Penguin USA has posted a trailer about the top ten “essential” literary classics<\/a><\/strong>, suggesting you can’t impress women at parties<\/strong> if you don’t know your literature.<\/p>\n

Before you attend any holiday soirees you might want to check these out:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inferno<\/em><\/a><\/strong> by Dante Alighieri<\/p>\n

Walden<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Henry David Thoreau (also available here<\/a> to read online)<\/p>\n

Oedipus Rex in The Complete Plays of Sophocles<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (you can read it here<\/a> online or watch a 1984 British production of the play<\/a> featuring Sir John Gielgud)<\/p>\n

The Odyssey of Homer<\/a><\/strong> <\/em>(read it online here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice<\/a><\/strong> <\/em>(online here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (online here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moby Dick, or, The Whale<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Herman Melville (read it here <\/a>online)<\/p>\n

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (watch the 1948 production directed by Sir Laurence Olivier<\/a> here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Of Mice and Men<\/em> in The Short Novels of John Steinbeck<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Conversely you could take a shortcut and check out Pierre Bayard’s How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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