Be honest now: how many of you read the Cliff Notes versions of the books you were assigned to read in high school? I think we were all guilty of that at one time or another. I mean who wanted to slog through a chapter of Jane Eyre or Moby Dick when you could be doing a fun after school activity or hanging out with your friends?! Reading isn’t as much fun when forced upon you, especially when you are young and have so many other things competing for your attention. Well, here is your second chance to appreciate some of these classic books you may not have given their full due in your youth.
This month’s list contains some of the more popular titles that appear on high school reading lists. Most of these books appear consistently on many lists, and some authors – for example Orwell, Austen, Twain, Steinbeck – appear more than once. This list, however, contains only one book per author. And if you still don’t want to read the book, a few have DVD options. Enjoy!
Digital book (DB), braille (BR), large print (LT), and audio described videos (DVD) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.
Prepared by Nancy Gahagan
Recording Studio Manager
Perkins Library
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
A comprehensive edition of Twain’s 1885 tale about a boy who runs away from home and floats down the Mississippi on a raft with an escaping slave. Includes four episodes originally deleted from the first edition, an introduction by Twain biographer Justin Kaplan, and an addendum of explanatory and interpretive notes. Strong language. 1996.
Download The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, DB 43591
Download Braille, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, BR 10687
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
In this autobiographical novel by the late poet, events parallel the author’s twentieth year when she experienced a mental breakdown and attempted suicide. 1963.
Download The Bell Jar, DB 21558
Download Braille, The Bell Jar, BR 16452
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
A satire set in a future technocratic society in which people are rigidly classified by the state and kept happy by a government-administered drug. When two bureaucrats, Lenina and Bernard, travel to a “savage” reservation, they “rescue” a woman and her adult son, abandoned long ago, and return them to civilization. 1932.
Download Brave New World, DB 47108
Download Braille, Brave New World, BR 11922
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
As Christmas vacation begins, Holden Caulfield recounts his feelings and reactions to flunking out of Pencey, his third prep school. Instead of heading straight home, he wanders around New York City. This account of his adventures conveys his dismay at the adult world. Strong language. 1945.
Download Catcher in the Rye, DB 47480
Download Braille, Catcher in the Rye, BR 22463
The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts
Arthur Miller
This four-act play is based on the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 and investigates the consequences of fear and insecurity. 1953.
Download The Crucible, DB 32974
Download Braille, The Crucible, BR 9499
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
In a remarkable account begun on her thirteenth birthday in 1942, a Jewish girl in German-occupied Amsterdam records her hopes, fears, and growing pains during two years of close confinement with her family hiding from the Nazis in a secret apartment. Original version edited by her father. 1947.
Download Diary of a Young Girl, DB 57022
Download Braille, Diary of a Young Girl, BR 22588
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
Social satire set in the future, when owning or reading books is a crime. Guy Montag, the fireman-hero, becomes a fugitive when he succumbs to temptation. Some strong language. 1953.
Download Fahrenheit 451, DB 34963
Download Braille, Fahrenheit 451, BR 22322
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
Classic horror story. A monster, endowed with life by a young scientist named Frankenstein, later turns on his creator. Originally published in 1818.
Download Frankenstein, DB 25835
Download Braille, Frankenstein, BR 12173
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Steinbeck’s classic tale of the Joads, who, like many other families during the Great Depression, are driven from their homestead by drought, economic hardship, and the encroachment of large agricultural interests. They leave Oklahoma in search of a better life in California but meet with hardship and injustice. Strong language. Pulitzer Prize. 1939.
Download Braille, Grapes of Wrath, BR 22585
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The glitter and recklessness of the Jazz Age is the backdrop for this novel about Jay Gatsby’s desperate attempt to recapture the past, and along with it, the love of Daisy Buchanan. Amid extravagant parties at Gatsby’s palatial estate, his neighbor narrates the story of his obsession with the American dream. 1925.
Download the Great Gatsby, DB 55714
Download Braille, The Great Gatsby, BR 22712
The Hobbit: or There and Back Again
J.R.R. Tolkien
The wandering wizard Gandalf recruits Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, to be the fourteenth member of an expedition. Hobbits prefer comfort to adventures, but Bilbo joins the quest and encounters many perils, including a dragon. 1937.
Download Braille, The Hobbit, BR 11595
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
Memoir by well-known African American poet and college professor Maya Angelou. She describes her childhood and adolescent years in rural Arkansas, in St. Louis, and in San Francisco, and the racial and gender hardships she endured. 1969.
Download I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, DB 57200
Download Braille, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, BR 15665
The Invisible Man
H.G. Wells
Classic story about the scientist Griffin, who discovers a process that makes him invisible. At first he is euphoric about the wild and wonderful things his invisibility allows him to do, but he soon wishes he could change back. First published in 1897.
Download The Invisible Man, DB 47064
Download Braille, The Invisible Man, BR 14988
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
Nineteenth-century English novel about a plain and intelligent woman who becomes the governess at an estate, is caught up in the mysteries of the manor, and falls in love with the master of the house. 1847.
Download Braille, Jane Eyre, BR 22683
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
With horrifying implications, this novel relates the experiences of a group of English boys who are wrecked on a desert island and have to establish their own system of government. 1954.
Download Lord of the Flies, DB 48388
Download Braille, Lord of the Flies, BR 22324
Mythology
Edith Hamilton
Greek, Roman, and Norse myths retold, as nearly as possible, in the words of the poet or poets who told each story best. Considered a classic in its field, this retelling is appropriate for both casual readers and students. 1942.
Download Braille, Mythology, BR 5581
1984
George Orwell
Satire about an alternate London under a totalitarian regime overseen by the omnipresent Big Brother. Winston Smith, a Ministry of Truth bureaucrat, attempts an intellectual rebellion against the Party while he pursues an illicit romance. His actions lead to his imprisonment, torture, and reeducation by the Thought Police. 1949.
Download Nineteen Eighty-Four, DB 34268
Download Braille, Nineteen Eighty-Four, BR 10312
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
A comedy of manners concerning two of the five Bennet sisters, Elizabeth and Jane, and their courtships played out in the drawing rooms of Regency England. Elizabeth and her proud suitor, Mr. Darcy, spar verbally about their relationship and social circumstances. The sisters’ comments on each other’s romance help convey the author’s views on life and love. 1813.
Download Pride and Prejudice, DB 20513
Download Braille, Pride and Prejudice, BR 11521
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
A romantic tragedy of two teenagers from rival families who fall in love. A sentence of exile and an impending arranged marriage force the two to flee. A friar suggests a ruse to accomplish their union, but miscommunication causes it to backfire. 1597.
Download Romeo and Juliet, DB 44353
Download Braille, Romeo and Juliet, BR 10925
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Symbolic novel set in Puritan New England traces the effects of sin on people’s lives. Hester Prynne is forced to display her transgression openly in the form of a scarlet letter “A” for adultery. Her husband is obsessed with revenge, and her lover, a minister, conceals his guilt and shame. 1850.
Download The Scarlet Letter, DB 48457
Download Braille, The Scarlet Letter, BR 22587
A Separate Peace
John Knowles
The rivalry in the friendship of two roommates at a New Hampshire boarding school during the summer session of 1942 is dramatized by a crippling accident that leads to further tragedy. Some strong language. 1959.
Download A Separate Peace, DB 24697
Download Braille, A Separate Peace, BR 10776
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Billy Pilgrim, adrift in time, randomly revisits past and present manifestations: a senile widower stalked by an assassin, a hopeful young newlywed, a giraffe on the planet Tralfamadore—where time is an illusion—and, most crucially, an American POW during the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. Strong language. 1969.
Download Slaughterhouse-Five, DB 64540
Download Braille, Slaughterhouse-Five, BR 17373
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Englishman Sydney Carton and Frenchman Charles Darnay, who bear a strong physical resemblance to each other, love the same woman, Lucie Manette. The sacrifice by Carton for his friends is the climax of this story set in late-eighteenth-century London and Paris during the French Revolution. 1859.
Download A Tale of Two Cities, DB 49497
Download Braille, A Tale of Two Cities, BR 10640
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
This classic novel tells the story of Janie, a handsome black woman, and her three marriages: to middle-aged Logan Killicks, a prosperous farmer; to Joe Starks, a go-getter who makes Janie Mrs. Mayor Starks of Eatonville, Florida; and to Tea Cake Woods, who teaches Janie, at forty, the reality of love and happiness. 1937.
Download Their Eyes Were Watching God, DB 35745
Download Braille, Their Eyes Were Watching God, BR 22592
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Classic tale of injustice, friendship, and coming-of-age in 1930s Alabama. Six-year-old Scout and her friends are fascinated by the mysterious Radley place and its reclusive occupant. But their focus shifts when Scout’s attorney father is called upon to defend a black man accused of rape. For senior high and older readers. Pulitzer Prize. 1960.
Download To Kill a Mockingbird, DB 77672
Download Braille, To Kill a Mockingbird, BR 12850
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith
A novel about an Irish-American girl’s childhood and youth, her struggles with poverty, and her work to get an education. The setting is Brooklyn’s tenement life of the early 1900s. 1943.