Books of Literary Merit? Need a list for AP test...

[Urasei_Na]

Could someone post a list of books that are of literary merit? We are supposed to read them/remember ones we've read, but I'm not sure which ones would qualify... So, please help!

[PeterL]

Could someone post a list of books that are of literary merit? We are supposed to read them/remember ones we've read, but I'm not sure which ones would qualify... So, please help!

What books have literary merit? That's a damned good question. I suppose that the answer would depend very much on the interests and philosophical leanings of the person selecting the books. A valid argument could be made that any book that has been published (and many that have not been published) has literary merit. BTW, how do you define "literary merit"?

[stlukesguild]

You might start by browsing through these lists of "great books":
http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/greatbks.html#west

[Mary Sue]

Here are just a few of the classics that are usually recommended in standard English courses:

The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
Moby Dick by Melville
Huckleberry Finn by Twain
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
War and Peace by Tolstoi
Wuthering Heights by Bronte
Vanity Fair by Thackeray
Madame Bovary by Flaubert
Old Goriot by Honore de Balzac
David Copperfield by Dickens
Tom Jones by Fielding
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner
The Portrait of a Lady by James
The Age of Innocence by Wharton
The Return of the Native by Hardy
Ulysses by Joyce
Mrs. Dalloway by Wolfe

[COMMOFF]

Here's a suggestion: try looking at the AP Literature free response questions. There is a huge list of books for the last question on every test, and all of them are considered "the classics."

[Babyguile]

What books have literary merit? That's a damned good question. I suppose that the answer would depend very much on the interests and philosophical leanings of the person selecting the books. A valid argument could be made that any book that has been published (and many that have not been published) has literary merit. BTW, how do you define "literary merit"?

I think it's pretty easy. It's just a case of discerning between genre books and non-genre books. That is to say books which follow textbook cliches whilst only changing the characters names, following trends, digression-less plotters, between books which try to say something fresh and truthful through narrative musings and tactful use of various literary devices.