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Books to Read: The Must-Read Classic Works
by InfoBooks
587+ classic book pages. Summary, literary analysis, and free PDF for each work.
From Dostoevsky to Austen, from Plato to Camus, we have gathered the must-read books. Not just a simple list of titles: each book has a complete page with a detailed summary, an analysis of the work, its historical context, and a link to download it for free in PDF.
These works have endured through the centuries because they speak to every generation. They are free because they belong to the public domain or are shared with permission.
Browse the complete A-Z list, explore by classic author. You can also download from our thousands of free PDF books or discover our classic authors.
All Books to Read (A-Z)
587 classic books — summary, analysis, and free PDF for each title.
- A Christmas Carol
- A Christmas Tree and a Wedding
- A Country Doctor
- A Descent into the Maelström
- A Doll's House
- A Dream Within a Dream
- A Floating City
- A House to Let
- A Hunger Artist
- A Nasty Story
- A Pair of Blue Eyes
- A Princess of Mars
- A Report to an Academy
- A Room With A View
- A Scandal in Bohemia
- A Short History of the World
- A Simple Soul
- A Study In Scarlet
- A Tale of Two Cities
- A Visit to Three Fronts
- A Voyage to the Moon
- A Winter Amid the Ice
- Aaron's Rod
- Absalom, Absalom!
- Adventures of Gerard
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Aeneid
- Al Aaraaf
- Ali Pacha
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- American Notes for General Circulation
- Amerika
- Amores
- An Antarctic Mystery
- Angel Pitou
- Animal Farm
- Anna Karenina
- Annabel Lee
- Antic Hay
- Anticipations
- Around the Moon
- Around the World in Eighty Days
- As a Man Thinketh
- At the Mountains of Madness
- Facing the Flag
- Fairy Tales
- Fantasia of the Unconscious
- Father Goriot
- Faust
- First Alcibiades
- First and Last Things
- Five Weeks in a Balloon
- Flappers and Philosophers
- Frankenstein
- From the Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon
- From the Earth to the Moon
- Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
- MS. Found in a Bottle
- Madame Bovary
- Magna Moralia
- Mahabharata
- Mansfield Park
- Marriage
- Martin Chuzzlewit
- Masnavi
- Master Humphrey's Clock
- Master of the World
- Medea
- Meditations
- Memnon or Human Wisdom
- Memoirs of the Twentieth Century & Prevision Should the future help the past?
- Men Like Gods
- Menexenus
- Meno
- Metaphysics
- Meteorology
- Metzengerstein
- Micah Clarke
- Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar
- Middlemarch
- Mind Power
- Moby-Dick
- Morella
- Mother Hulda
- Mrs Dalloway
- Murat
- Metamorphoses
- Oedipus the King
- Of Mice and Men
- Off on a Comet
- Old Sultan
- Oliver Twist
- On Generation and Corruption
- On Interpretation
- On Sense and the Sensible
- On Sophistical Refutations
- On Women
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration
- On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
- On the Heavens
- On the Origin of Species
- On the Parts of Animals
- On the Shortness of Life
- On the Soul
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- One Thousand and One Nights
- Othello
- Our Mutual Friend
- Over Strand and Field
- Paradise
- Paris in the Twentieth Century
- Parmenides
- Partners in Crime
- Pedro Páramo
- Perpetual Peace
- Persuasion
- Peter Camenzind
- Peter Pan
- Phaedo
- Phaedrus
- Philebus
- Physic
- Poems
- Poems
- Poetics
- Poirot Investigates
- Politics
- Poor Folk
- Posterior Analytics
- Pride and Prejudice
- Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
- Protagoras
- Salammbo
- Sanditon
- Self-Reliance
- Sense and Sensibility
- Sentimental Education
- Shakuntala
- Siddhartha
- Silence
- Sir Nigel
- Sketches by Boz
- Snarled Identities; Or, A Desperate Tangle
- Sons and Lovers
- Sophist
- South American Jungle Tales
- St Mawr
- Statesman
- Steppenwolf
- Stories From the Italian Poets
- Stories
- Sweetheart Roland
- The Complete Short Stories of Anton Chekhov
- The Metamorphosis
- Tales of Mystery & Imagination (stories)
- Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
- Tales of the Jazz Age
- Tamerlane and Other Poems
- Tarquin of Cheapside
- Ten Years Later
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- The 39 Steps
- The Adventure of Silver Blaze
- The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
- The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
- The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
- The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
- The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
- The Adventure of the Crooked Man
- The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
- The Adventure of the Dying Detective (Article)
- The Adventure of the Empty House
- The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual
- The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
- The Adventure of the Speckled Band
- The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
- The Adventures of Pinocchio
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- The Adventures of Three Russians and Three Englishmen in South Africa
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- The Age of Innocence
- The Apology of Socrates
- The Art of Money Getting
- The Art of War
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
- The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
- The Banquet
- The Basis Of Morality
- The Beautiful and Damned
- The Begum's Fortune
- The Bells
- The Big Four
- The Black Cat
- The Black Tulip
- The Blazing World
- The Blockade Runners
- The Body Snatcher
- The Borgias
- The Boscombe Valley Mystery
- The Bottle Imp
- The Bride of Corinth and Other Poems
- The British Campaign in France and Flanders
- The Brothers Karamazov
- The Call of Cthulhu
- The Canterbury Tales
- The Canterville Ghost
- The Captain of the Pole-Star
- The Captain's Doll
- The Carpathian Castle
- The Case for Spirit Photography
- The Case of Lady Sannox
- The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
- The Cask of Amontillado
- The Castle
- The Castle of Otranto
- The Cenci
- The Child of the Cavern
- The Chimes
- The City of the Sun
- The Companions of Jehu
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- The Countess of Charny
- The Cricket on the Hearth
- The Crime of the Congo
- The Crocodile
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- The Decameron
- The Descent of Man
- The Diamond As Big As The Ritz
- The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species
- The Discovery of the Future
- The Dog and the Sparrow
- The Double
- The Dream
- The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
- The Dunwich Horror
- The Educational Theory
- The Elves
- The Enchiridion
- The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer Counsels and Maxims
- The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer Religion a Dialogue Etc
- The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer Studies in Pessimism
- The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer on Human Nature
- The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer the Art of Controversy
- The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer the Art of Literature
- The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer the Wisdom of Life
- The Eternal Husband
- The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard
- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
- The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
- The Fall of the House of Usher
- The Final Problem
- The Fisherman and His Wife
- The Five Orange Pips
- The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
- The Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible
- The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of worms with observations of their habits
- The Forty-five
- The Fox
- The Frog Prince
- The Fur Country
- The Gallant Tailor
- The Gambler
- The Game of Life and How to Play It
- The George Sand
- The Gods of Mars
- The Gold-Bug
- The Golden Bird
- The Goose Girl
- The Grand Inquisitor
- The Great Gatsby
- The Great Keinplatz Experiment
- The Great Shadow
- The Greater Hippias
- The Green Ray
- The Hand
- The Haunted Palace
- The History of Spiritualism
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
- The House of the Dead
- The House of the Seven Gables
- The House on the Borderland
- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
- The Idiot
- The Imp of the Perverse
- The Invisible Man
- The Iron Heel
- The Island of Doctor Moreau
- The Journal of Julius Rodman
- The Judgment
- The Kybalion
- The Lady of the Camellias
- The Ladybird
- The Lair of the White Worm
- The Land of Mist
- The Land that Time Forgot
- The Landlady
- The Last Galley
- The Last Man
- The Laws
- The Leavenworth Case
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
- The Lighthouse at the End of the World
- The Lily of the Valley
- The Little Prince
- The Lost Girl
- The Lost World
- The Magic Mountain
- The Maltese Falcon
- The Man Who Knew Too Much
- The Man in the Brown Suit
- The Man in the Iron Mask
- The Man of the Crowd
- The Man with the Twisted Lip
- The Masque of the Red Death
- The Master Key System
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
- The Metamorphosis
- The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics
- The Monk
- The Monster Men
- The Moonstone
- The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage
- The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
- The Murder on the Links
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue
- The Mysteries of Udolpho
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- The Mysterious Island
- The Mystery of Cloomber
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood
- The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
- The Mystery of Sasassa Valley
- The Mystery of the Blue Train
- The Mystery of the Yellow Room
- The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
- The New Life
- The New Revelation
- The Odyssey
- The Old Curiosity Shop
- The Old Man and the Sea
- The Organon
- The Oval Portrait
- The Parasite
- The Passionate Friends
- The Pearl
- The Peasants Wise Daughter
- The Phantom of the Opera
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- The Pink
- The Pit and the Pendulum
- The Poison Belt
- The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
- The Power of Concentration
- The Premature Burial
- The Prince
- The Prior Analytics
- The Prophet
- The Purchase of the North Pole
- The Purloined Letter
- The Queen Bee
- The Queen’s Necklace
- The Rainbow
- The Raven
- The Raw Youth
- The Red and the Black
- The Red-Headed League
- The Refugees
- The Return of Sherlock Holmes
- The Riddle of the Sands
- The Robber Bridegroom
- The Scarlet Letter
- The Science of Getting Rich
- The Sea Lady
- The Secret Adversary
- The Secret of Chimneys
- The Secret of Father Brown
- The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces
- The Sign of the Four
- The Signal-Man
- The Sleeper
- The Sleeping Beauty
- The Sorrows of Young Werther
- The Sound and the Fury
- The Stark Munro Letters
- The Story of My Life
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean
- The Survivors of the Chancellor
- The Symposium
- The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
- The Tale of Genji
- The Tell-Tale Heart
- The Temptation os St Antony
- The Thirty-Nine Steps
- The Three Musketeers
- The Time Machine
- The Tragedy of the Korosko
- The Trial
- The Turn of the Screw
- The Turnip
- The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
- The Valley of Fear
- The Vampyre
- The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication Vol 1
- The Vicomte De Bragelonne
- The Vital Message
- The Voyage of the Beagle
- The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct
- The War in the Air
- The War of the Worlds
- The Watsons
- The White Company
- The White Peacock
- The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman
- The Woman in White
- The Women's War
- The Wonderful Visit
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- The World Set Free
- The World as Will and Idea, Vol. 1
- The World as Will and Idea, Vol. 2
- The World as Will and Idea, Vol. 3
- The affair at the Semiramis Hotel
- The Book of Job
- The tribulations of a Chinaman in China
- Theaetetus
- Think and Grow Rich
- This Misery of Boots
- This Side of Paradise
- Those Barren Leaves
- Three Short Works
- Three Tales from the Life of Knulp
- Ticket No. "9672"
- Timaeus
- To the Lighthouse
- Tom Thumb
- Topics
- Trent's Last Case
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
- Twenty Years After
Explore by Classic Author
The writers who shaped the history of literature. Each author with their complete works, summaries, and free PDFs.
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Download These Books as Free PDF
All classic books featured on this page are available for free download in PDF format. No registration required, no fees. The PDF downloads directly to your device.
It's legal: each book is in the public domain, under a Creative Commons license, or shared with the author's permission. These are complete works, not excerpts or summaries.
Beyond the classics, InfoBooks offers a library of 3,500+ free books covering dozens of categories: novels, philosophy, personal development, psychology, history, and many more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to common questions about classic books.
Among the essentials: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Stranger by Albert Camus, 1984 by George Orwell, and The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery. Each of these books has a complete page on InfoBooks with summary, analysis, and free PDF.
A classic book is a literary work that has stood the test of time and continues to be read and studied. These books are recognized for their literary quality, cultural influence, and ability to speak to each generation. Most belong to the public domain and are therefore available for free.
If you're just starting out, begin with accessible works: The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery, The Stranger by Camus, or Alice in Wonderland by Carroll. These are short and captivating books that open the door to classic literature without being intimidating.
Yes. Each classic book on InfoBooks comes with a free PDF download link. No registration required, no fees. The works are legal: public domain, Creative Commons license, or shared with the authors' permission. These are complete works, not excerpts. You can also browse our complete library of 3,500+ free books.
Classic literature encompasses works published before the mid-20th century that have become universal references. Modern literature, more recent, explores contemporary forms and themes. The two complement each other: reading the classics helps better understand modern literature.
Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Germinal by Zola, The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, The Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire, and The Stranger by Camus. These works are the pillars of French literature and are all available for free on InfoBooks.
InfoBooks currently offers 587+ classic book pages. Each page contains a detailed summary, literary analysis, historical context of the work, and a link to download the book for free in PDF. New titles are added regularly.