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Literary classics with cultural impact: Perkins’ Recommended Reads

This complation of literary classics will take you back to high school English class.

Revisiting the books you were supposed to read in high school.

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 Grapes of Wrath, DB

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 The Hobbit, DB 11497

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 Jane Eyre, DB 47868

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 Mythology, DB 20026

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.

Download A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, DB 44769

Download Braille, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, BR 21736

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