From Heathcliff to Bovary to Becky Sharp there is a classic for everyone. I’ve found 10 classic novels you could almost read in an afternoon, all are great reads which have endured the test of time and enchanted and entertained readers for decades. 
Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
Animal Farm George Orwell
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
FrankensteinMary Shelley
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Picture of Dorian GrayOscar Wilde
I hope you find time to enjoy a classic, many offer a wonderful insight to what life was like when written, and whether it be a book on adventure, war, or manners, there is so much to learn about life’s great questions from these afternoon gems.
Loved the book “Picture of Dorian Gray”
Couldn’t agree more, Blackbird. All the topical bitchiness of the day (who was supposed to be whom – the artist character modelled on Whistler, etc) went completely over my head, but regardless of that, it was an evocative and brilliant story.
I so did love “Animal Farm”.
It was an awesome tale of how the animals at this farm rose up against the humans, took over the farm for themselves and renamed the place: Animal Farm.
Oh, and speaking of things going completely over my head, I first read Animal Farm when I was quite young. I was really into animal stories – Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka, Call of the Wild – that sort of thing, so I thought hey, this will be perfect. And it was great. I cried over Boxer’s fate, of course, and was a tad disturbed by the transformation of the pigs at the end, but, really, it was great.
Several years later, having acquainted myself with both a foundational understanding of the history of Stalinist Russia and the concept of allegory, I had another look at Animal Farm and I tell you, it was a completely different story. Amazing!
I find reading a book again as an adult a totally different experience. I was actually able to finish a Clockwork Orange the second time around. I remember getting frustrated with the language, then 15-years later I suddenly got it.
A lot of the classics, especially ones seen as suitable for children, are good for this. Come back to them as an adult and you find so much more in them – politics, relationships and ethical issues that you never knew were there as a child. Re-reading Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll is a revelation.