Thread by @CoffeewClassics

Why settle for one Great Book, when you can get *three*?

A thread of the Best Classic Literary Trilogies:

(You'll want to bookmark this for your summer reading list) 🧵👇

15. The Space Trilogy (1938-1945)

C.S. Lewis's "Out of the Silent Planet," "Perelandra," and "That Hideous Strength" blend science fiction with Christian theology to explore the corruption of human nature and the possibilities of redemption.

14. Sword of Honour (1952-1961)

Evelyn Waugh’s "Men at Arms," "Officers and Gentlemen," and "Unconditional Surrender" are hilarious satires of the British establishment and military mismanagement during World War II.

This is Waugh at his most absurd and most tragic.

13. Cairo Trilogy (1956-1957)

Naguib Mahfouz’s "Palace Walk," "Palace of Desire," and "Sugar Street" chronicle three generations of the al-Jawad family through the social tumult of Egyptian society from ~1919 to 1944.

12. Theban Plays (~429 BC)

Though technically not written as a trilogy, Sophocles’s "Oedipus Rex," "Oedipus at Colonus," and "Antigone" are now often read as one.

They tell the combined story of Oedipus's tragic fall, and the multigenerational fallout for his family.

9. Durtal Trilogy (1891-1898)

J.K. Huysmans began his career associated with the greatest excesses of the French decadent movement, before converting to Catholicism.

In "La-Bas," "En Route," and "La Cathédrale," he tells of a protagonist who follows a similar spiritual path.

10. The Prairie Trilogy (1913-1918)

Perhaps better classified as a triptych, rather than a trilogy, no works better capture the spirit of the American frontier and its people than Willa Cather's achingly beautiful "O Pioneers!," "The Song of the Lark," and "My Ántonia."

9. Transylvanian Trilogy (1934-1940)

Miklós Bánffy's "They Were Counted," "They Were Found Wanting," & "They Were Divided" is a story of the Hungarian aristocracy's decline on the eve of WWI.

Politically traditionalist, artistically avant garde, Bánffy is a fascinating writer.

8. Divine Comedy (1308-1320)

Originally written as one continuous work, but often read today as three separate volumes, Dante's "Inferno," "Purgatorio," and "Paradiso" follow the soul's journey from the depths of hell upwards to “the Love which moves the sun and other stars.”

7. USA Trilogy (1930-1936)

An ambitious, experimental work, John Dos Passos's "The 42nd Parallel," "1919," and "The Big Money," tells the story of a changing America, by interweaving 12 fictional life stories with newspaper clippings and narrative stream of consciousness.

6. Night Trilogy (1956-62)

"Night," "Dawn," and "Day", the first a memoir, the latter two works of fiction, are inspired by Elie Wiesel's personal journey during and after the Holocaust from darkness to light.

5. The Border Trilogy (1992-1998)

Cormac McCarthy’s "All the Pretty Horses," "The Crossing," "Cities of the Plain," marked by lyrical prose and stark violence, tell of the coming-of-age experiences of young cowboys in the rugged landscapes along the U.S.-Mexico border.

4. Oresteia (458 BC)

Aeschylus’s trilogy, composed of "Agamemnon," "The Libation Bearers," and "The Eumenides," is a foundational text in Western literature.

It traces the fall of the House of Atreus, starting with the murder of Agamemnon and his son Orestes' quest for revenge.

3. The Beckett Trilogy (1951-1953)

Samuel Beckett's "Molloy," "Malone Dies," and "The Unnamable" are dark, abstract comedies that are cornerstones of modernist literature.

They're books about "the battle of life... life shown near battle’s end, bearing its lifetime of scars."

2. The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955)

J.R.R. Tolkien's iconic trilogy, comprised of "The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers," and "The Return of the King," follows Frodo Baggins on an epic quest, exploring themes of friendship and the battle between good and evil.

1. Kristin Lavransdatter (1920-1922)

This trilogy by Sigrid Undset—consisting of "The Wreath," "The Wife," and "The Cross"—tracks the life of a woman and her family in medieval Norway.

It's an astonishing work and won Undset the 1928 Nobel Prize.

Which classic literary trilogy is your favorite? Did I miss it? Let me know.

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