Sebastian Faulks' "Fifth-Form Canon"

In his book Faulks on Fiction, Sebastian Faulks describes Pride and Prejudice (the subject of my dissertation) as "one of a handful of decisive books" in his life. At fourteen years old, "it was these books of the fifth-form canon, read in the space of that spring term, that made me think literature was the most important thing on earth". The following, he says, "shaped [his] life":

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger