Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Greatest 100 Novels of All-Time (Modern Library)

There are a LOT of "greatest" lists out there, but it seems that the most renown are either from Times Magazine or from the Modern Library. Since Times' list is from 1923 onwards, I'm going to use Modern Library's list as the ultimate based solely on the fact that I enjoy their editions.

I had a look through this list last year, so let's see if I've progressed.

ULYSSES by James Joyce (own)

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce (own)

LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner

CATCH-22 by Joseph Keller

DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler

SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence

THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry

THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler

1984 by George Orwell

I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves (own)

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison (own)

NATIVE SON by Richard Wright

HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow

APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara

U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos

WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson

A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster

THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James

THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James (own)

TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reading next month)

THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell

THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford (own)

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James

SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser

A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh

AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner

ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren (own)

THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder

HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster (own)

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin

THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene

LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

DELIVERANCE by James Dickey

A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell

POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley


THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway

THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad (own)

NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad (own)

THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence

WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence (own)

TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer

PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth

PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov (own)

LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner (own)

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett

PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton

ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm

THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy

DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones

THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham

HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad

MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis (own)

THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton

THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell

A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes

A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway

SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark

FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce

KIM by Rudyard Kipling (own)

A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh

THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow

ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner (own)

A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul

THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen

LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad (own)

RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow

THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett

THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London

LOVING by Henry Green

MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie

TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell

IRONWEED by William Kennedy

THE MAGUS by John Fowles (own)

WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys

UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch

SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron

THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain

THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington


I'm up nearly 50%, from 14 to 22*.  Not great, but moving in the right direction :)

The one thing I don't like about this list, is that all the books seem to have been written in English. Where are the Russians (Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Tolstoy)?  Where are the English (Tolkien, Dickens, Hardy)?


*Note: Updated October 2010.

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