You don’t have to be a voracious reader to read these kind of novels. If you have a proper vision towards life, a stable philosophy about all the happenings of life, a view of the society then this novels are a must read for you. In this article we are going to discuss about top 7 classic novels that every English major student should go through.
First and foremost, your choices may differ from ours. This list is not the only classics you should read. Here we just tried to enlighten you with the beauty and subliminal quality of these novels which are mentioned here. The choices and opinions are completely anonymous and personal.
Before we start the discussion, we should consider what made these kind of novels classic. See, every novels mentioned here is absolutely brilliant in there own. Their narrative style, character build up, plot construction and other significant characteristics of novels are completely noteworthy and brilliant. Authors of these novels, who belonged from different literary era, had a complete vision of life and society. They say, literature is the mirror of society. In this novels, we can see how rightly this saying have became true.
1. ‘The Old Man And The Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway :
“The Old Man And The Sea depicts the heroism of a Cuban Fisherman, Santiago who ventures into the deep sea alone and succeeds in hooking a huge Merlin. He struggles with the fish and after two days and nights of hunger and hard fight, he rows it towards the shore. The sharks get smell of the blood oozing out of the Merlin and set upon his prize. Santiago begins his struggle with the sharks but the struggle is futile because they are too many and too powerful. Santiago, half dead with exhaustion tows home the skeleton of the fish, the biggest Merlin ever baited there.
The novel records the heroic struggle of Santiago. He is a tragic hero who carries on his fight with his opponents relentlessly. He is defeated but not destroyed. The hero does not accomplish anything materially but obtains an insight into his own identity and passes on the unique experiment to the world. He gains in heroic stature in his heroic fight.
2. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ By Jane Austin :
The Classic novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ tells the story of the gradual union of two people, one held back by unconquerable pride, and the other blinded by prejudice. The Novel’s heroine is undoubtedly Elizabeth in whose mental constitution prejudice
occupies a large part; and the novel’s hero is surely Mr. Darcy who personifies pride. These two persons come into contact with each other at a social gathering.
Initially, they dislike each other. But, in course of time, Mr. Darcy’s pride doiminishes and then gives way to a balanced outlook on his part; and similarly, in course of time, Elizabeth’s prejudice against Mr. Darcy gives way to a reasoned
attitude on her part. Eventually, they discover that they are best suited to each other for a marital relationship. Pride and Prejudice is, therefore, an apt, and also attractive, title for the novel.
3. ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald :
Gatsby the hero of the Classic novel is poor but he loves a rich girl whom he calls the golden girl, the King’s Daughter. She is the ambitious man’s romantic ideal of the beautiful and the rich.
The war which bring them together separates them when Gatsby is sent abroad. Tired of waiting, daisy married Tom Buchanan whose first present to her is a pearl necklace worth three hundred thousand dollars. This keeps her chained to her husband forever. On his return to America Gatsby decided to cross the “Indescrenible barbed wire” barrier between the rich and the poor so that he may regain Daisy. He gains money somehow, and by time he realizes no goals are unachievable.
In this article we discussed the 3 novels, the rest of the 3 novels has been discussed here –
