The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Author: J.D. Salinger

Published: 1951

Novel.

Holden is at Pencey Preparatory is an exclusive private school in Agertown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with rival school Saxon Hall. Holden ends up missing the game. 

He is the manager of the fencing team and loses their equipment on a New York City subway train, resulting on the cancellation of a match. Holden is expelled and isn't to return home until after Christmas break, so he goes to his history teacher's home, Mr. Spencer. 

Shortly, Holden returns to his dorm, realizing most of the students are still at the football game. He begins to re-read a book, but his distraction is temporary; first Ackley, his dorm neighbor disturbs him; later Holden argues with Stradlater, his roommate, who fails to appreciate a composition that Holden wrote for him about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother Allie. Stradlater, a womanizer, has just returned form a date with Holden's old friend Jane Gallagher. Holden is distressed that Stradlater might have taken advantage of Jane, because he doesn't appreciate her in the manner Holden does; he even refers to her as Jean. The boys fight and Holden catches a train to New York City, where he plans to stay in a hotel until Wednesday, when his parents expect him home for New Years vacation. 

He checks into the Edmont Hotel. After observing the behavior of the perverts in the hotel room facing his, he struggles with his own sexuality. He spends an evening dancing with three tourist women in their 30s, from Seattle, in the hotel lounge and enjoys dancing with one, but ends up with only the check, the women seem unable to carry a conversation. 

Holden agrees to have a prostitute named Sunny visit his room, but his attitude changes when she enters the room; she seems about the same age as he, and he becomes uncomfortable with the situation.

Holden visits his former and admired English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who offers advice on life along with a place to sleep for the night. 

Characters: 

Holden Caulfield

Stradlater

Mr. Antolini

Maurice

Sally Hayes

Sunny

Jane Gallagher

Phoebe Caufield

Allie

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Author: Sebastian Faulks

Published: 1993
Novel.

The story begins in Amiens, northern France in 1910. A young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford is on attachment from London, working in the textile industry and lodging with the Azaire family. René Azaire runs a large factory when Stephen works; his second wife Isabelle is a woman of unfulfilled hopes, ill-treated by her husband. In the stultifying atmosphere of their town house, Stephen develops a passion for Isabelle. At first, she resists; but this only intensifies his feeling, which she soon begins to share. 

In 1916, in Flanders, Stephen is an infantry officer on the Western Front. He is frindly with Michael Weir, an engineer, whose men dig tunnels under No Man's Land to undermine the enemy. 

Stephen is a man almost broken by love and by war, but full of a passionate perversity. While some soldiers are happy to die, unable to comprehend what they have seen; Stephen becomes more and more determined to survive. 

Characters:
Stephen Wraysford
René Azaire
Isabelle Azaire (Madame Azaire)
Lisette
Jack Firebrace
Captain Weir
Jeanne Fourmentier
Elizabeth Benson
Françoise
Irene
Bob

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Published: 1937
Novel.

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin and his band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure form the dragon Smaug. When the music ends, Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's burglar. The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins. 

The group travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell, where Elrond revelas more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Although Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblins. Lost in the goblin tunnels, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then enconunters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles. As a reward for solving all riddles Gollum will show him the path out of the tunnels, but if Bilbo fails, his life will be forfeit. 

With the help of the ring, which congers invisibility, Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, improvising his reputation with them. The goblins and Wargs give chase, but the compau are saved by eagles before resting in the house of Beorn. 

The company enters the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves the dwarves from giant spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travellers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfill prophecies of Samug's demise. The expedition travles to the Lonely Mountain and finds the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town. A thrush had overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability and reports it to Kale-town defender Bard. His arrow finds the chink and slays the dragon. 

When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the Arkenstone, an heirloon of Thorin's dynasty, and hides it away. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims of the treasure. Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the Iron Hills, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable. 

Characters: 

Bilbo Baggins

Gandalf

Thorin Oakenshield

Smaug the Dragon

Elrond

Gollum

Beorn

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Author: Daphne du Maurier

Published: 1938
Novel.

While working as the companion to a rich American woman on holiday in Monte Carlo, a naïve young woman in her early 20s, becomes acquainted with a wealthy Englishman, Maximilian de Winter, a widower aged 42. After a fortnight of courtship, she agrees to marry him and, after the wedding and honeymoon, accompanies him to his mansion in Cornwall. 

Mrs. Danvers, the sinister housekeeper, was profoundly devoted to the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident about a year before Maxim and the second Mrs. de Winter's met. She continually attempts to undermine the new Mrs. de Winter psychologically, subtly suggesting to her that she will never attain the beauty, urbanity and charm her predecessor possessed. Whenever the new Mrs. de Winter attempts to make changes at Manderley, Mrs. Danvers describes how Rebecca ran it when she was alive. Each time Mrs. Danvers does this, she implies that the new Mrs. de Winter lacks the experience and knowledge necessary for running an important estate. 

She is soon convinced that Maxim regrets his impetuous decision to marry her and is still deeply in love with Rebecca. The climax occurs at Manderley's annual costume ball. 

Characters: 

The narrator/second Mrs. de Winter. 

Maximilian de Winter. 

Mrs. Danvers

Rebecca de Winter

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Author: Thomas Hardy

Published: 1891
Novel. 

Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated peasants; however, John is given the impression by Parson Tringham that he may have noble blood, since Durbeyfield is a corruption of D'Urberville, the surname of a noble Norman family, then extinct. 

Two years later, Tess has found employment outside the village, where her past is not known. She works for Mr. and Mrs. Crick as a milkmaid at Tabothays Dairy. There she befriends three of her fellow milkmaids, Izz, Retty and Marian, and meets again Angel Clare, now an apprentice farmer. Soon, Angel and Tess are in love. 

Characters: 

Tess Durbeyfield

Alec D'Uberville

Angel Clare

John Durbeyfield

Joan Durbeyfield

Eliza-Louise

Abraham

Modesty

Hope

Sorrow Durbeyfield/D'Uberville

Izz

Retty

Marian

Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott

Author: Louisa M. Alcott

Published: 1868
Novel. 

Four sisters live with their mother, facing Christmas without their father as the US Civil War is underway. The family is settled in a new neighborhood, living in genteel poverty after the father lost their money. Meg and Jo March, the elder sisters, both work outside the home for money to support the family. Meg teaches four children in a nearby family, while Jo aids her grand-aunt March, a wealthy widow whose strength is failing. 

Beth helps around the house, and Amy attends school. Their nearest neighbor is a wealthy man whose orphaned grandson lives with him. The sisters introduce themselves  to the handsome shy boy, who is the age of Jo.

Meg is the beautiful sister, Jo is the tomboy; Beth is the musician, and Amy is the charming artist with blond curls. 

Jo is impulsive and quick to anger. One of her challenges in growing up  is to control acting out of anger, a challenge that also faced her mother, Marmee. 

Beth contracts scarlet fever after tending to a family where three children died of it. Her poor condition forces her sisters and the Laurences to call Marmee back from Washington, where she has gone to tend her husband, who contracted pneumonia. Beth recovers, but never fully. Jo tends Beth in her illness. Amy, not yet exposed to scarlet fever, is sent to live with Aunt March, replacing Jo after Beth recovers. Jo has success earning money with her writing. Meg spends two weeks with friends, where there are parties for the girls to dance with boys and improve social skills. 

Laurie is invited to one of the dances, as her friends incorrectly think Meg is in love with him; though, Meg is more interested in the young tutor for Laurie, John Brooke. 

Meg and John marry and settle in the house, close to the March home. They learn how to live together, and soon have twins. Meg is a devoted mother that first year, and John begins to feel left out. Marmee advises Meg on how to balance caring for her children and being with her husband. 

Characters: 

Margaret "Meg" March

Josephine "Jo" March

Elizabeth "Beth" March

Amy Curtis March

Professor Friedrich Bhaer

Rob Bhaer

Margaret "Marmee" March

James Laurence

Teddy Bhaer

John Brooke

Theodore "Laurie" Laurence

Uncle Carrol

Aunt Carrol

Flo Carrol

May Chester

Mrs. Chester

Mrs. Crocker

Mr. Dashwood

Mr. Davis

Aunt Josephine March

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Author: Charles Dickens

Published: 1861
Novel. 

On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, a seven-year-old orphan, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard while visiting the graves of his mother, father and siblings. 

The convict scares Pip into stealing food and a file to grind away his shackles, from the home he shares with his abusive older sister and her husband. The next day, soldiers recapture the convict while he is engaged in a fight with another escaped convict.

Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster who wears an old wedding dress and lives in the dilapidated Satis House, asks Pip's Uncle Pumblechook to find a boy to visit. Pip visits Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella, falling in love with her on first sight, both quite young. 

Pip starts visiting Miss Havisham regularly until it comes time for him to learn a trade; Joe accompanies Pip for the last visit when she gives the money for Pop to be bound as apprentice blacksmith. Pip settles into learning Joe's trade. When both are away from the house, Mrs. Joe is brutally attacked, leaving her unable to speak or do her work. 

Four years into Pip's apprenticeship, Mr. Jaggers, a lawyer, approaches him in the village with the news that he has expectations from an anonymous benefactor, with immediate funds to train him in the gentlemanly arts. He will not know the benefactor's name until that person speaks up. Pip is to leave for London in the proper clothes.

He assumes that Miss Havisham is his benefactor. 

Pip goes to Hammersmith, to be educated by Mr. Matthew Pocket. Jagger disburses the money Pip needs to set himself up in his new life. Joe visits Pip, and he feels ashamed. 

A week after he turns 23 years old, Pip learns that his benefactor is the convict from so long ago, Abel Magwitch, who had been transported to New South Wales after the escape. He became wealthy after gaining his freedom there.

As long as he is out of England, he can live. But he returns to see Pip, who was his motivation for all his success in New South Wales. 

Eleven years later, Pip visits the ruins of Satis House and meets Estella, widow to the abusive Bentley Drummle. She asks Pip to forgive her, assuring him that misfortune has opened her heart and that she now empathizes with Pip. 

Characters: 

Philip Pirrip

Joe Gargery

Mrs. Joe Gargery (Georgiana Maria)

Mr. Pumblechook

Miss Havisham

Estella

Matthew Pocket

Herbert Pocket

Cousin Raymond

Georgiana

Sarah Pocket

The Convict (Abel Magwitch/Provis/Mr. Campbell)

Mr. Hubble

Mrs. Hubble

Biddy

Mr. Jaggers

John Wemmick

Molly

Compeyson

Arthur Havisham

Dolge Orlick

Bentley Drummle

1984 by George Orwell

Author: George Orwell



Published: 1949
Novel.

The story begins with Winston Smith, on April 4th, 1984. Winston Smith lives in Airstrip One, the ruins of an England ravaged by war, civil conflict, and revolution. A member of the middle class Outer Party, Winston lives in a one-room London apartment on a diet of black bread, synthetic meals and "Victory" -branded gin. 

Telescreens in every building, along with hidden microphones and cameras, permit the Thought Police to identify anyone who might endanger the Party's regime. Children are indoctrinated to inform on suspected thought criminals, specially their parents. 

Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, as an editor responsible for historical revisionism. He rewrites records and alters photographs to conform to the state's ever-changing version of the truth, rendering the deleted people unpersons, the original documents are incinerated in a memory hole.

Winston suddenly becomes fascinated by the true past and tries to learn more about it. In an alcove beside his Telescreen, where he believes he cannot be seen, he begins writing a journal criticizing the Party and its leader, Big Brother, which, if discover, warrants certain death. 

Background:

Set in Oceania, one of three inter-continental superstates that divided the world after a global war. 

Most of the plot takes place in London, the chief city of Airstrip One the Oceanic province that "had once been called England or Britain." Posters of the Party leader, Big Brother, bearing the caption BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, dominate the city.

The class hierarchy of Oceania has three levels:

• The Upper-Class Inner Party

• The Middle-Class Outer Party

• The Lower-Class Proles

As the government, the Party controls the population with four ministries:

• Ministry of Peace, dealing with war and defense. 

• Ministry of Plenty, dealing with economic affairs (rationing and starvation).

• Ministry of Love, dealing with law and order (torture and brainwashing).

• Ministry of Truth, dealing with news, entertainment, education and art (propaganda). 

Characters: 

Winston Smith

Julia

Big Brother

O'Brien

Emmanuel Goldstein

Katherine Smith

Tom Parsons

Mrs. Parsons

Syme

Goodreads. 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
2. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8. 1984 by George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
11. Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
12.Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch by George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

23. Bleak House by Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

26. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll 

30. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
33. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

34. Emma by Jane Austen.

35. Persuasion by Jane Austen. 

36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

37. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden 

40. Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

41. Animal Farm by George Orwell. 

42. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving

45. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables y L.M. Montgomery

47. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

50. Atonement by Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

52. Dune by Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 

57. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon 

60. Love In the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez

61. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. 

62. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

66. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 

68. Bridget Jone's Diary by Helen Fielding

69. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

72. Dracula by Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses by James Joyce

76. The Inferno by Dante

77. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal by Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession by A.S. Bvatt

81. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Expuéry 

93. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

94. Watership Down by Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunes by John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet by William Shakespeare

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables by Víctor Hugo

NOTE: I FOUND THE LIST ON GOODREADS (Click to go to the page) AND THERE WAS NO NUMBER 23 OR NUMBER 26. BUT YOU CAN ALSO GO AND SEE BBC'S ORIGINAL LIST AND CLICK TO SEE HOW MANY YOU HAVE READ.