The Good Clean Fiction bookshelf
A little room for a good book.
Classics
by Elizabeth Taylor
Widowed and determined to stay independent, Mrs Palfrey moves into a faded London hotel full of elderly residents. When a kind young writer helps her after a fall, she passes him off as her grandson. A witty, poignant classic about old age and loneliness.
Before you read
Read our approach to language, romance, and difficult subjects before choosing your next book.
How we choose our booksFind your copy
Retailer links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Read our disclosure.
ClassicsTranslated
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
A lonely young dreamer wanders St. Petersburg during the city's pale summer nights and meets Nastenka, a young woman waiting for a lover who promised to return. Over four nights they share their stories, and he falls quietly in love. A short, tender classic about loneliness and hope.
Classics
R.C. Sherriff
Every September the Stevens family of Dulwich takes the train to Bognor for two weeks at the same guesthouse by the sea. Nothing dramatic happens, and that is the point: Sherriff's 1931 novel finds quiet grandeur in an ordinary family's holiday. A gentle, much-loved classic.
ClassicsHistorical
J.L. Carr
In the summer of 1920, Tom Birkin, a survivor of the trenches, arrives in a Yorkshire village to uncover a medieval wall painting in its church. Over a few golden weeks the work, and the people around him, begin to heal him. A short, luminous classic.
