The Mysterious Affair at Styles / Agatha Christie

Title: The Mysterious Affair at Styles 

Author: Agatha Christie

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Detective; Mystery

In this novel introduced Hercule Poirot. Poirot, a Belgian refugee of the Great War, is settling in England near the home of Emily Inglethorp, who helped him to his new life. His friend Hastings arrives as a guest at her home. When the woman is killed, Poirot uses his detective skills to solve the mystery.

The Murder on the Links / Agatha Christie

Title: The Murder on the Links 

Author: Agatha Christie 

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Detective; Mystery

It is a detective fiction. The story takes place in northern France, where Renauld had been stabbed and left in a newly dug grave adjacent to a local golf course. His wife, Eloise Renauld, claims masked men broke into the villa and took her husband away with them. Monsieur Giraud of the Sûreté leads the police investigation, and Poirot's involves.

Before Adam / Jack London

Title: Before Adam 

Author: Jack London

Subjects: Fiction; History; Fantasy 

It is the story of a man who dreams he lives the life of an early hominid.The story offers an early view of human evolution. The majority of the story is told through the eyes of the man's hominid alter ego, one of the Cave People. In addition to the Cave People, there are the more advanced Fire People, and the more animal-like Tree People.

The Little Prince / Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Title: The Little Prince

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Subjects: Children; Fiction; Fantasy

It is story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe. An earlier memoir by the author had recounted his aviation experiences in the Sahara Desert, and he is thought to have drawn on those same experiences in The Little Prince. Translated into 300 languages, 140 million copies sold worldwide, it is a must read for all.

The Grand Inquisitor / Fyodor Dostoevsky

Title: The Grand Inquisitor 

Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky 

Translator: H. P. Blavatsky 

Subjects: Classic; Fiction

The following is an extract from M. Dostoevsky's celebrated novel, The Brothers Karamazov, the last publication from the pen of the great Russian novelist, who died a few months ago, just as the concluding chapters appeared in print. Dostoevsky is beginning to be recognized as one of the ablest and profoundest among Russian writers. His characters are invariably typical portraits drawn from various classes of Russian society, strikingly life-like and realistic to the highest degree. The following extract is a cutting satire on modern theology generally and the Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea is that Christ revisits earth, coming to Spain at the period of the Inquisition, and is at once arrested as a heretic by the Grand Inquisitor. One of the three brothers of the story, Ivan, a rank materialist and an atheist of the new school, is supposed to throw this conception into the form of a poem, which he describes to Alyosha—the youngest of the brothers, a young Christian mystic brought up by a "saint" in a monastery—as follows: (—Ed. Theosophist, Nov., 1881)]

The Devils / Fyodor Dostoevsky

Title: The Devils (The Possessed)  

Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky 

Translator: Constance Garnett

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Nihilism

It is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large scale tragedy. According to Ronald Hingley, it is Dostoevsky's "greatest onslaught on Nihilism", and "one of humanity's most impressive achievements." One of the great classic from Dostoevsky. Even it is not in my must read list but you can't ignore it. 

Notes from the Underground / Fyodor Dostoevsky

Title: Notes from the Underground 

Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Political

Notes is considered by many to be one of the first existentialist novels. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done? The second part of the book is called "Apropos of the Wet Snow" and describes certain events that appear to be destroying and sometimes renewing the underground man, who acts as a first person, unreliable narrator and anti-hero.

The Brothers Karamazov / Fyodor Dostoevsky

Title: The Brothers Karamazov 

Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky 

Translation: Constance Garrett

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Philosophical; Psychological 

The book has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature. It enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, judgment, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia, with a plot which revolves around the subject of patricide. Must read  for all. 

The Ambassadors / Henry James

Title: The Ambassadors 

Author: Henry James

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Psychological 

It is a masterpiece. It follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of Chad. A major theme of the novel involves Strether's position as an ambassador. The conflict between personal desire and duty is important to consider when thinking about Strether's psychology. Strether finds his intentions subtly and profoundly transformed as he falls under the spell of the city and of his charge. He is quick to perceive that Chad has been not so much corrupted as refined, gradually realizes that this discovery and acceptance of Chad's unconventional new lifestyle alter his own ideals and ambitions.

The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald

Title: The Great Gatsby 

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Subjects: Classic; Fiction

The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Roaring Twenties. The story is of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his new love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s. One of the greatest classic of American literature.

Animal Farm / George Orwell

Title: Animal Farm 

Author: George Orwell

Subjects: Classic; Fantasy; Fiction; Children 

According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. It is a satirical tale against Stalin. Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow / Washington Irving

Title: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 

Author: Washington Irving

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Short Story; Horror

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially during Halloween because of the Headless Horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle.

Anna Karenina / Leo Tolstoy

Title: Anna Karenina 

Author: Leo Tolstoy 

Translation: Constance Garnett

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Feminism 

It deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, Imperial Russian society and rural vs city life. The plot centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky. It scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg. Many authors consider Anna Karenina the greatest work of literature ever written. 

The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins

Title: The Woman in White 

Author: Wilkie Collins

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Psychological 

The Observer listed The Woman in White number 23 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time". The book is an early example of one of the first and finest detective, mystery and sensation novel. There are multiple narrators of the story. It is about unequal position of married women in law at the time. 

The Old Man and the Sea / Ernest Hemingway

Title: The Old Man and the Sea 

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Noble Prize; Pulitzer Prize

It is most famous works of Hemingway, tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba. The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953, and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.

The Willows / Algernon Blackwood

Title: The Willows

Author: Algernon Blackwood

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Horror

"The Willows" is an example of early modern horror novella. It is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. American horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. Two friends are midway on a canoe trip down the Danube River.

Through the Looking-Glass / Lewis Carroll

Title: Through the Looking-Glass 

Author: Lewis Carroll

Subjects: Classic; Children; Fiction; Fantasy 

It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror.  In it, there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards, and so on. 

Sons and Lovers / D. H. Lawrence

Title: Sons and Lovers 
Author: David Herbert Lawrence 

Introduction: John Macy

Subjects: Autobiography; Classic; Fiction

It is regarded as a masterpiece by many critics and Lawrence's finest achievement. Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.

Around the World in 80 Days / Jules Verne

Title: Around the World in 80 Days 

Author: Jules Verne

Subjects: Adventure; Classic; Fiction

In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his employe attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works. It is one of the most famous book of its own kind.   

The Turn of the Screw / Henry James

Title: The Turn of the Screw 

Author: Henry James

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Horror; Psychological

The book focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. Many critics have wondered if the "strange and sinister" were only in the governess's mind and not part of reality. Many critics have tried to determine the nature of the evil hinted at the story, others have argued that the brilliance of an intimate sense of confusion and suspense within the reader.