Best Classic Books to Read (Part 1)
Some books earn the label "classic" simply by surviving — still read, still argued about, still assigned in classrooms generations after they were written. This is the first of a two-part list working through ten essential classics worth reading at least once, spanning nineteenth-century England, Russia, the American canon, and Latin American magical realism. Part 2 will pick up with more.
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
Austen's sharpest social comedy follows Elizabeth Bennet navigating marriage, class, and her own prideful first impressions of the wealthy, initially insufferable Mr. Darcy. It remains the best entry point into Austen precisely because it's as funny as it is romantic — proof that "classic" doesn't have to mean humorless.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
Narrated by Scout Finch, a young girl in 1930s Alabama, this novel follows her father Atticus as he defends a Black man falsely accused of rape, while Scout and her brother confront the town's racism and moral cowardice up close. One of the most widely taught American novels ever written, and still one of the most effective at making injustice legible through a child's eyes.
3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
A destitute former student murders a pawnbroker, convinced he's exceptional enough to be exempt from ordinary morality — and then spends the rest of the novel unraveling under the psychological weight of what he's done. Dense and demanding, but one of the most penetrating studies of guilt and self-justification ever written.
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
Jay Gatsby throws lavish parties in pursuit of a version of the American Dream — and of Daisy Buchanan, the woman he's never stopped loving — in a novel that's as much a critique of wealth and illusion as it is a love story. Short enough to read in a weekend, but dense with symbolism that rewards a second reading.
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
An orphaned governess with a fierce, unshakeable sense of her own moral worth falls for her brooding employer, Mr. Rochester, in a novel that was strikingly ahead of its time in giving its plain, poor, unglamorous heroine genuine narrative and moral authority. One of the foundational texts of the governess-gothic genre, and still compelling on its own terms.
6. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the white whale that took his leg becomes a sprawling meditation on obsession, fate, and man's relationship with nature, narrated by the far calmer sailor Ishmael. Famously divisive — some readers love its digressive chapters on whaling as much as the plot itself, others find them a slog — but its influence on American literature is hard to overstate.
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)
The founding text of magical realism, tracing seven generations of the Buendía family in the fictional town of Macondo, where the fantastic (ghosts, prophecies, a plague of insomnia) is treated with the same matter-of-fact tone as ordinary life. Dense with repeated names and cyclical family history, but transformative for how it reshaped what realist fiction could include.
8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
Written when Shelley was only eighteen, this is both the foundational text of science fiction and a genuinely moving tragedy about a creator who abandons his creation, and the violence that abandonment produces. Often flattened in pop culture into a simple monster story, the novel itself is far more interested in questions of responsibility, isolation, and what makes someone monstrous in the first place.
9. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861)
Pip, a poor orphan, receives a mysterious fortune from an anonymous benefactor and is transformed into a "gentleman" — only to discover that wealth and status don't deliver the moral or personal transformation he expected. One of Dickens's tightest, most focused novels, and a good entry point into his work if his longer books feel intimidating.
10. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605)
Often cited as the first modern novel, this follows an aging nobleman who, driven mad by reading too many chivalric romances, sets out as a knight-errant with his practical-minded squire Sancho Panza, tilting at windmills he mistakes for giants. Genuinely funny nearly 420 years later, and essential for understanding where the modern novel's blend of comedy and psychological depth actually began.
Where to Find These Books in Kenya
All the titles above are in stock at Readers' Republik, with delivery across Nairobi and the rest of Kenya. Explore more in this collection:
Frequently Asked Questions.
What's the best classic to start with if I've never read one before? Pride and Prejudice or The Great Gatsby — both are relatively short, plot-driven, and don't require much historical context to enjoy.
Which of these books is the most difficult or demanding read? Don Quixote and Moby-Dick are the longest and most digressive, while Crime and Punishment is the most psychologically dense.
Is there a Part 2 to this list? Yes — this is Part 1 of an ongoing series, with more essential classics to follow.
Which of these books is considered the first of its genre? Frankenstein is widely considered the first true science fiction novel, and Don Quixote is frequently cited as the first modern novel.
Are these books suitable for readers whose first language isn't English? Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, and To Kill a Mockingbird are generally the most accessible in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure. Moby-Dick and Don Quixote (even in translation) are considerably denser.