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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Little women
Alcott, Louisa May
Ebook
Based loosely on Louisa May Alcott's own upbringing, Little Women follows the lives of four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March. Each girl has a vision of what their ideal future will bring, though ultimately experiencing, as most young do, something completely different. Little Women, originally...
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
Paper Book
For use in schools and libraries only. A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit.
Jane Eyre
Brontë, Charlotte
Paper Book
'The masterwork of a great genius' William Makepeace Thackeray A novel of intense emotional power, heightened atmosphere and fierce intelligence, Jane Eyre dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom on her own...
Robinson Crusoe
Defoe, Daniel
Ebook
Great expectations
Dickens, Charles
Ebook
In this unflaggingly suspenseful story of aspirations and moral redemption, humble, orphaned Pip, a ward of his short-tempered older sister and her husband, Joe, is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman. And, indeed, it seems as though...
Crime and punishment
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Paper Book
Poverty-stricken and cut off from society, former law student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leads a desolate life in a dreary little room in St Petersburg. Having abandoned all hopes of sustaining himself through work, he now obsesses over the idea of changing his fortunes through an act of...
James : a novel
Everett, Percival
The great Gatsby
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Ebook
A gorgeous new edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, with an introduction by Melina Marchetta All the bright young things go to Jay Gatsby's Long Island parties. Yet Gatsby himself is reserved and mysterious. He seems always to be waiting for something or someone. When he...
A room with a view
Forster, E. M.
Paper Book
E.M. Forster's beloved novel of forbidden love, culture clash, and the confines of Edwardian society   Visiting Florence with her prim and proper cousin Charlotte as a chaperone, Lucy Honeychurch meets the unconventional, lower-class Mr. Emerson and his son, George. Upon her...
One hundred years of solitude
Garca? Mr?quez, Gabriel
Audiobook
The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the BuendIa family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the story of the BuendIa family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history,...
Lord of the flies : a novel
Golding, William
Paper Book
First published in 1954, Lord of the Flies is now recognised as a classic, one of the most celebrated and widely read of modern novels. This edition, which includes an introduction and notes by Ian Gregor and Mark Kinkead-Weekes, meets the demand for its use in schools and its prescription by...
Their eyes were watching God
Hurston, Zora Neale.
Audiobook
"A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don't know how to live properly." --Zadie Smith One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century,...
To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper.
Ebook
'ONE OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVELS EVER WRITTEN' 'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic...
Main Street
Lewis, Sinclair
Ebook
Moby-Dick
Melville, Herman
Ebook
"From Hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee . . ." Few literary masterworks cast quite as awesome a shadow as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Captain Ahab's quest for the white whale is a timeless epic--a thrilling tale of vengeance and obsession, and a...
Circe : a novel
Miller, Madeline
Audiobook
Beloved : a novel
Morrison, Toni.
Audiobook
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * This "powerful, mesmerizing story" (People) is an unflinching look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner. With an afterword by the author and a new introduction by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers....
The tale of Genji
Murasaki Shikibu
Ebook
Completed in the early 11th century, The Tale of Genji is considered the supreme masterpiece of Japanese prose literature, and one of the world's earliest novels. A work of great length, it comprises six parts, the first part of which (also called The Tale of Genji) is...
Lolita
Nabokov, Vladimir.
Paper Book
Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is a dark and daring story of obsessive love and transgression. Humbert Humbert's lust for his pubescent step-daughter, Lolita, shocked readers when it was first published in the 1950s; yet the novel was also celebrated for its beautifully lyrical writing. Almost...
The bell jar
Plath, Sylvia
Paper Book
'ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD' 'A modern classic.' Guardian 'A near-perfect work of art.' Joyce Carol Oates I was supposed to be having the time of my life . . . Working as an...
The catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
The Catcher in Rye is the ultimate novel for disaffected youth and has influenced countless coming-of-age stories since. Holden Caulfield is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up,...
A thousand acres
Smiley, Jane.
Audiobook
Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Jane Smiley's spellbinding novel also headed bestseller lists for many months. A Thousand Acres is the powerful, mythic story of an American farm family and the land that nourishes and consumes its members. ...
A tree grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Betty
Paper Book
______________________ NOW CELEBRATING ITS 75th ANNIVERSARY Betty Smith's debut novel is universally regarded as a modern classic. The sprawling tale of an immigrant family in early 20th-century Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one...
The grapes of wrath
Steinbeck, John
Ebook
Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others...
Dracula
Stoker, Bram
Ebook
Chills race up and down young solicitor Jonathan Harker's spine as he enters the eerie castle of a Transylvanian count. His host, Count Dracula, is a curious creature that becomes enamored with the photograph of Harker's fiancee, Mina. Dracula decides he must find the enchanting Mina and have her as...
Vanity fair
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Ebook
Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is William Thackeray's celebrated satirical novel of 19th century British society. Vanity Fair follows the rags-to-riches tale of the captivating and ruthless Becky Sharpe as she navigates her way through London society with fearsome determination and ambition.
War and peace
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Paper Book
War and Peace centers broadly on Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the best-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves behind...
Slaughterhouse-five, or, The children's crusade : a duty-dance with death
Vonnegut, Kurt
Paper Book
Read Kurt Vonnegut's powerful masterpiece, which is as timely now as when it was first published. 'An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' New York Times Book Review Billy Pilgrim - hapless barber's...
The picture of Dorian Gray
Wilde, Oscar
Paper Book
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.' When Basil Hallward paints the portrait of young, handsome Dorian Gray, he falls prey to his dazzling beauty. Afraid that his...
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