Short classics you can read in a weekend

Not all classic works of literature take months to read. While there’s much to love about the drawn-out, slow burn experience of wading through The Count of Monte Cristo or The Lord of the Rings, there’s just as much to love about the classics you can read in a single weekend.
 
Such books are unique because their brevity augments the power of their message rather than weakening it. The fact that they resonate with you so profoundly after just a few sittings is testament to both the author’s skill and the truth of what they have to say.
 
Today, we look at five classics you can read in a weekend. If you’re tight on time but still want to fuel your mind with great literature, there are few books better than these to start with.
 
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) is among the most profound meditations on mortality ever written. The story follows a high-ranking judge whose comfortable, respectable life quickly unravels when he becomes terminally ill.
As Ivan faces death, he begins to see how hollow his existence has been, and how it was defined by social propriety and career success rather than truth or love. Over the course of about 90 pages, Tolstoy strips away every illusion of modern life until only the essential question remains: how should one live?
Few works so succinctly capture the terror of confronting the reality of one’s death. But, in the words of Tolstoy, “In place of death there was light”— a metaphor for the transcendence that occurs when you come to peace with your mortality.
 
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Published in 1915, The Metamorphosis begins with one of the most arresting opening lines in all of literature: 
When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.
From this absurd premise, Kafka builds a haunting allegory of alienation and guilt. Gregor’s grotesque transformation into a literal insect exposes the fragility of human dignity, and how quickly family affection can dissolve into horror and disgust when usefulness disappears. 
Yet despite its overt strangeness, the story is more complex than it seems: it can be read as a metaphor of a man trapped in heartbreaking circumstances, or — if you don’t trust the narrator in the opening line — as a story about a man who becomes the victim of his own decay. Interpretations are aplenty, but one thing is certain: you won’t be bored reading it.
 
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Orwell’s 1945 novella is often remembered as a political allegory about Soviet totalitarianism. Its staying power, however, lies in just how easily its satirical lessons extend beyond its specific, mid-20th century context.
 When the animals of Manor Farm overthrow their human masters, they dream of equality and freedom. But instead they build a new tyranny, ruled by pigs who twist language and truth to their advantage. In less than 120 pages, Orwell captures the entire cycle (and spirit) of political revolution: from hope to corruption, and corruption to betrayal.
 Every generation finds something new in Animal Farm, because power always finds new disguises. Who could have thought that a story about politically-savvy pigs would have so much staying power?
 
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Written in 1513, The Prince remains one of the most influential — and misunderstood — political treatises in history.
Far from advocating cruelty for its own sake, Machiavelli sought to describe politics as it truly is, not as we wish it to be. He wrote for rulers who must act in a world of deceit, ambition, and shifting fortune.
Or did he? Everyone from Nietzsche to Hegel saw something in his work that resonated with them; an essential truth about political power and the moral cost of wielding it.
Coming in at just over 100 pages, there’s no excuse why you can’t read The Prince to find out for yourself what it’s really about. Or, in the words of the Machiavelli himself:
“The wise does at once what the fool does at last.”

If you want inspiration to read literature's most intelligent work, check out my blog on why everyone should read the classics at www.jonimacfarlane.com/blog/archives/01-2020. When you have more than a weekend, check out my list of essentials at www.jonimacfarlane.com/blog/archives/02-2020/2.
Try some. You might like them.

And in the meantime, happy reading!
Joni