Though first encountering a classic novel on a school syllabus can prejudice one against them, it cannot be denied that 'Classics' are classic for a reason – they're books that cast a long shadow through time, whether thanks to timeless themes, powerful prose or singular characters. There are few books that reward a re-read quite like a beloved classic, so take this as your sign to pick up a favourite of yours that you haven't read in a while and remember why it made an impact on you.
If you want to discover a new favourite, here are some of our recommendations for classics that should go to the top of your TBR, whether you're reading them again or are discovering them for the first time!
Sea Green
Barbara Hanrahan
This is an Australian classic that you might be unfamiliar with, both because it's been out of print for many years and because Australian classics are rarely given the same attention as the European canon. But with this beautiful edition from Pink Shorts Press (an exciting new South Australian independent publisher), Sea Green is well worth picking up.
This is an incredible and introspective novel, charting the internal experiences of a young woman as she set sails from Adelaide for a new life in London. She attempts to reinvent herself and find her creative voice, but finds herself torn between the glory of her inner life and the messiness of existing in the real world. Hanrahan's writing has been praised for its innovation and poetic style, and while she's more known for her impressive visual art career, this novel will demonstrate that her novels are more than worth revisiting. Read Sea Green now and follow it up with another Hanrahan novel being published by Pink Shorts Press, Annie Magdalene, which will be hitting shelves this August.
Beloved
Toni Morrison
Rediscover Toni Morrison's powerful, Pulitzer-prize winning novel Beloved with this beautiful hardback edition of the 20th century classic.
This enduring masterpiece follows Sethe, a black woman in America in the mid-1800s, as slavery is finally coming to an end. But despite the hope offered by this new era, Sethe is haunted by her former life as a slave, the horrors that were inflicted on her at Sweet Home farm, and the dead daughter who was lost and buried there. Even eighteen years after she escaped the cruelty of the Kentucky farm and fled to Ohio, Sethe remains in the shadow of all the cruelty and loss she experienced – reminding readers of the deeply personal cost of that inhumane period of history.
Maurice
E. M. Forster
Maurice is a deeply moving coming of age novel, following a young man's discovery of his queerness and his journey to decide whether to fight against social norms in the pursuit of love and happiness. This beautiful edition is a recent re-release of the queer classic, featuring a new introduction by Colm Toíbín, bestselling author of Brookyln and Long Island.
Thought too controversial to be published during Forster's lifetime, when same-sex relationships were still illegal in the UK, Maurice was first published in 1971, the year after Forster's death. Even aside from that very sad fact, this is an emotional novel, charting Maurice's priviledged childhood to his adolesence where his unspoken desires begin to grow behind a facade of conventionality. It's at university when he meets Clive, and then the working class Alec, that Maurice finally faces the reality of what love looks like for him, and how that changes the life he's destined to live.
Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
May 2025 marks 100 years since the first publication of Mrs Dalloway, so mark this momentous anniversary with this beautiful Vintage Classics edition!
To those unfamiliar, the premise of Mrs Dalloway may sound simple – Clarissa Dalloway prepares for a party she is going to host that night – but with Woolf's innovative stream of consciousness prose and her poignant insight into the cracks beneath the surface of English society between the wars, there are layers of complexity and nuance that slowly unfold. This is a beautiful and powerful novel, that's also considered one of Woolf's most accessible, so even if you're new to her style, it's a wonderful read.
After Mrs Dalloway, you can also revisit Woolf's seminal, and persistently relevant, essay A Room of One's Own, which has been recently rereleased with a new introduction from Lauren Groff!
The Frolic of the Beasts
Yukio Mishima, translated by Andrew Clare
Penguin have recently released a small collection of Japanese Classics – novels from groundbreaking and renowned 20th century writers, with stunning new covers inspired by Japaneses art and design. They're all well worth picking up, particularly for readers of genre or more experimental fiction.
The Frolic of the Beasts is a psychological thriller, following the story of a love affair gone horribly wrong. Koji is a young student in rural Japan, after the end of World War II, who falls desperately in love with Yuko, the woman married to his mentor. Yuko's husband is an eminent literary critic but is not faithful to his beautitful wife – as Koji comes to understand the extent of the other man's disloyalty, his rage and desire for Yuko combine and swell until he does something unthinkable.
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit was a pioneering novel when it was first published in 1985 and remains hugely relevant to today's queer community. A bold work of autofiction, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit follows Jeanette, a devout young Pentecostal full of faith and belief in God's love. But when Jeanette meets and grows close to Melanie, her attempts to welcome the other girl into the church grow into something else, and Jeanette falls in love for the first time.
The simple act of falling in love changes the trajectory of Jeanette's life, and while this novel is at times heartbreaking, it's also full of the warmth and wit that Winterson has become known for across her career.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque
Often called the greatest war novel of all time, this haunting story explores the horrors of war and the needless trauma inflicted on a generation by World War I. Remarque follows twenty-year-old Paul Bäumer, who enlists in the German army with a group of his classmates, full of idealism and excitment at the prospect of what they believe will be a grand adventure. But slowly that idealism is shattered as Paul and his friends are faced with horror, pain and death in the trenches.
Paul's poignant reckoning with the reality of being led to kill young men whose only crime was to be wearing the uniform of the opposing army made this an enduring story; and Remarque's depiction of the continued trauma and isolation experienced by soldiers on their return to civilian life further solidified the ongoing importance of this story, to remind new generations of the true cost of war. It may not be an easy read, but this is an important and rewarding one.
Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie is an author whose name is in the news more than most, both for receiving international accolades and becuase of controversy surrounding him and his novels. But if you're more familiar with his reputation than his work, there's no better place to start reading than Midnight's Children.
Not only did Midnight's Children win the Booker Prize on its release in 1981, but in 2008 it was named 'The Best of the Booker' – the best novel from Booker Prize history. It's hard to think of a higher endorsement than that!
Midnight's Children is a work of speculative fiction, exploring India's independence with the story of 1,000 children, connected by telepathic powers and unusual gifts. The story of Saleem Sinai and the children like him mirrors that of India itself, and made this an enduring modern classic.
Blackwater I: The Flood
Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell's Blackwater Saga was first published in the 1980s but has been recently re-released (with absolutely stunning, highly detailed cover artwork!). It has exploded online since the re-publication, with readers around the world loving the atmospheric, southern-gothic world of the Caskey family, their Alabama home, and the magnetic pull of Elinor Dammert, the mysterious protagonist who works her way into the heart of the family.
There are six books in The Blackwater Saga, so start reading now to discover why everyone is talking about this horror classic!
The Image of Her
Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Lauren Elkin
Finally, this is a novel that most Australian readers are likely to be discovering for the first time, rather than revisiting, since this is the first time it's been published in English! First released in French in 1966 as Les Belles Images, The Image of Her is a powerful novel about the crushing weight of social expectations.
Simone de Beauvoir is of course an iconic feminist, best known for her groundbreaking book, The Second Sex, but she was a prolific writer of essays, short stories and novels as well. The Image of Her carries the same social and political awareness as de Beauvoir's nonfiction, exploring the story of Laurence, a woman leading a priviledged life among the bourgeoisie of 1960s Paris. But Laurence is not happy – her life is focused on tending to her husband, two daughters and her lover, and mainting the appearance of content domesticity, with her own needs and desires an afterthought. It's only when Laurence's daughter Catherine starts to call out the unfairness of the treatment of women that she realises how subjucated she has become, and wonders how she can prevent her children falling victim to convention in the same way she has.
