I’ve read all these books, and while their inclusion doesn’t indicate whether or not I think they are worthy of being recommended, they are the works you probably should read if you want a full-orbed view of these areas of literature.
Canadian Literature
- Best Tales of the Yukon. Robert Service
American Literature
- Mark Twain
- A Conneticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court. Mark Twain.
- The Diaries of Adam and Eve. Mark Twain.
- A Dog’s Tale. Mark Twain.
- Robert Heinlein
- Between Planets. Robert Heinlein.
- Beyond this Horizon. Robert Heinlein.
- The Door Into Summer. Robert Heinlein.
- Robert A. Heinlein: A Stranger in His Own Land. George E. Slusser
- Kurt Vonnegut
- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A Novel. Kurt Vonnegut.
- Mother Night. Kurt Vonnegut.
- Slaughterhouse-Five. Kurt Vonnegut.
- Timequake. Kurt Vonnegut.
- Phillip Roth
- American Pastoral. Phillip Roth.
- Zuckerman Unbound. Phillip Roth.
- Other
- Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings. Christopher Moore.
- Anthem. Ayn Rand.
- Islands In The Stream. Ernest Hemingway.
- On The Road. Jack Kerouac.
Russian Literature
- Dostoevsky
- Brothers Karamazov. Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
- Dostoievsky. C.M. Woodhouse.
- Dostoevsky in 90 Minutes. Paul Strathern.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky by Peter Leithart
- The Gambler. Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
- The Idiot. Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
- Notes from the Underground. Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
- Turgenev
- The Diary of a Superfluous Man. Ivan Turgenev.
- Ivan Turgenev. Charles Moser.
- Chekhov
- Chekhov in an Hour. Carol Rocamora
- The Proposal. Anton Chekhov
- Other
- Master and Man. Leo Tolstoy
- In The Interlude. Boris Pasternak.
- Heart of a Dog. Mikhail Bulgakov.
- Lolita. Vladimir Nabokov.
- The Master And Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov.
- Pale Fire. Vladimir Nabokov.
British Literature
- Shakespeare
- Hamlet. William Shakespeare.
- The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street. Charles Nicholl.
- Macbeth. William Shakespeare.
- Shakespeare: The World As Stage. Bill Bryson.
- Daniel Defoe
- A Journal of the Plague Year. Daniel Defoe.
- Captain Singleton. Daniel Defoe
- Everybody’s Business Is Nobody’s Business. Daniel Defoe.
- Moll Flanders. Daniel Defoe.
- Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe.
- Roxana. Daniel Defoe.
- George MacDonald
- The Diary of an Old Soul by George MacDonald
- Far Above Rubies. George MacDonald.
- The Shadows. George MacDonald.
- The Wise Woman. George MacDonald.
- Orwell, George
- 1984. George Orwell.
- Animal Farm. George Orwell.
- Homeage to Catalonia. George Orwell
- Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm by Daniel Leab
- Shooting An Elephant and Other Essays by George Orwell
- Tolkien, J.R.R.
- The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien / Christopher Tolkien
- The Hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien.
- J.R.R. Tolkien. Catharine Stimpson.
- J.R.R. Tolkien. Mark Horne
- J.R.R. Tolkien: The Man Who Created the Lord of the Rings. Michael Coren
- The Silmarillion. J.R.R. Tolkien / Christopher Tolkien
- Wodehouse, P.G.
- Eggs, Beans and Crumpets. P.G. Wodehouse.
- Something Fresh. P.G. Wodehouse.
- Stuff Upper Lip, Jeeves. P.G. Wodehouse.
- Thank You, Wodehouse. J.H.C. Morris
- Wodehouse: A Life. Robert McCrum.
- The World of P.G. Wodehouse. Herbert Warren Wind.
- H.G. Wells
- The War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells.
- H.G. Wells: First Citizen of the Future. Keith Ferrell.
- Mankind in the Making. H.G. Wells.
- Other
- Diary Of A Nobody. George Grossmith.
- An Ideal Husband. Oscar Wilde.
- Jude The Obscure. Thomas Hardy.
- Crome Yellow. Aldous Huxley.
- Kim. Rudyard Kipling.
- The Man Who Knew Too Much. G.K. Chesterton.
- The Narnian:The Life And Imagination of C.S. Lewis. Alan Jacobs.
Balkan Literature
- Garden, Ashes. Danilo Kis.
- The Little Box by Vasko Popa
German Literature
- The Castle. Franz Kafka.
- The Trial. Franz Kafka.
French Literature
- The Last Day of a Condemned Man.Victor Hugo.
- The Outsider. Albert Camus.
- The Plague. Albert Camus
Polish Literature
- Sonnets from the Crimea. Adam Mickiewicz