Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of w... More details on Slaughterhouse-Five
All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn’t his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to h...
"When a true genius appears in the world,
You may know him by this sign, that the dunces
Are all in confederacy against him."
-Jonathan Swift, "Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting"... More details on A Confederacy of Dunces
A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either ...
Considered by many the greatest war novel of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front is Erich Maria Remarque's masterpiece of the German experience during World War I.
I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death,... More details on All Quiet on the Western Front
We are at rest five miles behind the front. Yesterday we were relieved, and now our bellies are full of beef and haricot beans. We are satisfied and at peace. Each man has another mess-tin full for th...
It's an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur's best friend has just announced that he's an alien.
After that, thing... More details on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
At eight o’clock on Thursday morning Arthur didn’t feel very good. He woke up blearily, got up, wandered blearily round his room, opened a window, saw a bulldozer, found his slippers, and stomped off ...
Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to pas... More details on Brave New World
A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRALLONDONHATCHERY ANDCONDITIONINGCENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABIL...
"A free-wheeling vehicle . . . an unforgettable ride!"-The New York Times
Cat's Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist... More details on Cat's Cradle
“I am sorry to be so long about answering your letter. That sounds like a very interesting book you are doing. I was so young when the bomb was dropped that I don’t think I’m going to be much help. Yo...
Bob Slocum was living the American dream. He had a beautiful wife, three lovely children, a nice house…and all the mistresses he desired. He had it all - all, that is, but happiness. Slocum was discontent. Inevitably, inexorably, his discontent deter... More details on Something Happened
I get the willies when I see closed doors. Even at work, where I am doing so well now, the sight of a closed door is sometimes enough to make me dread that something horrible is happening behind it, s...
Orwell's classic dystopian fiction warns us of our future, and deals with issues that speak to multiple dangers faced by many nations today.
Winston Smith is a member of 'the party' and subject to constant surveillance by the eyes of Big Brother, th... More details on 1984
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors ...
The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature-and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books.
"If you really want to he... More details on The Catcher in the Rye
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HEAR about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me...
"O'Brien has written a vital, important book-a book that matters not only to the reader interested in Vietnam, but to anyone interested in the craft of writing as well."-Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
A classic work of American literature that has ... More details on The Things They Carried
First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them f...