FRENCH
Published in 1943, this novella was written and illustrated by a French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot. The story follows a space-travelling child.
The Little Prince
First published in 1812, this collection of stories was composed by two brothers.
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Originally published in 1866, this novel follows the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who plans to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker.
Crime and Punishment
This epic poem follows the adventures of a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster.
Beowulf
This epic poems opens in the 10th year of the Trojan War and features gods, goddesses, and Achilles.
The Iliad
Completed in 1844, this epic tale of suffering and retribution was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Originally published in 1927, this novel is a poetical self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf.
Steppenwolf
Published in 1877, this novel centers on an extramarital affair between a woman and a dashing cavalry officer.
Anna Karenina
Written in 1321, this poem discusses "the state of the soul after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward."
The Divine Comedy
This epic poem follows the Greek king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War.
The Odyssey
First published in 1872, this adventure novel follows a London man and his French valet as they travel in order to win a wager.
Originally published in 1928, this novel describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma during World War I, as well as the detachment from civilian life felt by many upon returning home from the war.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Published in 1869, this novel focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three well-know characters from diverse backgrounds as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture.
War and Peace
Written in 1392, this long poem follows the journey of a group of pilgrims who compete in a storytelling contest.
The Canterbury Tales
This Athenian tragedy by Sophocles was first performed around 429 BCE, and focuses on the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother.
Oedipus Rex
Written in 1844, this historical adventure novel follows heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight for justice.
The Three Musketeers
Published in 1912, this novel follows an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a boy in a family of Polish tourists.
Death in Venice
Originally published in 1880, this novel follows the circumstances leading up to the murder of the main characters' father, and the subsequent arrest of one of them for the crime.
The Brothers Karamazov
This late 14th-century chivalric romance describes how a knight of King Arthur's Round Table accepts a challenge from a mysterious knight.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
This Latin epic poem tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.
The Aeneid
First published in 1862, this historical novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of an ex-convict and his experience of redemption.
Les Misérables
First published in 1915, this novella tells the story of salesman who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition.
The Metamorphosis
Published in 1957, this novel follows a man torn between his love for two women while caught in the tumultuous course of twentieth century Russian history.
Doctor Zhivago
Written around 1200, this poem centers on the fateful involvement of two mythical or fairytale figures, Siegfried and Brünhild, with a brother and sister of the royal house of Burgundy with its seat at Worms, Gunther, and Kriemhild.
The Nibelungenlied
This ancient Greek tragedy centers on the actions of a former princess who finds her position in the Greek world threatened as her husband leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth.
Medea