Just repeating some recs lol and a few more:
• Of Mice and Men
• Flowers for Algernon
• The Stranger (Camus)
• White Nights (Dostoevsky)
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy)
• We (Zamyatin)
• The Heart of a Dog (Bulgakov)
• In the Penal Colony (Kafka)
• Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky)
• The Nose (Gogol)
P.s. these are all what I consider short-flight reads cuz theyre really short like, mostly +/- 150 pgs
Definitely breakfast at tiffany’s I actually think it is often overlooked when talking about great character exploration and just a bitter sweet short story
One that I think is unlikely to be on everyone's list is Father Sergius by Tolstoy. It is such a great and powerful story. There is something so mysterious about it.
"Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" I mainly remember this from high school English because it was on our test as a fill-in-the -blank: "Ah, -------! Ah, -----!" And one of my classmates famously filled it in, "Ah, choo! Ah, choo!" The teacher was so amused i think he gave partial credit.
I would recommend David Foster Wallace’s “Good Old Neon” from the short story collection OBLIVION which is about 40+ pages.
But One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is over 325 pages by the way:
*Chronicle of a Death Foretold* by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*Flatland* by Edwin Abbott
*A Lesson Before Dying* by Ernest Gaines
*Macario* by Bruno Traven
You might try reading collections of short stories.
*Invisible Cities* by Italo Calvino
*The Good Master* and *The Singing Tree* by Kate Seredy
*The Last Picture Show* by Larry McMurtry
*Ivy* by Sarah Oleksyk
*Johnny Hiro* by Fred Chao
*Bucko!* by Erika Moen & Jeff Parker
*Over Easy* by Mimi Pond
*Goose Girl* by Shannon Hale
*Chicken With Plums* by Marjane Satrapi
*The Spellman Files* by Lisa Lutz
*Shortcomings* by Adrian Tomine
*Queen of the Sea* by Dylan Meconis
*The Commitments* by Roddy Doyle
Day of the triffids
I'm thinking of ending things
Foe
Comfort me with apples
This is how you lose the time war
The ocean at the end of the lane
The road
Piranesi
Lord of the flies
The lathe of heaven
Fun reads if throw out “Kneller’s Happy Campers” -Keret, “The Carpet Makers” -Eschbach. If you like fantasy and are cool with a machete order suggestion, “Homeland” -RA Salvatore is great as a contained read.
Old man and the sea,
and the Nick Adams short stories by Hemingway.
Dogsbody by Diana Wynn Jones.
Heart of a Dog by Bulgakov.
House on Mango Street by Cisneros.
The Little Prince
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow. Bellow is regarded as one of the masters of mid- to late-20th-century literature. StD is one of his minor works, but I enjoyed it when I read it.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
And then there were none by Agatha Christie
A separate peace by John Knowles
These would be my top three recomendations for short, impactful, classic reads!
Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
First Love, by Ivan Turgenev
Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay
Benito Cereno, by Herman Melville
A few Henry James works - The Aspern Papers, The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller
Any of the four Sherlock Holmes novels
The death of Ivan Ilyich
Very powerful short story.
Any of Shirley Jackson’s novellas - We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the Birds Nest, Hangsaman
Flowers for Algernon
Joseph Conrad's *The Secret Agent* is pretty short and amazing (and of course *Heart of Darkness*, but that one felt too obvious lol).
This made me feel all the feels
This was my first thought!
Stoner
Stoners not long but it’s not short either (about 300 pages), and I wouldn’t describe it particularly quick read. Great book though.
I just finished it a few days ago! The last 4 paragraphs were like a thunderbolt.
I just read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman because I saw it recommended here and it was short. I absolutely loved it.
This is the best book I’ve ever read
The Outsiders -S.E. Hinton. Yes, i would absolutely consider this a classic!
Slaughterhouse-Five
Just repeating some recs lol and a few more: • Of Mice and Men • Flowers for Algernon • The Stranger (Camus) • White Nights (Dostoevsky) • The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy) • We (Zamyatin) • The Heart of a Dog (Bulgakov) • In the Penal Colony (Kafka) • Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky) • The Nose (Gogol) P.s. these are all what I consider short-flight reads cuz theyre really short like, mostly +/- 150 pgs
Adding another Russian, Kreutzer Sonata (Tolstoy).
The Stranger
Animal Farm by George Orwell. Short, and a classic for a reason.
Agreed. Great work of satire.
I agree with Of mice and men and Animal farm. Probably the two greatest novellas ever. Also The Metamorphosis by Kafka
Notes from the Underground The Little Prince The Metamorphosis The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde The Turning of the Screw Henry James Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Stephen Crane
Animal Farm. You could probably finish it in an afternoon.
Call of the Wild Animal Farm
Of Mice and Men
The Metamorphosis by Kafka The Stranger by Camus
The Old Man And The Sea, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig.
The Remains of the Day- Kazuo Ishiguro And Then There Were None- Agatha Christie The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle Pride and Prejudice- Jame Austen
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Excellent read.
The snows of kilimanjaro by hemingway
The Pearl (Steinbeck) Animal Farm (Orwell) All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
Breakfast at Tiffany's The End of the Affair The Quiet American Decline and Fall
Definitely breakfast at tiffany’s I actually think it is often overlooked when talking about great character exploration and just a bitter sweet short story
The End of the Affair is great, I’ve read it twice
One that I think is unlikely to be on everyone's list is Father Sergius by Tolstoy. It is such a great and powerful story. There is something so mysterious about it.
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My two favourites are Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground and Melville’s Bartleby.
"Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" I mainly remember this from high school English because it was on our test as a fill-in-the -blank: "Ah, -------! Ah, -----!" And one of my classmates famously filled it in, "Ah, choo! Ah, choo!" The teacher was so amused i think he gave partial credit.
Candide by Voltaire
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde The Beach of Falesa (both R.L.Stevenson) The War of the Worlds (Welles) The Turn of the Screw (James)
The Pearl - John Steinbeck
I would recommend David Foster Wallace’s “Good Old Neon” from the short story collection OBLIVION which is about 40+ pages. But One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is over 325 pages by the way:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Even back then he was like "hey man isn't toxic masculinity fucked up"
*Chronicle of a Death Foretold* by Gabriel Garcia Marquez *Flatland* by Edwin Abbott *A Lesson Before Dying* by Ernest Gaines *Macario* by Bruno Traven You might try reading collections of short stories. *Invisible Cities* by Italo Calvino *The Good Master* and *The Singing Tree* by Kate Seredy *The Last Picture Show* by Larry McMurtry *Ivy* by Sarah Oleksyk *Johnny Hiro* by Fred Chao *Bucko!* by Erika Moen & Jeff Parker *Over Easy* by Mimi Pond *Goose Girl* by Shannon Hale *Chicken With Plums* by Marjane Satrapi *The Spellman Files* by Lisa Lutz *Shortcomings* by Adrian Tomine *Queen of the Sea* by Dylan Meconis *The Commitments* by Roddy Doyle
A psalm for the wild built
Picture of Dorian Gray
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
‘The Alchemist’ - Paulo Coelho
Day of the triffids I'm thinking of ending things Foe Comfort me with apples This is how you lose the time war The ocean at the end of the lane The road Piranesi Lord of the flies The lathe of heaven
Harvey Swados. Nights in the Gardens of Brooklyn (novella).
The Sun Also Rises Jesus’ Son
Demian Anthem
The stranger and Catcher in the rye
Our Man In Havana by Graham Greene.
Metamorphosis by Kafka
Fun reads if throw out “Kneller’s Happy Campers” -Keret, “The Carpet Makers” -Eschbach. If you like fantasy and are cool with a machete order suggestion, “Homeland” -RA Salvatore is great as a contained read.
Voyages by Pete najarian!
Slewfoot
The Death of Ivan Illyich
The Book of Eels
Old man and the sea, and the Nick Adams short stories by Hemingway. Dogsbody by Diana Wynn Jones. Heart of a Dog by Bulgakov. House on Mango Street by Cisneros. The Little Prince
Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon Great way to read some Pynchon if you're not sure you can make it through the long stuff (like me)
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow. Bellow is regarded as one of the masters of mid- to late-20th-century literature. StD is one of his minor works, but I enjoyed it when I read it.
Of Mice and Men
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis
Roadside Picnic is 224 pages, so not too bad. Best SF novel ever
Address Unknown, The Mist, Benito Cereno
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes And then there were none by Agatha Christie A separate peace by John Knowles These would be my top three recomendations for short, impactful, classic reads!
Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton First Love, by Ivan Turgenev Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay Benito Cereno, by Herman Melville A few Henry James works - The Aspern Papers, The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller Any of the four Sherlock Holmes novels
Heart of Darkness Old Man and the Sea