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Some of our favorite classic stories
Updated April 19, 2024
RPL Staff
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Watership Down
Adams, Richard
Paper Book
Watership Down is the compelling tale of a group of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world--now a Emmy Award-winning Netflix animated miniseries starring James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Oscar and Grammy award-winning Sir Ben Kingsley. A phenomenal...
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Little women
Alcott, Louisa May
Paper Book
The illustrations for this series were created by Scott McKowen, who, with his wife Christina Poddubiuk, operates Punch & Judy Inc., a company specializing in design and illustration for theater and performing arts. Their projects often involve research into the visual aspects of...
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Northanger Abbey
Austen, Jane
Paper Book
Jane Austen takes a satirical swipe at the gothic novel in this classic book bursting with sly subversive wit. 'Jane Austen is a genius, and Northanger Abbey is hugely underrated' Martin Amis Catherine Morland is a young girl with a...
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Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
Paper Book
Nearly seventy years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before. Guy Montag is a fireman....
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Wuthering Heights
Bront,︠ Emily
CD
Wuthering Heights
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Miranda and Caliban
Carey, Jacqueline
Paper Book
Miranda and Caliban is bestselling fantasy author Jacqueline Carey's gorgeous retelling ofThe Tempest. With hypnotic prose and a wild imagination, Carey explores the themes of twisted love and unchecked power that lie at the heart of Shakespeare's masterpiece, while serving up a...
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The spy who came in from the cold
Le Carr,̌ John
Paper Book
The 50th-anniversary edition of the bestselling novel that launched John le Carré's career worldwide From the New York Times bestselling author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Our Kind of Traitor; and The Night Manager. In the shadow...
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O pioneers!
Cather, Willa
Paper Book
The novel that first made Willa Cather famous--a powerfully mythic tale of the American frontier told through the life of one extraordinary woman--in a handsome hardcover volume. No other work of fiction so vividly evokes the harsh beauty and epic sweep of the Nebraska prairies...
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Don Quixote
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Paper Book
Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece, in an expanded P.S. edition Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his...
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The last of the Mohicans : the illustrated novel
Cooper, James Fenimore
Paper Book
Presented for the first time as an illustrated novel--with unabridged text--experience anew the war for control of the New World in this classic tale by James Fenimore Cooper. The wild rush of action in this classic frontier adventure novel has made The Last of the Mohicans the...
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The red badge of courage
Crane, Stephen
Paper Book
More the story of the battle that rages within one soldier than the battle between Confederate and Union soldiers, The Red Badge of Courage established Stephen Crane's place in American literature and remains his most popular work. With no idea of the horrors of war, young Henry Fleming...
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Robinson Crusoe
Defoe, Daniel
Paper Book
With Robinson Crusoe, Defoe wrote what is regarded as the first English novel, and created one of the most popular and enduring myths in literature. Written in an age of exploration and enterprise, it has been variously interpreted as an embodiment of British imperialist values, as a portrayal of...
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Great expectations
Dickens, Charles
Paper Book
With a large 7.44" x 9.69" page size, this complete and unabridged large print edition is printed on hefty bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Page headers and modern design and page layout exemplify the attention to detail given this premium...
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Crime and punishment
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Paper Book
&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RCrime and Punishment&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RFyodor Dostoevsky&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers...
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The sound and the fury : the corrected text
Faulkner, William
Paper Book
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER * One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century is the story of a family of Southern aristocrats on the brink of personal and financial ruin. * The definitive corrected text, including Faulkner's Appendix One of The Atlantic...
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Beatrice and Benedick
Fiorato, Marina.
Paper Book
Hidden in the language of Shakespeare's best-loved comedyMuch Ado About Nothingare several clues to an intriguing tale. It seems that the witty lovers Beatrice and Benedick had a previous love affair that ended bitterly. But how did they meet? Why did they part? And what brought them...
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To kill a mockingbird : a graphic novel
Fordham, Fred
Paper Book
"This gorgeously rendered graphic-novel version provides a new perspective for old fans but also acts as an immersive introduction for youngsters as well as any adult who somehow missed out on the iconic story set in Maycomb, Alabama."--USA Today A beautifully...
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A room with a view
Forster, E. M.
CD
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Love in the time of cholera
GarcÃa Márquez, Gabriel
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * "A love story of astonishing power" (Newsweek), the acclaimed modern literary classic by the beloved Nobel Prize-winning author. In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry...
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The scarlet letter
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
CD
The Scarlet Letter
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Catch-22
Heller, Joseph
CD
Catch 22
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The sun also rises
Hemingway, Ernest
Paper Book
Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway's first novel and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of...
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Demon Copperhead : a novel
Kingsolver, Barbara
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century * An Oprah's Book Club Selection * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller * A #1 Washington Post...
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Captains courageous
Kipling, Rudyard
Paper Book
A Penguin Classic First published in 1897, Captain Courageoustells of the high-seas adventures of Harvey Cheyne, the son of an American millionaire, who, after falling from a luxury ocean liner, is rescued by the raucous crew of the fishing ship We're Here. Obstinate and...
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Babbitt
Lewis, Sinclair
CD
In this sardonic portrait of the up-and-coming middle class during the prosperous 1920s, On the surface, everything is all right with Babbitt's world of the solid, successful businessman. But in reality, George F. Babbitt is a lonely, middle-aged man. He doesn't understand his family, has an...
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The call of the wild
London, Jack
Paper Book
Puffin Classics- the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child Join Puffin in celebrating 120 years since Call of the Wild first published with this very special anniversary edition. To Buck it was boundless delight, this hunting, fishing,...
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Moby Dick : or The white whale
Melville, Herman
Paper Book
Moby-Dickis at once a thrilling adventure tale, a timeless allegory, and an epic saga of heroic determination and conflict. At its heart is the powerful, unknowable sea - and Captain Ahab, a brooding, one-legged fanatic who has sworn vengeance on the mammoth which whale that crippled him....
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Circe : a novel
Miller, Madeline
Paper Book
This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, TheNew York Times). In the house of Helios,...
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Sula
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
Sula and Nel are born in the Bottom--a small town at the top of a hill. Sula is wild, and daring; she does what she wants, while Nel is well-mannered, a mamma's girl with a questioning heart. Growing up they forge a bond stronger than anything, stronger even than the dark secret they have to bear...
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Lolita
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
CD
When it was published in 1955, Lolita immediately became a cause c l bre because of the freedom and sophistication with which it handled the unusual erotic predilections of its protagonist. But Vladimir Nabokov's wise, ironic, elegant masterpiece owes its stature as one of the...
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The things they carried
O'Brien, Tim
Paper Book
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The bell jar : a novel
Plath, Sylvia.
Paper Book
One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels A beautifully designed Harper Perennial Deluxe Edition of this haunting American classic: a realistic and emotional novel about a woman battling mental illness and societal pressures written by the iconic American writer Sylvia Plath. ...
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All quiet on the western front
Remarque, Erich Maria
CD
"ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT: All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It should be ranked with Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms as an eloquent expression of the futility and irreparable loses of war. Paul...
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The plot against America
Roth, Philip.
CD
PITR L1NF Women of Hope
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Franny and Zooey
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
"Perhaps the best book by the foremost stylist of his generation" (New York Times), J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey collects two works of fiction about the Glass family originally published in The New Yorker. "Everything...
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Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Paper Book
Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear....
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A thousand acres
Smiley, Jane
CD
A successful Iowa farmer decides to divide his farm between his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. An ambitious reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear cast...
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Of mice and men
Steinbeck, John
CD
Of Mice and Men
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Dracula
Stoker, Bram
Paper Book
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England- an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman...
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Uncle Tom's cabin
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
CD
Neither before nor after the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin has a woman ever so moved America to take action against injustice as Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin brought the abolitionists' message to the public conscience. Indeed, Abraham...
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War and peace
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Paper Book
A towering achievement, War and Peace is consistently voted as one of the greatest classic novels of all time.
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The adventures of Tom Sawyer
Twain, Mark
CD
Left Behind
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Twenty thousand leagues under the sea
Verne, Jules
Paper Book
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Ethan Frome
Wharton, Edith
Paper Book
Set against the frozen waste of a harsh New England winter, Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is a tale of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual tensions, published with an introduction and notes by Elizabeth Ammons in Penguin Classics. Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a...
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The picture of Dorian Gray
Wilde, Oscar
CD
Basil Hallward, an artist, meets Dorian Gray and paints his portrait. The artist is so infatuated with Dorian's beauty that he begins to believe it is the reason for his quality of art. Dorian becomes convinced that beauty is all-important and wishes his portrait could age instead of him. But...
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Frankissstein : a love story
Winterson, Jeanette
Paper Book
Since her astonishing debut at twenty-five with Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson has achieved worldwide critical and commercial success as "one of the most daring and inventive writers of our time" (Elle). Her new novel, Frankissstein, is an audacious love...
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Native son
Wright, Richard
CD
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in...
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The story of Edgar Sawtelle
Wroblewski, David.
CD
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
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