I am in the UK and we read: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, The Tempest, Animal Farm and various Romantic poets. I can’t remember whether I read The Catcher in the Rye at school or later, at University. There wasn’t much emphasis on modern literature or American literature at my secondary school.
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@Ruth_A I think that might have been my problem. I read all those novels & plays on my own, and just never really warmed up to 20th century American lit (I did like some of the older novels, though, like The Scarlet Letter). Guess I was born in the wrong country and the wrong century!
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That was a long, long time ago. I’m not sure I remember any titles we were assigned…possibly Romeo and Juliet…something by Charles Dickens. The Old Man and the Sea put me off Hemingway for the rest of my life. I also remember trying to read an abbreviated version of A Tale of Two Cities in French. I understood a fraction of it. However, there was a whole world of good reading outside the classroom.
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Alas,Babylon; 1984; The Scarlet Letter; Red Sky at Morning; The Great Gatsby; Black Like Me, Brave New World; Romeo and Juliet; Animal Farm; Black Boy; Moby Dick; Flowers for Algernon; Hamlet; To Kill a Mockingbird; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Death of a Salesman… and many more.
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Right now I can’t remember what I read on my own except for In Cold Blood. Here are some my class read as a whole: Red Badge of Courage, A Clockwork Orange.
Red Badge of Courage
Macbeth
Sister Carrie
The Scarlet Letter
Huckleberry Finn
The Light in August
Tom Sawyer
Moby Dick
Waiting for Godot
The Leatherstocking Tales
I did not like reading - or in later years being forced to teach (along with absurd symbolic analysis) -Old Man and the Sea.
Lord of the Flies
Native Son
Great Expectations
Catch 22
Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
my side of the mountain by jean craighead george
hatchet by gary paulsen
of mice and men by john steinbeck
how to kill a mockingbird by harper lee
outsiders by se hinton
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I remember reading Of Mice and Men and absolutely loved it! My English Lit class had me stuck in a rut reading poetry and I remember feeling it was quite refreshing to read a novel. I know I moved on to other classics, but this one really stood out as a “pivotal” moment.
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The Scarlet Letter which I loved. Still my favorite classic today.
Beowulf, The Rhyme of the Ancient mariner, Of Mice and Men
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First one that always comes to mind is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Made a real impression on me in high school.