Classics of literature?

[Mallus]

If you do want to pick up his work, I suggest the collection titled "Where I'm Calling From."

I have a copy of "Where I'm Calling From" somewhere on my bookshelf, and various stories in anthologies. Maybe I'll take another look. Its been a few years...

I recognize that he's he good, I just didn't derive any actual pleasure from reading his stories, with the exception of Cathedral.

One of my favorite writers of short fiction is Lorrie Moore {Self-Help, Like Life, Birds of America}. She cites Carver as her major influence, and directs fledging writers toward "Where I'm Calling From", too. I'd tried to write like her, back in the day...

 

[Hand of Evil]

Tarzan - Edgar Rice Burroughs, pulp fiction maybe but it is a classic.

A Christmas Carol -

 

[Lord Mhoram]

not exactly american / english

Anything I would have recomended has already come up, so I would say

Arguably a great modern classic - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintence - Robert Pirsig. You have to be ready for intellectualism for the sake of intellectualism, but for gamers that should be second nature.

If you can find a good translation try these books.

Crime and Punishment - Dostyevsky
Anything by Tolstoy
Three Mustketeers - Dumas

Any as 1984 keeps getting brought up, I have to mention the book I think that Orwell was trying to rewrite better, but didn't....
We - Ygeny Zmyitin

(Yes I like the Russians.)

 

[Mark]

Ahem *cough* Nathaniel Hawthorne *cough*, but of course that can be argued as well. Twain is a great American Author though.

Well played, since Hawthorne precedes Twain. I'll retract the claim on "first" but up the ante to saying that Twain is arguably the "greatest" due to the combined quality, volume and breadth of his work.

Back to topic-

Colleen McCullough's series of books on Rome are truly phenominal historical fiction.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. is definitely a SciFi Classic.

James Clavell may be considered a late 20th century author who has produced some classics, such as King Rat and Shogun.

Nelson Algren is a notable Chicago author who's known for capturing the seamy side of life in The Man with the Golden Arm, a tale primarily about hustler trying to make it big while fighting a morphine addiction. More than anything, he details a side of Chicago in the late forties that is unmatched by any author.

Here's a good link - http://www.readliterature.com