Classic Fiction

Some of our favorite classic stories, modern classics, and classic stories reimagined.

Updated September 11, 2025
Rochester Public Library RPL Staff
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Classic Fiction

Some of our favorite classic stories, modern classics, and classic stories reimagined.

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Things fall apart
Achebe, Chinua.
Paper Book
Literature for life
Watership Down
Adams, Richard
Paper Book
Heroic rabbits trek from their poisoned warren to a new home. Long, complex and totally absorbing.
Little women
Alcott, Louisa May
Paper Book
'I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.' The four March sisters couldn't be more different: Meg, the eldest, is dutiful and patient; Jo is adventurous, with dreams of being a great writer; shy, musical Beth is the peacemaker; and headstrong Amy likes the finer...
Persuasion
Austen, Jane
Paper Book
Of all Jane Austen's great and delightful novels, Persuasion is widely regarded as the most moving--the entrancing story of a second chance at love. Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish, spendthrift Sir Walter Elliot, is a woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. When she...
The silence of the girls
Barker, Pat
Paper Book
Shorlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Costa Novel Award Booker-winning novelist Pat Barker imagines the untold story of the women at the heart of history's greatest epic 'Magnificent... You are in the hands of a writer at the height of her...
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
Paper Book
Celebrate the 40th anniversary of this timeless classic with a special edition featuring a new foreword by the author and a message that is as relevant today as when it was first published. Since the late 1940s, Ray Bradbury has been revered for his works of science fiction and fantasy. With more...
Jane Eyre
Bront,? Charlotte
Paper Book
Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty, and at a charity school with a harsh regime. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds a position as governess at...
Don Quixote
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Paper Book
Don Quixote -- by far the most famous book in Spanish literature -- was originally intended by Cervantes as a skit on traditional popular ballads, but he also parodied the romances of chivalry. As a result he produced one of the most entertaining adventure stories of all time and created, in Don...
Robinson Crusoe
Defoe, Daniel
Paper Book
The original tale of a castaway struggling to survive on a remote desert island, and one of the first novels in English The sole survivor of a shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe is washed up on a desert island. In his journal he chronicles his daily battle to stay alive, as he conquers...
Great expectations
Dickens, Charles
Paper Book
'You are to understand, Mr. Pip, that the name of the person who is your liberal benefactor remains a profound secret...'Young Pip lives with his sister and her husband the blacksmith, with few prospects for advancement until a mysterious benefaction takes him from the Kent marshes to London. Pip is...
Crime and punishment
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Paper Book
'A truly great translation . . . This English version really is better' - A. N. Wilson, The Spectator TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014 This acclaimed new translation of Dostoyevsky's 'psychological record of a crime' gives his dark...
Invisible man
Ellison, Ralph.
Paper Book
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time * Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its...
James : a novel
Everett, Percival
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view * In development as a feature film to be...
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...
The great Gatsby
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Paper Book
A beautiful new edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby to coincide with the release of Baz Luhrmann's film. 'There was music from my neighbour's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among...
One hundred years of solitude
Garca? Mr?quez, Gabriel
Paper Book
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history...
Lord of the flies
Golding, William
Paper Book
Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among...
The scarlet letter
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Paper Book
A dramatic, moving depiction of social defiance and social deference A stark and allegorical tale of adultery, guilt, and social repression in Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letteris a foundational work of American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne's exploration of the...
Catch-22 : a novel
Heller, Joseph
Paper Book
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller's masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels...
Their eyes were watching God
Hurston, Zora Neale.
Paper Book
Their Eyes Were Watching God, a luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance, continues to inspire the next generation of students. Freshman Common Read:...
Ayesha at last
Jalaluddin, Uzma
Paper Book
Pride and Prejudice with a modern twist    AYESHA SHAMSI has a lot going on.  Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is...
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...
To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper.
Paper Book
The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape.
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,...
Moby-Dick
Melville, Herman
Paper Book
Moby-Dick is Herman Melville's great adventure of the sea and the life of the soul, featuring the timeless characters Ishmael, Ahab, and Queequeg, and presented here in a beautiful Everyman's Library hardcover edition. A giant of American literature, Melville is justly...
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,...
Beloved : a novel
Morrison, Toni.
Paper Book
Toni Morrison--author of Song of Solomon and Tar Baby--is a writer of remarkable powers: her novels, brilliantly acclaimed for their passion, their dazzling language and their lyric and emotional force, combine the unassailable truths of experience and emotion with the vision of legend...
Lolita
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
Paper Book
The most famous and controversial novel from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century tells the story of Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. * With a new introduction by Claire Messud "The conjunction of a sense of...
Hello beautiful : a novel
Napolitano, Ann
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD! From the author of Dear Edward comes a "powerfully affecting" (People) family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole? "Another tender tearjerker...
Romeo and/or Juliet : a chooseable-path adventure
North, Ryan
Paper Book
The New York Times bestseller from the author of How to Invent Everything and To Be or Not To Be Romeo loves Juliet. Or Rosaline. And Juliet loves Romeo. Or Viola. Or Orlando. It's Shakespeare as you've never played him before. In this choose...
The things they carried : a work of fiction
O'Brien, Tim
Paper Book
The catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books. "If you really...
Frankenstein : or, The modern Prometheus
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Paper Book
This series of beautifully packaged and affordably priced editions of classic works of literature from all over the world.encompasses a variety of periods, themes, and authors.
A thousand acres
Smiley, Jane.
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "powerful and poignant" twentieth-century reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear (The New York Times Book Review) that takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride--and centers on a wealthy Iowa farmer who decides to...
The grapes of wrath
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized--and sometimes outraged--millions of readers. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read A Penguin Classic First published in 1939...
Dracula
Stoker, Bram
Paper Book
War and peace
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Paper Book
From Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the best-selling, award-winning translators of Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov, comes a brilliant, engaging, and eminently readable translation of Leo Tolstoy's master epic. *  Nominated as one of America's best...
Slaughterhouse-five, or, The children's crusade : a duty-dance with death
Vonnegut, Kurt.
Paper Book
Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five is "a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century" (Time). Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time * One of The Atlantic's...
The picture of Dorian Gray
Wilde, Oscar
Paper Book
Dorian Gray pays a hefty price for years of sin and vice in this completely unabridged edition, designed with a smaller format for easy portability.
The story of Edgar Sawtelle
Wroblewski, David.
Paper Book
A riveting family saga, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle explores the deep and ancient alliance between humans and dogs, and the power of fate through one boy's epic journey into the wild. Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote...
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