Tough Books for Extreme Bibliophiles

September 3, 2020

Those titles are considered some of the most intellectually challenging literary works. They are quite long, some have an intense subject, a brilliant and lovely prose, and they are well known as classics. Words fall short to describe these amazing pieces of art. 

But let's face it, you probably yawned or snoozed while reading at least one of these Books, and trust me, we all have been there. So, let's say that you actually finished reading all the Books in this list, if not, here you have a second chance!

Show eveyone how tough you really are! 

1 Ulysses

Ulysses

James Joyce | Fiction Classics

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It is June 16, 1904, when the events in the lives of Stephen Dedalus, Leopolm Bloom, and Molly Bloom are slowly unveiled throughout that single day.

2 Moby Dick

Moby Dick

Herman Melville | Fiction Classics

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Captain Ahab's is fueled by his desire to kill the great white whale that tore off his leg leads, but his attempts lead to disaster.

3 War and Peace

War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy | Fiction Classics

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The lives of Russian aristocrats become intertwined between the years 1805 and 1812 and during Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

4 Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky | Fiction Classics

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Raskolnikov kills two people in the belief that some people are "extraordinary" and have the right to kill others in order to improve the state of the world.

5 Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy | Romance Classics

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Anna is unhappy with her marriage to a powerful politician, and when she falls in love with a dashing young officer, she must endure the criticism of others.

6 The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky | Drama Classics

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When an adulterous father and romantic son find themselves vying for the affections of the same woman, tension erupt to a murderous end.

7 Les Miserables

Les Miserables

Victor Hugo | Fiction Classics

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Ex-convict Jean-Valjean struggles to find redemption after his release for a 19 year prison sentence for stealing food for his starving family.

8 Swann's Way. In Search of Lost Time

Swann's Way. In Search of Lost Time

Marcel Proust. | Fiction Classics

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In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its considerable length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." The novel is widely referred to in English as Remembrance of Things Past but the title In Search of Lost Time, a literal rendering of the French, has gained in usage since D. J. Enright adopted it in his 1992 revision of the earlier translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin. The complete story contains nearly 1.5 million words and is one of the longest novels in world literature. The novel as it is known today began to take shape in 1909 and work continued for ...

9 Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway

Virginia Woolf | Fiction Classics

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The Classic book Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. This book is a fusion of 2 short stories. In which a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway is chronicled; an upper-class socialite in post WW1 era.

10 A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens | Fiction Classics

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This novel follows the lives of three peasants who are degraded and subdued by the French aristocracy.

11 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce | Fiction Classics

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Perhaps Joyce's most personal work, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man depicts the intellectual awakening of one of literature's most memorable young heroes, Stephen Dedalus. Through a series of brilliant epiphanies that parallel the development of his own aesthetic consciousness, Joyce evokes Stephen's youth, from his impressionable years as the youngest student at the Clongowed Wood school to the deep religious conflict he experiences at a day school in Dublin, and finally to his college studies where he challenges the conventions of his upbringing and his understanding of faith and intellectual freedom. James Joyce's highly autobiographical novel was first published in the United States in 1916 to immediate acclaim.

12 The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne | Fiction Classics

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In early colonial Massachusetts, a young woman experiences the results of adultery and must spend the remainder of her life atoning for her sins.

13 Great Expectations

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens | Fiction Classics

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Pip is a poor orphan who grows up in England in the early 1800's. He endures many hardships including poverty and violence.

14 Don Quixote

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra | Fiction Classics

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Alonso Quixano enjoys reading books of high culture, romance, and chivalry, but he eventually loses his mind while attempting to create justice in the world.

15 To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf | Fiction Classics

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The Classic book To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Set between 1910 and 1920, the novel follows the Ramsey Family’s visit to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The book speaks of the bonds and tribulations of the family and tensions between men and women of that era.

16 The Idiot

The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoevsky | Fiction Classics

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Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women - the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia - both involved, in turn, with the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. In the end, Myshkin's honesty, goodness, and integrity are shown to be unequal to the moral emptiness of those around him.

17 Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte | Fiction Classics

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A servant in the house at Wuthering Heights reveals the historic story of the love affair between Catherine and Heathcliff to a visitor who is currently staying there.

18 The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas | Fiction Classics

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Edmond Dantes is imprisoned on a false political charge. He makes a daring escape, finds the treasure of Monte Cristo, and seeks revenge upon his enemies.

19 The Trial

The Trial

Franz Kafka | Humanities and Arts

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The Trial (German: Der Process) is a novel by Franz Kafka about a character named Josef K., who awakens one morning and, for reasons never revealed, is arrested and prosecuted for an unspecified crime. According to Kafka's friend Max Brod, the author never finished the novel and wrote in his will that it was to be destroyed. After his death, Brod went against Kafka's wishes and edited The Trial into what he felt was a coherent novel and had it published in 1925.

20 Notes from the Underground

Notes from the Underground

Fyodor Dostoevsky | Fiction Classics

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Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground is a psychological study of the deepest darkest skeletons in the closet of the human mind.

21 Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

Charlotte Bronte | Romance Classics

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A poor, abused orphan named Jane uses her cleverness and perseverance to win the love of the man she loves.

22 Middlemarch

Middlemarch

George Eliot | Romance Classics

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Set during the industrial revolution, the idealistic Dorothea attempts to improve the world, despite her overbearing husband.

23 Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy | Romance Classics

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Tess, a poor country girl is raped and becomes pregnant. When she gets married to Angel, he is infuriated to learn she had a baby by another man.

24 Bleak House

Bleak House

Charles Dickens | Fiction Classics

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Multiple people compete to become the beneficiary of a will in the court case, Jarndyce v Jarndyce.

25 The Waves

The Waves

Virginia Woolf | Fiction Classics

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One of Woolf’s most experimental novels, The Waves presents six characters in monologue - from morning until night, from childhood into old age - against a background of the sea. The result is a glorious chorus of voices that exists not to remark on the passing of events but to celebrate the connection between its various individual parts.

26 Frankenstein

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley | Sci-Fi Classics

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A scientist creates a monster with pieces of corpses, but the monster develops a mind of his own begins to despise his creator.

27 Little Women

Little Women

Louisa May Alcott | Children's Classics

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The March sisters, Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth, survive poverty and the absence of their father during the Civil War.

28 Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray | Fiction Classics

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During the time of Waterloo, Amelia Sedley begins a courtship and Becky Sharp utilizes her cleverness to avoid becoming a governess.

29 The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories

The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories

Kate Chopin | Misc Classics

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The classic book, The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories, by Kate Chopin.

30 Nostromo

Nostromo

Joseph Conrad | Fiction Classics

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Conrad's great novel is a rich study not only of a typical South American country, but of the politics of any underdeveloped country, and for this reason it is permanently topical.

31 Dracula

Dracula

Bram Stoker | Horror Classics

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Count Dracula is a vampire who terrifies the countryside in his quest for human blood, but the residents soon learn his real identity and vow to destroy him.

32 Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens | Fiction Classics

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Oliver escapes from a miserable workhouse where he's spent his childhood, travels to London, and befriends Artful Dodger, Fagin, and their group of thieves.

33 The Mill on the Floss

The Mill on the Floss

George Eliot | Romance

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Download the FREE e-Book version of English novelist George Eliot's story of affectionate, willful Maggie Tulliver, who is hungry for knowledge and experience, and her more conventional and intolerant brother, Tom--a relationship that mirrors that of the author herself (Mary Anne Evans) and her beloved brother, Isaac. Download it today!

34 Women in Love

Women in Love

D. H. Lawrence | Romance Classics

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Sisters Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen pursue complex relationships with their lovers, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich.

35 The Ambassadors

The Ambassadors

Henry James | Fiction Classics

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Lambert is sent by his wealthy fiancee, Mrs Newsome, to Paris to bring home her son Chad who is needed to take charge of the family business. When Lambert arrives, he discovers the young man much changed by his relations with the Countess de Vionette.

36 Lord Jim

Lord Jim

Joseph Conrad | Fiction Classics

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Jim, the first mate aboard the Patna, dreams youthful dreams of heroism and of the daring act that will prove his courage. But when the ship collides with a mysterious obstacle, Jim panics and jumps free. This single act of cowardice drives him to self-enforced exile.

37 The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer | Poetry Classics

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A group of pilgrims embark on a long journey, and each of the characters reflect the irony and criticism of the church at the time.

38 Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

John Milton | Poetry Classics

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Adam and Eve's innocence in paradise, their fall from grace, and the origin of Satan are explored in this groundbreaking book of poetry.

39 The Bible - King James Version

The Bible - King James Version

King James Version | Religious

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The Bible is the most important book in the history of Western civilization, and also the most difficult to interpret. It has been the vehicle of continual conflict, with every interpretation reflecting passionately-held views that have affected not merely religion, but politics, art, and even science.

40 Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad | Fiction Classics

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Captain Charles Marlow describes his experience transporting ivory along the Congo River in Africa where he encounters many instances of ruin and destruction.

41 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Laurence Sterne | Fiction Classics

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The classic book, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne.

42 Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady – Volume 1

Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady – Volume 1

Samuel Richardson | Fiction Classics

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The classic book, Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady – Volume 1, by Samuel Richardson.

43 Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady – Volume 2

Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady – Volume 2

Samuel Richardson | Fiction Classics

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The classic book, Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady – Volume 2, by Samuel Richardson.

44 The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri | Poetry Classics

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A pilgrim named Dante receives help of the Roman poet, Virgil, on a journey through Purgatory, on their way to Heaven.

45 The Odyssey

The Odyssey

Homer. | Humanities and Arts

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The Odyssey (Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, Odysseia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature. It was probably composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia.[1] The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War.[2] In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, ...

46 The Iliad

The Iliad

Homer. | Humanities and Arts

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The Iliad (sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium) is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege, the earlier events, such as the gathering of warriors for the siege, the cause of the war and similar, tending to appear near the beginning, and the events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles' looming death and the sack of Troy, prefigured and alluded to more and more vividl...