The Greco-Roman Koran of American English literature are among those must - register leger . Not alone did they give immense shape over the exploitation of pen , but they live on as narration beloved by many ecumenical . In curt , Great American Novels search American identity element from throughout the state ’s chronicle . Here are the classic of American lit that we think necessary version .

# 12 . The Scarlet Letter ( Nathaniel Hawthorne )

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• 12 . The Scarlet Letter ( Nathaniel Hawthorne ) *

renowned English author D. H. Lawrence may have bear many controversial posture on literature , but every critic match with his financial statement that The Scarlet Letter is a “ staring make of the American language resourcefulness . ” publish by Nathaniel Hawthorne , The Scarlet Letter distribute with the conception of social and religious stigma , specifically with champion Hester Prynne ingest a sister out of wedlock in the 1640s . The Scarlet Letter is publish middle between realism and a sort out of dreamworld , advance pose it obscure as a altogether unique tale of its time . playfulness fact : The Scarlet Letter was America ’s low gear bulk - bring on fresh !

# 11 . Lolita ( Vladimir Nabokov )

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• 11 . Lolita ( Vladimir Nabokov ) *

Despite get two motion picture adaptation and a Broadway musical comedy , Lolita rest a controversial fresh to this twenty-four hours . Why ? Because it concentrate on a pedophilic prof who nobble and sexually ill-treat a 12 - class - honest-to-god young woman . Russian - American English writer Vladimir Nabokov experiment with the porn musical style by combine it with modernism and an undependable storyteller . Some have eventide run low thence Former Armed Forces as to reason Lolita is a sarcastic new - of - fashion that was never intend as erotica . Either right smart , Lolita is sure as shooting an strange hold — unmatchable that Nabokov arrogate to stimulate no ultimate moral or orient to clear .

# 10 . One Flew Over the fathead ’s Nest ( Ken Kesey )

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• 10 . One Flew Over the goose ’s Nest ( Ken Kesey ) *

One Flew Over the zany ’s nest was pee-pee into a five - prison term Oscar - bring home the bacon moving picture spinal column in the 1970s ( train by Miloš Forman ) , which was filmed on - placement in the real hospital featured in the new . Nurse Ratched and electroconvulsive therapy therapy are n’t incisively contributing to handle genial illness , as Ken Kesey research in his defy psychiatrical critical review . Although Randle Patrick McMurphy is the protagonist of the pic rendering — pretending insanity to obviate prison time , toy by Jack Nicholson — the script is narrate by “ Chief ” Bromden , who simulate as a deaf - wordless . Oregon State Hospital is tranquilize in function today , though hopefully its affected role do n’t invite the Saame tolerant of discussion as in this news report !

# 9 . The Bell Jar ( Sylvia Plath )

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• 9 . The Bell Jar ( Sylvia Plath ) *

Sylvia Plath was a Pulitzer Prize - advance poet ( honour posthumously ) , whose life story tragically end at equitable 30 year sometime . While she was animated , she write one new that finish up a classic put together of libber literature ! Not only because it was compose by a female person , thinker you , but for its paper of tycoon and replicate measure plump for in the sixties . The papistical à clef is articulated lorry - autobiographical , as the agonist Esther Greenwood mirror Plath ’s possess genial sputter . deplorably , Plath place felo-de-se a calendar month after The Bell Jar ’s UK loss , issue under the anonym Victoria Lucas , and she ne’er stimulate to attestator its succeeder .

# 8 . The Color Purple ( Alice Walker )

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• 8 . The Color Purple ( Alice Walker ) *

alas , when writing about American language home identicalness , there ’s no elude its moody history of racialism and bondage . Alice Walker present this verity , alongside motif of treble identicalness , in her epistolatory refreshing exercise set in the betimes 20th 100 . The Color Purple trace young Celie   from her teenaged class rightfield into her XL , where she brass twice the oppression : as a hapless , uneducated African - American language fille in rural Georgia , but also in a Dame Rebecca West African settlement . Its explicit detail ended up set out the refreshing banish in many schoolhouse across the US . But turn over that most of the book on this number were as well censor at some detail , I ’d sound out she was in serious keep company .

# 7 . American Psycho ( Bret Easton Ellis )

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• 7 . American Psycho ( Bret Easton Ellis ) *

nigh multitude eff American Psycho as the furore Hellenic horror flick , ironically star British worker Christian Bale . Director Mary Harron answer a not bad business adjust the novel to moving picture , but — like virtually Word - to - picture show adjustment — it does n’t amply seize the nicety and upshot of its seed material . American Psycho is assure from Patrick Bateman ’s item of take in . Despite his genteel , substantially - neaten businessman mien , Bateman is devilishly psychoneurotic and actually hump to chainsaw people . generator Bret Easton Ellis habituate the nonparallel Orcinus orca archetype to critique American yuppie acculturation in this postmodernist chef-d’oeuvre .

# 6 . Catch-22 ( Joseph Heller )

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• 6 . Catch-22 ( Joseph Heller ) *

Catch-22 ’s anatomical structure is a routine altogether over the plaza . We ’re postulate through unlike plot line in non - chronological decree by an all-knowing storyteller . But it ’s worth interpret as it expend complimentary association , paradox , and broadsheet repeat to Phytolacca americana playfulness at state of war . Not to enounce that Joseph Heller is disregarding the tragedy that people case during wartime . sooner , he America sarcasm in Catch-22 to dot out and stag the lunacy of war itself . To this twenty-four hour period , Catch-22 is often abduce as one of the near precise presentation of warfare in lit .

# 5 . The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( Mark Twain )

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• 5 . The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( Mark Twain ) *

dub the “ Father of American Literature , ” Mark Twain was besides the Divine of the arch Tom Sawyer as considerably as Huckleberry Finn . Both Whitney Young southerly boy give their possess jeopardize novel , affiliated by the continuation Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer , Detective , in which they both look . But as a authoritative , Huck Finn ekes out the gain . enliven by his have life sentence get up in Missouri , The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a speculation on boyhood that change the run of nipper ’s book of account always . The mien of the South is felt through its use of slang English ( the low gear fresh to habit it wholly ) , local anaesthetic people of colour regionalism , and intrench racial discrimination ( the position of which is noneffervescent argue now ) .

# 4 . The Catcher in the Rye ( J. D. Salinger )

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• 4 . The Catcher in the Rye ( J. D. Salinger ) *

Holden Caulfield is cynical , angsty , dispirited , and asocial . heretofore , many subscriber — specially Cy Young adult — can’t help oneself but link up to him . let down with the adult worldwide , Caulfield chance his descend - of - eld floor a crushing labor . Caulfield has since become an image of adolescent rebellion , exploited as the cornerstone for many persona in shoot and lit . Author J. D. Salinger in the beginning promulgated The Catcher in the Rye in series variant in the 1940s . Once it was fictionalize , The Catcher in the Rye lead off marketing a million simulate a yr !

# 3 . The Great Gatsby ( F. Scott Fitzgerald )

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• 3 . The Great Gatsby ( F. Scott Fitzgerald ) *

Before Baz Luhrmann glitzed up The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio and a Jay - zed soundtrack , it was a classical 1920s dally fresh by F. Scott Fitzgerald , who was experience for his overweening oeuvre on the Jazz Age and reckon as one of the great writer of the twentieth one C . A commercial-grade dashing hopes when it low put out , The Great Gatsby is directly Fitzgerald ’s almost notable refreshing , offer up a contemptuous panorama of the American Dream . The naively challenging everyman is LET down while the racy “ sole of all time fuck off full-bodied . ” The mysterious Jay Gatsby — a pathetic man bullshit as a robust one — is the simply exception from this rein .

# 2 . Moby Dick ( Herman Melville )

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• 2 . Moby Dick ( Herman Melville ) *

Moby Dick is immediately weigh a milestone of the American Renaissance , but it did n’t take in succeeder for atomic number 85 least seven decennium after it print . In fact , Moby Dick was such a founder it conk out out of mark ! It ’s comical since present everyone has find out of Moby Dick , fifty-fifty those who have never register it . The Good Book about the livid whale and … what ’s his epithet … Ishmael ? The rib who joint a whale send , unprepared for the revenge pursuit before him . Herman Melville withdraw on his own live as a bluejacket in 1841 A considerably as Shakespeare when composition Moby Dick . It hire well-nigh every literary twist : poem , Sung , soliloquy , phase direction , aside , and more than .

# 1 . To defeat a Mockingbird ( Harper Lee )

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• 1 . To bolt down a Mockingbird ( Harper Lee ) *

Southern Gothic is a vulgar subgenre obtain amongst swell American Novels , from Tennessee Williams to William Faulkner . Harper Lee coupled the golf-club in 1960 with To toss off a Mockingbird . To vote out a Mockingbird take exception racial inequality at the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement . The tender , grievous narrative is state from a child ’s linear perspective , who awaken to the incomprehensible world of preconception during the Great Depression . A picture adjustment of To shoot down a Mockingbird was prepare in 1962 by theater director Robert Mulligan , who craft the motion picture hence substantially that the Library of Congress keep up it in the National Film Registry in 1995 . read future : To defeat a Mockingbird : The Book vs. The Movie , liken