Best 100 Novels

[Soul Queen]

I've been looking through a few lists online about the 100 greatest novels. Its interesting to note how different the list is depending on if popular culture is voting or if it's a literary body.

http://www.best100novels.com/

1984 by George Orwell (http://www.best100novels.com/1984_by_George_Orwell.html)
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_by_J.R.R._Tolkien.html)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye_by_J.D._Salinger.html)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (http://www.best100novels.com/Pride_and_Prejudice_by_Jane_Austen.html)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (http://www.best100novels.com/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird_by_Harper_Lee.html)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (http://www.best100novels.com/Crime_and_Punishment_by_Fyodor_Dostoevsky.html)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Great_Gatsby_by_F._Scott_Fitzgerald.html)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (http://www.best100novels.com/Lolita_by_Vladimir_Nabokov.html)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (http://www.best100novels.com/Catch-22_by_Joseph_Heller.html)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (http://www.best100novels.com/Wuthering_Heights_by_Emily_Bronte.html)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (http://www.best100novels.com/Brave_New_World_by_Aldous_Huxley.html)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (http://www.best100novels.com/Jane_Eyre_by_Charlotte_Bronte.html)
Ulysses by James Joyce (http://www.best100novels.com/Ulysses_by_James_Joyce.html)
Animal Farm by George Orwell (http://www.best100novels.com/Animal_Farm_by_George_Orwell.html)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (http://www.best100novels.com/Great_Expectations_by_Charles_Dickens.html)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Hitchhiker_s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_by_Douglas_Ad ams.html)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Brothers_Karamazov_by_Fyodor_Dostoevsky.html)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (http://www.best100novels.com/Les_Miserables_by_Victor_Hugo.html)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray_by_Oscar_Wilde.html)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_by_John_Steinbeck.html)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Hobbit_by_J.R.R._Tolkien.html)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (http://www.best100novels.com/Anna_Karenina_by_Leo_Tolstoy.html)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (http://www.best100novels.com/Don_Quixote_by_Miguel_de_Cervantes.html)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo_by_Alexandre_Dumas.html)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (http://www.best100novels.com/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities_by_Charles_Dickens.html)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (http://www.best100novels.com/Frankenstein_by_Mary_Shelley.html)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (http://www.best100novels.com/East_of_Eden_by_John_Steinbeck.html)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (http://www.best100novels.com/A_Clockwork_Orange_by_Anthony_Burgess.html)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (http://www.best100novels.com/Life_of_Pi_by_Yann_Martel.html)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (http://www.best100novels.com/Lord_of_the_Flies_by_William_Golding.html)
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (http://www.best100novels.com/Gone_with_the_Wind_by_Margaret_Mitchell.html)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (http://www.best100novels.com/One_Hundred_Years_of_Solitude_by_Gabriel_Garcia_Ma rquez.html)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (http://www.best100novels.com/War_and_Peace_by_Leo_Tolstoy.html)
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Sound_and_the_Fury_by_William_Faulkner.html)
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Da_Vinci_Code_by_Dan_Brown.html)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (http://www.best100novels.com/Ender_s_Game_by_Orson_Scott_Card.html)
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (http://www.best100novels.com/Rebecca_by_Daphne_du_Maurier.html)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (http://www.best100novels.com/Fahrenheit_451_by_Ray_Bradbury.html)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (http://www.best100novels.com/Memoirs_of_a_Geisha_by_Arthur_Golden.html)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (http://www.best100novels.com/Slaughterhouse_Five_by_Kurt_Vonnegut.html)
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Time_Traveler_s_Wife_by_Audrey_Niffenegger.htm l)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (http://www.best100novels.com/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man_by_James_J oyce.html)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Master_and_Margarita_by_Mikhail_Bulgakov.html)
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman (http://www.best100novels.com/His_Dark_Materials_by_Phillip_Pullman.html)
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia_by_C.S._Lewis.html)
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Invisible_Man_by_Ralph_Ellison.html)
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (http://www.best100novels.com/Atlas_Shrugged_by_Ayn_Rand.html)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Kite_Runner_by_Khaled_Hosseini.html)
The Stand by Stephen King (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Stand_by_Stephen_King.html)

[Soul Queen]

50. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (http://www.best100novels.com/A_Farewell_to_Arms_by_Ernest_Hemingway.html)
51. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (http://www.best100novels.com/Heart_of_Darkness_by_Joseph_Conrad.html)
52. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (http://www.best100novels.com/Tess_of_the_D_Urbervilles_by_Thomas_Hardy.html)
53. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Sun_Also_Rises_by_Ernest_Hemingway.html)
54. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Fountainhead_by_Ayn_Rand.html)
55. Watership Down by Richard Adams (http://www.best100novels.com/Watership_Down_by_Richard_Adams.html)
56. Dracula by Bram Stoker (http://www.best100novels.com/Dracula_by_Bram_Stoker.html)
57. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (http://www.best100novels.com/Of_Human_Bondage_by_W._Somerset_Maugham.html)
58. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (http://www.best100novels.com/Moby_Dick_by_Herman_Melville.html)
59. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (http://www.best100novels.com/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo_s_Nest_by_Ken_Kesey.html)
60. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Heart_is_a_Lonely_Hunter_by_Carson_McCullers.h tml)
61. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (http://www.best100novels.com/On_the_Road_by_Jack_Kerouac.html)
62. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Idiot_by_Fyodor_Dostoevsky.html)
63. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (http://www.best100novels.com/Pale_Fire_by_Vladimir_Nabokov.html)
64. Dune by Frank Herbert (http://www.best100novels.com/Dune_by_Frank_Herbert.html)
65. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Poisonwood_Bible_by_Barbara_Kingsolver.html)
66. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling (http://www.best100novels.com/Harry_Potter_Series_by_J.K._Rowling.html)
67. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (http://www.best100novels.com/Ann_of_Green_Gables_by_L.M._Montgomery.html)
68. Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (http://www.best100novels.com/Dr_Zhivago_by_Boris_Pasternak.html)
69. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being_by_Milan_Kundera .html)
70. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (http://www.best100novels.com/Gravity_s_Rainbow_by_Thomas_Pynchon.html)
71. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (http://www.best100novels.com/Little_Women_by_Louisa_May_Alcott.html)
72. The Trial by Franz Kafka (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Trial_by_Franz_Kafka.html)
73. I, Claudius by Robert Graves (http://www.best100novels.com/I,_Claudius_by_Robert_Graves.html)
74. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Curious_Incident_of_the_Dog_in_the_Night-time_by_Mark_Haddon.html)
75. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (http://www.best100novels.com/Madame_Bovary_by_Gustave_Flaubert.html)
76. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Bell_Jar_by_Sylvia_Plath.html)
77. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (http://www.best100novels.com/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces_by_John_Kennedy_Toole.html )
78. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea_by_Ernest_Hemingway.html)
79. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (http://www.best100novels.com/To_the_Lighthouse_by_Virginia_Woolf.html)
80. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (http://www.best100novels.com/Vanity_Fair_by_William_Thackeray.html)
81. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (http://www.best100novels.com/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera_by_Gabriel_Garcia_Marq uez.html)
82. The Stranger by Albert Camus (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Stranger_by_Albert_Camus.html)
83. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_by_Mark_Twain.h tml)
84. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame_by_Victor_Hugo.html)
85. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LeRoux (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_by_Gaston_LeRoux.html)
86. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (http://www.best100novels.com/For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls_by_Ernest_Hemingway.html)
87. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (http://www.best100novels.com/Jude_the_Obscure_by_Thomas_Hardy.html)
88. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (http://www.best100novels.com/Oliver_Twist_by_Charles_Dickens.html)
89. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes_by_Sir_Arthur_Co nan_Doyle.html)
90. Persuasion by Jane Austen (http://www.best100novels.com/Persuasion_by_Jane_Austen.html)
91. Light in August by William Faulkner (http://www.best100novels.com/Light_in_August_by_William_Faulkner.html)
92. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (http://www.best100novels.com/Franny_and_Zooey_by_J.D._Salinger.html)
93. Call of the Wild by Jack London (http://www.best100novels.com/Call_of_the_Wild_by_Jack_London.html)
94. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (http://www.best100novels.com/Middlesex_by_Jeffrey_Eugenides.html)
95. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (http://www.best100novels.com/Alice_s_Adventures_in_Wonderland_by_Lewis_Carroll. html)
96. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (http://www.best100novels.com/Uncle_Tom_s_Cabin_by_Harriet_Beecher_Stowe.html)
97. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Metamorphosis_by_Franz_Kafka.html)
98. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Name_of_the_Rose_by_Umberto_Eco.html)
99. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (http://www.best100novels.com/The_Clan_of_the_Cave_Bear_by_Jean_M._Auel.html)
100. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (http://www.best100novels.com/As_I_Lay_Dying_by_William_Faulkner.html)

[Soul Queen]

I've read a small portion of the books on the list about 30 or so.

[JVO]

That is a good list! I am glad LotR was so high. I have probably read about 30 too. Also glad to see that Steinbeck had multiple books on the list. He is definitely my favorite all time American Author. Also glad DaVinci Code made the list. Not a classic in the true sense of the word, but a damn good book nonetheless.

I freaking hate Thomas Hardy as much as person can hate somebody who is dead and that they have never met.

I watched an episode of "The Office" last night and everyone in the office had to answer what three books would you take with you if knew you were going to be on a deserted island. Pretty funny hearing their answers. For me it is "The Lord of the Rings", The complete works of William Shakespeare, and one kick ass survival manual.

[Soul Queen]

I think Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters are highly overrated.

I've never read any Thomas Hardy. The San Francisco Public library recently had a huge booksale. I almost picked up that Tess book. I seemed to recall more than one individual not liking the book. I'm sure I'll probably read it sometime.

I read the Time Traveler's Wife recently. It was really good.

Hmmm only 3 books. I'll have to think that over.

[slam]

I've never read any Thomas Hardy. The San Francisco Public library recently had a huge booksale. I almost picked up that Tess book. I seemed to recall more than one individual not liking the book. I'm sure I'll probably read it sometime.

don't get me started on that piece-of-shit tess book. you probably vividly remember my long rants against that crap in ms arni's class.

GOD it sucked. i agree with jvo. nothing but hate here for mr. hardy.

[matty]

I have read 37 books from that list.

I'm very amused with how highly Hitchhiker's Guide ranked. Go Ford!

[cuscus]

Nice to see Enders Game on there.

[mrjohnchimpo]

i've read 34 of them.

i realized i was at first counting the ones where i saw the movie, and i came up with like 50 and i was like "there's no way i read 50 of these".

[False Alarm]

Nice to see Enders Game on there.
i liked ender's game, but anyone who thinks it's a top-100-of-all-time novel is out of her fucking mind.
------------------------------------
some thoughts:

i am happy to've read a mere 27 off such a horseshit list.

what's to hate about thomas hardy, really? doesn't seem much there to love or hate from what i can tell. (to be fair, i ain't read tess or jude.)

general complaints:

1. why the fuck is it that every quoteunquote literary novel on that list is an old classic (eg, crime and punishment, gatsby, lolita), yet all the more recent novels come from quoteunquote genre fiction (hitchhiker's guide, da vinci code, pullman)? i mean, i guess life of pi, time-traveler's wife, and kite runner are recent, but i address two of those below. that makes the time-traveler's wife the best work of literary fiction since like confederacy of dunces. wtf? and no, don't, do fucking not, counter with all classics were popular fiction in their time. that's horseshit. melville like fucking starved to death next to a fire fueled by remaindered copies of moby dick. how about toole offing himself cuz he couldn't sell the novel? how about fitzgerald and faulkner having to go fail in hollywood cuz their books didn't sell well enough to support em? joyce had to teach at private schools and shit his entire career to pay the rent. emily dickinson y'alls? sure, there are classic works that sold incredibly well during their time, like war and peace and all dickens and shit, but there are tons of classics that weren't popular in their time.

so, i ask again, where is richard powers? where doctorow, rushdie, et al? why is contemporary lit fiction (or mainstream or midlist or general or whatever term you prefer) so underrepresented on this list? the same was true of the library of america or whoever it was that did one of these a few years back, but that one was all elitist and ignored all sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, etc (i think this site might've started in response to that list, if i recall). i mean, i guess you could just say lit fic's not as good as it used to be, but 1) that's the bullshit answer of a codger and 2) how would you know unless you were reading it (which, apparently, not many are)?

2. my avatar has one modestly placed book. i could stand this if the rest of the list were better, but good god.

3. there are mistakes in the titles of invisible man and slaughterhouse-five, two of my ten favorite books.
----------------------------------
i have unfair impressions about a number of unread novels here, but i'm gonna go ahead and register those unfair objections anyway:

life of pi--isn't this considered like the worst booker winner ever? how the fuck it's in the top 30 of all time then?

memoirs of a geisha--um, middlebrow pseudolit? am i thinking of the wrong book or isn't this just dressed up beach stuff?

any rand--all right i know there was an AR book club at B2P during its early days but on the real i didn't think anyone considered her serious lit outside the ayn rand society (http://www.aynrandsociety.org/). which'd be fine if it was awesome comedy or adventure or something like some of the books on the list, but for some reason her books never screamed awesome adventure! awesome comedy! at me.

the kite runner--pretty sure i read somewhere this book was put together by a hired writing team. usually that shit's reserved for james patterson and like hot young-adult authors; in this case it fooled the lit'ry crowd. anyhow i ain't sure how i feel about it.

the phantom of the opera--the musical was based on a book?

franny and zoe--for god's sake just cuz everyone loves catcher don't mean the dude's other work gets in by default. does this seriously belong (keep in mind that i don't really think catcher belongs--and damn sure not at 3)? anyone?

uncle tom's cabin--obviously an important book. is it actually good too?
---------------------------------------
objections about books i have read:

the catcher in the rye is absurdly high. a nice book, and great if you read it at the right time in your life, but i don't always see the fascination.

crime and punishment--should probably be switched with the idiot, imo, but i guess this is the common view.

ender's game--addressed above. i mean i like the book a lot, but its characters and bitchin plot alone aren't enough, it's not exactly a novel of interesting ideas, and the writing is functional but place a few of card's best sentences next to any random passage by, say, nabokov and tell me it belongs in this company.

slaughterhouse-five--the best way to get me to papercut myself to death is just repeat this sentence to me over and over: "ender's game is better than slaugherhouse-five."

the chronicles of narnia--:lmao: am i in the fucking twilight zone?! it's artless-allegorical kid shit. i mean, i guess it's fine for what it is, but it belongs nowhere near the discussion.

moby dick--i suppose this book understandably tends to get a lotta hate, which'd account for its middling placement here, but it'd be way way higher if i had my druthers.

harry potter--i have no idea how we can justify some picks' presence on the list, yet not have harry higher. he either needs to be way higher or not on the list at all.

metamorphosis--think this is more a novella than a true novel, but OK.
-------------------------------------------------
books whose presence or placement pleased me:

LOTR
gatsby
lolita
hobbit
100 years
master & margarita
invisible man
sun also rises
the idiot
dune

[cuscus]

I cant believe I am posting after FA, but frack it. I thought this seems cool, cause it is ever changing. FA if you go to the actual link for the list it explains how the scoring is calculated and that anyone can vote. They seem to encourage feedback, and update the list regularly. Granted I have only read about 21 on the list, but I like that it is not based on one set of criteria. I haven't read enough of the books on the list to say whether its good or not, but the design of it seems cool. I think it would be interesting to say check back in twelve months time and see how the list has shifted

[matty]

Hm... False, you seem to have not read some of the books you slam, unless I'm misinterpreting your tone.

I certainly agree with you that there are a number of more successful subversive books. Unfortunately, where Greatness is concerned, it takes years of existence to be fully appreciated. In the list that will be created 20 years from now, some of the books will be gone, and some new ones will appear. Just like politicians, boyfriends, and body hair. (You're right--Rushdie and Powers are glaring omissions from this list.)

Personally, I looooove a classic.

Thomas Hardy can suck a donkey cock. There--that's three people now who have ACTUALLY READ Thomas Hardy, and all three think he's lucky he's dead or we'd do horrific things to him. Sometimes I fantasize about digging up his body and doing satanic things to it to ensure that he does not rest in peace. And I didn't have to read it for school--I read it VOLUNTARILY. So my hatred is not authority-enduced. It's genuine.

Life of Pi--I think it's worthy of being on the list. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and its message. Is it on my top ten books of all time? No. But it's a damn good book, imo.

Ayn Rand--please see "donkey cock" comment above. Yeah, an Ayn Rand book club was started many moons ago on the Board. Only ONE OF US actually read a single book.

I'm sick of Catcher in the Rye. The main character sounded like a whiney little bitch when I read it in Junior High, and he sounds like a whiney little bitch now. Somebody should stick Catcher in a room with William S. Burroughs for a heroin party. Give him something to cry about.

FA--look me in the eye and tell me you'd put Harry Potter on the list and not Narnia. There would be NO Harry Potter without Narnia. At least Narnia had an arching theme--I like Harry Potter a lot, but it's comparable to Goosebumps. It just got lucky and got really popular. There, I said it.

uncle tom's cabin--obviously an important book. is it actually good too?

What, now they have to be "important" AND "good?" A book, no matter how poorly written, which can challenge society and initiate social change is a good thing. The little kid who got in trouble in school for drawing a black Jesus started off a national chain reaction of thought on race relations in schools. Did the picture of Jesus look like fucking Rembrandt sketched it? No. (Nobody ever gets it when I draw parallels like that, but I thought I'd try anyway.)

My point being, I often think "important" is automatically "good." Even when it's not.:p

[Soul Queen]

This particular list I don't believe is from literary crowd. It is a list generated from a website where people can vote.

The literary lists are VERY different.

The below list is compiled of very different books.
http://www.adherents.com/people/100_novel.html

[Soul Queen]

This additional list was compiled from what authors felt was the best novels.
http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/nwgbooks.htm

The later 2 lists are a little more dated.


Absalom, Absalom, William Faulkner
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). Great boys' story, much better than Tom Sawyer.
The Aeneid, Virgil

Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). I had to do bits of this for school Latin. Stirring stuff but one does find the mind-set just a little difficult to grasp.
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

On all three lists. I recently read it for the first time, and found the main plot theme absolutely gripping, though I got a bit weary of Levin, the character who represents Tolstoy himself.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Doblin
Blindness, Jose Saramago
The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa
The Book of Job, Anon
Surely the greatest of the stories in the Bible (at least taken as literature), despite the introduction of the unnecessary Elihu by an ancient editor.
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor M Dostoyevsky
Buddenbrook, Thomas Mann
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). Since Chaucer didn't finish it, the modern reader has difficulty in doing so! But it's all good stuff, except perhaps the Priest's rather dull contribution.
The Castle, Franz Kafka
Children of Gebelawi, Naguib Mahfouz
Collected Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges
Obviously of interest to me as a science fiction fan. Superb inventiveness.
Complete Poems, Giacomo Leopardi
The Complete Stories, Franz Kafka
I have read a huge "Collected Stories" of Kafka, which may even have been complete. A gripping set of accounts of alienation; while most of them are timeless, fans of the Hapsburg Empire will particularly enjoy.
The Complete Tales, Edgar Allan Poe

Again I've dipped into Poe, though I must admit he appealed to me rather less; call me shallow but I actually prefer H.P. Lovecraft.
Confessions of Zeno, Italo Svevo
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor M Dostoyevsky
Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, Leo Tolstoy
Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio
As with Canterbury Tales, since the author didn't finish it the reader has difficulty in doing so. More digestible somehow than Chaucer, possibly because the stories are on the whole shorter and vary less in setting.
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, Joao Guimaraes Rosa
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, Lu Xun
The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). I've got most of the way through Hell but a lot of the contemporary allusions escape me.
A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen

Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Surprisingly approachable, for Great Literature, but very long. Don Quixote himself is gloriously delusional, and of course unwittingly plays a satirical role in exposing the workings of society. The distance between his society of 1605 and ours of 2004 somehow seems much less than the distance between 1605 and the medieval world of chivalry which he imagines himself to inhabit. Lots of romantic sub-plots, and the geopolitical tension of Spain vs the Islamic world of North Africa is eerily reminiscent of Cold War fiction. However, I'm not utterly convinced that this really is the best novel of all time. Perhaps if I ever get around to the second half it will make more of an impact on me. Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). Voted top book of all time on this list. [read August 2004]
Essays, Michel de Montaigne
Fairy Tales and Stories, Hans Christian Andersen
I wonder how many of the 100 authors from 54 countries actuall read all 168 stories? (http://hca.gilead.org.il/)
Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais
Gilgamesh, Anon
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
On all three lists. Great stuff - I remember finding a children's adaptation in the school library, devouring it, and then hunting down the "adult" (ie original) version.
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift

Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). Swift's glorious satire on politics, religion and humanity.
Gypsy Ballads, Federico Garcia Lorca
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm), excluded of course from the BBC list because it's a play. Probably Shakespeare's masterpiece.
History, Elsa Morante
Hunger, Knut Hamsun
The Idiot, Fyodor M Dostoyevsky
The Iliad, Homer
Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
Independent People, Halldor K Laxness
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Jacques the Fatalist and His Master, Denis Diderot
Journey to the End of the Night, Louis-Ferdinand Celine
King Lear, William Shakespeare
Excluded of course from the BBC list because it's a play. Grim tale of betrayal, madness and death.
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne
I think this book is brilliant, though not everyone sees the humour

[Soul Queen]

50. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

Likewise; despite the rather troubling subject matter, Nabokov's villain seems human as well as monstrous.
51. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez


Also on the BBC list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/bbcbigread.htm).
52. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert


Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). A great tale of people, provincialism and passion.
53. The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
54. Mahabharata, Anon
55. The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil
56. Mathnawi, Jalal ad-din Rumi
57. Medea, Euripides
58. Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar
59. Metamorphoses, Ovid


Again, I did this for Latin at school, and although I was already familiar with a lot of the subject matter I was pretty impressed with the way Ovid puts it together - which survives even in translation.
60. Middlemarch, George Eliot


On all three lists, and I think would get my vote as the best read of the lot.
61. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie


Also on the BBC list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/bbcbigread.htm). Who says fantasy novels can't break into the mainstream? A superb story of the history of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as magically paralleled in the lives of the children born at midnight on the day of independence.
62. Moby Dick, Herman Melville


Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm). A fantastic novel, combining whale lore (some doubtless made up) with a convincing portrayal of the multi-cultural but obsessive life of the whalers, and of course in Captain Ahab one of literature's great creations.
63. Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
64. 1984, George Orwell


Also on the BBC list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/bbcbigread.htm). A classic political dystopia, and one that perhaps has retained its relevance better than Animal Farm.
65. Njaals Saga, Anon
66. Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
67. The Odyssey, Homer


Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
68. Oedipus the King, Sophocles


Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
69. Old Goriot, Honore de Balzac
70. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway


Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
71. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez


Also on the BBC list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/bbcbigread.htm). Superb work of magical realism.
72. The Orchard, Sheikh Musharrif ud-din Sadi
73. Othello, William Shakespeare


Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
74. Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo
75. Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren
76. Poems, Paul Celan
77. The Possessed, Fyodor M Dostoyevsky
78. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen


On all three lists. This would have been in the category of "19th century girly books I never felt like reading" except that I was persuaded to give it a try by Anne, my wife. Of course, she was absolutely right and I really enjoyed it; and now will have to go back to all the other 19th century girly books I never felt like reading to give them a fair shot.
79. Ramayana, Valmiki
80. The Recognition of Sakuntala, Kalidasa
81. The Red and the Black, Stendhal


Also on the Sybervision list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/sybervision.htm).
82. Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust
83. Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Salih
84. Selected Stories, Anton P Chekhov
85. Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert
86. Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence
87. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
88. The Sound of the Mountain, Yasunari Kawabata
89. The Stranger, Albert Camus


Oddly enough one I have read in the original French at the urging of a then girlfriend. Masterly portrayal of a really unsympathetic narrator.
90. The Tale of Genji, Shikibu Murasaki
91. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
92. Thousand and One Nights, Anon


As with Hans Christian Andersen, of course I've read a few - more than a few - of these but couldn't with any honesty claim to have read the lot. Some of them - eg The Young Woman and Her Five Lovers, The Historic Fart of Abu Hasan - are unlikely to make into the children's editions!
93. The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass
94. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
95. The Trial, Franz Kafka


Have just started reading this as of October 2003; will report back when I've finished.
96. Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett
97. Ulysses, James Joyce


Also on the BBC list (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/bbcbigread.htm). I'm a defender of Ulysses, I have read it twice and found it pretty absorbing. A few months ago I was contacted by Matthew Creasy at Oxford to pick my brains on the significance of Sir Robert Ball (http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/ball.htm) in the novel.
98. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy


On all three lists (of course). My former boss claimed that having read it he didn't need to read any more novels. It's certainly a huge endeavour; it took me a stay in a Finnish monastery to read it.
99. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte


On all three lists - one of two on all three lists that I hadn't read when I first compiled these pages. At first I wondered what all the fuss was about, but in fact the graphic, often violent images do linger in the mind, and Heathcliff is grimly believable.100. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis

[Soul Queen]

I've only read 13 from the last list.

[False Alarm]

I cant believe I am posting after FA, but frack it. I thought this seems cool, cause it is ever changing. FA if you go to the actual link for the list it explains how the scoring is calculated and that anyone can vote. They seem to encourage feedback, and update the list regularly. Granted I have only read about 21 on the list, but I like that it is not based on one set of criteria. I haven't read enough of the books on the list to say whether its good or not, but the design of it seems cool. I think it would be interesting to say check back in twelve months time and see how the list has shifted
naw joe i like the design of the list and i understood how it was put together. it's all good. i'm down with takin back lit for the people or whatever. people's tastes just confuse the shit out me sometimes.

[JVO]

I've never read any Thomas Hardy. The San Francisco Public library recently had a huge booksale. I almost picked up that Tess book. I seemed to recall more than one individual not liking the book. I'm sure I'll probably read it sometime.



Not surprising that the Library was selling Thomas Hardy books. They should have had a book burning instead!!!!

I haven't read either of the two that were on the list, but I did have to read "Return of the Native" for AP English in high school and it completely destroyed any impulse I had to read for over a year.

If you read Thomas Hardy for recreation, you are completely nuts. It would be like having root canal for recreation.

Yucky.

After saying that, I felt the same away about Joseph Conrad, but I went back and reread "Heart of Darkness" several years after reading it for the first time, I totally loved it. Funny how our tastes change as we get older.

I am certain, I will never like Thomas Hardy though.

[False Alarm]

Hm... False, you seem to have not read some of the books you slam, unless I'm misinterpreting your tone.
naw joe you got it right. all those from life of pi thru uncle tom's cabin i ain't read. unfair of me i know and i acknowledge that, but, you know, shit.

I certainly agree with you that there are a number of more successful subversive books. Unfortunately, where Greatness is concerned, it takes years of existence to be fully appreciated. In the list that will be created 20 years from now, some of the books will be gone, and some new ones will appear. Just like politicians, boyfriends, and body hair. (You're right--Rushdie and Powers are glaring omissions from this list.)
i hope you're right about greatness taking time to be appreciated. i think you're right. it just seems like there's a pretty big gap between 1970 and now of those kindsa writers on the list you know what i'm sayin.

Thomas Hardy can suck a donkey cock. There--that's three people now who have ACTUALLY READ Thomas Hardy, and all three think he's lucky he's dead or we'd do horrific things to him. Sometimes I fantasize about digging up his body and doing satanic things to it to ensure that he does not rest in peace. And I didn't have to read it for school--I read it VOLUNTARILY. So my hatred is not authority-enduced. It's genuine.
i actually just read him on my own too (i pretty much never read for school--too busy cutting class and reading, like, dragonlance novels--thus my low number of acknowledged classics). i mean i'm with y'alls kinda. he don't seem like nothin special and i got no plans to read nothin else of his. i just ain't feeling the hate. he was kinda blah for me that's all.

Ayn Rand--please see "donkey cock" comment above. Yeah, an Ayn Rand book club was started many moons ago on the Board. Only ONE OF US actually read a single book.
that's what i'm sayin joe my prejudices saved my ass a lotta time with that skeez!


I'm sick of Catcher in the Rye. The main character sounded like a whiney little bitch when I read it in Junior High, and he sounds like a whiney little bitch now. Somebody should stick Catcher in a room with William S. Burroughs for a heroin party. Give him something to cry about.
:lol:

FA--look me in the eye and tell me you'd put Harry Potter on the list and not Narnia. There would be NO Harry Potter without Narnia. At least Narnia had an arching theme--I like Harry Potter a lot, but it's comparable to Goosebumps. It just got lucky and got really popular. There, I said it.
all right that's a fair point. i was more thinking that the sheer weight of the sales, the oh-my-god-i-ain't-gonna-say-it-yes-i-am cultural phenomenon that harry became makes it worthy. narnia been around like 70 years or whatever and probably ain't touched the sales the last harry made its first night. so i was thinking if dan brown got into the 30s harry needed to be higher. (btw, which do peeps like better y'alls? i only read the first harry potter [and yes i liked it fine] and saw the da vinci code movie.)

What, now they have to be "important" AND "good?" A book, no matter how poorly written, which can challenge society and initiate social change is a good thing. The little kid who got in trouble in school for drawing a black Jesus started off a national chain reaction of thought on race relations in schools. Did the picture of Jesus look like fucking Rembrandt sketched it? No. (Nobody ever gets it when I draw parallels like that, but I thought I'd try anyway.)

My point being, I often think "important" is automatically "good." Even when it's not.:p
i get it. i like it. i withdraw my objection to uncle tom's cabin. also, i admire your reasonableness. if i had a myspace page and you had one too i would try to friend you.

[False Alarm]

oh SQ's second list reminds me of what my other general gripe about the first list was:

no one from africa, asia, or australia has written one of the top 100 novels of all time? throw in the arctics and that's like more than half of the continents that must suck at writing novels. the list really highlights how little we read in translation anyway.

[Soul Queen]

I haven't read any Faulkner or Fitzgerald. I was reading some early letters of Hunter S. Thompson recently. He mentions several of these books within this correspondence. He mentioned them being influential in the 50's. If they were influential then and people still think they are influential now...then its probably a noteworthy book.

I may still give Hardy a shake, long down the line. :p And against all advise. I promise I won't complain.:)
Its pretty hard for me to rate books. I know what I like, but its pretty subjective to draw the line for the 100 best novels.

I cleaned up at the booksale I mentioned before. Imagine a warehouse full of books all on sale for $2.

[Lori Burger]

oh SQ's second list reminds me of what my other general gripe about the first list was:

no one from africa, asia, or australia has written one of the top 100 novels of all time? throw in the arctics and that's like more than half of the continents that must suck at writing novels. the list really highlights how little we read in translation anyway.


For the most part, I agree with your sentiment. However, Things Fall Apart was written by a still-living Nigerian man named Chinua Achebe. Takes place in Nigeria, too ;)

[Lori Burger]

I haven't read any Faulkner or Fitzgerald. I was reading some early letters of Hunter S. Thompson recently. He mentions several of these books within this correspondence. He mentioned them being influential in the 50's. If they were influential then and people still think they are influential now...then its probably a noteworthy book.

I may still give Hardy a shake, long down the line. :p And against all advise. I promise I won't complain.:)
Its pretty hard for me to rate books. I know what I like, but its pretty subjective to draw the line for the 100 best novels.

I cleaned up at the booksale I mentioned before. Imagine a warehouse full of books all on sale for $2.

I don't hate Hardy, and in fact, I enjoyed much of Tess of the D. I hated the ending, though, and I guess what is revealed about her character makes her a bit too much for many people to take, and many also seem to dislike what Hardy may be trying to say about people or women.

And I have a copy: you can borrow it ;)

I read about 29 or so books from the fancy list (I was an English major and English teacher, so much of it was forced), and just UNDER that number from the more popular list. All I can say about the popular list is, even though DiVinci Code was popular and enjoyable to the masses, there were very few literary aspects to it and it could never make a literary list. There, I feel better (I'm one of the very few people who hated that book; I found it to be overly manipulated and formulaic, therefore a bit offensive and boring as hell).

[JVO]

I don't hate Hardy, and in fact, I enjoyed much of Tess of the D. I hated the ending, though, and I guess what is revealed about her character makes her a bit too much for many people to take, and many also seem to dislike what Hardy may be trying to say about people or women.

And I have a copy: you can borrow it ;)

I read about 29 or so books from the fancy list (I was an English major and English teacher, so much of it was forced), and just UNDER that number from the more popular list. All I can say about the popular list is, even though DiVinci Code was popular and enjoyable to the masses, there were very few literary aspects to it and it could never make a literary list. There, I feel better (I'm one of the very few people who hated that book; I found it to be overly manipulated and formulaic, therefore a bit offensive and boring as hell).

You liked Thomas Hardy and thought the Da Vinci code was boring!?!? Now I remember why I hated English class so much :p :wave:

DVC was formulaic, especially if you read Angels and Demons first, but I didn't think it was boring. It was about puzzles, Art, Literature, History, Archeology, Architecture, Religion, Secret Societies, Geneology, and incorporated the use of a cute French girl. What more could you ask for? Plus the fact that the History and Discovery channel made about 30 prime time TV specials discussing the book seems enough to warrant being on the list. The Pope himself had to come out and make a statement in reference to the book. I can't think of any other book in my lifetime that has even come close to reaching the amount of buzz and scholarly debate as Da Vinci Code. For me that is more than enough to justify being on the list.

[matty]

I often have this debate with JVO concerning art: commercial success or creative success? FA mentions that Harry Potter generated more sales, buzz, etc, than Narnia; JVO mentions that, while devoid of literary value, DVC generated more sales/buzz/etc than any Hardy book.

Which is more important while regarding the list? Pop culture impact or literary impact? I would have to go with literary, personally. 80 years from now, everybody will still remember why Captian Ahab was chasing the White Whale, but nobody will remember the media buzz around DVC.

Pop culture only counts (to me) in the here and now, and in Trivial Pursuit.

[matty]

Another thought: LORI--Are you one of those people who will just automatically like/hate the things that most other people hate/like? JVO is the exact same way. I would love to watch you guys duke it out, except that since you both know I would like it, you won't do it. :p

Where this is going: reading Thomas Hardy is like swimming through an olympic pool full of peanut butter. Any literary value he has is completely lost in the thousand-word paragraphs about nothing. If there were any incentive to keep reading, it would be better. Like if it were funny, or if any of his literature had any point to it other than "We're all going to live miserably and die." And I can't even enjoy it in a funny "these peoples' lives are fucked up!" way, it's just miserable and dreary and profoundly empty and boring and crammed full of endless crap about ladies' hats and flowers and things that actually had temporal relevance, but none literary whatsoever.

And his VERY predictable (and awful) writing style never changes, book to book. And you could bet your Emily Dickinson dildo collection that the main character of any Thomas Hardy novel will DIE immediately upon finding some shred of happiness to cling to, usually within the last chapter somewhere, though it won't necessarily be made a focal point of the story.

I'll go to the mat against Hardy any day. It's too easy to rip on.

[matty]

Okay, one more thought:

Plus the fact that the History and Discovery channel made about 30 prime time TV specials discussing the book seems enough to warrant being on the list. The Pope himself had to come out and make a statement in reference to the book. I can't think of any other book in my lifetime that has even come close to reaching the amount of buzz and scholarly debate as Da Vinci Code. For me that is more than enough to justify being on the list.

I think it generated so much buzz because people are RIDICULOUS and thought that all the stuff in the book was REAL. You actually have to sit people down and tell them that books aren't always true. I think that speaks more to the idiot society we've created for ourselves than it does for the book.

:eek: BUT, if the book sparked a cultural revolution of sorts, exposing our idiocy, and we made a conscious societal effort to change and become non-idiots, then the book would have relevance to me. :thumbsup:

(I got a lot of sleep last night in the first time in I don't know how long, and it made me very uppity!)

[False Alarm]

For the most part, I agree with your sentiment. However, Things Fall Apart was written by a still-living Nigerian man named Chinua Achebe. Takes place in Nigeria, too ;)
oh yeah dude i know, but he's on the second list. i was talkin bout the first. sorry bout that.

[False Alarm]

Which is more important while regarding the list? Pop culture impact or literary impact? I would have to go with literary, personally. 80 years from now, everybody will still remember why Captian Ahab was chasing the White Whale, but nobody will remember the media buzz around DVC.
no doubt.

[shrimpdip]

I've read 33 from the first list, and 12 from the second. Pretty much all due to the fact that my mum is an English teacher. I was glad to see Stephen King get some props for The Stand. King is definitely not the peak of literary excellance, but I'm not ashamed to admit, I enjoy reading his work more than anything else.

One glaring omission, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella

[Lori Burger]

Another thought: LORI--Are you one of those people who will just automatically like/hate the things that most other people hate/like? JVO is the exact same way. I would love to watch you guys duke it out, except that since you both know I would like it, you won't do it. :p

Where this is going: reading Thomas Hardy is like swimming through an olympic pool full of peanut butter. Any literary value he has is completely lost in the thousand-word paragraphs about nothing. If there were any incentive to keep reading, it would be better. Like if it were funny, or if any of his literature had any point to it other than "We're all going to live miserably and die." And I can't even enjoy it in a funny "these peoples' lives are fucked up!" way, it's just miserable and dreary and profoundly empty and boring and crammed full of endless crap about ladies' hats and flowers and things that actually had temporal relevance, but none literary whatsoever.

And his VERY predictable (and awful) writing style never changes, book to book. And you could bet your Emily Dickinson dildo collection that the main character of any Thomas Hardy novel will DIE immediately upon finding some shred of happiness to cling to, usually within the last chapter somewhere, though it won't necessarily be made a focal point of the story.

I'll go to the mat against Hardy any day. It's too easy to rip on.


Well, I'll be honest: I'm not one of those people who automatically dislikes what pop culture embraces, but pop culture's approval of anything does make me skeptical. So yes, I was skeptical when I started to read Divinci. And because of my undergrad studies, I would say that, yes, I was a little snobby about the whole idea of it from the get-go. But I was truly offended and annoyed by how the chapters were structured. It's just like when you're watching Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader or something, and that tool Jeff Foxworthy says, "Okay, here's the answer that you've been waiting for: AFTER the break!" I can't stand that, and I couldn't stand to read the entire DiVinci Code for that reason. I love history and puzzles, but this one did not feel genuine.

Also, I liked Tess much more in college than in high school. By the time I was in college, I had read far more Victorian lit (though Hardy's work isn't Victorian, I would say it's most like lit from that era) and so I could stomach the flowery quality of his writing better. And until the end, I was able to really get into the plight of the main female character, but maybe because I'm a woman? I don't know. I did hate the ending, though. I don't even remember what she chooses, but it soured me to Tess forever.

And JVO, just because DiVinci caused lots of tumult in American pop culture and otherwise, that doesn't mean that it's literary. Or well written. OJ Simpson's book caused lots of speculation too, and Paris Hilton does the same thing everyday without ever having written a word in her life.