky still could not escape the god of death and passed away.
Disguised as a farmer, Bill wanted to wait for an opportunity to assassinate Napoleon but was arrested by the French and became a prisoner. His wife, Ellen, continued her debauchery amidst the flames of war and eventually died of taking abortion pills by mistake.
After several battles, Russia finally won the victory. Piel met Natasha in Moscow and became a couple. Andrei Paulkansky's sister Maria also married Natasha's brother Nikola. Detailed: Book Review of War and Peace
About the Author
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) was the greatest Russian writer at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He is also one of the most outstanding writers in the history of world literature.
His literary works occupy world literature. Important position. Representative works include the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" and "Resurrection".
There are other works such as "Morning of a Landlord", "Cossack", "Sevastopol Tales" and so on. He also created a lot of fairy tales. With his life's hard work, he reached the peak of European critical realism literature at that time.
He also worked hard to create "the first-rate works in world literature" with his powerful brushstrokes and excellent artistic skills, so he was praised by Lenin as a "genius artist" with "the soberest realism".
2. Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
The ugly and deaf Quasimodo was adopted by the priest of Notre Dame de Paris as a bell striker. Since the appearance of the decent Father Croud was met by the beautiful Gypsy girl La Esmeralda, he was fascinated by her beauty. Enticed and fascinated, he instructed Quasimodo to forcibly take Esmeralda away.
On the way, he was rescued by the captain of the Forbes cavalry, and Esmeralda fell in love with Forbes. But Forbes was born with a romantic nature. He was assassinated by the grudge Krode, but he did not die. He put the blame on Esmeralda so that she was sentenced to death.
During the execution, Quasimodo rescued Esmeralda. Walking and hiding in Notre Dame, the crowds of beggars rushed into the church to save Esmeralda and fought with Quasimodo by mistake.
Esmeralda was strangled on the square by the army led by Kröder, Cassie Modo angrily threw Kroger down from the top floor of the church and then stroked Esmeralda's body to death. Detailed: Book Review of Notre Dame de Paris
Create the background
"Notre Dame de Paris" is the first large-scale romantic novel by French writer Victor Hugo. It uses bizarre and contrasting techniques to write a story that happened in 15th century France: Claude, the deputy bishop of Notre-Dame de Paris, is polite and feminine, loves first and hates later, and persecutes the gypsy girl Esmeralda. The ugly, kind-hearted bell-ringer Quasimodo sacrificed his life for the rescued girl.
The novel exposes the hypocrisy of religion, declares the bankruptcy of asceticism, praises the kindness, friendship, and self-sacrifice of the working people of the lower classes, and reflects Hugo's humanitarianism.
About the Author
Victor Hugo was the leader of the Romantic Movement in France and one of the greatest writers in the history of French literature. His life spans almost the entire 19th century, his literary career spans 60 years, and his creative power is enduring. His romantic novels are wonderful and moving, powerful and powerful, and have a permanent charm for readers.
Hugo was born in 1802 in the city of Ouchampson in the south of France. His grandfather was a carpenter, and his father was an officer in the army of the Republic. He was once awarded the rank of general by Napoleon's elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte of Spain, and was a close minister of the king. In 1885, Hugo died.
3. My Childhood by Maxim Gorky
He talked about the years that the young hero Gorky (Alyosha) spent in his grandfather's house with his mother after his father died. In the meantime, he was loved and cared for by his grandmother, and he was influenced by the beautiful fairy tales told by his grandmother.
At the same time, he witnessed the selfishness and greed of the two uncles fighting over the family property as well as the trivial affairs of life. Gorky (Alyosha) spent his childhood in this "suffocating, terrifying small world".
About the Author
Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was the founder of Soviet proletarian literature and an outstanding representative of world socialist literature.
Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod (now Gorky City) on the Volga River on March 28, 1868. His father was a joiner. He lost his father at the age of 4 and stayed with his mother at his grandfather's house. When he was 10 years old, his grandfather was bankrupt due to a fire. He was thrown into the "world" and started a life of wandering for a living.
He arrived in Kazan at the age of 16, and originally wanted to go to university. As a result, the slums and docks in Kazan became his "social university". There, he got in touch with revolutionary groups of progressive youth, and read works such as the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. In 1899, Gorky completed the first novel "Formagordeev". In 1901, Gol Gene participated in a demonstration in Petersburg and was arrested.
The famous prose poem "Song of Haiyan" was written after he participated in this demonstration. With this heroic revolutionary essay, he greeted the revolutionary storm of the proletariat in the 20th century.
In the same year, he wrote the first script "Little Citizen", whose outstanding achievement was to shape the image of the first revolutionary proletarian (revolutionary worker Neil) in the history of world literature.
In 1902, he wrote the script "At the Bottom", which is a summary of the author's 20 years of observing the lives of homeless people and a representative work of Gorky's drama. In the years when the revolutionary situation was soaring in 1905, Gorky participated in the revolutionary movement as a fighter, and his house became one of the strongholds of the 1905 Moscow armed uprising.
He wrote his life in the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "In the World" and "My University". In 1892, he published his debut work "Makarchudra", and since then he has been on the altar.
The "Song of Haiyan" was published in 1901, marking the new development of Gorky's creation. The main works include "Mother", "Little Citizen" and "The Last Generation". "Mother" is his best work.
In 1934 Gorky presided over the first Congress of Soviet writers and was elected chairman. He died on June 18, 1936.
4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
A man who loved to the extreme made crazy behavior. He kills with "love", but also commits suicide with love. After Catherine's life and death, he lived in pain. When Catherine was dead, he used words to stab her.
However, Heathcliff suffered two injuries, his own and Catherine's. I admire the man who is so affectionate. Although he was a bit perverted and cruel, he couldn't hate him. Full of sympathy for him. Even very moved by his crazy love. Relatively speaking, Catherine is too selfish. She loves Heathcliff and married the wealthy Linton.
It can be said that a large part of the tragedies of Wuthering Heights and Thrush Grange was caused by her own hands. Heathcliff is crazy. But very charming. Of course, he is also a good husband. It's just a bit stupid. Catherine: She is bad, she is selfish, but her obsession with love makes her exude the mixed charm of good women and bad women. Detailed: Book Review of Wuthering Heights
About the Author
Emily Bronte (1818~1848), a 19th-century British novelist and poet, was one of the famous "Bronte Three Sisters" in the history of English literature. The female writer spent only thirty years in the world before leaving the world in obscurity.
However, her only novel, Wuthering Heights, established her position in the history of English literature and the history of world literature. In addition, she has written 193 poems and is considered a genius female writer in Britain.
5. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
"David Copperfield" through the protagonist David's life's joys and sorrows, reveals the true face of society at multiple levels and highlights the corrosive effect of money on marriage, family, and society. The formation of the series of tragedies in the novel is all caused by money.
Modesto lied to marry David's mother to covet her property; Emily's elopement was the temptation to withstand the temptation of money; the pain of the Wickfields and the despair of Haimu were all caused by money. The despicable man Shipp also fell into the next step under the temptation of money and ended up shamelessly in life imprisonment.
Dickens started from humanitarianism and exposed the evil of money, thus unveiling the beautiful curtain of "Victoria's Flourishing Age" and revealing the hidden social truth behind it. Detailed: Book Review of David Copperfield
About the Author
Charles Dickens was a 19th-century British critical realist novelist. Dickens paid special attention to describing the life experience of "little people" living at the bottom of British society, which deeply reflected the complicated social reality of British society at that time, and made outstanding contributions to the development and development of British critical realism literature.
His works are still popular today and have had a profound impact on the development of English literature. The main works are "Pickwick Gaiden", "Orphan in the Fog", "Old Antique Shop", "Tough Times", and "Our Common Friend".
6. The Red and the Black by Stendhal
"Red and Black" is a monument of French and European literature from the 19th century. The novel revolves around the protagonist Julian’s personal struggle and two love experiences, revealing the turbulent class struggles during the restoration dynasty, reflecting the political darkness, church corruption, aristocratic reactionary, and bourgeois interest in the vast life of life. Both of Julien's love motives are based on love possession as the starting point and ultimately achieving his own political goals.
This literary image of Julien, on the one hand, described the panic of the nobility and the middle and small bourgeoisie under the impact of the wave of the people’s revolution on the eve of the July Revolution in France; on the other hand, it also shaped a personal careerist who appeared in the drastic social changes.
The artistic image beautifies the view of life and happiness of the bourgeoisie. The structure of the novel is rigorous and well-proportioned, the language is concise and fluent, and the character image and character are closely connected with the environment.
It is good at revealing the characters’ inner conflicts and momentary changes in thoughts and feelings, so as to highlight the personality characteristics of people. This is the biggest artistic feature of this book. Detailed: Book Review of The Red and the Black
About the Author
Stendhal (1783-1842) was an outstanding French author of critical realism in the nineteenth century. His life is not long, less than sixty years, and he started very late in literature, only beginning to publish works in his thirties.
However, he has left a huge spiritual heritage to mankind, including several long articles, dozens of short articles or stories, millions of words of literary theory, essays and prose, and travel notes.
He is known for his accurate character psychoanalysis and concise brushwork. He is considered to be one of the most important and earliest practitioners of realism. The most famous works are "Red and Black" (1830) and "Bama Monastery" (1839).
7. Les Misérables: A Novel by Victor Hugo
In the book "Les Miserables", Hugo demonstrates the cruel reality of capitalist society enslaving the working people and forcing the good into prostitution with outstanding artistic charm. Hugo’s handed-down work has created a long history that reflects modern French social and political life.
The whole book spans nearly half a century. The combination of personal destiny and historical themes, majestic and magnificent, fully reflects Hugo's narrative talents. In terms of richness, depth, and complexity in content, it undoubtedly ranks first among Hugo's numerous works. Detailed: Book Review of Les Misérables
About the Author
Victor Hugo (Victor Hugo, 1802.2.26-1885.5.22), was a French romanticist writer, representative of humanitarianism, a representative writer of the active romanticism literary movement in the early 19th century, an outstanding bourgeois-democratic writer in French literary history, It is called "French Shakespeare".
8. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
"Anna Karenina" is the representative work of the famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. Through the two clues of the heroine Anna’s pursuit of love tragedy, and Levin’s reform and exploration in the face of the crisis in the countryside, this book depicts the vast and colorful landscape of Russia from Moscow to the countryside in other provinces and has described more than 150. Character is social encyclopedia-like work.
The aristocratic woman Anna pursued love and happiness but faced Karenin's hypocrisy, Volensky's indifference, and selfishness, she was beaten to death, and she eventually committed suicide on the rails and ended up in a corpse station.
The owner of the manor, Lewin, opposed the private ownership of land, resisted the capitalist system, and sympathized with the poor peasants, but could not get rid of aristocratic habits and fell into an inextricable contradiction.
Contradictory periods, contradictory systems, contradictory characters, and contradictory psychology make the whole book tossed into a vortex of contradictions. This novel is a portrayal of the nervous and fearful Russian society in the transitional period between the old and the new. Detailed: Book Review of Anna Karenina
About the Author
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, a Russian critical realist writer, writer, and thinker in the mid-nineteenth century, his main works include the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", and "Resurrection", also created a lot of fairy tales. His works profoundly show the dramatic social changes in Russia.
Leo Tolstoy is one of the pinnacle writers of realism. His literary tradition is not only critically inherited and developed by Soviet writers such as Gorky but also has a huge influence on world literature. In literary creation and social activities, he proposed "Tolstoyism", which had a profound influence on many political movements.
9. Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland
"Jean-Christophe" is a novel that reflects a series of contradictions and conflicts in real society through the protagonist's life experience and promotes humanitarianism and heroism.
The novel describes the protagonist's life of struggle, from the awakening of his childhood musical talent to the contempt and resistance of the powerful in his youth to the pursuit and success of his career as an adult, and finally reaching the lofty state of spiritual tranquility.
The same is to write heroes, but also to make people inspiring (although the author may not have this original intention or be misunderstood). "Jean-Christophe" "How the Steel is Made", and "Gadfly", etc., are worlds apart. If I want to give a reason, I can only feel this. The feeling after reading is the ignorance of the first lover. No explanation or emphasis is needed.
Different audiences have different perceptions of the story. Ten years ago, it was also such a midsummer. I hid in a small room and read "Jean-Christophe", and I was strongly controlled by Romain Roland. Following his pen tip, it drifts like a movie lens, and follows his protagonist in different places, fighting against different people and different social environments.
The author uses his characters to express and expound his specific and calm thinking state and uses this to manipulate readers' feelings. But I can only, in the dull atmosphere created by the author that people have to accept, feel the hidden surging and passion sorrowfully, and also feel the shadows of my own on the protagonist. Either grief, impulse, pity, or cuteness.
Ten years later, when I wrote this short book review, I deeply realized what Kant said: There are two things in the world that can deeply shake people's hearts: one is the brilliant starry sky above our heads. The other is the lofty moral code in our hearts. Detailed: Book Review of Jean-Christophe
About the Author
Romain Roland (1868—1944) was born in 1866 and entered the École Normale Supérieure in Paris at the age of twenty. After graduating from this prestigious highest school, he went on to further his studies, completed his doctoral dissertation, worked as a middle school teacher, and was finally able to enter the École Normale School and the University of Paris to teach art history.
Although this period of the academic road was quite long and it was not easy to walk down, he started literary creation at the same time very early. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 by introducing "Jean-Christophe".
10. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
"Gone with the Wind," tells a love story set in the American Civil War. Scarlett O'Hara, the protagonist of the novel, is the daughter of a wealthy and well-established plantation owner in Georgia, USA. Father Gerald is an Irish immigrant. When he first arrived in Georgia, Gerald was penniless and won the ownership of Tarot Manor by gambling.
So he started his business in this red land, weaving his American dream. It was not until the age of 43 that he married Ellen, who was 15 years old, the daughter of French immigrants from the East Coast. Gerald is kind-hearted but short-tempered, and the young wife has a good family education and strict moral values.
She personally manages the daily affairs of the entire manor and even treats the black slaves in the manor and delivers babies. Therefore, the couple was respected by the surrounding white manor owners and loved by black slaves. Daughter Scarlett O'Hara grew up slowly in this environment. Detailed: Book Review of Gone with the Wind
About the Author
Margaret Mitchell, a famous modern American female writer, has a doctorate in literature and worked as a reporter for the "Atlanta News". In 1937 she won the Pulitzer Prize. In 1939, he won the New York Southern Association Gold Medal.
In 1949, she, unfortunately, died in a car accident. Her short life did not leave too many works, but only one "Gone with the Wind" is enough to establish her unshakable position in the history of world literature.
