TOM JONES
by Henry Fielding
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192834975
Think 18th century Brit kids were a stodgy, proper, painfully dull lot? Spend a little time with Tom Jones --- not to be confused with the 60's/70's lounge lizard --- on his hilarious, bawdy (even by today's standards!), journey across Britain. Along the way he meets every kind of weirdo imaginable, joins the army, looses all his money, falls in love and becomes a kept lover (with two different women, that scoundrel). The fastest 800-pages you'll ever read!
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
by Mark Twain
Penguin USA (Paper)
ISBN: 0140390464
Twain's story of the unlikely friendship between Huck, the quintessential angsty teen, and Jim, a slave trying to escape to the North, is a true American classic. It's an adventure tale, a travelogue, a coming-of-age story, and a commentary on race and racism all at the same time. You don't have to love it, but at least read and appreciate the brilliant simplicity of Twain's dark-humored and subversive (seen the banned books list lately?) tale.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
by Tennessee Williams
New American Library
ISBN: 0451167783
Unbridled passions, flaring tempers, decent into madness, clashing of classes. Forget All My Children, if you want real drama read Tennessee William's hot-n-heavy tragedy. One of the finest plays ever written, Williams pits Blanche Du Bois, an emotionally fragile, old-world Southern belle, against Stanley Kowalski, her sister's working class, brutish, crudely-sensual husband. The battle between the two is as heated as a New Orleans summer night, and ultimately ends with the psychological and moral demise of one of them.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
by Jane Austen
Bantam Classics
ISBN: 0553213105
L'amour Victorian-style not be X-rated, but it still has all the qualities necessary for a great romance: bold and witty heroine (in this case the saucy Elizabeth Bennett); arrogant but charming suitor (Mr. Darcy); and numerous misunderstandings and miscommunications that keep the reader in giddy anticipation and the unlikely couple from realizing their true feelings for each other. Sound a little like Bridget Jones' Diary, don't it? Hmmm, guess who copied whom?
DR. ZHIVAGO
by Boris Pasternak
Pantheon Books
ISBN: 0679774386
Pasternak received the Nobel Prize for this work in 1958, but the Russian government forced him to refuse the award and prohibited publication of the book in Russian. Set against the backdrop of the brutal and harrowing Russian Revolution the epic novel does have a strong political undertone. However, at it's heart is the story of an ill-fated love between philosopher/poet/physcian Dr. Zhivago and Lara, the wife of a revolutionary. Get out the tissues as this is a real tear-jerker. Rent the movie after reading the book, and you'll be sobbing for the next week.
MOBY DICK
by Herman Melville
Bantam Classics
ISBN: 0553213113
Man meets whale. Man pursues whale. Man obsesses over whale. Man goes mad. No pun intended, by Melville's magnum opus is a whale of a book. For the vast majority of the population the mere mention of it elicits vomit sounds. Personally, I think MD gets a bad rap. MOBY DICK sheds glaring light on the ongoing battle between man and nature, man and himself, man and humanity, man and capitalism, man and notions of family, and man and God. Give it try --- you may just find there is more to this story than a nasty old man and his freaky love for big, blubbery marine life.
RABBIT, RUN
by John Updike
Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0449911659
This is the first in Updike's "series" featuring Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. We first meet Rabbit as an early twenty-something in the 1950's, working a go-nowhere job, and married to an abusive woman (the one he liked "second-best" in high school) with whom he has a child. Confused and scared and dreading the responsibility of the adult life he's created for himself, Rabbit takes off, leaving his wife and child behind, in an attempt to "find himself." Was it right for him to "run"? Updike wrote RABBIT, RUN when he was only 28, so you should be more than capable of reading it at 15!
A PASSAGE TO INDIA
by E. M. Forester
Harvest Books
ISBN: 0156711427
In a similar vein as HUCK FINN, Forester's classic begs the question, "can oppressors and the oppressed ever really be friends?" Written during the time in which England was colonizing yet another country against their will --- India, to be exact --- Forester tale focuses on the "friendship" between three English people and one Indian man, Dr. Azziz. The word "friendship" gets the ol' quote treatment because Forester's answer to the above question isn't as simple as you might think.
COLLECTED STORIES OF EUDORA WELTY
by Eudora Welty
Harvest Books
ISBN: 0156189216
If you like Flannery O'Connor (and you should because I told you to once before), you'll love Eudora Welty. A wonderful writer in the Southern Gothic tradition, her short stories are wildly, wickedly funny. But as sharp as her wit is, her insight into human nature --- particularly those trickily simplistic, down-home, Southern ladies and gents --- is even sharper. Welty died earlier this year, and what better way to pay proper homage to a great writer than giving their work the ol' pre-college try!
