Reading path
The English Novel
The tradition that invented the novel in English and spent five centuries refining it into the most flexible literary form ever devised. From medieval pilgrims to postwar disillusionment, this path traces the great arc of English prose fiction: its wit, its moral seriousness, its obsession with class and manners and the quiet violence beneath them. A literature that shaped how the modern world tells stories about itself.
In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.
The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.
The route
- 1. The Canterbury TalesGeoffrey Chaucer, 1392
- 2. A Journal Of The Plague YearDaniel Defoe, 1722
- 3. Gulliver's TravelsJonathan Swift, 1726
- 4. ClarissaSamuel Richardson, 1748
- 5. The Adventures Of Roderick RandomTobias Smollett, 1748
- 6. Tristram ShandyLaurence Sterne, 1759
- 7. WaverleySir Walter Scott, 1814
- 8. Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen, 1813
- 9. EmmaJane Austen, 1815
- 10. PersuasionJane Austen, 1817
- 11. Lady SusanJane Austen, 1871
- 12. Barry LyndonWilliam Makepeace Thackeray, 1844
- 13. Vanity FairWilliam Makepeace Thackeray, 1848
- 14. David CopperfieldCharles Dickens, 1850
- 15. Bleak HouseCharles Dickens, 1853
- 16. Great ExpectationsCharles Dickens, 1861
- 17. MiddlemarchGeorge Eliot, 1872
- 18. The First Men In The MoonH.G. Wells, 1901
- 19. Tess of the d'UrbervillesThomas Hardy, 1891
- 20. The History of Mr. PollyH.G. Wells, 1910
- 21. Jude the ObscureThomas Hardy, 1895
- 22. Where Angels Fear to TreadE.M. Forster, 1905
- 23. The Good SoldierFord Madox Ford, 1915
- 24. The RainbowD.H. Lawrence, 1915
- 25. Women in LoveD.H. Lawrence, 1920
- 26. A Passage to IndiaE.M. Forster, 1924
- 27. A Handful of DustEvelyn Waugh, 1934
- 28. Brideshead RevisitedEvelyn Waugh, 1945
- 29. GormenghastMervyn Peake, 1950
- 30. Lord of the FliesWilliam Golding, 1954
- 31. The Sea The SeaIris Murdoch, 1978
- 32. The Remains of the DayKazuo Ishiguro, 1989
- 33. IvanhoeSir Walter Scott, 1819
- 34. Howards EndE.M. Forster, 1910
- 35. Cold Comfort FarmStella Gibbons, 1932
- 36. Wolf HallHilary Mantel, 2009
- 37. RebeccaDaphne du Maurier, 1938
- 38. The Woman in WhiteWilkie Collins, 1860
- 39. Lucky JimKingsley Amis, 1954
- 40. Oliver TwistCharles Dickens, 1837
- 41. I Capture the CastleDodie Smith, 1948
- 42. Sons and LoversD.H. Lawrence, 1913
- 43. Tom JonesHenry Fielding, 1749
- 44. A Dance to the Music of TimeAnthony Powell, 1951
- 45. Adam BedeGeorge Eliot, 1859
- 46. Bridget Jones's DiaryHelen Fielding, 1996
- 47. Brighton RockGraham Greene, 1938
- 48. KimRudyard Kipling, 1901
- 49. Moll FlandersDaniel Defoe, 1722
- 50. PamelaSamuel Richardson, 1740
- 51. Parade's EndFord Madox Ford, 1924
- 52. ScoopEvelyn Waugh, 1938
- 53. The Forsyte SagaJohn Galsworthy, 1906
- 54. The Old Wives' TaleArnold Bennett, 1908
- 55. Watership DownRichard Adams, 1972
- 56. Barchester TowersAnthony Trollope, 1857
- 57. Gaudy NightDorothy L. Sayers, 1935
- 58. The Murder of Roger AckroydAgatha Christie, 1926
- 59. The Pickwick PapersCharles Dickens, 1836
- 60. Way of All FleshSamuel Butler, 1903
- 61. Point Counter PointAldous Huxley, 1928
- 62. The Prime of Miss Jean BrodieMuriel Spark, 1961
- 63. A Room With a ViewE.M. Forster, 1908
- 64. Le Morte d'ArthurThomas Malory, 1485
- 65. Far from the Madding CrowdThomas Hardy, 1874
- 66. Barnaby RudgeCharles Dickens, 1841
- 67. Doctor ThorneAnthony Trollope, 1858
- 68. Framley ParsonageAnthony Trollope, 1861
- 69. Hard TimesCharles Dickens, 1854
- 70. Little DorritCharles Dickens, 1855
- 71. Martin ChuzzlewitCharles Dickens, 1843
- 72. Nicholas NicklebyCharles Dickens, 1839
- 73. The Mystery Of Edwin DroodCharles Dickens, 1870
- 74. The Old Curiosity ShopCharles Dickens, 1841
- 75. The Small House at AllingtonAnthony Trollope, 1864
- 76. Can You Forgive Her?Anthony Trollope, 1864
- 77. Felix Holt, the RadicalGeorge Eliot, 1866
- 78. Phineas FinnAnthony Trollope, 1869
- 79. RomolaGeorge Eliot, 1863
- 80. The Return of the NativeThomas Hardy, 1878
- 81. The Trumpet-MajorThomas Hardy, 1880
- 82. Agnes GreyAnne Brontë, 1847
- 83. ArmadaleWilkie Collins, 1866
- 84. Mary BartonElizabeth Gaskell, 1848
- 85. No NameWilkie Collins, 1862
- 86. Rob RoySir Walter Scott, 1817
- 87. ShirleyCharlotte Brontë, 1849
- 88. The ProfessorCharlotte Brontë, 1857
- 89. The Tenant of Wildfell HallAnne Brontë, 1848
- 90. RuthElizabeth Gaskell, 1853
- 91. The Diary of a NobodyGeorge Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, 1892
- 92. Sense and SensibilityJane Austen, 1811