Hours at an average pace
Showing 36 books
About 172 hours for 36 of 36 books with measured lengths. Estimates use 250 words a minute, adjusted for each book's difficulty. At 2 hours a day, about 87 days for those books.
No. 1 on this list. A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams · 1947
Challenging2.3 hours
Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475), UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)
Required reading in virtually every American literature curriculum, from high school through university, and among the most-produced plays in the American theater canon. It appears on nearly every 'great American plays' list alongside Death of a Salesman, and has been continuously performed since its 1947 Broadway premiere.
No. 2 on this list. Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller · 1949
Challenging3.9 hours
Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council
Required reading in virtually every American high school and most university American Drama and Literature courses. The play appears on thousands of university syllabi globally and consistently ranks among the defining works of American theater on 'essential reading' lists. It has been in continuous production since its 1949 premiere.
O'Neill dramatized his own family — the morphine-addicted mother, the alcoholic father, the doomed brother — with such lacerating honesty that he ordered the play sealed until twenty-five years after his death. The result is the most autobiographically raw masterpiece in American theater, a four-act cycle of blame and forgiveness that never grants its characters the relief of a resolution.
No. 4 on this list. Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck · 1937
Easy1.7 hours
Taught in schools: Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate – English, Turkish edebiyat curriculum (Turkey)
One of the most taught works in American secondary and post-secondary education, with 548 syllabus appearances placing it in the top tier of assigned literature. Included in Library of America, Penguin Classics, Everyman's Library, and Penguin Modern Classics. Appears on the BBC Big Read Top 100 and 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Its status as core American literary reading is unquestioned.
No. 5 on this list. The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams · 1944
Challenging1.9 hours
Taught in schools: Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council
The Glass Menagerie is taught in virtually every American high school and in university courses on 20th-century drama, American literature, and modern theater across the globe. It appears on thousands of syllabi and is considered alongside Death of a Salesman as a cornerstone of the American stage canon. No data signals were returned, but its syllabus presence is among the highest for any American play.
No. 6 on this list. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams · 1955
Challenging5.5 hours
Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is taught in American literature and theater courses across the country, standing alongside A Streetcar Named Desire as the twin peaks of Williams's canon. The 1958 film adaptation with Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor brought it to global audiences, cementing its place in the broader cultural record. It appears on virtually every syllabus covering American drama.
Standard curriculum text in American high schools and universities, The Crucible is one of the most-assigned plays in English-speaking education. Its McCarthyism allegory gives it permanence across both literary and political syllabi, and it has been in continuous production since its 1953 premiere. The Open Syllabus Project places it among the most frequently taught dramatic works in US classrooms.
A foundational work of American avant-garde theater and Albee's debut. Widely taught, anthologized, and performed as a landmark one-act play.
A dramatization in free verse and with features derived from ancient and medieval theatre of the killing of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury under King Henry II. Eliot used the device of a chorus, an ancient Greek invention, to express certain concerns and observations, and the killers take their turn to justify their action. When I read this play as a grammar school student in England, I was struck by the way the violence echoed the rise of fascism in Europe when the play was being written. My English master was somewhat mocking in class regarding my views, but later as a college student I read Eliot's own words confirming my experience.
The Iceman Cometh appears in the Open Syllabus Top 500 Literature list and holds Library of America and NYRB Classics editions — markers of canonical permanence in American letters. It is taught in virtually every American drama survey and appears on most 'great American plays' lists alongside Long Day's Journey into Night. Wikipedia carries the play in only 5 languages, reflecting the global reach of drama (versus fiction) rather than lesser standing; within American literary culture, The Iceman Cometh is firmly canonical.
No. 11 on this list. Angels in America: Perestroika · Tony Kushner · 1992
Angels in America is taught in American theater, drama, and queer studies programs at universities across the country and is consistently listed among the essential works of 20th-century American literature. Both parts of the play appear regularly on syllabi in literature, political science, and history courses. Its status as a defining document of the AIDS crisis and Reagan-era America makes it required context for anyone studying the period.
Difficult6.8 hours
Start this bookNo. 12 on this list. The Piano Lesson · August Wilson · 1987
The Piano Lesson is a fixture in American drama and literature courses, taught alongside O'Neill, Miller, and Williams as a canonical American play. It is the centerpiece of August Wilson's ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle, a sequence now treated as essential reading in university drama programs. Its Pulitzer Prize win and sustained presence in curricula place it well above mid-tier literary works.
Challenging2.9 hours
Start this bookNo. 13 on this list. Fences · August Wilson · 1985
Fences appears regularly on university syllabi in American drama, African American literature, and theater history courses. It is one of the two plays — alongside Death of a Salesman — most frequently assigned when teaching 20th-century American drama. The 2016 film adaptation brought it to wider global audiences, and it remains central to any serious survey of postwar American theater.
Challenging2.5 hours
Start this bookNo. 14 on this list. Ethan Frome · Edith Wharton · 1911
One of the most widely assigned American novels, a staple of high school and college curricula. A central text of American literary realism.
Easy1.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 15 on this list. Mourning Becomes Electra · Eugene O'Neill · 1931
Included in: Great Books of the Western World
Widely regarded as O'Neill's masterwork alongside 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' and a defining achievement of American theater. The trilogy appears consistently in academic curricula for American drama and 20th-century literature. It represents the apex of O'Neill's ambitious attempt to transplant Greek tragedy onto American soil, and its exploration of psychological realism through classical form remains influential. While perhaps less universally known than some novels, it holds unquestioned status as a landmark of serious American theatrical literature.
Challenging4.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 16 on this list. To Kill a Mockingbird · Harper Lee · 1961
Taught in schools: Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council
Appears on 1,674 university syllabi (80.6th percentile, Open Syllabus Project) and is a fixture of American high school and university English curricula. Wikipedia articles exist in 58 languages with dedicated reception and adaptations sections. Published by four prestige houses — Library of America, Everyman's Library, Penguin Classics, and Penguin Modern Classics — confirming its standing in the Western canon.
Moderate6.3 hours
Start this bookNo. 17 on this list. Our Town · Thornton Wilder · 1938
Taught in schools: Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council
Our Town is among the most-produced American plays, a staple of high school and college drama and American literature courses. It won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is widely taught as a landmark of twentieth-century American theater.
Easy2.8 hours
Start this bookNo. 18 on this list. Topdog/Underdog · Suzan-Lori Parks · 2001
Regularly taught in American Drama and African American Literature courses at universities across the country, and a landmark of contemporary American theater. Its Pulitzer win and high-profile Broadway production have secured its place in the post-2000 dramatic canon. No syllabus data is available in the database, but the play's status as Parks' most-produced work and its historical Pulitzer distinction point to strong curricular presence.
Challenging1.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 19 on this list. Monster · Walter Dean Myers · 1999
Steve Harmon is sixteen years old and on trial for felony murder. He may have acted as a lookout for a Harlem drugstore robbery that left the owner dead — or he may not have. The question hangs over Walter Dean Myers's 1999 novel, which Steve narrates in the only form that makes sense to him: a screenplay. He writes himself as the protagonist, titles the film Monster — the word the prosecutor used to describe him — and cuts between courtroom scenes and flashback journal entries while his mother cries in the gallery and his lawyer calculates the odds. The form is not a gimmick. A screenplay externalizes action and dialogue while burying interiority in stage directions, and that gap is exactly where Myers puts the book's central problem: we watch Steve perform innocence without ever being certain whether we are watching performance or truth. The trial exposes Harlem's carceral machinery — the way young Black men get classified, processed, and destroyed — but Monster refuses to let that machinery fully explain Steve. He asks, on the last page, who he is. Myers doesn't answer. Readers will spend time after the last page deciding whether that's evasion or honesty, and what it says about how they read a defendant's face.
Easy1.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 20 on this list. Three Tall Women · Edward Albee · 1991
Pulitzer Prize winner and widely regarded as Albee's late masterpiece. A standard text in American drama courses and regularly revived in major productions.
Moderate1.1 hours
Start this book
No. 21 on this list. In the Blood · Suzan-Lori Parks · 1999
Widely taught in American drama and African American literature courses. Recognized as one of Parks's major works and a significant contemporary American play.
Moderate1.3 hours
Start this bookNo. 22 on this list. Pierre · Herman Melville · 1852
Pierre is a fixture of graduate and upper-level American Renaissance and Melville seminars but not an undergraduate survey staple the way Moby-Dick or Bartleby, the Scrivener are. Its canonical standing rests on the Melville Revival of the 1920s onward, which rehabilitated it as a serious, if difficult, companion piece to Moby-Dick.
Difficult19 hours
Start this bookNo. 23 on this list. Requiem for a Nun · William Faulkner · 1951
Requiem for a Nun occupies a secondary position in Faulkner's canon, overshadowed by The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom!, and Light in August. It appears on few syllabi outside dedicated Faulkner seminars. The novel's hybrid form and its dependency on Sanctuary for context have limited its standalone teachability.
Difficult6.5 hours
Start this bookNo. 24 on this list. The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window · Lorraine Hansberry · 1964
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window occupies a secondary position relative to Hansberry's celebrated first play, but maintains a presence in African-American literature, feminist theater, and political drama courses. It is frequently anthologized alongside Hansberry scholarship and remains a standard reference point in studies of 1960s American intellectual theater, though it lacks the widespread high school and undergraduate curriculum presence of A Raisin in the Sun.
Challenging5.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 25 on this list. We Need to Talk About Kevin · Lionel Shriver · 2005
Appears on 65 university syllabi (45th percentile per Open Syllabus), putting it in the range of contemporary literary fiction taught in modern lit and women's studies courses rather than the broader canon. Wikipedia coverage in 12 languages suggests a solid international profile without reaching the global reach of truly canonical works. A serious literary novel but not yet a fixture of required reading lists.
Difficult19 hours
Start this bookNo. 26 on this list. The Moon Is Down · John Steinbeck
It is taught in schools as a WWII-era resistance novella, but it sits well below Steinbeck's major works such as The Grapes of Wrath in curricula.
Easy2.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 27 on this list. Pulp Fiction: A Quentin Tarantino Screenplay · Quentin Tarantino · 1994
The screenplay is studied in film and screenwriting courses and widely published, though it is rarely taught as literature. The film's reputation lifts its place well above commercial fiction without making it a literary staple.
Moderate2.8 hours
Start this bookNo. 28 on this list. The Sunset Limited · Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Overshadowed by McCarthy's major novels — Blood Meridian, The Road, No Country for Old Men — which dominate his syllabus presence; The Sunset Limited shows up more often in philosophy and theology courses for its explicit debate structure than in literature surveys. No syllabus or Wikipedia-reach data was available in ReadingRate's database for this title specifically.
Moderate1.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 29 on this list. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption · Stephen King · 1982
The novella is popular and widely adapted, and it is read in classrooms and film studies via the famous adaptation, but it is rarely taught as literary canon. It sits between Gone Girl and The Road in academic standing.
Easy2.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 30 on this list. The Mirror for Magistrates · William Baldwin · 1559
A fixture of Tudor and early modern literature surveys and a standard citation in histories of English tragedy, but it isn't taught outside specialist courses the way Shakespeare or Spenser are. Its canonical weight is historical rather than aesthetic — valued as a hinge text, not a beloved one.
Moderate7.1 hours
Start this book
No. 31 on this list. The Green Mile
Stephen King · 1996
No. 32 on this list. A Time to Kill
John Grisham · 1989
No. 33 on this list. The Other House
Henry James · 1896
No. 34 on this list. Cujo
Stephen King · 1981
No. 35 on this list. The Academy
Elin Hilderbrand · 2026
No. 36 on this list. A Bright Ray of Darkness
Ethan Hawke · 2021
About this list
These 36 books are the highest-scoring eligible plays from the United States currently in the catalogue. By literary regard, it opens with A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey into Night. About 172 hours of reading in all. Difficulty runs from 41 to 64 out of 100 for the middle half of the list; the summit is Pierre at 76.
This list is ranked by literary regard, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent, and genre labels are the catalogue’s own, gathered into broader kinds.
When we matched the Canons dataset to our catalogue in October 2026, our canonical-status scores rose with the number of school curricula, publisher series and lists in it that cite a work: the median score was 72 for books one such source cites, 84 at two, 88 at three, 92 at four and 93 at five or more. Prizes are left out of that count. Outside the state curricula, the dataset’s sources choose mostly from what has been translated into English or French, so it is a weaker check on other literatures. Source: Canons (Andrew Piper), CC BY 4.0
Questions people actually ask
- What are the best plays from the United States?
- By literary regard, which weighs canonical status, critical standing and influence, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Long Day's Journey into Night, Of Mice and Men and The Glass Menagerie lead. ReadingRate ranks 36 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.
- Where should I start with plays from the United States?
- Start from difficulty, not from rank. The most approachable books on this list that still carry top literary regard are Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (about 1.7 hours), Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill.
- How hard are plays from the United States to read?
- Most of this list sits between 41 and 64 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is Pierre at 76. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.
- How is this list ranked?
- On literary-regard data: how canonically established a work is, its critical standing, and its influence on later writing. It is not a readers’ poll, which is why recent bestsellers rarely appear. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. A list that is not a genre list keeps to literature (fiction, poetry, drama and philosophy), with philosophy taking no more than one slot in five while there is literature left to rank; every list holds at most three works by one author.