Strictly speaking, all classics have relevance that resonates through the decades, that’s what makes them classics and it’s how we can often distinguish the classics of the future. That said, there are certain books that seem to speak right now, in current times and so we asked you what you thought they were.
In the age of the selfie, for me it is The Picture Of Dorian Gray, I don’t think it’s ever been more relevant than it is today, but enough about me, here are the 19 Classics that you said are just as relevant today.
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Lee’s only novel (to date) is To Kill a Mockingbird, a firm favourite on school reading lists and arguably as relevant today as the day it was written.
Animal Farm – George Orwell
And again Orwell makes the list with Animal Farm and many of the ideas carried through in human form to 1984.
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice has remained popular with modern readers throughout the generation and often tops many of our ‘favourites’ lists.
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Growing up is hard to do and it’s as hard today as it was back in 1847 when Jane Eyre was penned. Another firm favourite with modern readers and making our list for being still relevant today.
Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Many of you thought the same as me, and in the age of social media and the ‘selfie’, The Picture of Dorian Gray is maybe even more relevant today.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (US)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (UK)
The Bible
We often get religious books mentioned and for many of you it was the bible that still held the most relevance today.
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
In our age of genetics and the advancements of science, maybe Mary Shelley was on to something with her dark and far-fetched work.
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
This dystopian classic from Bradbury imagines a future America and for many of you it’s coming true, retaining the book’s relevance even today.
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
This is starting to read like a dystopian list and maybe these clever and insightful classics hold the most relevance to the fears we have for society, wherever we are in the world.
What an impressive top 10 that is! We cut off our list at 29 and the rest are as follows:
Lord of the Flies- William Goulding
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
The Handmaids Tale- Margaret Atwood
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Crime & Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexadre Dumas
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Bleak House – Charles Dickens
Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
Would you agree with those, dear readers? I was glad to see my choice in the list. If yours isn’t there then feel free to add it in the comments!
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holy bible.
Middlemarch- George Eliot, The Scarlet Letter: A Romance- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Sound and the Fury- William Faulkner
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