Top 16 Books About Maturity Updated 04 /2024

We've all been there. We look at the 100 best books ever list and think, "Wow, really?" A lot of the first 20 pages were hard for me when I was 15. I read that book when I was 15. It took you a while to figure out what the symbolism of giant eyes looking out over the highway meant, whether or not there was a religious analogy, and why a woman who had a child with an Orthodox priest named her daughter Pearl. What? Why.

As teenagers, we thought we knew everything. Some books are better for us to enjoy at a later point in our lives, when we are older and have more experience with them. Is it true or not? With life experience, you can learn a lot of things. People who are wise also have a lot of patience: they can read 700 pages about a young woman's marriage choices in Victorian England and still be excited about it. That's the best thing that comes from being mature: when you can see yourself in these stories and characters and be moved by it. Get old isn't so bad after all, is it?

We've all been there. We look at the 100 best books ever list and think, "Wow, really?" A lot of the first 20 pages were hard for me when I was 15. I read that book when I was 15. It took you a while to figure out what the symbolism of giant eyes looking out over the highway meant, whether or not there was a religious analogy, and why a woman who had a child with an Orthodox priest named her daughter Pearl. What? Why.

As teenagers, we thought we knew everything. Some books are better for us to enjoy at a later point in our lives, when we are older and have more experience with them. Is it true or not? With life experience, you can learn a lot of things. People who are wise also have a lot of patience: they can read 700 pages about a young woman's marriage choices in Victorian England and still be excited about it. That's the best thing that comes from being mature: when you can see yourself in these stories and characters and be moved by it. Get old isn't so bad after all, is it?

Persuasion by Jane Austen

It turns out I've only read Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I'm a huge fan of the author, though. Besides Persuasion, which is Jane Austen's last book, there is a lot more of her work. This book tells the story of Anne Elliot, who was told by her judgmental and superficial family to turn down the proposal of the man she loved, Captain Wentworth, because they thought he was too good for her. Captain Wentworth has come back into Anne's life after eight years. How will he deal with her? Will they meet again?

 

Jane Austen wrote this book when she was older and wiser and didn't care about causing trouble. Her portrayal of Anne's posh family is nothing short of scandalous. She doesn't spend a penny on telling the truth. Finally, I finished reading this amazing book and thought, "I can't believe it took me so long to read it." Then I thought, "Maybe I should have started reading it when I was younger."

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte's best-known work, and I tried to read it when I was eight. A ghost in a castle attic made me want to read it, but I don't know why. There were no classes where I could read Jane Eyre. I didn't even get to read it in high school. Jane Eyre is a book that most people know a little about but haven't read. During a long flight at the age of 28, I finally read the whole book, which shocked me because it was about more than Mr. Rochester and that ghost in the attic. It's about Jane, of course, but it's also about being true to yourself at all costs.

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust is still on my to-read list, but I haven't read it yet When I was in college, I went to a lecture by Mary Ann Caws, a great professor and critic. She talked about Bloomsbury and Proust. I told her that I had tried to read Proust many times but failed each time. She asked, "How old are you?" Twenty years old: She said, "You're not old enough to read Proust." It takes at least 30 to understand Proust. To understand what he wants, you haven't lived long enough.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Most American kids who went to public school read or were supposed to read The Scarlet Letter in high school English. If you were lucky, you might have had a great teacher who explained why the book was so good and why "The Custom House" opened. It's true that there are a lot of students who didn't get a good grade in that class. If you're in 11th grade, you might not be able to handle Hawthorne's style, not to mention the very serious topics he talks about in his stories. If you didn't understand this classic book the first time you read it, it's worth reading again as an adult, when you can see the beauty in Hawthorne's writing.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Because I didn't want to put Mrs. Dalloway on this list. At the age of 17, I first read Virginia Woolf's best-known work. For me, this was the best time to read Woolf. My favorite book by her is Mrs. Dalloway, which I always tell people who haven't read it to start with. But the themes in the book, about self-actualization, post-traumatic stress, and the importance of privacy, can be a lot of work. The book Mrs. Dalloway is one of the required texts for a class in college, so if you have the chance to take one, I think you should. A great book on the surface, but there's so much hidden beneath that you'll want to make sure you have the maturity and guidance to get the most out of it.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

George Eliot's Middlemarch is one of my favorite books. I've always wanted to read it. One of the most well-known quotes from Woolf is that Middlemarch is "one of the few English books written for adults." But the book is so dense and long - more than 700 pages. This is why it's so long and dense. Even though the book was written in 1871, it still feels like it was written today, even though the town and people of Middlemarch went through a lot. When Dorothea gets married to an older man, she thinks she knows what she's getting herself into. It would be hard for someone who had never thought seriously about marriage to understand what Dorothea went through in this book, and how she got out of a very bad situation. It's a long book, but if you can keep up with it, the lessons you'll learn are worth it.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reading The Great Gatsby as a high school student and as an adult are two very different things. In high school, I was drawn to the glitz and glamour, the romance between Gatsby and Daisy, the weird symbolism of T.J. Eckleberg's eyes, and the 900 papers I had to write about them and the way they made me think. As an adult, when I read F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece again, I just wept. This book is beautiful, but it also makes you cry. The fact that it wasn't a big hit when it came out makes me wonder, and it adds to Fitzgerald's tragic story.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Many people in the Compson family, including not one, but two people named Quentin, one male, one female, to make things even more complicated. During my Faulkner class at college, a friend used different colored highlighters to keep track of all the different characters and their voices so that the story didn't get lost. In college, this kind of epic Southern literature might have been too much for you, especially if you stayed up late the night before your English class at a party. The author should get another chance. The work is worth it.

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