Classic American novels everyone should read

Jay Gatsby’s opulent Long Island mansion, his lavish parties and his mysterious wealth are all anyone can talk about. But who is he, really? This magnificent novel pieces together Gatsby's story from the perspective of narrator Nick Carraway, who rents a house near Gatsby one summer. Nick finds himself thrown into a strange circle of acquaintances, where secrets, enemies and old loves lurk just beneath the surface. F. Scott Fitzgerald brilliantly captures the decadence of America in the Jazz Age, and the dark heart of the American Dream.

Set around Walden Pond near Concord in mid-nineteenth-century Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau recounts his experience of living alone in a small house in the woods. Thoreau constructed the house himself, with the help of a few friends, to see if he could live 'deliberately' - independently and apart from society. The result is a captivating story, rich with psychological insight and natural history. Henry David Thoreau is considered one of the leading figures in early American literature, and Walden is without doubt his most influential book.

After escaping the horrors of plantation slavery, Frederick Douglass wrote this autobiography charting his memories and experiences of the path from captivity to freedom. Eloquent, lucid and harrowing, Douglass’ Narrative is a testament to the cruel inhumanity of enslavement. Douglass became a successful author and an influential African American figure, renowned for his speeches on the abolition of slavery and supporting women’s rights. Douglass was twenty-seven when this work was published to immediate acclaim in 1845, and it remains one of American history’s hugely significant literary texts.

With little money, fiercely independent Lily Bart is losing her standing amongst the upper-class families of New York and at twenty-nine, her opportunities for marriage are dwindling. This dark, satirical novel follows her slow fall from privilege to marginalisation as her situation becomes increasingly precarious.

A devastating story which explores racial identity, desire and jealousy in New York during the 1920s. When Irene bumps into Clare, a childhood friend, she is shocked to discover that her mixed-race friend is now married to a racist white man. Clare has been passing for white; as a Black woman, Irene is horrified. As the friends grow closer and cautiously get to know each other again, Irene worries for Clare’s safety. Passing was adapted into a film in 2021. 

Kate Chopin’s perceptive short stories capture the essence of late-nineteenth-century female experience in the Deep South. These are stories of mothers re-discovering their independence, daughters becoming women, love, hate and everything in between. The Awakening is now accepted as some of the earliest and boldest feminist fiction, but it scandalized readers when it was first published.

Ralph Ellison’s unnamed narrator migrates from his home in the south to 1930s Harlem, encountering startling hardship along the way. This is the memoir of his life, written from his home underground the streets of New York, hiding from a world that refuses to see him.

Sethe and her daughter Denver have escaped to Cincinnati from a life of slavery in Kentucky. Their new home, however, is haunted by the ghosts of their past and present. Exploring love and pain, beauty and trauma, Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a modern classic masterpiece.

The Harlem Renaissance was an American cultural movement that saw an explosion of Black art, music and writing. This anthology celebrates some of the women from this period of the early twentieth century who broke new ground in literature by discussing race, gender and sexuality in ways which paved the way for generations to come. These stories are daring and disruptive, and marked a time when the voices of Black women were beginning to be amplified. Featuring Nella Larson, Jessie Fauset, Alice Dunbar-Nelson and more, this collection is ideal for fans of rediscovered classics.

Little Women is arguably the most famous American coming-of-age story ever written. It follows the March sisters: Jo, a writer with an unbreakable spirit; Beth, who is gentle and loving; Meg, whose kindness is unmatched; and Amy, the beautiful and precocious baby of the family. While their father is serving as a chaplain in the Civil War, the sisters and their devoted mother Marmee strive to fill their lives with selflessness and generosity despite the hardships they face in this extraordinary moment in history.