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Abridged Classics: Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn't

Finally a practical reward for your diligent reading efforts; the more classics you've read, the more you'd enjoy the humour in the source book. It is a "collection of irreverent summations of more than 100 well-known works of literature, from Anna Karenina to Wuthering Heights, cleverly described in the fewest words possible..."
Examples:
The Scarlet Letter: "Puritan tale of adultery, mockery, and embroidery."
Jane Eyre: "Workplace romance gets fiery."
The Odyssey: "War veteran takes forever to get home, then kills everyone."
A Farewell to Arms: "There are no winners in war. And very few adjectives."
Charlotte's Web: "Clever web designer saves a pig."
BTW, IMHO, this challenge also makes a good small-scale TBR list, at least if you dropped 'In Search of Lost Time', which is summarised as "Smell of cake reminds a guy of stuff. Four thousand pages of stuff."
398 users · 2,130 views
 
from goodreads.com · made by Markd9528
avg. score: 39 of 102 (38%)
required scores: 1, 21, 33, 42, 54 

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Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn't (John Atkinson)
Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn't
1
John Atkinson
Ulysses (James Joyce)
Ulysses
2
James Joyce
Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)
Moby-Dick
3
Herman Melville
War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
War and Peace
4
Leo Tolstoy
Beowulf (Tr. Seamus Heaney)
Beowulf
5
Tr. Seamus Heaney
Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)
Oliver Twist
6
Charles Dickens
Walden (Henry David Thoreau)
Walden
7
Henry David Thoreau
MacBeth (William Shakespeare)
MacBeth
8
William Shakespeare
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
Brave New World
9
Aldous Huxley
In Search of Lost Time (Marcel Proust)
In Search of Lost Time
10
Marcel Proust
The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)
The Sun Also Rises
11
Ernest Hemingway
Naked Lunch (William S. Burroughs)
Naked Lunch
12
William S. Burroughs
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
13
Oscar Wilde
The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
The Brothers Karamazov
14
Fyodor Dostoevsky
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
To Kill a Mockingbird
15
Harper Lee
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The Catcher in the Rye
16
J.D. Salinger
The Faerie Queene (Edmund Spenser)
The Faerie Queene
17
Edmund Spenser
Animal Farm (George Orwell)
Animal Farm
18
George Orwell
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice
19
Jane Austen
The Odyssey (Homer)
The Odyssey
20
Homer
The Iliad (Homer)
The Iliad
21
Homer
Don Quixote (Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra)
Don Quixote
22
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
Crime and Punishment
23
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Catch-22
24
Joseph Heller
Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
Heart of Darkness
25
Joseph Conrad
The Republic (Plato)
The Republic
26
Plato
Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
Wuthering Heights
27
Emily Brontë
Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
Robinson Crusoe
28
Daniel Defoe
The Pearl (John Steinbeck)
The Pearl
29
John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
The Grapes of Wrath
30
John Steinbeck
A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway)
A Farewell to Arms
31
Ernest Hemingway
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
32
Othello (William Shakespeare)
Othello
33
William Shakespeare
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
On the Road
34
Jack Kerouac
The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)
The Canterbury Tales
35
Geoffrey Chaucer
Inferno (Dante Alighieri)
Inferno
36
Dante Alighieri
Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie)
Peter Pan
37
J.M. Barrie
Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Treasure Island
38
Robert Louis Stevenson
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
Frankenstein
39
Mary Shelley
Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift)
Gulliver's Travels
40
Jonathan Swift
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