Recommended Texts
The following works are organized according to wide categories (academic, craft, verse or prose) and by rough time periods. As you select texts, you will need to do some research to distinguish the genre for each more carefully.
Classic (verse and prose)
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Dante's Inferno Eschenbach's Parzival Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Ovid's Metamorphosis Plato's Phaedrus; and Republic Strassburg's Tristan |
|
Prose
Early to late Modern
Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther
Goethe's Faust Voltaire's Candide |
19th Century
Austen's Sense and Sensibility; and Persuasion
Flaubert's Madame Bovary Honoré de Balzac's Sarrasine; and Pere Goriot Von Kleist's The Marquise of O Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener |
Early to mid-20th Century
Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure
Joseph Heller's Catch 22 Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha; and Steppenwolf James Joyce's Dubliners; and Portrait of the Young Artist C.S.Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia Thomas Mann's Tristan; and The Magic Mountain J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit; and The Lord of the Rings Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse |
Late 20th Century
Russell Bank's The Sweet Hereafter
John Barth's The Floating Opera Saul Bellow's Seize the Day Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street Phillip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Frank Hebert's Dune Joseph Heller's Catch 22 Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley Stephen King's The Shining Toni Morrison's Beloved Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita; and Pale Fire Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar Tom Robbin's Another Roadside Attraction Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five |
Early 21st Century
Alison Bechdel's Fun Home
Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections
Neil Gaimon's American Gods; and The Ocean at the end of the Lane
Lidia Yuknavitch's The Chronology of Water: A Memoir
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club
Christopher Priest's The Prestige
John Edgar Wideman's Brothers and Keepers: A Memoir
Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections
Neil Gaimon's American Gods; and The Ocean at the end of the Lane
Lidia Yuknavitch's The Chronology of Water: A Memoir
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club
Christopher Priest's The Prestige
John Edgar Wideman's Brothers and Keepers: A Memoir
Francine Prose's Recommended Texts
Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. M. Kuwata and Tashaki Kojima (translators), Rashomon and Other Stories
Alcott, Louisa May; Little Women
Anonymous. Dorothy L. Sayers (translator), The Song of Roland
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane, Sense and Sensibility
Babel, Isaac. Walter Morrison (translator), The Collected Stories
Baldwin, James, Vintage Bald:win
Balzac, Honore de. Kathleen Raine (translator), Cousin Bette
Barthelme, Donald, Sixty Stories
Baxter, Charles, Believers: A Novella and Stories
Beckett, Samuel, The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989
Bowen, Elizabeth, The House in Paris
Bowles, Jane, Two Serious Ladies
Bowles, Paul, Paul Bowles: Collected Stories and Later Writings
Brodkey; Harold, Stories in an Almost Classical Mode
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights
Calvina, Italo, Cosmicomics
Carver, Raymond, Where I'm. Calling From: Selected Stories
Carver, Raymond, Cathedral
Cervantes, Miguel De. Tobias Smollett (translator), Don Quixote
Chandler, Raymond, The Big Sleep
Cheever, John, The Stories of John Cheever
Chekhov; Anton. Constance Garnett (translator), A Life in Letters
Chekhov; Anton. Constance Garnett (translator), Tales of Anton Chekhov: Volumes 1-13
Diaz, Junot, Drown
Dickens, Charles, Bleak House
Dickens, Charles, Dombey and Son
Dostoyevsky; Fyodor. Constance Garnett (translator), Crime and Punishment
Dybek, Stuart, I Sailed With Magellan
Eisenberg, Deborah, The Stories (So Far) of Deborah Eisenberg
Eliot, George, Middlemarch
Elkin, Stanley, Searches and Seizures
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, Tender Is the Night
Flaubert, Gustave. Geoffrey Wall (translator), Madame Bovary
Flaubert, Gustave. Robert Baldick (translator), A Sentimental Education
Fox, Paula. Jonathan Franzen (introduction), Desperate Characters
Franzen, Jonathan, The Corrections
Gallant, Mavis, Paris Stories
Gaddis, William, The Recognitions
Gates, David, The Wonders of the Invisible World: Stories
Gibbon, Edward, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Gogol, Nikolai. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (translators), Dead Souls: A Novel
Green, Henry, Doting
Green, Henry, Loving
Hartley, L. P., The Go-Between
Hemingway, Ernest, A Moveable Feast
Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun A;rso Rises
Herbert, Zbigniew. Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott (translators), Selected Poems
James, Henry, The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry, The Turn of the- Screw
Jarrell, Randall, Pictures from an Institution
Johnson, Denis, Angels
Johnson, Denis, ]esus' Son
Johnson, Diane, Le Divorce
Johnson, Diane, Persian Nights
Johnson, Samuel, The Life of Savage
Joyce, James, Dubliners
Kafka, Franz. Malcolm Pasley (translator), The judgment and In the Penal Colony and Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Kafka, Franz. Willa and Edmund Muir (translators), The Trial
Le Carre, John, A Perfect Spy
Mandelstam, Nadezdha, Hope Against Hope: A Memoir
Mansfield, Katherine, Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Gregory Rabassa (translator), One Hundred Years of Solitude
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Gregory Rabassa (translator), The Autumn of the Patriarch
Mcinerney, Jay, Bright Lights, Big City
Melville, Herman, Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno
Melville, Herman, Moby Dick
Milton, John, Paradise Lost
Munro, Alice, Selected Stories
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lectures on Russian Literature
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita
O'Brien, Tim, The Things They Carried
O'Connor, Flannery, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
O'Connor, Flannery, Collected Stories
O'Connor, Flannery, Wise Blood
Packer, ZZ, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Paustovsky; Konstantin. Joseph Barnes (translator), Years of Hope: The Story of a Life
Price, Richard, Freedomland
Proust, Marcel. Lydia Davis (translator), Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas, Gravity's Rainbow
Richardson, Samuel, Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded
Roth, Philip, American Pastoral
Roth, Philip, Philip Roth: Novels and Stories 1959-1962
Rulfo, Juan. Margaret Sayers Peden (translator), Pedro Paramo
Salinger, J. D., Franny and Zooey
Shakespeare, William, King Lear
Shteyngart, Gary; The Russian Debutante's Handbook
Sophocles. Sir George Young (translator), Oedipus Rex
Spencer, Scott, A Ship Made of Paper
St. Aubyn, Edward, Mother's Milk
St. Aubyn, Edward, Some Hope: A Trilogy
Stead, Christina, The Man Who Loved Children
Steegmuller, Frands, Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait
Stein, Gertrude, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Stendhal. Roger Gard (translator), The Red and the Black
Stout, Rex, Plot It Yourself
Strunk, William and E. B. White. Maira Kalman (illustrator), The Elements of Style, illustrated
Taylor, Peter, A Summons to Memphis
Tolstaya, Tatyana, Sleepwalker in a Fog
Tolstoy; Leo. Constance Garnett (translator), Anna Karenina
Tolstoy; Leo. Aylmer Maude (translator), The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories
Tolstoy; Leo. David McDuff (translator), The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
Tolstoy; Leo. Rosemary Edmonds (translator), Resurrection
Tolstoy; Leo. Constance Garnett (translator), War and Peace
Trevor, William, The Children of Dynmouth
Trevor, William, The Collected Stories
Trevor, William, Fools of Fortune
Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich. Isaiah Berlin (translator), First Love
Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Von Kleist, Heinrich. Martin Greenberg (translator) and Thomas Mann (preface), The Marquise of 0-and Other Stories
West, Rebecca, The Birds Fall Down
West, Rebecca, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A journey Through Yugoslavia
Williams, Joy, Escapes
Woods, James, Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief
Woolf, Virginia, On Being Ill
Yates, Richard, Revolutionary Road
Alcott, Louisa May; Little Women
Anonymous. Dorothy L. Sayers (translator), The Song of Roland
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane, Sense and Sensibility
Babel, Isaac. Walter Morrison (translator), The Collected Stories
Baldwin, James, Vintage Bald:win
Balzac, Honore de. Kathleen Raine (translator), Cousin Bette
Barthelme, Donald, Sixty Stories
Baxter, Charles, Believers: A Novella and Stories
Beckett, Samuel, The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989
Bowen, Elizabeth, The House in Paris
Bowles, Jane, Two Serious Ladies
Bowles, Paul, Paul Bowles: Collected Stories and Later Writings
Brodkey; Harold, Stories in an Almost Classical Mode
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights
Calvina, Italo, Cosmicomics
Carver, Raymond, Where I'm. Calling From: Selected Stories
Carver, Raymond, Cathedral
Cervantes, Miguel De. Tobias Smollett (translator), Don Quixote
Chandler, Raymond, The Big Sleep
Cheever, John, The Stories of John Cheever
Chekhov; Anton. Constance Garnett (translator), A Life in Letters
Chekhov; Anton. Constance Garnett (translator), Tales of Anton Chekhov: Volumes 1-13
Diaz, Junot, Drown
Dickens, Charles, Bleak House
Dickens, Charles, Dombey and Son
Dostoyevsky; Fyodor. Constance Garnett (translator), Crime and Punishment
Dybek, Stuart, I Sailed With Magellan
Eisenberg, Deborah, The Stories (So Far) of Deborah Eisenberg
Eliot, George, Middlemarch
Elkin, Stanley, Searches and Seizures
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, Tender Is the Night
Flaubert, Gustave. Geoffrey Wall (translator), Madame Bovary
Flaubert, Gustave. Robert Baldick (translator), A Sentimental Education
Fox, Paula. Jonathan Franzen (introduction), Desperate Characters
Franzen, Jonathan, The Corrections
Gallant, Mavis, Paris Stories
Gaddis, William, The Recognitions
Gates, David, The Wonders of the Invisible World: Stories
Gibbon, Edward, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Gogol, Nikolai. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (translators), Dead Souls: A Novel
Green, Henry, Doting
Green, Henry, Loving
Hartley, L. P., The Go-Between
Hemingway, Ernest, A Moveable Feast
Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun A;rso Rises
Herbert, Zbigniew. Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott (translators), Selected Poems
James, Henry, The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry, The Turn of the- Screw
Jarrell, Randall, Pictures from an Institution
Johnson, Denis, Angels
Johnson, Denis, ]esus' Son
Johnson, Diane, Le Divorce
Johnson, Diane, Persian Nights
Johnson, Samuel, The Life of Savage
Joyce, James, Dubliners
Kafka, Franz. Malcolm Pasley (translator), The judgment and In the Penal Colony and Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Kafka, Franz. Willa and Edmund Muir (translators), The Trial
Le Carre, John, A Perfect Spy
Mandelstam, Nadezdha, Hope Against Hope: A Memoir
Mansfield, Katherine, Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Gregory Rabassa (translator), One Hundred Years of Solitude
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Gregory Rabassa (translator), The Autumn of the Patriarch
Mcinerney, Jay, Bright Lights, Big City
Melville, Herman, Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno
Melville, Herman, Moby Dick
Milton, John, Paradise Lost
Munro, Alice, Selected Stories
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lectures on Russian Literature
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita
O'Brien, Tim, The Things They Carried
O'Connor, Flannery, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
O'Connor, Flannery, Collected Stories
O'Connor, Flannery, Wise Blood
Packer, ZZ, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Paustovsky; Konstantin. Joseph Barnes (translator), Years of Hope: The Story of a Life
Price, Richard, Freedomland
Proust, Marcel. Lydia Davis (translator), Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas, Gravity's Rainbow
Richardson, Samuel, Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded
Roth, Philip, American Pastoral
Roth, Philip, Philip Roth: Novels and Stories 1959-1962
Rulfo, Juan. Margaret Sayers Peden (translator), Pedro Paramo
Salinger, J. D., Franny and Zooey
Shakespeare, William, King Lear
Shteyngart, Gary; The Russian Debutante's Handbook
Sophocles. Sir George Young (translator), Oedipus Rex
Spencer, Scott, A Ship Made of Paper
St. Aubyn, Edward, Mother's Milk
St. Aubyn, Edward, Some Hope: A Trilogy
Stead, Christina, The Man Who Loved Children
Steegmuller, Frands, Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait
Stein, Gertrude, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Stendhal. Roger Gard (translator), The Red and the Black
Stout, Rex, Plot It Yourself
Strunk, William and E. B. White. Maira Kalman (illustrator), The Elements of Style, illustrated
Taylor, Peter, A Summons to Memphis
Tolstaya, Tatyana, Sleepwalker in a Fog
Tolstoy; Leo. Constance Garnett (translator), Anna Karenina
Tolstoy; Leo. Aylmer Maude (translator), The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories
Tolstoy; Leo. David McDuff (translator), The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
Tolstoy; Leo. Rosemary Edmonds (translator), Resurrection
Tolstoy; Leo. Constance Garnett (translator), War and Peace
Trevor, William, The Children of Dynmouth
Trevor, William, The Collected Stories
Trevor, William, Fools of Fortune
Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich. Isaiah Berlin (translator), First Love
Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Von Kleist, Heinrich. Martin Greenberg (translator) and Thomas Mann (preface), The Marquise of 0-and Other Stories
West, Rebecca, The Birds Fall Down
West, Rebecca, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A journey Through Yugoslavia
Williams, Joy, Escapes
Woods, James, Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief
Woolf, Virginia, On Being Ill
Yates, Richard, Revolutionary Road
Craft Works
Robert Olen Butler's From Where You Dream.
Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing.
Stephen King's On Writing.
David Mamet's On Directing.
Robert McKee's Story.
Strunk and White's Elements of Style.
Joseph WIlliams's Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace
Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing.
Stephen King's On Writing.
David Mamet's On Directing.
Robert McKee's Story.
Strunk and White's Elements of Style.
Joseph WIlliams's Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace