When looking for books to read during the fall season, you might consider reading something more mentally challenging. Why not turn the clock back and revisit some of your favorite classics? Classics are (for the most part) good stories wrapped up in beautiful language, with a good helping of cultural education. What’s not to love? Here are some classic novels that “fall” right in with the spooky mood of the season to read:
1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The drama! The aesthetic! Wuthering Heights is the perfect fall read. There’s a bunch of wind and storms and wilderness in it, after all. It’s populated by unlikeable, but somehow still compelling, characters. The novel is dark, dealing with characters that have become twisted beyond repair from their upbringings. Still, Brontë brings it in for something of a happy (but not unrealistically so) ending.
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger
This one has it all: teenage angst in the form of a 16-year-old boy who is relatable only to dudes you’ll want to avoid. Both the plot and the characters are bland. Absolutely horrifying! It’s the perfect Halloween read.
3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This one is for those of you that like murders. The novel opens with the main character rationalizing his murder of an old pawnbroker, and goes to follow his journey of guilt and eventual redemption. It includes interesting, compelling characters, a few of them being cool women. It’s a little bit long-winded, though.
4. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
This is a novel has a lot of cool and interesting things to talk about, but next to nothing interesting to read. The style is nearly impossible to appreciate; some of the sentences go on and on until they’re nearly the length of a paragraph. Horrifying! Still, English teachers can’t be the only ones who love this one. Maybe it’s worth revisiting.