Classics can feel like a wall of famous titles. Our “What to Read” series breaks each tradition into a simple path, with links to free editions and short author biographies. Browse all lists on the World Classics page.
The series
- What to Read for Russian Classics — Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Ivan Turgenev… (full list)
- What to Read for British Classics — William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Brontë… (full list)
- What to Read for American Classics — Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass… (full list)
- What to Read for French Classics — Molière, Voltaire, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac… (full list)
- What to Read for Spanish Classics — Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Benito Pérez Galdós… (full list)
- What to Read for Latin American Classics — Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Machado de Assis, Rubén Darío, Horacio Quiroga… (full list)
- What to Read for African Literature — Olaudah Equiano, Sol Plaatje, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka… (full list)
- What to Read for German Classics — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Brothers Grimm, E. T. A. Hoffmann… (full list)
- What to Read for Scandinavian Classics — Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg… (full list)
- What to Read for Italian Classics — Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli… (full list)
- What to Read for Greek & Roman Classics — Homer, Aesop, Sophocles, Euripides… (full list)
- What to Read for Asian Classics — Confucius, Laozi, Cao Xueqin, Lu Xun… (full list)
- What to Read for Irish Classics — Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, W. B. Yeats… (full list)
- What to Read for Canadian Classics — Susanna Moodie, L. M. Montgomery, Stephen Leacock, Gabrielle Roy… (full list)
- What to Read for Australian Classics — Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Miles Franklin, Henry Handel Richardson… (full list)
How to use these guides
- Pick the tradition that interests you most — or the one your family comes from.
- Read one “start here” book. If you love it, keep going; if not, try another.
- Use the author guides to follow a writer you like.
- Print the reading list and tick off each book, or track it in the free Pagine app.
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A classic is just a book that people kept recommending for a very long time. Let yourself enjoy it.
Browse all World Classics reading lists.