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The ledger — Classic Novels

Classic Novels, ranked by the world's readers.

The 523 most-read classic novels titles in print, surveyed from the Google Books index and ranked by reader count. Titles the Library already binds aren't listed here — they live on their shelf.

The Catcher in the Rye Jerome David Salinger 1964 · 228pp ★ 4.0 · 198 readers

Flappers and Philosophers Francis Scott Fitzgerald 1920 · 298pp ★ 3.5 · 45 readers

Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 2013 · 204pp ★ 3.0 · 13 readers

Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1901 · 524pp ★ 4.0 · 9 readers

The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 2004 · 368pp ★ 4.5 · 8 readers

The Murder on the Links Agatha Christie 1923 · 244pp ★ 4.0 · 5 readers

On the Road Jack Kerouac 2007 · 328pp ★ 3.5 · 5 readers

Silas Marner George Eliot 1992 · 196pp ★ 3.0 · 4 readers

Something New Pelham Grenville Wodehouse 1915 · 372pp ★ 4.0 · 3 readers

The House of Souls Arthur Machen 1922 · 300pp ★ 4.0 · 3 readers

Humorous Ghost Stories Dorothy Scarborough 1921 · 470pp ★ 5.0 · 2 readers

Of Human Bondage William Somerset Maugham 1915 · 782pp ★ 5.0 · 2 readers

Black Water Joyce Carol Oates 1993 · 164pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

Alone in Berlin Hans Fallada 2010 · 674pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

Far from the madding crowd Thomas Hardy 1874 · 358pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

Journalism for Women Arnold Bennett 1898 · 130pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

David Blaize Edward Frederic Benson 1916 · 378pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

The Hill of Dreams Arthur Machen 1907 · 328pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

Larger Than Life Jodi Picoult 2014 · 79pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

Twitterature Alexander Aciman, Emmett Rensin 2009 · 231pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle Aristotle 2013 · 6020pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

The Food of the Gods and how it Came to Earth Herbert George Wells 1904 · 352pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

The Aleph and Other Stories Jorge Luis Borges 2004 · 234pp ★ 5.0 · 1 reader

Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1980 · 676pp ★ 4.0 · 1 reader

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