110 melhores livros a ler

8/13/2019 110 Melhores Livros a Ler

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CLASSICS

The Iliad and The Odyssey

Homer

Set during the Trojan War, The Iliad combines battle scenes with a debate about heroism;

Odysseus' thwarted attempts to return to Ithaca when the war ends form The Odyssey Its

symbolic e!ocation of human life as an epic journey homewards has inspired e!erything from

"ames "oyce's #lysses to the $oen brothers' film, O %rother Where &rt Thou

The Barchester Chronicles

&nthony Trollope

& story set in a fictional cathedral town about the s(uabbles and power struggles of the clergy

It doesn)t sound promising, but Trollope's spar*lingly satirical no!els are among the best+lo!ed

boo*s of all time

Pride and Prejudice

"ane &usten

Heroine meets hero and hates him Is charmed by a cad & family crisis caused by the cad

is resol!ed by the hero The heroine sees him for what he really is and realises -after !isiting his

enormous house. that she lo!es him The plot has been endlessly borrowed, but few authors

ha!e written anything as witty or profound as /ride and /rejudice

Gulliver's Travels

"onathan Swift

Swift's scathing satire shows humans at their worst0 whether diminished -in 1illiput. or grossly

magnified -in %robdingnag. Our capacity for self+delusion personified by the absurdly

pompous 2ulli!er ma*es this dar*est of no!els !ery funny

Jane Eyre

$harlotte %ront3

$ruelty, hypocrisy, dashed hopes0 "ane 4yre faces them all, yet her indi!iduality triumphs Her

relationship with 5ochester has such emotional power that it's hard to belie!e these characters

ne!er li!ed

War and Peace

Tolstoy

Tolstoy's masterpiece is so enormous e!en the author said it couldn't be described as a no!el

%ut the characters of &ndrei, /ierre and 6atasha and the tragic and une7pected way their

li!es intersect grip you for all 8,9:: pages

avid Co!!er"ield

$harles ic*ens

a!id's journey to adulthood is filled with difficult choices and a huge cast of characters, from

the treacherous Steerforth to the comical


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#anity $air

William


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Paradise Lost

"ohn


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S.ord o" /onour trilo*y

4!elyn Waugh

& poignant, ironic study of the disintegration of aristocratic !alues in the face of blan*

bureaucracy and Second World War butchery,


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Les Liaisons an*ereuses

$hoderlos de 1aclos

/aris in the 8th century0 the


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C/ILE,'S BOO3S

S.allo.s and A&a4ons

&rthur 5ansome

>our children sail to Wildcat Island, where they encounter a ri!al camping party then join forces

to hunt treasure 5obinson $rusoe meets The >amous >i!e in a tale of sailing and ginger beer

The Lion1 the Witch and the Wardro)e

$S 1ewis

/eter, Susan, 4dmund and 1ucy disco!er the land of 6arnia and the male!olent White Witch

The no!el uses $hristian iconography in &slan's dramatic sacrifice and resurrection 4dmund's

transition from self+interested schoolboy to heroic young man is also resonantly spiritual

The Lord o" the in*s

"5 5 Tol*ien

>rodo and friends journey to


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The Wind in the Willo.s

?enneth 2rahame

1onely and miserable trying to clean his hole, ran*ensteins' %rought to life by r Jictor >ran*enstein, Shelley)s creature is part

gothic monster, part 5omantic hero

T.enty Thousand Lea*ues -nder the Sea

"ules Jerne

&mong the deep+sea !olcanoes, shoals of swirling fish, giant s(uid and shar*s, $aptain 6emo

steers the 6autilus 6emo is the renegade scientist par e7cellence, a man madly in!enti!e in his

(uest for re!enge

The Ti&e %achine

H2 Wells

& seminal wor* of dystopian fiction, Wells's tale of the !oyages of the Time Tra!eller in the

distant future -&:@,B:8. is also a crac*ing ad!enture story

Brave ,e. World

&ldous Hu7ley

Ignorance is far from bliss in Hu7ley)s terrible !ision of a future of rampant consumerism,

worthless free lo!e, routine drug use and cultural passi!ity

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2eorge Orwell

So persuasi!e and chilling was the world summoned up here that 'Orwellian' has entered the

language as shorthand for go!ernment control $hilling, wry and romantic, it is abo!e all a

passionate cry for freedom

The ay o" the Tri""ids

"ohn Wyndham

Shifty So!iets and the clipped !ernacular ma*e this a >ifties horror story %ut as humans cope

with disasters -mass blinding by meteor shower; ruthless wal*ing, flesh+eating plants. the tale

becomes taut, terrifying, and far from ridiculous


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$oundation

Isaac &simo!

'2reat 2ala7yN' It is not for literary brilliance that one approaches the first in the >oundation

series, but rather for the sweeping grandeur of &simo!)s epic uni!erse+wide tale of the decline

and fall of empires Once you'!e finished this, 89 no!els and countless more short stories await

:;;6< A S!ace Odyssey

&rthur $ $lar*e

The first in $lar*e's (uartet was written as a no!el and, in collaboration with Stanley ?ubric*, as

a film script &s the isco!ery One mission drifts towards Saturn, $lar*e creates the

embodiment of the perils of computer technology, H&1L:::

o Androids rea& o" Electric Shee!=

/hilip ? ic*

ic*'s masterpiece (uestions what it is that distinguishes us as human, as we follow 5ic*

ec*ard on his mission to 'retire' recalcitrant androids Spawned 5idley Scott's %lade 5unner

,euro&ancer

William 2ibson

& !iolent slab of cyberpun* sci+fi, in which techie acti!ities -artificial intelligence, hac*ing, !irtual

reality. are married with a grimy, anarchic, slangy sensibility, and a cast of hustlers, hac*ers and

jun*ies trying to ma*e sense of a world ruled by corporations

CI%E

The Talented %r i!ley

/atricia Highsmith

Tom 5ipley is one of @:th+century literature's most disturbingly fascinating characters0 a sua!e,

charming serial *iller, who's utterly amoral in his pursuit of la dolce !ita

The %altese $alcon

ashiell Hammett

& tale of greed and deceit that's also the archetypal wor* of @:th+century detecti!e fiction0

complete with flawed hero -Sam Spade., femme fatale and a con!oluted plot that unra!els

grippingly

The Co&!lete Sherloc0 /ol&es

Sir &rthur $onan oyle

It's one of literature's most wonderful ironies that $onan oyle himself became a spiritualist so

soon after creating the most famously rational character in all literature

The Bi* Slee!

5aymond $handler

His oeu!re may be small, but with the help of long+time protagonist /I /hilip


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Tin0er1 Tailor1 Soldier1 S!y

"ohn le $arr

1e $arr, master of the $old War no!el, follows %ritish spymaster 2eorge Smiley as he tries to

unco!er a airy'

%urder on the Orient E+!ress

&gatha $hristie

>rom Istanbul to 1ondon, Hercule /oirot's little grey cells rattle away to improbable effect as he

untangles the mystery of the life and !iolent death of a sinister passenger

The %urders in the ue %or*ue

4dgar &llan /oe

/oe's blac*ly ingenious tale of brutal murder in 8Lth+century /aris establishes $ &uguste

upin, a man of 'peculiar analytic ability', as the model for pretty much e!ery intellectual

detecti!e to come

The Wo&an in White

Wil*ie $ollins

& sensational 8Lth+century epistolary tale of women in peril adds one of the most charismatic,

refined and straightforwardly fat !illains to the pantheon

3illshot

4lmore 1eonard

1eonard is *nown for his pithy dialogue and frea*y characters Here he manages to create a

sweatily suspenseful thriller, with a married couple as the une7pected heroes

BOO3S T/AT C/A,GE T/E WOL

as 3a!ital

?arl


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e&ocracy in A&erica

&le7is de Toc(ue!ille

This treatise loo*ed to the new country's flourishing democracy in the early 8Lth century and the

progressi!e model it offered Pold) 4urope

On War

$arl !on $lausewit

The first, and probably still foremost, treatise on the art of modern warfare The /russian

general loo*ed beyond the battlefield to war's place in the broader political conte7t

The Prince

6iccolo lorentine 5epublic, die

iderot, et al

Subtitled '& Systematic ictionary of the Sciences, &rts, and $rafts', with contributions by

Joltaire,


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The /itchhi0er's Guide to the Gala+y

ouglas &dams

Originally broadcast on 5adio 9, this (uotable comedy about a hapless 4nglishman and his

alien friend pro!ed that sci+fi could be cle!er and funny

The Ti!!in* Point


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A /istory o" the En*lish5S!ea0in* Peo!les

Winston $hurchill

Ta*ing us from $aesar's MM%$ in!asion to the %oer War's end in 8L:@, $hurchill)s four+!olume

saga ma*es the proud, but now+unfashionable, connection between spea*ing 4nglish and

bearing 'the torch of >reedom'

A /istory o" the Crusades

Ste!en 5unciman

Still the landmar* account of the $rusades, %yantine scholar 5unciman's wor* bro*e with

centuries of Western tradition, claiming the crusading in!aders were guilty of a 'long act of

intolerance in the name of 2od'

The /istories

Herodotus

Ostensibly about 2reece's defeat of the in!ading /ersians in the Mth century %$, it blends fact,

hearsay, legend and myth to tell tales of life in and around &ncient 2reece

The /istory o" the Pelo!onnesian War

Thucydides

>amously fastidious o!er the reliability of his data and sources, Thucydides with this detailed

study of the @M+year struggle between &thens and Sparta set the template for e!ery historian

after him

Seven Pillars o" Wisdo&

T 4 1awrence

1awrence of &rabia's fascinating, self+mythologising account of how he united a string of &rab

tribes and successfully led them to rebellion against their Ottoman o!erlords

The An*lo5Sa+on Chronicle

$ompiled at ?ing &lfred's behest in the &L:s, this is the earliest+*nown history of 4ngland

written in old 4nglish It's also the oldest history of any 4uropean country in a !ernacular

language

A Peo!le's Tra*edy

Orlando >iges

>iges charts the 5ussian 5e!olution in star* detail, telling the tale of 'ordinary people' and boldly

concluding that they 'weren't the !ictims of the 5e!olution but protagonists in its tragedy'

Citi4ens< A Chronicle o" the $rench evolution

Simon Schama

%efore he was on tele!ision, /rof Schama offered L9 pages of proof that there was more to the

>rench 5e!olution than fraternity, e(uality and eating ca*e

The Ori*ins o" the Second World War

&"/ Taylor

Was Hitler all that bad Wasn't he just an opportunist who too* ad!antage of &nglo+>rench

dithering and appeasement The label 'iconoclastic' applies to few historians so well as it does

to Taylor


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LI#ES

Con"essions

St &ugustine

In probably the first autobiography in Western literature, the $hurch >ather recounts his life+

journey from sinner to saint, from the boy who stole pears from a neighbour's tree to the

articulator of *ey $hristian doctrines

Lives o" the Caesars

Suetonius

$harting the li!es of "ulius $aesar, &ugustus and the 8: subse(uent 5oman emperors, with

scandalous tales of imperial decadence, !ice and lunacy

Lives o" the Artists

Jasari

The history of Italian 5enaissance art, as told through the biographies of its hea!yweight

practitioners

I" This is a %an

/rimo 1e!i

His bac*ground as an industrial chemist from Turin may not sound remar*able, but 1e!i's

poised account of his hell+on+earth e7periences as a prisoner at &uschwit undoubtedly is

%e&oirs o" a $o+5/untin* %an

Siegfried Sassoon

He's best *nown for his anti+war poems, but Sassoon was also once popular for his semi+

autobiographical trilogy of no!els, of which this was the first

E&inent #ictorians

1ytton Strachey

Strachey didn't do hagiography His unflattering biographical essays on major Jictorian figures

debun*ed the myth of Jictorian pre+eminence

A Li"e o" Charlotte Bront?

4liabeth 2as*ell

& biography of the intriguing "ane 4yre author, by her friend and fellow+no!elist, 2as*ell One of

the definiti!e 'tortured genius' biographies

Good)ye to All That

5obert 2ra!es

& friend of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, 2ra!es was another 4nglishman to write

unsparingly about the horrors of trench warfare

The Li"e o" r Johnson

%oswell

He's one of 4nglish literature's all+time hea!yweights, but most of what we *now about Samuel

"ohnson, the man, comes from his friend %oswell)s hearty anecdotal biog

iaries

&lan $lar*

The late Tory

110 melhores livros a ler

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