20 short classic books you can read *quickly* (fiction and nonfiction)



00:00 01:14 In this video
We look at more 20 classic books with less than 40.000 words that are short but powerful
01:15 02:16 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
02:17 03:14 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
03:15 03:45 A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
03:46 05:18 1984 by George Orwell
05:19 06:54 The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
06:55 07:47 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
07:48 08:29 Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
08:30 09:10 Night by Elie Wiesel
09:11 10:21 A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
10:22 11:21 The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
11:22 11:48 Candide by Voltaire
11:49 12:31 The Alienist by Machado de Assis
12:32 13:12 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
13:13 14:59 Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector
15:00 16:32 The Stranger by Albert Camus
16:33 17:10 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
17:11 17:27 Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
17:28 17:47 Dracula by Bram Stoker
17:48 18:13 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
18:14 19:11 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
19:12 20:03 And then there were none by Agatha Christie
20:04 Outro

Consider Buying Me a Coffee (Thank You!) https://ko-fi.com/emilyclaricepessoa
If You’d Like to Surprise Me with a Book (Thank You!) https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1D8944Y5CDAP0?ref_=wl_share

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program that allows me to earn a commission by linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By using these links, you directly support my channel at no extra cost to you—thank you for your support, and happy shopping!

source

26 thoughts on “20 short classic books you can read *quickly* (fiction and nonfiction)”

  1. I love short fiction and prose – certainly your list is brilliant. I would add Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice", Carson McCullers' "A Member of the Wedding", D.H. Lawrence's novellas, Osama Dazai, "No Longer Human." Oh regarding the short form that Albert Camus became known for – the original of that style was the hard-boiled fiction of James M Cain "The Postman Always Rings Twice."

    Reply
  2. Links to help the channel:
    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury https://amzn.to/4ht1UnV
    The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood https://amzn.to/4gsCvdn
    A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley https://amzn.to/4hpmdCL
    1984 by George Orwell https://amzn.to/42r3QZK
    Animal Farm https://amzn.to/4jqHDBh
    The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald https://amzn.to/40tkEwL
    The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton https://amzn.to/4hqJeVW
    Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges https://amzn.to/40K18gF
    Night by Elie Wiesel https://amzn.to/3EaDSjm
    A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf https://amzn.to/42pXZE8
    The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli https://amzn.to/4gdn9Ji
    Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli https://amzn.to/3E8GqON
    Candide by Voltaire https://amzn.to/42ne1Pd
    The Alienist and other Stories by Machado de Assis https://amzn.to/3C974Xq
    The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka https://amzn.to/3PQkavC
    Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector https://amzn.to/4jxom1g
    The Stranger by Albert Camus https://amzn.to/4htODvy
    Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson https://amzn.to/4gYVAop
    Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu https://amzn.to/4hb7KL8
    Dracula by Bram Stoker https://amzn.to/3WyOI9b
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley https://amzn.to/4az19rq
    All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy https://amzn.to/40y33nt
    And then there were none by Agatha Christie https://amzn.to/4jvCqYT

    Reply
  3. I loved animal farm, 1984, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and i would also include Picture of Dorian Gray (that’s fairly short) All 5 star reads! I recently just bought The Great Gatsby and Night, so glad to see them on this list! Great video! 💙 I would definitely love a children’s classics video!

    Reply
  4. I read L'Étranger for my high school French class. Also read it in translation as The Outsider, which I think is the best translation of the title. Another short French book I had to read (but which I ended up loving) was Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier. The title of this book is not translated for the English version because the word 'grand' encompasses so much that can't be expressed in a single English word.

    Reply
  5. Just finished 3rd book of Musashi and was wondering what to start next. Thanks for the reminder of the Great Gatsby, Emily, about time I read it. Best wishes and happy reading. Oh, and The Old Man and the Sea and The Heart of Darkness bye the way!

    Reply
  6. Anthem and We the Living by Ayn Rand are good apocalyptic books. Of course, the latter is the result of Socialism become Communism with the logical conclusion of mass death.

    Reply
  7. In my French class this semester, we are reading “Acide Sulfurique” by Amélie Nothomb. Have you heard of it? I just began it, and it looks like a fascinating dystopian novel. Hope you are doing well, Emily! Thanks for another great video.

    Reply
  8. What an amazing collection of reading treats, loved your introduction to this 'genre', interesting thoughts. I love Camus & Sartre, & I like to read Camus alongside Beckett – Absurdism is an important counterpoint/conversation with Existentialism.

    Reply
  9. Of the books you talked about, I read:
    Fahrenheit 451 (a school read, too long ago to remember what I thought)
    1984 (a school read, and I recently read the graphic novel, liked the graphic novel)
    The Stranger (didn't really like it as I didn't like the protagonist)
    Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde (read it recently, liked it a lot)
    Carmilla (read it recently, was somewhat disappointed in it)
    Dracula (read it 3 times, loved it)
    Frankenstein (read it recently, loved it)

    I think I prefer The Outsider as the title instead of The Stranger

    Reply
  10. New sub, great recs, a few ive read, several others im embarrassed to say i own but are still on my tbr. Im currently 100+ pages into shadow of the wind as my first read of 2025 and enjoying it.

    Reply
  11. I’d like to suggest a short memoir that I think doesn’t get enough love: The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings. Descriptions of this book usually make it sound bleak. It is not.

    Reply
  12. I will recommend some short books to you: "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Tolstoy; "El Desbarrancadero" by Fernando Vallejo; "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" by Eric Hoffer; "The Pole" by J.M. Coetzee; "Paradais" by Fernanda Melchor (read this one in Spanish because a lot is loss in the English translation); "The Maniac" by Benjamin Labatut. Just to name a few 😊😉🙂

    Reply

Leave a Comment