Greatest: The 75 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th Century!
Submitted by 1922 on Wed, 09/15/2004 - 07:13
Tags:
- 75. An American Tragedy (Theodore Dreiser) (110 pts.)
- 74. Darkness at Noon (Arthur Koestler) (111 pts.)
- 73. The Recognitions (William Gaddis) (114 pts.)
- 72. Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser) (120 pts.)
- 70. Of Human Bondage (W. Somerset Maugham) (121 pts.)
- 70. Lady Chatterley's lover (D.H. Lawrence) (121 pts.)
- 69. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) (122 pts.)
- 68. Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh) (123 pts.)
- 67. My Antonia (Willa Cather) (126 pts.)
- 65. The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford) (127 pts.)
- 65. Go Tell It On the Mountain (James Baldwin) (127 pts.)
- 64. U.S.A. Trilogy (John Dos Passos) (129 pts.)
- 63. A Room With a View (E.M. Forster) (131 pts.)
- 62. The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) (134 pts.)
- 61. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey) (137 pts.)
- 60. The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowles) (139 pts.)
- 59. Tender Is the Night (F.Scott Fitzgerald) (144 pts.)
- 58. Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie) (148 pts.)
- 56. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Carson McCullers) (152 pts.)
- 56. Dune (Frank Herbert) (152 pts.)
- 55. Winesburg, Ohio (Sherwood Anderson) (153 pts.)
- 54. Stranger In a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein) (155 pts.)
- 53. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) (156 pts.)
- 52. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) (157 pts.)
- 51. Sophie's Choice (William Styron) (158 pts.)
- 50. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier) (159 pts.)
- 49. The World According to Garp (John Irving) (160 pts.)
- 48. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) (162 pts.)
- 47. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White) (163 pts.)
- 46. Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller) (165 pts.)
- 45. The Call of the Wild (Jack London) (167 pts.)
- 44. Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov) (171 pts.)
- 43. Finnegans Wake (James Joyce) (172 pts.)
- 42. All the King's Men (Robert Penn Warren) (174 pts.)
- 41. Absalom Absalom! (William Faulkner) (177 pts.)
- 40. Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon) (178 pts.)
- 39. The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton) (179 pts.)
- 38. Howards End (E.M. Forster) (180 pts.)
- 37. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) (181 pts.)
- 36. As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner) (182 pts.)
- 35. I, Claudius (Robert Graves) (182 pts.)
- 34. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) (186 pts.)
- 33. A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway) (186 pts.)
- 32. Women In Love (D.H. Lawrence) (187 pts.)
- 31. The Ambassadors (Henry James) (193 pts.)
- 30. Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A. Milne) (201 pts.)
- 29. Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston) (209 pts.)
- 28. Sons and Lovers (D.H. Lawrence) (219 pts.)
- 27. The Color Purple (Alice Walker) (258 pts.)
- 26. Under the Volcano (Malcolm Lowry) (273 pts.)
- 25. Native Son (Richard Wright) (290 pts.)
- 24. A Passage to India (E.M. Forster) (294 pts.)
- 23. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) (297 pts.)
- 22. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) (312 pts.)
- 21. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) (330 pts.)
- 20. The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) (338 pts.)
- 19. The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway) (343 pts.)
- 18. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) (373 pts.)
- 17. Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) (377 pts.)
- 16. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce) (396 pts.)
- 15. Beloved (Toni Morrison) (401 pts.)
- 14. On the Road (Jack Kerouac) (403 pts.)
- 13. Lord of the Flies (William Golding) (408 pts.)
- 12. Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut) (409 pts.)
- 11. Animal Farm (George Orwell) (428 pts.)
- 10. The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner) (438 pts.)
- 9. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) (444 pts.)
- 8. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf) (446 pts.)
- 7. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) (495 pts.)
- 6. Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov) (512 pts.)
- 5. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) (524 pts.)
- 4. Catch-22 )Joseph Heller) (536 pts.)
- 3. 1984 (George Orwell) (544 pts.)
- 2. The Great Gatsby (F.Scott Fitzgerald) (555 pts.)
- 1. (573 pts.)Spoiler: Highlight to viewUlysses (James Joyce)
Author Comments:
1. Below is enough space for comments and discussions.
2. N.B.: I had absolutly NO influence on this list.
3. I have checked out several critics' lists concerning the '100 Best Novels of the 20th Century'.
4. Out of their choices I composed this list that is entirely based on a fair, objective and neutral points system.
5. How many of these novels have you read?
This is fascinating. What did these mysterious algorithms look like? How many of these have *you* read? And how many of them do you agree with?
27.
Wow! 27 is pretty much!
I read a lot, but almost German and French novels.
Out of this list, I've only read:
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Old Man and the Sea
I absolutly agree with them.
Of Mice and Men (reading at the moment)
1984 (did not finish it)
I want to read 'The Grapes of Wrath' next.
In this list, I'm missing 'East of Eden'. It's one of my favourites. It is just on #297!
Which of them is your favourite? Is there a book you are missing?
It's kind of hard to say you disagree with the merits of a 75-book list when you haven't read 48 of the contenders, but there were a couple of quibbles I had with the list. Of course, I'm sure they're the same quibbles everyone else had with the original lists this list was gleaned from.
Anyway. My favorite would definitely be Hitchhiker's Guide. But A Prayer for Owen Meany is a close second.
I'm dying to make a joke about Finnegans Wake being on a list of English language novels, but I guess I won't...
Fun list!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
34...
WOW again! What's your favourite?
Probably either To Kill a Mockingbird or Slaughter-House 5.
Btw, no chance you'd want to do a list like this for the 19th Century, right?
Of course, I'd want, but to make such a list for the 19th century, I need a few lists of 'the greatest novels of the 19th century.'