100 classics I want to read in the next five years (by March 31, 2023). This is for the Classics Club challenge. For more information see the Classics Club website.
To meet this goal I should try to read 2 books off this list every month. At that rate, I would finish a little ahead of schedule, but it provides some leeway for life to get in the way.
Note: This list was edited on 4/29/2018 to replace the British Crime Classics with 10 other titles and to add a list of 10 alternate books that can substitute for any book on the list that ends up on the DNF pile.
Persephone
My long-term goal is to read all the Persephone Classics. This list of 30 books includes all the Persephones I currently own plus a few more that are high on my priority list.
Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane – Finished 4/19/2018
The Godwits Fly by Robin Hyde
Maman, What Are We Called Now? by Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar
Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
On the Other Side: Letters to my Children from Germany 1940-46 by Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg
Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson
The World that was Ours by Hilda Bernstein
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Manja by Anna Gmeyner
Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski – Finished 6/6/2018
An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941-43 by Etty Hillesum
Fidelity by Susan Glaspell
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Mariana by Monica Dickens – Finished 7/26/2018
William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Children who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham
The Montana Stories by Katherine Mansfield
The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow by Mrs Oliphant
The Hopkins Manuscript by R. C. Sheriff
Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy
The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D. E. Stevenson
Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
Pre-20th Century Classics
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
The Red Sphinx by Alexander Dumas
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell – Finished 5/20/2018
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
A study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Belinda by Maria Edgeworth
The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr Traill
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott – finished 6/18/2018
Marriage by Susan Ferrier
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
20th Century Classics
The Children by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton – Finished 4/28/2018
The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
The Reef by Edith Wharton
Maurice by E. M. Forster
Nightingale Woods by Stella Gibbons
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott
The Towers of Silence by Paul Scott
A Division of the Spoils by Paul Scott
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner – Finished 7/19/2018
Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier – Finished 5/26/2018
Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
One of Ours by Willa Cather
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym
Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym
To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck
The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck
Replacements for the British Crime Classics
Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Alternates
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
Evelina by Fanny Burney
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliff
Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell
An Autobiography by Agatha Christie