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Classics  for English Language Learners
CLASSIC NOVELS


The Maltese Falcon  (1930)
by Dashiell Hammett

In Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, the gritty streets of 1920s San Francisco become the backdrop for a thrilling tale of deception, greed, and murder. Private detective Samuel Spade is drawn into a web of intrigue when the enigmatic "Miss Wonderly" hires him to find her missing sister, only to find himself embroiled in a deadly chase for a priceless black statuette—the legendary Maltese Falcon.

As bodies pile up and motives unravel, Spade navigates a treacherous landscape filled with seductive femme fatales, ruthless criminals, and his own moral ambiguity. With sharp dialogue and relentless pacing, Hammett crafts a classic noir narrative that explores the dark corners of desire and betrayal, leaving readers questioning who can truly be trusted in a world where everyone is after something—and willing to kill for it.

 

MORE CLASSIC AUDIOBOOKS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
(Click on title to see information about the book)
It Can't Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis (1935)
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
Carrie
by Stephen King (1974)
The Gambler
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
A Room with a View
by E.M. Forster (1908)

CLASSIC NOVELS CAN BE CHALLENGING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS (SOMETIMES),
BUT IF YOU FEEL AMBITIOUS, PLEASE GIVE THESE BOOKS A TRY — 
THERE ARE GOOD REASONS THEY ARE CONSIDERED TO BE 'CLASSICS'.
*** THE BOOKS BELOW ARE LISTED BY THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION ***

—19th Century Classics—
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen  (1811)
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen  (1813)
Emma
Jane Austen  (1815)
Persuasion
Jane Austen  (1817)
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen  (written 1803 - published 1817)
Frankenstein
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1831)
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens (1843)
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë (1847)
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë (1847)
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray (1847-1848)
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens (1850)
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell  (1854)
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert (1856)
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens (1859)
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens  (1861)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs  (1861)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll  (1865)
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky  (1866)
The Gambler
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1867)
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott(1868)
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy  (1869)
The Way We Live Now
by Anthony Trollope  (1875)
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy  (1877)
Black Beauty
The Autobiography of a Horse
by Anna Sewell   (1877)
The American
by Henry James   (1877)
Bel-Ami
by Guy de Maupassant  (1885)
Three Men in a Boat
by Jerome K.Jerome  (1889)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde (1890)
The Woman in White
by Wilkie Collins (1889-1890)
The Time Machine
H. G. Wells  (1895)
Dracula
by Bram Stoker (1897)
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James  (1898)
The Awakening
Kate Chopin  (1899)
—20th Century Classics—
Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser  (1900)
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London  (1903)
White Fang
by Jack London (1906)
The Iron Heel
by Jack London (1907)
Anne of Green Gables
by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908)
A Room with a View
by E.M. Forster (1908)
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame  (1908)
Howards End
by E.M. Forster (1910)
Babbitt
by Sinclair Lewis  (1911)
Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton  (1911)
The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett  (1911)
The Lost World
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  (1912)
My Ántonia
by Willa Cather  (1918)
Demian
The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth
by Hermann Hesse   (1919)
Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson (1919)
Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis  (1920)
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton (1920)
Three Soldiers
John Dos Passos  (1921)
The Red House Mystery
by A.A. Milne (1922)
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster  (1924)
An American Tragedy
by Theodore Dreiser (1925)
The Great Gatsby   ***Newer Rendition***
F. Scott Fitzgerald  (1925)
The Great Gatsby    ***Older Rendition***
F. Scott Fitzgerald  (1925)
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway  (1926)
Elmer Gantry
Sinclair Lewis  (1927)
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse  (1927)
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque (1928)
A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway (1929)
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley  (1932)
Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons  (1932)
Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie  (1934)
Tender Is the Night
F. Scott Fitzgerald  (1934)
It Can't Happen Here
Sinclair Lewis  (1935)
The African Queen
by C.S. Forester   (1935)
In Dubious Battle
by John Steinbeck (1936)
Death on the Nile
by Agatha Christie (1937)
The Hobbit
(Prequel to The Lord of the Rings)
J.R.R. Tolkien  (1937)
Out of the Silent Planet
C.S. Lewis  (1938)
— Book One of The Space Trilogy
The Once and Future King
T.H. White  (1938-1941; 1958)
Coming Up For Air
by George Orwell  (1939)
Johnny Got His Gun
Dalton Trumbo  (1939)
The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler  (1939)
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway  (1940)
Journey into Fear
by Eric Ambler   (1940)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers  (1940)
The Moon is Down
John Steinbeck  (1942)
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis  (1942)
Perelandra
C.S. Lewis  (1943)
— Book Two of The Space Trilogy
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith  (1943)
Animal Farm
George Orwell  (1945)
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh  (1945)
That Hideous Strength
C.S. Lewis  (1945)
— Book Three of The Space Trilogy
The Space Trilogy
C.S. Lewis  (1945)
— Book One : Out of the Silent Planet
— Book Two : Perelandra
— Book Three : That Hideous Strength
Hiroshima
John Hersey  (1946)
The Street
by Ann Petry  (1946)
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank  (1947)
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton   (1948)
1984
George Orwell  (1949)
Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart  (1949)
The Third Man
Graham Greene  (1950)
End of the Affair
Graham Greene  (1951)
My Cousin Rachel
by Daphne du Maurier  (1951)
The Catcher in The Rye
J.D. Salinger  (1951)
The Day of the Triffids
John Wyndham  (1951)
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison  (1952)
Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut   (1952)
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
  (1952)
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury (1953)
The Kraken Wakes
by John Wyndham (1953)
The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler   (1953)
Lord of the Flies
William Golding  (1954)

The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien  (1954)
The Fellowship of the Ring
(Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings)
The Two Towers
(Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings
The Return of the King
(Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings)

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The Hobbit
(Prequel to The Lord of the Rings)
J.R.R. Tolkien  (1937)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Jack Finney  (1955)
The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham  (1955)
On the Beach
Nevil Shute  (1957)
The Midwich Cuckoos
by John Wyndham  (1957)
The Once and Future King
T.H. White  (1938-1941; 1958)
Alas, Babylon
by Pat Frank  (1959)
A Separate Peace 
by John Knowles  (1959)
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe  (1959)
A Fine and Private Place
by Peter S. Beagle   (1960)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee  (1960)
Trouble With Lichen
John Wyndham  (1960)
Catch-22
Joseph Heller  (1961)
Island
Alous Huxley  (1962)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn  (1962)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey  (1962)
A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway  (1964)
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Kurt Vonnegut  (1965)
The Mind Parasites
Colin Wilson  (1967)
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut  (1969)
The House on the Strand
by Daphne du Maurier  (1969)
The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth   (1971)
 
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