Reading lists
High School Reading List: The Classics by Grade
The classics US high schools assign most are Romeo and Juliet in grade 9, Julius Caesar in grade 10, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter and Huckleberry Finn in grade 11, and Hamlet and Macbeth in grade 12. Here is the full list, grade by grade, with why each book is read, how long it takes, how hard it is, and a 15-minute summary and study guide for each.
Grade 9: the first classics
Freshman English usually meets the three big forms: a Greek epic, a Shakespeare play and a long novel.
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Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
The most taught book in US high schools: a fast, violent love story that is many students' first full Shakespeare play.
- 1 h 48 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
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The Odyssey
Homer
The journey home that every later adventure story borrows from, read to learn how an epic works.
- 8 h 01 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
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Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Pip's rise and fall shows how a Victorian novel builds a life, and how money changes who we think we are.
- 12 h 05 min
- Challenging read
- Grade 9 in the ALSCW survey
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's comedy of lovers lost in an enchanted wood: the gentlest way into his language.
- 1 h 12 min
- Medium read
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The Call of the Wild
Jack London
A short, gripping story of a dog pulled into the wild, often read to talk about nature and survival.
- 2 h 06 min
- Medium read
Grade 10: world literature
Sophomore courses often widen the map: ancient tragedy, Rome, revolution and Europe.
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Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare
Rhetoric in action: Brutus and Antony's speeches are the classic lesson in how words move a crowd.
- 1 h 27 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
-
Antigone
Sophocles · in The Seven Plays in English Verse
The play most schools use to ask whether conscience can stand against the law; the book also holds Oedipus the King.
- Whole book 6 h 28 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
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A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
London and Paris in the French Revolution: Dickens on sacrifice, mobs and second chances.
- 8 h 53 min
- Medium read
-
A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen
Nora's last door slam made this the first modern play about a woman leaving a marriage.
- 1 h 43 min
- Medium read
-
Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka
A man wakes up as an insect: the short, strange story that opens every class on Kafka and alienation.
- 1 h 22 min
- Challenging read
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Grade 11: American literature
Junior year is usually American literature, from the Puritans to the Jazz Age.
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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The short novel of the American Dream, at or near the top of almost every high school list today.
- 3 h 16 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
-
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hester Prynne against Puritan Boston: guilt, shame and symbols, and the way into 19th-century American prose.
- 5 h 24 min
- Challenging read
- On 4 or more national lists
-
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
Huck and Jim on the Mississippi: Twain's satire of race and freedom, and the root of the American voice in fiction.
- 7 h 21 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Frederick Douglass
Douglass's own account of slavery and of learning to read: the key American autobiography.
- 2 h 38 min
- Medium read
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Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau's two years by the pond, and the essay on resisting unjust laws that later moved Gandhi and King.
- 7 h 43 min
- Challenging read
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The Red Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane
A young soldier's fear and pride in the Civil War, told from inside his head.
- 3 h 02 min
- Easy read
-
The Awakening
Kate Chopin · in The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories
Kate Chopin's novel of a woman who will not live by the rules chosen for her.
- Whole book 4 h 13 min
- Medium read
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Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton
A short, bleak New England tragedy, often chosen to teach structure and setting in a novel.
- 2 h 20 min
- Medium read
Grade 12: British literature
Senior English usually runs through British literature, from the Anglo-Saxons to the 20th century.
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Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
William Shakespeare
The most quoted play in English: a prince who cannot decide, and the way into tragedy and doubt.
- 2 h 09 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
-
Macbeth
William Shakespeare
Ambition, prophecy and murder in Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, taught in most US schools.
- 1 h 18 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
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Beowulf
Anonymous
The oldest long poem in English, read at the start of British literature for its heroes and monsters.
- 2 h 43 min
- Medium read
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The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer · in The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems
Pilgrims trade stories on the road: the liveliest portrait of medieval England.
- Whole book 17 h 40 min
- Challenging read
-
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
The first science fiction novel, assigned to ask what a creator owes what he creates.
- 4 h 53 min
- Medium read
- On 4 or more national lists
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Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Austen's sharpest comedy of manners: first impressions, money and marriage.
- 8 h 14 min
- Medium read
-
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
An orphan governess who insists on being treated as an equal: the classic novel of a woman's own voice.
- 12 h 28 min
- Challenging read
-
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
A journey up the Congo River that questions empire and what people call civilization.
- 2 h 33 min
- Medium read
-
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
Wilde's novel of beauty, vanity and a portrait that ages instead of its owner.
- 5 h 08 min
- Medium read
How this list is built
Grades follow the usual US course order (grade 9 meets the main forms: epic, play and novel; grade 10 world literature; grade 11 American literature; grade 12 British literature) and, where the ALSCW national survey of grades 9 to 11 gives a grade, that grade. Schools differ, and many books move between grades. Reading time is the whole book at 238 words a minute; the level is our reading-level measure of the edition.
Modern books also top these lists, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible, Of Mice and Men, Night and Lord of the Flies; they are not in our library, so they are not linked here.
Send this list to a student, a parent or a teacher.
Questions
What books are mandatory to read in high school?
No book is required in every US school; states and districts choose. The books assigned most often are Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn and The Odyssey, together with modern titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Crucible.
What books do 10th graders read in English?
Grade 10 is often world literature: Julius Caesar, Antigone, A Tale of Two Cities, A Doll's House and Kafka's Metamorphosis are common choices, with modern books such as Things Fall Apart and Animal Farm.
What books do you read in 11th grade English?
Grade 11 is usually American literature: The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Frederick Douglass's Narrative and Thoreau, with The Crucible as the most taught modern play.
What books do 12th graders read?
Grade 12 is often British literature: Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, Macbeth, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Heart of Darkness. Students in AP Literature read many of the same books.
What are some must-read classics for high school students?
Start with the books that appear on the most lists: Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Odyssey, Frankenstein and The Scarlet Letter. Each one opens a conversation that later books keep having.
