Here is the Random House Board’s list of greatest novels in the English language. I am working on reading my way through this list. The ones in green I have already read. The ones in yellow I have started or attempted to read and given up (for now). Those for which I have a review in this blog are in red font and it also shows my ratings. You can click on the title and launch a page with the review.
| Rank | Author | Title | My Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Joyce | ULYSSES | |
| 2 | F. Scott Fitzgerald | THE GREAT GATSBY | 2 |
| 3 | James Joyce | A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN | |
| 4 | Vladimir Nabokov | LOLITA | |
| 5 | Aldous Huxley | BRAVE NEW WORLD | |
| 6 | William Faulkner | THE SOUND AND THE FURY | |
| 7 | Joseph Heller | CATCH-22 | |
| 8 | Arthur Koestler | DARKNESS AT NOON | |
| 9 | D.H. Lawrence | SONS AND LOVERS | 3 |
| 10 | John Steinbeck | THE GRAPES OF WRATH | |
| 11 | Malcolm Lowry | UNDER THE VOLCANO | |
| 12 | Samuel Butler | THE WAY OF ALL FLESH | |
| 13 | George Orwell | 1984 | 4 |
| 14 | Robert Graves | I, CLAUDIUS | |
| 15 | Virginia Woolf | TO THE LIGHTHOUSE | |
| 16 | Theodore Dreiser | AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY | |
| 17 | Carson McCullers | THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER | |
| 18 | Kurt Vonnegut | SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE | 2 |
| 19 | Ralph Ellison | INVISIBLE MAN | |
| 20 | Richard Wright | NATIVE SON | |
| 21 | Saul Bellow | HENDERSON THE RAIN KING | |
| 22 | John O'Hara | APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA | |
| 23 | John Dos Passos | U.S.A. (trilogy) | |
| 24 | Sherwood Anderson | WINESBURG, OHIO | |
| 25 | E.M. Forster | A PASSAGE TO INDIA | |
| 26 | Henry James | THE WINGS OF THE DOVE | |
| 27 | Henry James | THE AMBASSADORS | |
| 28 | F. Scott Fitzgerald | TENDER IS THE NIGHT | |
| 29 | James T. Farrell | THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY | |
| 30 | Ford Madox Ford | THE GOOD SOLDIER | |
| 31 | George Orwell | ANIMAL FARM | 4 |
| 32 | Henry James | THE GOLDEN BOWL | |
| 33 | Theodore Dreiser | SISTER CARRIE | |
| 34 | Evelyn Waugh | A HANDFUL OF DUST | |
| 35 | William Faulkner | AS I LAY DYING | |
| 36 | Robert Penn Warren | ALL THE KING'S MEN | |
| 37 | Thornton Wilder | THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY | |
| 38 | E.M. Forster | HOWARDS END | |
| 39 | James Baldwin | GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN | |
| 40 | Graham Greene | THE HEART OF THE MATTER | |
| 41 | William Golding | LORD OF THE FLIES | |
| 42 | James Dickey | DELIVERANCE | |
| 43 | Anthony Powell | A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) | |
| 44 | Aldous Huxley | POINT COUNTER POINT | |
| 45 | Ernest Hemingway | THE SUN ALSO RISES | |
| 46 | Joseph Conrad | THE SECRET AGENT | |
| 47 | Joseph Conrad | NOSTROMO | |
| 48 | D.H. Lawrence | THE RAINBOW | |
| 49 | D.H. Lawrence | WOMEN IN LOVE | |
| 50 | Henry Miller | TROPIC OF CANCER | |
| 51 | Norman Mailer | THE NAKED AND THE DEAD | |
| 52 | Philip Roth | PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT | |
| 53 | Vladimir Nabokov | PALE FIRE | |
| 54 | William Faulkner | LIGHT IN AUGUST | |
| 55 | Jack Kerouac | ON THE ROAD | 0.5 |
| 56 | Dashiell Hammett | THE MALTESE FALCON | |
| 57 | Ford Madox Ford | PARADE'S END | |
| 58 | Edith Wharton | THE AGE OF INNOCENCE | |
| 59 | Max Beerbohm | ZULEIKA DOBSON | |
| 60 | Walker Percy | THE MOVIEGOER | |
| 61 | Willa Cather | DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP | |
| 62 | James Jones | FROM HERE TO ETERNITY | |
| 63 | John Cheever | THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES | |
| 64 | J.D. Salinger | THE CATCHER IN THE RYE | 4 |
| 65 | Anthony Burgess | A CLOCKWORK ORANGE | |
| 66 | W. Somerset Maugham | OF HUMAN BONDAGE | 2.5 |
| 67 | Joseph Conrad | HEART OF DARKNESS | 1.5 |
| 68 | Sinclair Lewis | MAIN STREET | |
| 69 | Edith Wharton | THE HOUSE OF MIRTH | |
| 70 | Lawrence Durell | THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET | |
| 71 | Richard Hughes | A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA | |
| 72 | V.S. Naipaul | A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS | |
| 73 | Nathanael West | THE DAY OF THE LOCUST | |
| 74 | Ernest Hemingway | A FAREWELL TO ARMS | 2.5 |
| 75 | Evelyn Waugh | SCOOP | |
| 76 | Muriel Spark | THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE | |
| 77 | James Joyce | FINNEGANS WAKE | |
| 78 | Rudyard Kipling | KIM | |
| 79 | E.M. Forster | A ROOM WITH A VIEW | |
| 80 | Evelyn Waugh | BRIDESHEAD REVISITED | |
| 81 | Saul Bellow | THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH | |
| 82 | Wallace Stegner | ANGLE OF REPOSE | |
| 83 | V.S. Naipaul | A BEND IN THE RIVER | |
| 84 | Elizabeth Bowen | THE DEATH OF THE HEART | |
| 85 | Joseph Conrad | LORD JIM | |
| 86 | E.L. Doctorow | RAGTIME | 3.5 |
| 87 | Arnold Bennett | THE OLD WIVES' TALE | |
| 88 | Jack London | THE CALL OF THE WILD | 3 |
| 89 | Henry Green | LOVING | |
| 90 | Salman Rushdie | MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN | |
| 91 | Erskine Caldwell | TOBACCO ROAD | |
| 92 | William Kennedy | IRONWEED | |
| 93 | John Fowles | THE MAGUS | |
| 94 | Jean Rhys | WIDE SARGASSO SEA | |
| 95 | Iris Murdoch | UNDER THE NET | |
| 96 | William Styron | SOPHIE'S CHOICE | |
| 97 | Paul Bowles | THE SHELTERING SKY | |
| 98 | James M. Cain | THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE | |
| 99 | J.P. Donleavy | THE GINGER MAN | |
| 100 | Booth Tarkington | THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS |
.
Is this YOUR list of greatest novels, or is it derive d from a literary source?
No, it’s actually the “Random House Board” – whatever that is. But it’s a neat idea to make my own list. Unfortunately, it’ll be all read already, all 4 stars…. I have to think about that.
An interesting list. Lots of Joyce, only one Steinbeck, no mention of Harper Lee or Philip K.Dick.
This list seems a little outdated to me. Many of them I’m sure I will never read. I didn’t finish “Grapes of Wrath”, but several of Steinbeck’s other novels are on my personal greatest of all time list.
I don’t think these lists get updated very often. That’s why they are called classics. If you think it’s outdated, I would love to hear what novels of recent vintage you think should be on this list?
Oh I don’t know, I guess I’m being too judgy, to make up for the fact that though I’m very well read I haven’t read many of these books and probably never will, unless randomly stuck in a bunker with nothing but books on this list. 😉
Hey, you’re not the only one having trouble with classic lists. I am one, too.
Okay, here are the ones on the list that I have read: 2,4,5,10(I’m counting GoW b/c I read most of it and lots of other Steinbeck),13,18,41,55,64,67. Hmm, that’s it, only 10 out of 100.
I’ve only read a measly 13 and own a paltry 8 others, clearly I need to read a lot more than I have, ah, the joys and curses of reading!
I’ve read 2 of them, animal farm and lord of the flies.
There are at least 10 here that I own, have started, but am stuck with. Classics are not easy.
To quote what I said on one of my blogs.
I like to read novels about ordinary people living ordinary lives (like me), but who then get plunged into extraordinary circumstances. Travel back in time millions of years, or everyone else suddenly disappearing from the planet apart from you, or suddenly becoming acquainted with an individual who is very intelligent, strange, different and enigmatic etc.
So, not sure about the classics and whether I would like them. Maybe I should try.
An occasional classic clears the mind. I am about half through The ’86 Fix per your recommendation. Having fun.
There’s a sequel to the 86 fix — “Beyond Broadhall”. I think he didn’t originally intend to write a sequel but he got feedback from his readers requesting that he write one. Also there’s some crossover with his novel “Tuned Out”, another time travelling novel where the main character goes back to 1969.
I can see why he needed a sequel. Check my review. I enjoyed the book, but I think I’ll move on to the next author.
Thanks for the lead though. I would never have found Pearson.