1. Martin Eden by Jack London
This novel written by American author Jack London, is about a proletarian young autodidact Martin Eden. As a former sailor from a working class background, He falls in love with a young bourgeois woman Ruth and decides to educate himself at becoming a writer, so he can win her hand in marriage. At the end of the novel, Martin Eden, though successful, commits suicide by drowning.
2. My Antonia by Willa Cather
This novel, first published in 1918, is considered one of the greatest novels by American writer Willa Cather. It is the final book of her “prairie trilogy” of novels, the companion volumes being O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.