100 Greatest Novels

I grabbed this here list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1900 from the aptly named List of the Day.

1.     ULYSSES by James Joyce
2.     THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3.     A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4.     LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5.     BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
6.     THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7.     CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
8.     DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9.     SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
10.  THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

11.  UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
12.  THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
13.  1984 by George Orwell
14.  I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
15.  TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
16.  AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
17.  THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
18.  SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
19.  INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
20.  NATIVE SON by Richard Wright

21.  HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
22.  APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
23.  U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
24.  WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
25.  A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
26.  THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
27.  THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28.  TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29.  THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell

30.  THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
31.  ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
32.  THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
33.  SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
34.  A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35.  AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
36.  ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
37.  THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
38.  HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
39.  GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
40.  THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene

41.  LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
42.  DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
43.  A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
44.  POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
45.  THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
46.  THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47.  NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
48.  THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
49.  WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
50.  TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

51.  THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
52.  PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
53.  PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
54.  LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
55.  ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
56.  THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
57.  PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
58.  THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
59.  ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
60.  THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy

61.  DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
62.  FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
63.  THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
64.  THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
65.  A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
66.  OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
67.  HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
68.  MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
69.  THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
70.  THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell

71.  A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
72.  A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
73.  THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
74.  A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
75.  SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
76.  THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
77.  FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
78.  KIM by Rudyard Kipling
79.  A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
80.  BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh

81.  THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
82.  ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
83.  A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
84.  THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
85.  LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
86.  RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
87.  THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
88.  THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
89.  LOVING by Henry Green
90.  MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie

91.  TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
92.  IRONWEED by William Kennedy
93.  THE MAGUS by John Fowles
94.  WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
95.  UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
96.  SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
97.  THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
98.  THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
99.  THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington 

I believe I have read nine of these, but there are at least a few more that I started and never finished...and at least half a dozen I was supposed to read in college but didn’t. I would love to have read them all...I think. Looking at it again, I realize how much I disliked several of the ones I did read. I mean, Angle of Repose was brilliant. Just stunning. On the other hand, The Magus? Gimme a break. Sucked. Suh-huh-huh-hucked. 

Not that I’m opinionated or nothin’. 

Comments

[Theresa]

Ugh. I hate those lists. They always make me feel like such an idiot because I've never even heard of half of them and have only read a few. Can I just blame my teachers? That feels so much better.

[Meredith]

Ditto what Theresa said, but at least it's nice to have them all in one place, thanks!

[KathyR]

That list generated some real controversy and criticism when it came out. Partly for what was on it, mostly for what wasn't on it, and partly for their method of voting/choosing.

I've read 34 of them. I've started some others and then put them down unfinished. But I am 47 years old and a lifelong book dork. So I'd be ahead of you.

Angle of Repose is one of my favorites. Henry James is wonderful, but The Golden Bowl is a short story or novella stretched painfully out over 600 blatheringly boring pages.

Cool site. Thanks.

[fish]

Where is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 3?

[DT]

The fact that To Kill A Mockingbird isn't on there, and in the Top 10, is very strange.

[Tom E]

I've taught _To Kill a Mockingbird_ several times and feel somewhat prepared to offer a comment on it. Many critics still regard it a book for children, rightly or wrongly. Flannery O'Connor certainly regarded it as such. Speaking of Ms. O'Connor, she's not on the list that I can see. Really? See _Wise Blood_, and then check back. And if you want to include Anthony Burgess, and if they wanted to include Anthony Burgess, where's _Nothing Like the Sun_? And no Cormac McCarthy? _Blood Meridian_, magnificent.

[J]

No Toni Morrison? Maya Angelou? Sandra Cisneros? Barbara Kingsolver? Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Gone with the Wind? Like Water for Chocolate? Bless Me Ultima? The Bell Jar?

This is a little like not including Carmen or Porgy and Bess in a list of the most memorable operas.

[TPC]

I was an English major, and, even now, I've only read fewer than 20 of them. I probably got more out of the ones I read after college (An American Tragedy, Death Comes for the Archbishop) than the ones I read in college (Wide Sargasso Sea, A House for Mr. Biswas--these somewhat obscure gems in the same course).

My objection to the list is that no author should be on it twice (as I see Dreiser and Naipal are) until Updike gets on it once. I mean, isn't Updike just a dirtier, later 20th Century version of Dreiser?

[Emily]

I've read 15 of them. I despise all James Joyce so those that I have not read will not BE read anytime soon. I have some serious quibbles with the lack of love for Edith Wharton. And I don't understand why Passage to India ranks so high. It was my least favorite Forster book.

[ed]

Miguel de Cervantes! porque no esta en esta lista? And what about Mark Twain! Oh well, at least I take comfort in seeing Jack London on it once.
But back to spanish/ hispanic authors, they missed a great recent one:
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3043-7
(Sorry,always hard not to self promote)lol
Ed