- 100. My Ántonia
- 99. The Go-Between
- 98. The Road
- 97. Catch-22
- 96. Pedro Páramo
- 95. The Return of the Native
- 94. The Known World
- 93. Invisible Cities
- 92. Sentimental Education
- 91. Life and Fate
- 90. Jacob’s Room
- 89. The Left Hand of Darkness
- 88. Ragtime
- 87. The Line of Beauty
- 86. The Turn of the Screw
- 85. The Vegetarian
- 84. The Talented Mr Ripley
- 83. A Farewell to Arms
- 82. The End of the Affair
- 81. Buddenbrooks
- 80. Rebecca
- 79. Go Tell It on the Mountain
- 78. A House for Mr Biswas
- 77. The Rainbow
- 76. Dracula
- 75. The Bluest Eye
- 74. Nervous Conditions
- 73. Austerlitz
- 72. Our Mutual Friend
- 71. Kindred
- 70. Jude the Obscure
- 69 .Crime and Punishment
- 68. Blood Meridian
- 67. The Man Without Qualities
- 66. The Master and Margarita
- 65. The Color Purple
- 64. The Good Soldier
- 63. White Teeth
- 62. Half of a Yellow Sun
- 61. The Rings of Saturn
- 60. Howards End
- 59. Never Let Me Go
- 58. Disgrace
- 57. The Sound and the Fury
- 56. Mansfield Park
- 55. The Waves
- 54. Orlando
- 53. The Transit of Venus
- 52. The Golden Bowl
- 51. My Brilliant Friend
- 50. Wide Sargasso Sea
- 49. A Fine Balance
- 48. The Metamorphosis
- 47. Vanity Fair
- 46. The Leopard
- 45. The Golden Notebook
- 44. Giovanni’s Room
- 43. Housekeeping
- 42. The Magic Mountain
- 41. Heart of Darkness
- 40. Song of Solomon
- 39. Their Eyes Were Watching God
- 38. The Age of Innocence
- 37. Invisible Man
- 36. The Handmaid’s Tale
- 35. Great Expectations
- 34. Wolf Hall
- 33. David Copperfield
- 32. The God of Small Things
- 31. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- 30. Frankenstein
- 29. Pale Fire
- 28. The Brothers Karamazov
- 27. The Trial
- 26. Don Quixote
- 25. Lolita
- 24. The Remains of the Day
- 23. Midnight’s Children
- 22. Things Fall Apart
- 21. The Portrait of a Lady
- 20. Wuthering Heights
- 19. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
- 18. Persuasion
- 17. One Hundred Years of Solitude
- 16. Nineteen Eighty-Four
- 15. Moby-Dick
- 14. Mrs Dalloway
- 13. Emma
- 12. Bleak House
- 11. The Great Gatsby
- 10. Madame Bovary
- 9. Pride and Prejudice
- 8. Jane Eyre
- 7. War and Peace
- 6 .Anna Karenina
- 5. In Search of Lost Time
- 4. To the Lighthouse
- 3. Ulysses
- 2. Beloved
- 1. Middlemarch
Pages: 1 2
Ethics Alarms 
Here is another list. There’s not much overlap of best novels. I wonder how many of either list most people have read or even recognize the titles? Apparently I need to read more “classics”, because I haven’t read many.
https://www.librarything.com/list/9659/all/Times-All-Time-100-Novels
I read 16 of these, and many more from the original list.
-Jut
Demeter,
I was thinking the same thing…or maybe not. It’s highly likely that ranking “the best” anything “of all time” is super subjective and only good for starting arguments. And books – especially works of fiction – are even more subjective, because it’s all about personal taste and perception. I love most of Robert Ludlum’s work, and Dale Brown, and Tom Clancy, but none of those books would ever sniff a top-100 list. And you might hate those authors and what they produced. If I want to list “the 100 fastest cars of all time”, that’s pretty easy to do, since there is a concrete yardstick (top speed) by which one can rank. But to rank “the 100 best cars of all time”?…can’t do it. “Best” is like “greatest”…too vague and immeasurable. Every list will have its detractors and no argument will ever be settled to anyone’s satisfaction.
I think the best we can hope for with the “greatest 100 novels” or “greatest 100 musicians” or “greatest 100 flavors of Kool-Aid” is to read the list, note the places where we concur, chuckle at the places where we differ…and then simply move on.
I’ve only read a handful of books from the Guardian’s list, and a slightly bigger handful from LibraryThing’s list, and I really don’t have much interest in reading the others.
I read Beloved.
I appreciated it.
I did not particularly like it or enjoy it.
It might make my Top 100 American Novels list.
I am not familiar with Wodenhouse, but I am glad Tristram Shandy was included. It is worthy of a spot here.
But, yeah, lots of DEI here. Some of them I like but, yes, it seems to value inclusivity.
At the same time, it does include four Dickens novels. On that, I have not read Our Mutual Friend, but Tale of Two Cities was excluded and Bleak House ranked the highest (because it is his only novel with a female narrator?).
-Jut
Read 26 on this list.
I take my DEI comment back.
They compiled the list by asking 170 authors for their Top Ten books.
Garbage In, Garbage Out. Stephen King said he could not fit Dickens into his Top Ten. I don’t know if I could either.
But, asking contemporary writers for their Top Ten could easily explain the number of “diverse” books here. It certainly could explain the modernist slant.
-Jut
“The Count of Monte Christo.”
The list is garbage, but I wouldn’t have put this book anywhere near it. Dumas is a great writer, but what he did with this book is the most boring, anticlimactic revenge story I’ve ever read. The movie (at least the Jim Caviezel one) is perhaps the only movie I would put miles ahead of its book counterpart.
No Verne? 1984? Catcher in the Rye? The Odyssey? Harry Potter? Lord of the Flies?
How disappointing.
1984 is #16, you might’ve missed it because they spelled it out.
Ah, my mistake. TY.
I’d wager that none of the book selectors ever read “Don Quixote” in the original Spanish. And “100 Años De Soledad”? Probably not.
jvb