Skip to main content

Fiction about the Working Class

Description: Books that focus on the working class, past and present.
Based on tag: working class

1 2 3 4 5

Rank Title Author Added

1

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

39,180 members

519 reviews

4.1

4 Members: sturlington, thecoroner, Dilara86, ManWithAnAgenda

2

Great Expectations

by Charles Dickens

43,909 members

478 reviews

3.9

4 Members: thecoroner, Dilara86, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda

3

Of Mice and Men

by John Steinbeck

44,658 members

724 reviews

3.9

4 Members: sturlington, thecoroner, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda

4

by Charles Dickens

11,995 members

146 reviews

½ 3.5

3 Members: sturlington, thecoroner, ahef1963

5

by Richard Russo

9,253 members

191 reviews

3.9

3 Members: sturlington, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda

6

6,140 members

90 reviews

4.2

2 Members: thecoroner, Dilara86

7

by Frank McCourt

23,571 members

351 reviews

4

3 Members: dara85, thecoroner, Dilara86

8

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

18,588 members

482 reviews

½ 4.3

2 Members: dara85, ahef1963

9

by Rohinton Mistry

10,023 members

271 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: KimarieBee, ahef1963

10

by Upton Sinclair

13,313 members

146 reviews

3.8

2 Members: thecoroner, ManWithAnAgenda

11

The Communist Manifesto

18,137 members

163 reviews

½ 3.5

2 Members: ahef1963, HelgeM

12

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

4,324 members

84 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: KimarieBee, Dilara86

13

North and South

by Elizabeth Gaskell

8,656 members

262 reviews

4.1

2 Members: ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda

14

A Streetcar Named Desire

by Tennessee Williams

9,233 members

113 reviews

3.9

2 Members: ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda

15

Cathedral: Stories

by Raymond Carver

3,426 members

98 reviews

4.2

2 Members: thecoroner, ManWithAnAgenda

16

Death of a Salesman [critical edition]

by Arthur Miller

1,169 members

6 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: dara85, ahef1963

17

The House at Riverton

6,046 members

264 reviews

3.8

2 Members: dara85, ahef1963

18

by John Steinbeck

11,186 members

214 reviews

4

2 Members: ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda

19

The Mill on the Floss

by George Eliot

9,762 members

131 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda

20

2,989 members

68 reviews

4.1

Member: KimarieBee

21

Stone Butch Blues

by Leslie Feinberg

2,505 members

45 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

22

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

by Robert Tressell

1,799 members

42 reviews

4

Member: Dilara86

23

The Condition of the Working Class in England

by Friedrich Engels

1,251 members

10 reviews

4

Member: HelgeM

24

by Mary Jane Auch

530 members

25 reviews

4

Member: dara85

25

Family and Kinship in East London

by Michael Dunlop Young

200 members

7 reviews

4.1

Member: bluepiano

26

Independent People

by Halldór Laxness

3,415 members

120 reviews

4.1

2 Members: Dilara86, ahef1963

27

2,668 members

52 reviews

4.1

Member: thecoroner

28

Hard Living on Clay Street: Portraits of Blue Collar Families

by Joseph T. Howell

80 members

3.8

Member: bluepiano

29

460 members

15 reviews

3.8

Member: Dilara86

30

A Chair for My Mother

by Vera B. Williams

8,133 members

250 reviews

4.2

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

31

A Kestrel for a Knave

1,200 members

20 reviews

3.9

Member: Dilara86

32

by Vasco Pratolini

212 members

4 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: thecoroner

33

The 42nd Parallel

by John Dos Passos

1,844 members

30 reviews

3.8

Member: thecoroner

34

by Annie Ernaux

979 members

37 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Dilara86

35

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

8,884 members

395 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: ahef1963

36

by Gertrude Stein

1,949 members

21 reviews

3

Member: thecoroner

37

A Woman's Story

by Annie Ernaux

613 members

24 reviews

3.9

Member: Dilara86

38

Jude the Obscure

by Thomas Hardy

11,259 members

157 reviews

3.9

Member: thecoroner

39

by Annie Ernaux

1,843 members

73 reviews

4.1

Member: Dilara86

40

Cry, Mother Spain

by Lydie Salvayre

186 members

11 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Dilara86

41

Sons and Lovers

by D. H. Lawrence

10,438 members

104 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: ahef1963

42

by Lydie Salvayre

19 members

½ 3.4

Member: Dilara86

43

The Water-Babies

by Charles Kingsley

3,380 members

55 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: ahef1963

44

The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant

by Michel Tremblay

309 members

14 reviews

3.8

Member: Dilara86

45

My Brilliant Friend

by Elena Ferrante

9,509 members

389 reviews

3.9

Member: Dilara86

46

2,323 members

43 reviews

3.8

Member: thecoroner

47

Black Shack Alley

by Joseph Zobel

139 members

4.2

Member: Dilara86

48

The Disinherited

75 members

1 review

½ 3.6

Member: thecoroner

49

by Theodore Dreiser

4,390 members

67 reviews

3.8

Member: Dilara86

50

by Edward Dahlberg

34 members

1 review

3

Member: thecoroner

51

Cider with Rosie

2,868 members

65 reviews

3.9

Member: Dilara86

52

489 members

23 reviews

4

Member: thecoroner

53

Love on the Dole

by Walter Greenwood

374 members

10 reviews

3.8

Member: thecoroner

54

by Annie Ernaux

206 members

5 reviews

4.1

Member: Dilara86

55

Life in the Iron Mills

by Rebecca Harding Davis

140 members

3 reviews

4

Member: thecoroner

56

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

by Alan Sillitoe

1,142 members

19 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: thecoroner

57

Stockholm, City of My Dreams

by Per Anders Fogelström

343 members

2 reviews

4.1

Member: Dilara86

58

The Story of a New Name

by Elena Ferrante

4,482 members

173 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Dilara86

59

by Elizabeth Gaskell

3,015 members

73 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: ahef1963

60

Down and Out in Paris and London

by George Orwell

8,748 members

152 reviews

4

Member: ahef1963

61

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

by Elena Ferrante

3,736 members

119 reviews

4.2

Member: Dilara86

62

The Crab Cannery Ship and Other Novels of Struggle

by Takiji Kobayashi

42 members

5

Member: thecoroner

63

by Douglas Stuart

3,767 members

159 reviews

4.2

Member: ahef1963

64

698 members

10 reviews

4.2

Member: thecoroner

65

The Great Hunger

by Patrick Kavanagh

128 members

1 review

4.1

Member: Dilara86

66

The Magic of Blood

by Dagoberto Gilb

154 members

2 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: thecoroner

67

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

1,500 members

30 reviews

3.9

Member: thecoroner

68

A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer

by Shirō Ōyama

55 members

1 review

3.2

Member: thecoroner

69

The End of Eddy

by Édouard Louis

1,074 members

34 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Dilara86

70

Who Killed My Father

by Édouard Louis

384 members

12 reviews

3.9

Member: Dilara86

71

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class

713 members

16 reviews

3.8

Member: Dilara86

72

22,138 members

265 reviews

3.9

Member: ahef1963,bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano : Nothing markedly working-class about it.

73

Billy Liar: a novel

by Keith Waterhouse

681 members

15 reviews

3.8

74

London's Underworld

by Peter Quennell

148 members

½ 4.3

Explanations: bluepiano : Good book, though.

75

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich

11,767 members

231 reviews

½ 3.7

76

The Making of the English Working Class

by E. P. Thompson

2,018 members

11 reviews

4.1

77

The Road to Wigan Pier

by George Orwell

3,979 members

54 reviews

3.8

78

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

by Alan Sillitoe

1,754 members

33 reviews

½ 3.7

79

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

by Studs Terkel

2,356 members

24 reviews

4.2

80

Last Night at the Lobster

by Stewart O'Nan

1,469 members

134 reviews

3.8

81

The Working Poor: Invisible in America

by David K. Shipler

1,457 members

23 reviews

4

82

by Dorothy Allison

1,012 members

12 reviews

4

83

A People's History of the United States

17,252 members

175 reviews

4.2

84

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

by Dorothy Allison

956 members

18 reviews

3.9

85

Without a net : the female experience of growing up working class

by Michelle Tea

241 members

2 reviews

4.1

86

The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class

by David R. Roediger

696 members

3 reviews

4.1

87

Mig äger ingen

by Åsa Linderborg

358 members

15 reviews

4

88

by Irvine Welsh

8,448 members

91 reviews

4

89

The War That Saved My Life

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

3,906 members

385 reviews

½ 4.6

90

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

by Stephanie Land

1,651 members

81 reviews

½ 3.6

91

The Barrytown Trilogy

1,317 members

13 reviews

4.1

92

by Jonathan Evison

478 members

29 reviews

3.9

93

Bastard Out of Carolina

by Dorothy Allison

5,612 members

124 reviews

4

94

Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War

917 members

50 reviews

3.8

95

by Brendan O'Carroll

779 members

29 reviews

4

96

The Uses of Literacy

by Richard Hoggart

626 members

10 reviews

4.1

97

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope

by Nicholas D. Kristof

459 members

23 reviews

4.2

98

Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850

by Sean Wilentz

260 members

1 review

½ 3.5

99

Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams

by Alfred Lubrano

234 members

7 reviews

3.8

100

Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature

by Dorothy Allison

635 members

1 review

½ 4.3

1 2 3 4 5

About This List

Started: Dilara86
April 2016
Type: Numbered and unnumbered

Related Lists

Current Discussions

None

Related Tags

19th century (4,727) 20th century (4,045) American literature (4,043) autobiography (2,944) biography (3,911) British literature (2,536) classic (10,424) classics (12,135) England (3,700) English literature (2,737) family (4,189) fiction (67,809) historical fiction (5,780) history (8,482) Ireland (3,720) literature (10,367) memoir (6,935) non-fiction (13,247) novel (11,512) politics (3,811) poverty (4,411) read (6,954) short stories (3,290) to-read (47,643) unread (2,649)

Verdana Standard Verdana Small The Lorax System Standard System Large Georgia Large Text Atkinson