Best Fiction of the Last 2000 Years
Explore the greatest fiction books of the last 2000 years with our curated list of 2000 must-read novels. Discover timeless classics, hidden gems, and literary masterpieces that shaped history.
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David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
When David Copperfield escapes from the cruelty of his childhood home, he embarks on a journey to adulthood which will lead him through comedy and …
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Tom Jones
by Henry Fielding
Tom Jones is widely regarded as one of the first and most influential English novels. It is certainly the funniest. Tom Jones, the hero of …
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The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
A group of expatriates travel from Paris to the Pamplona bullfights.
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Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
Translates the classic French story of the master swordsman whose unpleasant appearance prevents him from courting the beautiful woman with whom he has fallen in …
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Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie
The story of Saleem Sinal, born precisely at midnight, August 15, 1947, the moment India became independent. Saleem's life parallels the history of his nation.
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Nobody's Fool
by Richard Russo
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls, this slyly funny, moving novel about a blue-collar town in upstate New York—and about Sully, one of …
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Far from the Madding Crowd
by Thomas Hardy
After an unfortunate marriage to Sergeant Troy and an affair with Farmer Boldwood, Bathsheba Everdene finally becomes the wife of the man who has always …
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The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
by Charles Dickens
'The novel has everything: an absorbing melodrama, with a supporting cast of heroes, villains and eccentrics, set in a London where vast wealth and desperate …
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Le Morte Darthur
by Sir Thomas Malory
This English version of the stories of King Arthur, "Le Morte D'Arthur" was completed in 1469-70 by Sir Thomas Malory. Malory charts the tragic disintegration …
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On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac’s classic American novel of freedom and the search for originality that defined a generation “An authentic work of art.”—The New York Times Inspired …
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Ernest Hemingway
A book about love and courage and decency and glory. It is written with a wisdom that washes the mind and cools it. With an …
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Orlando Furioso
by Lodovico Ariosto
"Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1532) is the culmination of the chivalric legends of Charlemagne and the Saracen invasion of France, a brilliantly witty parody of the …
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Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie
A captivating fantasy novel for readers of all ages, by the author of Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses “This is, simply put, a book …
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The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
In 1327, finding his sensitive mission at an Italian abbey further complicated by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William of Baskerville turns detective.
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Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck
Vividly depicts the colorful, sometimes disreputable, inhabitants of a run-down area in Monterey, California
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The Iliad
by Homer
The great war epic of Western literature, translated by acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles, and featured in the Netflix series The OA A Penguin Classic Dating …
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The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas
In seventeenth-century France, young d'Artagnan initially quarrels with, then befriends, three musketeers and joins them in trying to outwit the enemies of the king and …