Kafka,  Franz (60 pages) 
The Metamorphosis
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." So begins the creepiest classic ever.
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Tolstoy,  Leo (60 pages) 
The Death of Ivan Ilych
We're all going to die, but who of us is ready? Ivan Ilych most certainly is not. Find out what he learns on this once-in-a-lifetime journey.
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Mann,  Thomas (71 pages) 
Death in Venice
How far will a man go in his quest for perfection, and his silent struggle with forbidden desire?
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James,  Henry (83 pages) 
Daisy Miller
On holiday in Rome, Daisy just wants to have a little fun, but straight-laced Victorian society throws her to the lions. Also try James's 'The Turn of the Screw,'.
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de Saint-Exupéry,  Antoine (83 pages) 
The Little Prince
In this fanciful book for all ages, an aviator stranded in the desert meets an earnest youth from Asteroid 325, who introduces him to the life's enchanting mysteries.
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Hemingway,  Ernest (93 pages) 
The Old Man and the Sea
The old man has gone 84 days without taking a fish when he ventures out to the deep Gulf Stream water, and is himself caught by a great and mighty fish.
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Melville,  Herman (98 pages) 
Billy Budd
Pressed into service on a warship, a dashing sailor runs afoul of the letter of the law, and is cast on the merciless rocks of blind justice. Also try Melville's 'Bartleby the Scrivener,'.
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Weisel,  Elie (109 pages) 
Night
Hungary, 1944: a Jewish boy manages to survive the worst that man can do to man, only to wonder what in this life could be worth the cost of survival.
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Conrad,  Joseph (110 pages) 
Heart of Darkness
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Marlow knows: his journey up the Congo river in search of the exceptional Mister Kurz inspired the film 'Apocalypse Now.'
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Orwell,  George (113 pages) 
Animal Farm
Rebellious livestock abolish the dominion of their two-legged masters, only to find that "All Animals Are Equal, but Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others."
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Wells,  H.G. (115 pages) 
The Time Machine
Planet Earth in the year 802,701 seems a paradise at first, but then darkness falls, and the Morlocks begin to prowl. Also try 'The Invisible Man,' (136 pages).
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Hesse,  Herman (119 pages) 
Siddhartha
The young Buddha follows paths of deep piety, intense poverty, and sumptuous wealth, but Nirvana waits in an unexpected place.
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Stevenson,  Robert Louis (119 pages)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The good doctor merely wanted to be even better, but when all those nasty urges, dark desires and violent impulses have been purged, where do they go? Gaze into the face of pure evil; his name is Edward Hyde.
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Rand,  Ayn (123 pages) 
Anthem
In a future in which all individuality has been obliterated, a street-sweeper named Equality 7-2521 discovers a little word with a big meaning: "ego."
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Camus,  Albert (123 pages) 
The Stranger
Who is Meursault, why has he killed a man he hardly knows, and why doesn't he seem to care? Is life absurd, or is it just us? Also try Camus's 'The Fall,'(160 pages).
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Steinbeck,  John (124 pages) 
Of Mice and Men
Lennie doesn't know his own strength, and George little suspects the strength of their friendship, or the sacrifice it will demand of him. Also try 'The Red Pony' (95 pages) and 'The Pearl,' (90 pages).
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Dostoyevsky,  Fyodor (136 pages) 
Notes from the Underground
You might pass him on the street and think he was insane. But oh no, my friends, two and two are not always four, and this man from below has a message for you!
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Twain,  Mark (143 pages) 
Pudd'nhead Wilson
Northern lawyer Pudd'nhead can puzzle out the mystery of the Extraordinary Twins and the Secret Changelings, but just can't make any sense of slavery.
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Wharton,  Edith (144 pages) 
Ethan Frome
Was Mattie just a youthful infatuation, or the love of his life? The answer lies buried beneath the snows of the past. Try also Wharton's 'Summer,' (200 pages).
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Voltaire (144 pages),   
Candide, or Optimism
Robbery, shipwreck, torture, earthquake, syphilis, rape, slavery, cannibalism, murder: in this lively satire, 'all's for the best in this best of all possible worlds!'
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Wilder,  Thornton (148 pages) 
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." Now the monk who saw it happen wants to know what God was up to.
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Pynchon,  Thomas (152 pages) 
The Crying of Lot 49
Is Tristero part of some global conspiracy, and what does Thurn und Taxis have to do with it, or W.A.S.T.E.? Oedipa Maas will get to the bottom of it, if she can only figure out which way is up.
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McCullers,  Carson (153 pages) 
The Member of the Wedding
Frankie, whose daddy calls her a great big long-legged 12-year-old blunderbuss, has decided to grow up and leave home with her sister; but in matrimony, three's a crowd.
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Solzhenitsyn,  Alexander (158 pages) 
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
An extra bowl of gruel, the warmth of hard physical work, a bit of shelter against the freezing wind: it was a good day in the Siberian prison camp.
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Goethe,  Johan Wolfgang von (167 pages) 
The Sorrows of Young Werther
It was Napoleon's favorite novel. Dare to read a book so passionate and revolutionary that it provoked a rash of suicides across Europe when it was first published in 1774.
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Bradbury,  Ray (179 pages) 
Fahrenheit 451
Why bother to read? What if we all just watched TV instead? See what's at stake: welcome to a world where all books are banned and reading is a crime.
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Achebe,  Chinua (181 pages) 
Things Fall Apart
Okonkwo's greatest fear is not the forest, not savage beasts, not black magic, not even the white men who are taking over Nigeria. More than these, he fears himself.
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Chopin,  Kate (192 pages) 
The Awakening
This heartfelt story of Edna Pontellier's doomed search of personal meaning and satisfaction was considered so shocking in 1899, it almost ruined its author.
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Burgess,  Athony (192 pages) 
A Clockwork Orange
Vicious thug Alex seems to be utterly evil, but when the scientists remove his capacity to choose, does that make him good?
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Baldwin,  James (197 pages) 
If Beale Street Could Talk
Imagine being convicted of a crime you did not commit, thrown in a cell, far from your loved ones. This is the story of what is left to hold on to, when hope is dead.
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