HomepageClassics for English Language Learners
Candide
Voltaire (1759)
Voltaire's *Candide* is a gleeful demolition job—a slim, savage little book that takes the comforting lie "everything happens for a reason" and beats it to death with absurdity, rape, syphilis, earthquakes, and cannibalism until you're laughing despite yourself. Its hero stumbles from catastrophe to catastrophe across a world run by fools, hypocrites, and torturers, all while his idiot mentor Pangloss insists this is still "the best of all possible worlds"—a punchline that gets crueler every time it's repeated. Voltaire isn't just mocking bad philosophy; he's daring you to keep believing in cosmic justice while he shows you a planet where virtue gets you killed and cruelty gets promoted. It ends not with answers but with a shrug toward quiet, stubborn labor—cultivating your garden—as the only sane response to a universe that owes you nothing. Two and a half centuries later, it still reads like it was written to make optimists furious.| ADVISORY: This story was published 260+ years ago. It is a product of its time and place and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Teachers might wish to discuss how views on 'race', religion, and ethnicity have changed. |
MORE CLASSIC AUDIOBOOKS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
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BUT IF YOU FEEL AMBITIOUS, PLEASE GIVE THESE BOOKS A TRY —
THERE ARE GOOD REASONS THEY ARE CONSIDERED TO BE 'CLASSICS'.
*** THE BOOKS BELOW ARE LISTED BY THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION ***
—18th Century Classic—
Candide
Voltaire (1759)
Voltaire (1759)
—19th Century Classics—
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen (1811)
Jane Austen (1811)
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen (1813)
Jane Austen (1813)
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell (1854)
Elizabeth Gaskell (1854)
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens (1861)
Charles Dickens (1861)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs (1861)
by Harriet Jacobs (1861)
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy (1869)
Leo Tolstoy (1869)
The Way We Live Now
by Anthony Trollope (1875)
by Anthony Trollope (1875)
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy (1877)
Leo Tolstoy (1877)
The American
by Henry James (1877)
by Henry James (1877)
Daisy Miller
by Henry James (1878)
by Henry James (1878)
by Guy de Maupassant (1885)
by Leo Tolstoy (1886)
Three Men in a Boat
by Jerome K.Jerome (1889)
by Jerome K.Jerome (1889)
by Oscar Wilde (1890)
by Wilkie Collins (1889-1890)
—20th Century Classics—
Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser (1900)
Theodore Dreiser (1900)
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London (1903)
by Jack London (1903)
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame (1908)
Kenneth Grahame (1908)
Babbitt
by Sinclair Lewis (1911)
by Sinclair Lewis (1911)
Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton (1911)
Edith Wharton (1911)
The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
My Ántonia
by Willa Cather (1918)
by Willa Cather (1918)
Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis (1920)
by Sinclair Lewis (1920)
Three Soldiers
John Dos Passos (1921)
John Dos Passos (1921)
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster (1924)
E.M. Forster (1924)
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway (1926)
Ernest Hemingway (1926)
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse (1927)
Hermann Hesse (1927)
The African Queen
by C.S. Forester (1935)
by C.S. Forester (1935)
Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
Coming Up For Air
by George Orwell (1939)
by George Orwell (1939)
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway (1940)
Ernest Hemingway (1940)
Journey into Fear
by Eric Ambler (1940)
by Eric Ambler (1940)
The Moon is Down
John Steinbeck (1942)
John Steinbeck (1942)
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis (1942)
by C.S. Lewis (1942)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith (1943)
by Betty Smith (1943)
Animal Farm
George Orwell (1945)
George Orwell (1945)
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh (1945)
Evelyn Waugh (1945)
The Space Trilogy
C.S. Lewis (1945)
— Book One : Out of the Silent Planet
— Book Two : Perelandra
— Book Three : That Hideous Strength
C.S. Lewis (1945)
— Book One : Out of the Silent Planet
— Book Two : Perelandra
— Book Three : That Hideous Strength
The Street
by Ann Petry (1946)
by Ann Petry (1946)
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton (1948)
by Alan Paton (1948)
1984
George Orwell (1949)
George Orwell (1949)
Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart (1949)
by George R. Stewart (1949)
The Third Man
Graham Greene (1950)
Graham Greene (1950)
End of the Affair
Graham Greene (1951)
Graham Greene (1951)
My Cousin Rachel
by Daphne du Maurier (1951)
by Daphne du Maurier (1951)
The Catcher in The Rye
J.D. Salinger (1951)
J.D. Salinger (1951)
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison (1952)
Ralph Ellison (1952)
Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut (1952)
by Kurt Vonnegut (1952)
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway (1952)
Ernest Hemingway (1952)
The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler (1953)
by Raymond Chandler (1953)
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien (1954)
The Fellowship of the Ring
(Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings)
The Two Towers
(Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings
The Return of the King
(Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings)
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The Hobbit
(Prequel to The Lord of the Rings)
J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham (1955)
by John Wyndham (1955)
The Midwich Cuckoos
by John Wyndham (1957)
by John Wyndham (1957)
Alas, Babylon
by Pat Frank (1959)
by Pat Frank (1959)
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles (1959)
by John Knowles (1959)
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe (1959)
by Chinua Achebe (1959)
A Fine and Private Place
by Peter S. Beagle (1960)
by Peter S. Beagle (1960)
Island
Alous Huxley (1962)
Alous Huxley (1962)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey (1962)
Ken Kesey (1962)
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Kurt Vonnegut (1965)
Kurt Vonnegut (1965)
The Mind Parasites
Colin Wilson (1967)
Colin Wilson (1967)
True Grit
by Charles Portis (1968)
by Charles Portis (1968)
The House on the Strand
by Daphne du Maurier (1969)
by Daphne du Maurier (1969)
The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth (1971)
by Frederick Forsyth (1971)
The Stepford Wives
by Ira Levin (1972)
by Ira Levin (1972)
Watership Down
by Richard Adams (1972)
by Richard Adams (1972)
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