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Canon Compass
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English

Explore 303 works originally written in English, led by Ulysses by James Joyce.

Entry Point

Start with Ulysses by James Joyce, ranked #1 in the Canon Compass list.

#1
Cover of Ulysses

Ulysses

by James Joyce

4.2 out of 5 stars(4K)

James Joyce's Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through Dublin on June 16, 1904. Summary, analysis, and where to buy this modernist masterpiece.

Modern Mind
Epics
#3
Cover of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

4.4 out of 5 stars(19K)

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan in Jazz Age New York. Summary, themes, and where to buy.

American Spirit
Love & Loss
#4
Cover of The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

4.4 out of 5 stars(46.3K)

The Catcher in the Rye summary & analysis: Holden Caulfield's journey through NYC. J.D. Salinger's classic on alienation, Phoebe, and phoniness explained.

American Spirit
#6
Cover of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

by George Orwell

4.6 out of 5 stars(122.8K)

George Orwell's 1984: Winston Smith rebels against Big Brother in this dystopian classic. Newspeak, Room 101, and totalitarianism - summary and where to buy.

Speculative Futures
#7
Cover of Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick

by Herman Melville

4.3 out of 5 stars(15K)

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: Captain Ahab and Ishmael hunt the white whale aboard the Pequod. American literature classic - summary, themes, and where to buy.

Epics
#8
Cover of The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury

by William Faulkner

4.2 out of 5 stars(2.7K)

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: The Compson family's tragic decline told through Benjy, Quentin, and Jason. Summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
#12
Cover of Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

4.6 out of 5 stars(47.6K)

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy's legendary romance. Regency-era wit and social satire - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Society & Satire
Love & Loss
#13
Cover of Lolita

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

4.3 out of 5 stars(14K)

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita: Humbert Humbert's disturbing confession about Dolores Haze. A controversial masterpiece - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
American Spirit
#15
Cover of Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Brontë

4.7 out of 5 stars(878)

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff and Catherine's destructive love on the Yorkshire moors. Gothic romance classic - summary and where to buy.

Gothic & Dark
Love & Loss
#16
Cover of The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

by J. R. R. Tolkien

4.8 out of 5 stars(24.1K)

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and the Fellowship journey to destroy the One Ring. Fantasy epic - summary, characters, and where to buy.

Epics
#17
Cover of To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

4.7 out of 5 stars(145.9K)

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: Scout, Atticus Finch, and Boo Radley in 1930s Alabama. Classic on justice and racism - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

American Spirit
#23
Cover of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain

4.5 out of 5 stars(12.5K)

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn: Huck and Jim raft down the Mississippi River. American literature classic on freedom and morality - summary and where to buy.

American Spirit
#25
Cover of The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

4.6 out of 5 stars(24K)

Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: The Joad family's journey from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl. Pulitzer winner - summary and where to buy.

American Spirit
#28
Cover of To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse

by Virginia Woolf

4.4 out of 5 stars(929)

Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse: The Ramsay family and Lily Briscoe on the Isle of Skye. Modernist classic - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
#29
Cover of Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Brontë

4.6 out of 5 stars(5.3K)

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre: Jane and Mr. Rochester at Thornfield Hall. Gothic romance and female independence - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Gothic & Dark
Love & Loss
#30
Cover of Middlemarch

Middlemarch

by George Eliot

4.4 out of 5 stars(8.5K)

George Eliot's Middlemarch: Dorothea Brooke and Dr. Lydgate in Victorian England. Study of provincial life - summary, characters, and where to buy.

Society & Satire
#31
Cover of Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

4.1 out of 5 stars(9.2K)

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: Marlow's journey up the Congo to find Kurtz. Colonialism and the human soul - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
#32
Cover of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll

4.6 out of 5 stars(6.2K)

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland: Alice meets the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and Queen of Hearts. Classic fantasy - summary, characters, and where to buy.

Society & Satire
#33
Cover of Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway

by Virginia Woolf

4.1 out of 5 stars(5.6K)

Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway: Clarissa's day in London and Septimus's trauma. Modernist classic - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Modern Mind
#35
Cover of Catch-22

Catch-22

by Joseph Heller

4.4 out of 5 stars(14.7K)

Joseph Heller's Catch-22: Yossarian fights absurd military bureaucracy in WWII. The novel that defined paradoxical logic - summary, analysis, and where to buy.

Society & Satire
Modern Mind
#36
Cover of Invisible Man

Invisible Man

by Ralph Ellison

4.5 out of 5 stars(8.7K)

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: a Black man's search for identity in a nation that refuses to see him. Summary, analysis, and where to buy.

American Spirit
#39
Cover of Great Expectations

Great Expectations

by Charles Dickens

4.6 out of 5 stars(1.9K)

Dickens's Great Expectations: orphan Pip's rise from the marshes to London high society. A timeless novel of ambition, class, and moral growth.

Society & Satire
Love & Loss
#41
Cover of Frankenstein

Frankenstein

by Mary Shelley

4.7 out of 5 stars(2.1K)

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Victor creates life and unleashes tragedy. The novel that launched science fiction and asks what we owe our creations.

Gothic & Dark
Speculative Futures
#42
Cover of On the Road

On the Road

by Jack Kerouac

4.2 out of 5 stars(11.9K)

Kerouac's On the Road: Sal and Dean's cross-country journeys that defined the Beat Generation. Freedom, jazz, and the open American highway.

American Spirit

Complete English Index

  1. #1Ulysses
  2. #3The Great Gatsby
  3. #4The Catcher in the Rye
  4. #6Nineteen Eighty-Four
  5. #7Moby-Dick
  6. #8The Sound and the Fury
  7. #12Pride and Prejudice
  8. #13Lolita
  9. #15Wuthering Heights
  10. #16The Lord of the Rings
  11. #17To Kill a Mockingbird
  12. #23Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  13. #25The Grapes of Wrath
  14. #28To the Lighthouse
  15. #29Jane Eyre
  16. #30Middlemarch
  17. #31Heart of Darkness
  18. #32Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
  19. #33Mrs. Dalloway
  20. #35Catch-22
  21. #36Invisible Man
  22. #39Great Expectations
  23. #41Frankenstein
  24. #42On the Road
  25. #44Absalom, Absalom!
  26. #48David Copperfield
  27. #49Brave New World
  28. #50Lord of the Flies
  29. #51The Old Man and the Sea
  30. #52Beloved
  31. #53Gone with the Wind
  32. #54Animal Farm
  33. #55The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
  34. #57Under the Volcano
  35. #58Dracula
  36. #60The Sun Also Rises
  37. #61The Golden Notebook
  38. #62Things Fall Apart
  39. #63Gulliver's Travels
  40. #64Rebecca
  41. #66Leaves of Grass
  42. #68Midnight's Children
  43. #69Robinson Crusoe
  44. #70Hamlet
  45. #71The Scarlet Letter
  46. #72Their Eyes Were Watching God
  47. #73A Farewell to Arms
  48. #76A Passage to India
  49. #78The Portrait of a Lady
  50. #80Pale Fire
  51. #81Slaughterhouse-Five
  52. #82As I Lay Dying
  53. #84A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  54. #86The Good Soldier
  55. #88The Picture of Dorian Gray
  56. #90Little Women
  57. #94Emma
  58. #96The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
  59. #97The Age of Innocence
  60. #98For Whom the Bell Tolls
  61. #99Orlando
  62. #101Native Son
  63. #102Dune
  64. #105Walden
  65. #106The Waste Land
  66. #109Charlotte's Web
  67. #111The Bell Jar
  68. #112In Cold Blood
  69. #113Treasure Island
  70. #114Vanity Fair
  71. #115The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
  72. #116The Big Sleep
  73. #117Tess of the d'Urbervilles
  74. #124Tom Jones
  75. #127Paradise Lost
  76. #128First Folio
  77. #129Lord Jim
  78. #132The Woman in White
  79. #133King Lear
  80. #136The Maltese Falcon
  81. #137The Wind in the Willows
  82. #142All the King's Men
  83. #144Sons and Lovers
  84. #145Brideshead Revisited
  85. #146One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  86. #147A Clockwork Orange
  87. #148Poems of Emily Dickinson
  88. #149Bleak House
  89. #151The Handmaid's Tale
  90. #152Fahrenheit 451
  91. #153The Hobbit
  92. #155Macbeth
  93. #156The Long Goodbye
  94. #157Silent Spring
  95. #158The Talented Mr. Ripley
  96. #159The Hound of the Baskervilles
  97. #160Winnie the Pooh
  98. #161Tender Is the Night
  99. #164The Color Purple
  100. #166Wide Sargasso Sea
  101. #169Of Mice and Men
  102. #170My Antonia
  103. #171On the Origin of Species
  104. #174The Jungle
  105. #175Uncle Tom's Cabin
  106. #177A Room of One's Own
  107. #178Rabbit, Run
  108. #180The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  109. #181Light in August
  110. #182An American Tragedy
  111. #183The Moviegoer
  112. #184Giovanni's Room
  113. #185Lady Chatterley's Lover
  114. #186U.S.A. Trilogy
  115. #187The Power and the Glory
  116. #188A Tale of Two Cities
  117. #189And Then There Were None
  118. #191The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  119. #192A Confederacy of Dunces
  120. #193The Complete Sherlock Holmes
  121. #196The End of the Affair
  122. #199A Good Man Is Hard to Find
  123. #201The Tempest
  124. #203East of Eden
  125. #205The Turn of the Screw
  126. #207Howards End
  127. #208Brighton Rock
  128. #211The Haunting of Hill House
  129. #214Blood Meridian
  130. #217The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  131. #218The Call of the Wild
  132. #219The Chronicles of Narnia
  133. #220The Alexandria Quartet
  134. #224The Corrections
  135. #225Persuasion
  136. #226The House of Mirth
  137. #227The Godfather
  138. #228The Remains of the Day
  139. #229Tropic of Cancer
  140. #230A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
  141. #231The Forsyte Saga
  142. #232Kim
  143. #233Women in Love
  144. #234The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
  145. #238White Teeth
  146. #239The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
  147. #240The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
  148. #241Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
  149. #242The Ambassadors
  150. #243A Christmas Carol
  151. #245Look Homeward, Angel
  152. #246Atonement
  153. #247Babbitt
  154. #248Portnoy's Complaint
  155. #249Naked Lunch
  156. #252Finnegans Wake
  157. #253Cry, the Beloved Country
  158. #255Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
  159. #256Anne of Green Gables
  160. #257The Awakening
  161. #260The Pickwick Papers
  162. #261Watership Down
  163. #262A House for Mr. Biswas
  164. #263Gravity's Rainbow
  165. #264The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
  166. #265Wings of the Dove
  167. #268The Good Earth
  168. #270A Room With a View
  169. #273The Once and Future King
  170. #274Disgrace
  171. #277A Wrinkle In Time
  172. #278The Stand
  173. #280Of Human Bondage
  174. #281The Adventures of Augie March
  175. #283Nostromo
  176. #287The Waves
  177. #288Ivanhoe
  178. #289The Double Helix
  179. #290Never Let Me Go
  180. #292The Life of Samuel Johnson
  181. #293The Time Machine
  182. #296The Autobiography of Malcolm X
  183. #298Nightwood
  184. #299Tarzan of the Apes
  185. #300Winesburg, Ohio
  186. #303Peter and Wendy
  187. #307The Poems of Robert Frost
  188. #308A Wizard of Earthsea
  189. #309The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
  190. #310The Secret History
  191. #311Where the Wild Things Are
  192. #318Bonfire of the Vanities
  193. #319The Road
  194. #320The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
  195. #321Herzog
  196. #324Romeo and Juliet
  197. #326Jude the Obscure
  198. #327The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  199. #329Sister Carrie
  200. #330Leviathan
  201. #331Song of Solomon
  202. #333The Castle of Otranto
  203. #336The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
  204. #337A Dance to the Music of Time
  205. #338Moll Flanders
  206. #339The Day of the Locust
  207. #340Clarissa
  208. #341The Sonnets
  209. #345The Mayor of Casterbridge
  210. #346Ada or Ardor
  211. #348Foundation
  212. #349Infinite Jest
  213. #351Dubliners
  214. #352The Bluest Eye
  215. #353Stranger in a Strange Land
  216. #354The Year of Magical Thinking
  217. #357The Thirty-Nine Steps
  218. #360The War of the Worlds
  219. #361Melmoth the Wanderer
  220. #362The Adventures of Oliver Twist
  221. #363The Second World War
  222. #364The Education of Henry Adams
  223. #367The Vicar of Wakefield
  224. #373At Swim Two-Birds
  225. #374The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  226. #375The Old Wives' Tale
  227. #376Death Comes for the Archbishop
  228. #377The Moonstone
  229. #380The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
  230. #381White Noise
  231. #382The Shining
  232. #384His Dark Materials
  233. #386Housekeeping
  234. #387Lucky Jim
  235. #389American Pastoral
  236. #391The Federalist Papers
  237. #394Wise Blood
  238. #395The World According to Garp
  239. #396Parade's End
  240. #400The Day of the Jackal
  241. #401Out of Africa
  242. #402The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
  243. #403The Daughter of Time
  244. #405The God of Small Things
  245. #406The Human Stain
  246. #407Murder on the Orient Express
  247. #409The Razor's Edge
  248. #412Death of a Salesman
  249. #413The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
  250. #415The Naked and the Dead
  251. #419A Visit from the Goon Squad
  252. #421The Origins of Totalitarianism
  253. #422The Fountainhead
  254. #423The Crying of Lot 49
  255. #424Underworld
  256. #425The Man Who Was Thursday
  257. #426Wolf Hall
  258. #428Middlesex
  259. #430Homage to Catalonia
  260. #432The Left Hand of Darkness
  261. #433The Magus
  262. #434The Way of All Flesh
  263. #435Hiroshima
  264. #436I, Claudius
  265. #438V
  266. #439Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
  267. #440Go Tell It on the Mountain
  268. #441The Hollow Man
  269. #443The Mill on the Floss
  270. #444The Island of Doctor Moreau
  271. #445Bartleby the Scrivener
  272. #447Play It As It Lays
  273. #448Collected Poems
  274. #449Cloud Atlas
  275. #450Americanah
  276. #451The Postman Always Rings Twice
  277. #452The Secret Agent
  278. #453A Death in the Family
  279. #454The Man Who Loved Children
  280. #455The Prophet
  281. #459Sense and Sensibility
  282. #460Atlas Shrugged
  283. #462Cold Comfort Farm
  284. #463Four Quartets
  285. #466The Golden Bowl
  286. #468The Civil War
  287. #469Our Mutual Friend
  288. #471Adam Bede
  289. #473Ethan Frome
  290. #474Scoop
  291. #476The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
  292. #477Passing
  293. #479North and South
  294. #480Casino Royale
  295. #482Murder Must Advertise
  296. #485Everything That Rises Must Converge
  297. #488Pamela
  298. #490Gilead
  299. #492The Affluent Society
  300. #493The Last of the Mohicans
  301. #495Black Beauty
  302. #496Sanctuary
  303. #497The Sea, The Sea