The best easy-to-read classics for beginners

Yes, you could start with Pride & Prejudice but to my mind, Emma is an easier read and funnier. Emma is a wonderful comedy of manners; Emma Woodhouse overestimates her matchmaking skills which of course go horribly wrong – remember Clueless?  Well, the much-loved '90s rom-com was based on this classic Jane Austen novel. Emma learns – often painfully – that rather than trying to sort out other people’s lives, she has to fix her own.  

Jane Eyre is such a memorable character; she may not be the most beautiful heroine, but she’s brave and strong, attributes she needs to survive a neglected and harsh childhood. When she takes the job as governess for the mysterious Mr Rochester of Thornfield Hall, the stage is set for one of the most affecting and enduring love stories of all time.

A captivating, epoch-defining story which is arguably the most famous novel in American literature, The Great Gatsby really is a must read. Set amongst the rich during the decadent and destructive Jazz Age, this is the captivating, shocking and ultimately tragic story of the fabulously wealthy and always mysterious Jay Gatsby and his love for Daisy Buchanan.  

On the surface, George Orwell’s masterpiece is a simple story about farm animals staging a revolt against a farmer and taking over the farmyard. No wonder that its original subtitle was A Fairy Story. But do not be fooled, this is no simple fairy story; rather it’s a brilliant satire on the corrupting effects of power and a warning about the grave danger of a totalitarianism. 

Here’s a great example of a book that really broke new ground and has had unquantifiable influence on story telling ever since it was first published. But most importantly it’s one of the most gripping, frightening, touching and extraordinary stories that you’ll ever read. Here is the battle between the monster and his creator, Victor Frankenstein – one in pursuit of the other to the extremes of humanity. 

Time for some light relief, I think. I have to include Little Women because we love them so – beautiful Meg, bookish Jo, musical Beth and artistic Amy all supported by their stoical and wise mother, Marmee. We follow them through hardship, romance, heartbreak and so much more.  A delicious book to curl up with and get lost in.

This tangled family drama expertly captures the complexity of young forbidden love in conflict with loyalty and sisterhood. Cassandra Mortmain aspires to be a writer, and takes inspiration from everything she sees around her. While her father suffers with writer's block, unable to force creativity, Cassandra writes a journal, preserving the memory of her unconventional family as they live their lives in genteel poverty while their home, a beautiful castle, decays and crumbles around them. When the Cottons, the owners of the castle, arrive from America, the two families collide in ways they could never have imagined. 

Thomas Hardy's books are known to be heavy and tragic, but Far From the Madding Crowd is an exception. Bathsheba Everdene arrives in Wessex (Hardy's fictional south-west county, making its first named appearance here) to live with her aunt. Beautiful and spirited, she finds herself with three suitors: shepherd Gabriel Oak, dashing soldier Sergeant Troy and respectable, middle-aged Farmer Boldwood. Their fates depend upon the choice Bathsheba makes, and she discovers the terrible consequences of an inconstant heart.