Best ones to buy and read in this lifetime

A timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice is a romantic novel and one of Jane Austen’s significant works. Published in 1813, the novel first came out anonymously in three volumes. Since 1938, this 19th-century story has seen at least 17 film and TV adaptations.

Pride and Prejudice depicts the life of an English middle-class family. The plot revolves around the love story of Elizabeth Bennet, a country gentleman’s young daughter, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a wealthy aristocratic landowner. However, their tale is not at all a fairy one. To be together, the young woman and man must conquer the eponymous sins of pride and prejudice.

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Nineteen Eighty-four, also published as 1984, is a dystopian fiction novel that explores the subjects of totalitarianism, freedom and propaganda. This George Orwell masterpiece is regarded as one of the most influential books of the 20th century.

Set in 1984 in a totalitarian state, Oceania, the book introduces us to a world of people ruled by an all-powerful party and brainwashed into serving a symbolic leader, Big Brother. The party rules by constant surveillance with the aid of controversial doctrines and secret police, Thought Police. The plot involves Winston Smith, the protagonist, who is still grieving over the nuclear war after World War II and subtly rebelling against the government out of a desire for morality and the truth.

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A Tale of Two Cities is a historical fiction novel published in 1859. Charles Dickens set the story against the background of the French Revolution in the late 18th century. It’s a political and romantic tale playing out in the cities of London and Paris as the violent uproar of the revolt goes on.

The plot of the story revolves around two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look alike but come from different backgrounds. Darnay is a wealthy French aristocrat who has renounced ties with his family, while Carton is a self-pitying, pessimistic English barrister. They both happen to fall in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette. The story very intricately weaves together their lives and of others over a period of 17 years against a social upheaval.

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One of the bestselling authors of all time, Agatha Christie was a popular mystery writer. Catering to the themes of crime and thriller, And Then There Were None is a classic fiction novel you must add to your reading list.

A millionaire invites ten strangers to a private island but doesn’t show up, which is where the narrative begins. The weekend guests are stuck together, and each of them has a wicked past. They are cut off from everything on the island, and then people start getting killed one by one. The novel explores each of the guests’ dark secrets.

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Lyricist and novelist Paulo Coelho wrote this 163-page novel in just two weeks. The plot of The Alchemist is centred on themes of mysticism and wisdom and is an allegory for self-discovery. Originally published in Portuguese in 1988, the book has been translated into over 70 languages and is regarded as one of the best fiction books to read.

An Andalusian shepherd boy, Santiago, goes on a search for a buried treasure at the Egyptian pyramids. His quest takes him across the Mediterranean Sea to Morocco. He then traverses the Sahara Desert before finally reaching Egypt. Along the way, he meets many people and learns lessons. But will he find the fortune at the foot of the pyramids?

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One of Dan Brown’s most popular works is The Da Vinci Code. One of the best fiction books and published in 2003, the American author reintroduced us to the fictional character Robert Langdon after presenting him in Angels & Demons. A movie based on the book was released in 2006, with Tom Hanks in the lead role.

A murder has occurred at a museum in Paris, and Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon has been asked to help in finding the culprit. He soon learns he is the prime accused in the case and decides to escape the police. While trying to get to the bottom of a murder, the professor stumbles across secret societies and riddles. But, with authorities closing in, does he have enough time to prove his innocence and uncover a closely guarded secret?

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Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye initially received a lukewarm response. However, later critics appreciated the book, especially its protagonist.

This coming-of-age novel follows Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old prep school kid, through two days in his life. Filled with confusion and delusion, he heads on a journey to discover the truth about the fraudulent adult world making the novel one of the best fiction books for teens.

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To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), a Pulitzer Prize winner, has sold over 40 million copies worldwide and has been translated into about as many languages. This book by Harper Lee is also one of the most often assigned texts in American schools.

The novel is set in a southern state of the United States during the Great Depression years. The main character is a small intelligent girl, Jean Louise Finch, who lives with her brother and their father, Atticus Finch, in the fictional town of Maycomb. Things take an ugly turn when their community starts shunning them after Jean’s lawyer-father decides to defend a black man in court. Over two years, everyone experiences a traumatising time, but in the end, there is a lesson for all.

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Known for her feminine perspective, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is an acclaimed dystopian fiction book. The novel was published in 1985, the same year it won the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language fiction. Also, it made the 1986 Booker Prize shortlist.

Fundamentalist forces have overthrown an elected government in the US in a coup and established a totalitarian and theocratic state where women have been relegated to second-class citizens. The main character of the story, Offred is fired from her job and has been separated from her husband and daughter. She is sent to a re-education centre and trained to become a handmaid. Following the training, she is assigned to a commander’s house to do chores and bear a child. Parallelly, an underground resistance is brewing against the state.

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Regarded as one of the most intense novels ever written, Wuthering Heights will have an impact on readers. Published in 1847, this is the first and only novel written by Emily Brontë.

This fascinating story of love and revenge takes place in England’s Yorkshire in the latter half of the 18th century. The plot is about Heathcliff’s love-hate relationship with Catherine Earnshaw and how his vindictive and sadistic behaviour impacts the lives of others around him.

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Known for his short stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald produced one of the best novels of all time, The Great Gatsby. Today, some even consider it as the ‘Great American Novel’.

Set in the Jazz Age of 1920s America, the gripping tale is about the tragic events of a millionaire, Jay Gatsby. His story symbolically depicts the moral decadence that has set in society and the hollowness of the American dream.

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The Cambridge Dictionary defines Catch-22 as “an impossible situation where you are prevented from doing one thing until you have done another thing that you cannot do until you have done the first thing”. The book beautifully captures this paradox. It paved the way for a new generation of American novels that depicted war with a countercultural treatment and came to be known as protest literature.

The satirical book, set in World War II, tells the tale of a US Air Force bombardier, Captain John Yossarian, stationed on a Mediterranean island. After completing multiple combat missions, he is convinced that he won’t survive if he continues. To avoid flying on the missions, he comes up with various excuses. Finally, his superiors relent, but they have one condition.

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Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was immediately successful when it was first published in 1847. Considered a classic today, the book discusses a woman’s hardships, addressing both her societal situation and natural desires. Many people think that true events from Bronte’s life served as inspiration for the Victorian fiction book.

The story begins with a 10-year-old orphan girl, Jane, who is mistreated by her aunt. Soon, she is sent off to a boarding school, but her miseries don’t end there. After spending eight years in the institution, she takes up a governess position at a manor, where she falls in love with Mr Rochester. However, it’s not all ‘happily ever after’ just yet, as more suffering is on the cards.

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Afghan-American novelist Khaled Hosseini started writing The Kite Runner after the Taliban banned kite flying in Afghanistan. The fiction book was published in 2003 and spent two years on the New York bestseller list.

Amir, the protagonist, is also the narrator of the story. Amir recalls an incident that happened 25 years ago in Kabul, Afghanistan. He looks back at how, as a 12-year-old boy, he betrayed his best friend and family’s servant, Hassan. However, years later, life gives Amir a chance to redeem himself.

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Written by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García, One Hundred Years of Solitude Márquez is a prime example of magic realism. It was first published in 1967 in Spanish as Cien Años De Soledad. The classic novel has won various accolades in Italy and France.

The novel is about the Buendia family’s seven generations, spanning 100 years in the utopian city of Macondo in South America. With the circularity of time as the central theme, the story depicts the rise and fall of the family and town.

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The epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings was initially published in three parts – namely The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1955), and The Return of the King (1955). Written by J.R.R. Tolkien, the bestselling novel has sold over 150 million copies worldwide. Peter Jackson’s famous Lord of the Rings trilogy is based on the novel.

The saga is about the coming together of several races of the fictional world, Middle-earth, to defeat the evil Sauron, who wants to reclaim the all-powerful One Ring. The fellowship, formed from drawing free people of different races, has the ring, and they are on a mission to destroy it. However, Sauron and his Black Riders stand in their way.

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Can you imagine a society where houses with books are burnt to the ground? Ray Bradbury depicts such a dystopian world in his novel Fahrenheit 451. The writer’s advocacy against censorship and protection of intellectual freedom has made the fiction book extremely popular. Bradbury was awarded the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for his contributions to American literature in 1954.

The protagonist in the novel, Guy Montag, is a fireman whose job is to burn down houses where books have been found. The story explores Montag’s chance encounter with Clarisse, a teenage girl, his relationship with his wife, Mildred, and the moral dilemma he faces after meeting a retired professor.

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Gone with the Wind, is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and is regarded as one of the best historical fiction books. Margaret Mitchell, the author of the novel, tells the story of the American Civil War from the perspective of the Confederacy — the group of 11 states that seceded from the US between 1860-61.

It follows the life of Scarlett O’Hara, a headstrong lady from the southern state of Georgia, who manages to establish a successful business while enduring the hardships of failed relationships and the Civil War.

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Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Beloved explores the repercussions of slavery and the grief of losing a child. Toni Morrison’s fiction novel is inspired by true events and explores the trauma of a black woman.

The protagonist of this story is an African-American slave woman, Sethe, who is living a new life in Ohio after escaping from a plantation in Kentucky. Although she is a free woman in the narrative, the memories of her slavery days continue to torment her. To make matters worse, an eerie woman with no past has started living in Sethe’s house.

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Considered to be one of the greatest works of literature, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is a tragic love story. This novel was initially released in instalments between 1875-77.

Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin, a high-ranking Russian government official and turns to a young bachelor, Count Vronsky. But her affair with Vronsky only leads to tragic consequences.

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