GCSE — Reading List
Recommended prose fiction (20th/21st century) for GCSE preparation.
| Type / Genre | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Postcolonial / Historical | Things Fall Apart | Chinua Achebe |
| Comic Science Fiction | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams |
| Dystopian | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood |
| WWI Historical / Psychological | Regeneration | Pat Barker |
| Memoir / WWI | Testament of Youth | Vera Brittain |
| Postmodern / Metafiction | If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller | Italo Calvino |
| Coming of Age / Urban Irish | Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha | Roddy Doyle |
| Gothic / Psychological | Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier |
| WWI Historical | Birdsong | Sebastian Faulks |
| Classic / Colonial India | A Passage to India | E. M. Forster |
| Classic / Social Novel | Howards End | E. M. Forster |
| Classic / Society & Romance | A Room with a View | E. M. Forster |
| Comic / Satire | Cold Comfort Farm | Stella Gibbons |
| Allegory / Youth & Society | Lord of the Flies | William Golding |
| Historical Fiction / Ancient Rome | I, Claudius | Robert Graves |
| Crime / Moral Thriller | Brighton Rock | Graham Greene |
| Modernist / Expat Life | The Sun Also Rises | Ernest Hemingway |
| Dystopian Classic | Brave New World | Aldous Huxley |
| Literary / Butler / Memory | The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro |
| Speculative / Dystopian | Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro |
| Contemporary / Cultural Identity | The Buddha of Suburbia | Hanif Kureishi |
| Classic / Social Realism | Sons and Lovers | D. H. Lawrence |
| Classic / Social Justice | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| Postcolonial / Psychological | The Grass Is Singing | Doris Lessing |
| Adventure / Philosophical | Life of Pi | Yann Martel |
| Literary / War & Guilt | Atonement | Ian McEwan |
| Historical / Magical Realism | Beloved | Toni Morrison |
| Dystopian / Political | 1984 | George Orwell |
| Political Allegory | Animal Farm | George Orwell |
| Semi-autobiographical / Psychological | The Bell Jar | Sylvia Plath |
| WWI / Anti-war | All Quiet on the Western Front | Erich Maria Remarque |
| Postcolonial / Gothic Prequel | Wide Sargasso Sea | Jean Rhys |
| Coming of Age | The Catcher in the Rye | J. D. Salinger |
| Classic / Jazz Age | The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Character Study / School | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Muriel Spark |
| Social Realism / Migrant Experience | Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck |
| Social Realism / Epic | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
| Satire / Dark Comedy | A Handful of Dust | Evelyn Waugh |
| Satire / Comedy | Decline and Fall | Evelyn Waugh |
| Novel of Wealth & Memory | Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh |
| Epistolary / Social & Gender | The Color Purple | Alice Walker |
| Modernist / Stream of Consciousness | Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf |
Thank You
GCSE — Reading List
Recommended prose fiction (20th/21st century) for GCSE preparation.
| Type / Genre | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Postcolonial / Historical | Things Fall Apart | Chinua Achebe |
| Comic Science Fiction | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams |
| Dystopian | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood |
| WWI Historical / Psychological | Regeneration | Pat Barker |
| Memoir / WWI | Testament of Youth | Vera Brittain |
| Postmodern / Metafiction | If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller | Italo Calvino |
| Coming of Age / Urban Irish | Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha | Roddy Doyle |
| Gothic / Psychological | Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier |
| WWI Historical | Birdsong | Sebastian Faulks |
| Classic / Colonial India | A Passage to India | E. M. Forster |
| Classic / Social Novel | Howards End | E. M. Forster |
| Classic / Society & Romance | A Room with a View | E. M. Forster |
| Comic / Satire | Cold Comfort Farm | Stella Gibbons |
| Allegory / Youth & Society | Lord of the Flies | William Golding |
| Historical Fiction / Ancient Rome | I, Claudius | Robert Graves |
| Crime / Moral Thriller | Brighton Rock | Graham Greene |
| Modernist / Expat Life | The Sun Also Rises | Ernest Hemingway |
| Dystopian Classic | Brave New World | Aldous Huxley |
| Literary / Butler / Memory | The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro |
| Speculative / Dystopian | Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro |
| Contemporary / Cultural Identity | The Buddha of Suburbia | Hanif Kureishi |
| Classic / Social Realism | Sons and Lovers | D. H. Lawrence |
| Classic / Social Justice | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| Postcolonial / Psychological | The Grass Is Singing | Doris Lessing |
| Adventure / Philosophical | Life of Pi | Yann Martel |
| Literary / War & Guilt | Atonement | Ian McEwan |
| Historical / Magical Realism | Beloved | Toni Morrison |
| Dystopian / Political | 1984 | George Orwell |
| Political Allegory | Animal Farm | George Orwell |
| Semi-autobiographical / Psychological | The Bell Jar | Sylvia Plath |
| WWI / Anti-war | All Quiet on the Western Front | Erich Maria Remarque |
| Postcolonial / Gothic Prequel | Wide Sargasso Sea | Jean Rhys |
| Coming of Age | The Catcher in the Rye | J. D. Salinger |
| Classic / Jazz Age | The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Character Study / School | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Muriel Spark |
| Social Realism / Migrant Experience | Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck |
| Social Realism / Epic | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
| Satire / Dark Comedy | A Handful of Dust | Evelyn Waugh |
| Satire / Comedy | Decline and Fall | Evelyn Waugh |
| Novel of Wealth & Memory | Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh |
| Epistolary / Social & Gender | The Color Purple | Alice Walker |
| Modernist / Stream of Consciousness | Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf |
Thank You