QWhat are the great classics that we should all read? Everyone has an opinion on this. Searching for “classic books to read” on the internet or by asking ChatGPT a world opens up. Selecting the essentials, those to read “at least once in a lifetime” or “absolutely”, as Google suggests, is truly a difficult task. And also a little limiting. But we have to start somewhere.
Italian and world literature is full of great works that should be read at least once in a lifetime. To avoid making mistakes, we have selected 14 immortal books, in a list that is necessarily reductive but which touches on world literature, to keep in mind at all times of the year.
And then the end of summer is the right time to dive headfirst into the pages of Tolstoy or Jane Austenamong those of Calvino or Grazia Deledda. A sort of good resolution for the new season upon us.
Classic books to read, 7 fundamental works of world literature
From English to French literature, from Tolstoy’s Russia to Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s New York, a selection of great world classics perfect for the end of summer and the beginning of autumn:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Among the great classics of English literature, the love story between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy has fascinated many readers for centuries. Set in the Regency era like all the author’s other works, Jane Austen is among the most appreciated writers especially for her ironic streak in describing her contemporary society, a social criticism especially towards the situation of women. Less obvious, but equally enchanting, Persuasion published posthumously.
Trip to the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
For those looking for a setting made of moors and moors, Trip to the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf tells of the Ramsay family’s holidays on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland between 1910 and 1920. With a very particular structure, the book has very little dialogue and, through reflections and thoughts, recounts the changes and evolutions of the family. Three chapters that tell, thanks to an in-depth psychological introspection, the social changes also caused by the Great War.
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The times of are still far away Oliver Twist and of the gloomy London of the mid-nineteenth century and of the industrial revolution, The Pickwick Papersby Charles Dickensis a novel originally published in twenty monthly installments and is considered among his masterpieces. Ironic and irreverent, it tells of the journey undertaken by Samuel Pickwick together with his three friends Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass and Tracy Tupman across England. Two curious peculiarities: the book was a huge success at the time, like our best sellers, leading to the spontaneous birth of many literature clubs across the country and the diffusion of the first gadgets inspired by the characters.
The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Masterpiece by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby it is the novel that more than any other tells the story of the “lost generation” after the First World War. The euphoria, up to the loss of inhibitions, in the New York of the Roaring Twenties, between prohibitionism and jazz in the background, are among the protagonists. The novel was immediately very successful, so much so that TS Eliot defined it as “the first step forward in American literature after Henry James”.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
What many remember about this novel is one of her dresses, of a particular shade of blue, chosen by Emma Bovary to conform to bourgeois customs, a class to which she absolutely wanted to belong. In Madame Bovary French realism, in the detailed and very precise descriptions made by the author, is combined with the romantic idealism represented by Emma, the eternally dissatisfied heroine. A novel in which we can all somehow find a part of ourselves.
War and peace by Leo Tolstoy
Monumental. There is no other adjective to describe this work by Tolstoy. Among the most famous works in the world, War and peace it is ideal for those who, in autumn, want to completely immerse themselves in a world of their own. Set in the Russia of the Napoleonic Wars, it is the story of two families, the Bolkonskys and the Rostovs, and their life in the early nineteenth century.
A peculiarity: not only are there many philosophical and scientific references in the text, but some parts are written in French, the language cultured and spoken by the Russian nobility of the time.
Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
Also monumental, not so much for its length but above all for the story told and the style used, Notre Dame de Paris It is among Victor Hugo’s masterpieces. The main theme is love, both in its version of pure feeling and in the idea of possession but also the inclusion-exclusion from society of everything that is different, even considered monstrous. Hugo wrote this work to draw public attention to the cathedral: at the beginning of the 19th century, the main Parisian church was in disrepair, so much so that it risked demolition. After the release of the work, the attention towards the cathedral was maximum, so much so that redevelopment work began.
Thanks to its Disney version, The hunchback of Notre Damethe story set in 1482 is known to everyone.
Classic books to read, 7 essential works of Italian literature
Not just world literature. Often set aside, too Italian literature has many classics ready to be discovered in new editions:
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
What could happen if you decided to spend your life in a tree? This is what Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, scion of a noble Ligurian family, decides to do who, at the age of 12 after having argued with his parents, climbs a tree in the garden and will never come down again. Episode of a trilogy, The Baron in the Trees it is the exaltation of one’s individuality and personality, in an era of social homologation.
Reeds in the wind by Grazia Deledda
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926, Reeds in the Wind it is the story of change in rural Sardinia between baronies, poverty and superstitions. A fundamental aspect of the novel is the writer’s ability to have been able to highlight the psychology of the characters and natural human fragility. For this reason, despite being set on the island, it is a story in which the whole of Italy of the time can be recognised.
The pleasure by Gabriele D’Annunzio
Andrea Sperelli is the emblem of the highly cultured, highly refined and very decadent nobleman. Set in late nineteenth-century Rome, The pleasure follows the life of the nobleman with scandalous conduct, at the center of the D’Annunzio cult of the search for aesthetics, of living above the lines, denying bourgeois values, among princely villas and art objects.
The leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The most famous scene is that of the dance between the Prince of Salina, played by Burt Lancaster, and Angelica, a very young Claudia Cardinale at Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi, in the heart of Palermo. Film aside, The Leopard However, it is also to be rediscovered in a bookish way, winning the Premio Strega in 1959 and becoming one of the world’s best sellers after the Second World War.
The Name of The rose by Umberto Eco
Contemporary classic, it is impossible not to know the history of The Name of The rose, if only for the two film adaptations. Set in 1327, this historical mystery it is rich in history, philosophy and religion. Ttranslated into over 40 languageshas sold over 50 million copies in Italy alone, in 1999 inserted between 100 books of the century by Le Monde while in 2009 in the ranking of 1000 novels everyone should read compiled by The Guardian.
Zeno’s conscience by Italo Svevo
Zeno Cosini and his confessionstrictly in random order. Between Trieste, Tuscan and some German terms, Italo Svevo uses a lot of irony and a more everyday language in telling the life of the patient of the psychoanalyst Doctor S, perpetually ill and inept.
Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
Autobiographical and winner of the Premio Strega in ’63is the story of a Jewish and anti-fascist family from the 1930s to the 1950s. Focal point of the novel it is precisely the lexicon, those words that form a very personal vocabulary typical of every family: «During my childhood and adolescence I always proposed to write a book that told about the people who lived around me at the time. This is, in part, that book: but only in part, because memory is fleeting, and why books taken from reality are often nothing more than faint glimpses and fragments of what we have seen and heard» declared the writer at the time.
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