This is a list of best 100 novels of the century:
1. 1922 Ulysses James Joyce
2. 1925 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
4. 1955 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
5. 1932 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
6. 1929 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
7. 1961 Catch-22 Joseph Heller
8. 1940 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
9. 1913 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence
10. 1939 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
11. 1947 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
12. 1903 The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
13. 1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
14. 1934 I, Claudius Robert Graves
15. 1927 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
16. 1925 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser
17. 1940 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
18. 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
19. 1952 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
20. 1940 Native Son Richard Wright
21. 1959 Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow
22. 1934 Appointment in Samarra John O’Hara
23. 1938 U.S.A. (trilogy) John Dos Passos
24. 1919 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson
25. 1924 A Passage to India E. M. Forster
26. 1902 The Wings of the Dove Henry James
27. 1903 The Ambassadors Henry James
28. 1934 Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. 1935 Studs Lonigan (trilogy) James T. Farrell
30. 1915 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford
31. 1945 Animal Farm George Orwell
32. 1904 The Golden Bowl Henry James
33. 1900 Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser
34. 1934 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh
35. 1930 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
36. 1946 All the King’s Men Robert Penn Warren
37. 1927 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
38. 1910 Howards End E. M. Forster
39. 1953 Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin
40. 1948 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene
41. 1954 Lord of the Flies William Golding
42. 1970 Deliverance James Dickey
43. 1951-
1975 A Dance to the Music of Time (series) Anthony Powell
44. 1928 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley
45. 1926 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
46. 1907 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad
47. 1904 Nostromo Joseph Conrad
48. 1915 The Rainbow D. H. Lawrence
49. 1920 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence
50. 1934 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
51. 1948 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
52. 1969 Portnoy’s Complaint Philip Roth
53. 1962 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov
54. 1932 Light in August William Faulkner
55. 1957 On the Road Jack Kerouac
56. 1930 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
57. 1924-
1928 Parade’s End Ford Madox Ford
58. 1920 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
59. 1911 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm
60. 1961 The Moviegoer Walker Percy
61. 1927 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather
62. 1951 From Here to Eternity James Jones
63. 1957 The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever
64. 1951 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
65. 1962 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
66. 1915 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham
67. 1902 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
68. 1920 Main Street Sinclair Lewis
69. 1905 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
70. 1957-
1960 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell
71. 1929 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes
72. 1961 A House for Mr Biswas V. S. Naipaul
73. 1939 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West
74. 1929 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
75. 1938 Scoop Evelyn Waugh
76. 1962 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
77. 1939 Finnegans Wake James Joyce
78. 1901 Kim Rudyard Kipling
79. 1908 A Room with a View E. M. Forster
80. 1945 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
81. 1953 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow
82. 1971 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner
83. 1979 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul
84. 1938 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen
85. 1900 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
86. 1975 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow
87. 1908 The Old Wives’ Tale Arnold Bennett
88. 1903 The Call of the Wild Jack London
89. 1945 Loving Henry Green
90. 1980 Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
91. 1932 Tobacco Road Erskine Caldwell
92. 1983 Ironweed William Kennedy
93. 1965 The Magus John Fowles
94. 1966 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
95. 1954 Under the Net Iris Murdoch
96. 1979 Sophie’s Choice William Styron
97. 1949 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles
98. 1934 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain
99. 1955 The Ginger Man J. P. Donleavy
100. 1918 The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington
I have read a few of them, all thanks to Kumar sir. Now,we guys plan to read more novels from here!!! Why dont u guys suggest me ur favourite among them all????
Cheers,
Shruti.
PS. I tried reading midnight’s children around 3 yrs back, I cudnt get anything…lolzz!
Quite an exhaustive list..
Have only read Catcher in the rye and i really loved the witty dialogues:)
nice compilation. Have read 6 of them
Kim
A Clockwork Orange
Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Nineteen Eighty Four
Lolita
I saw the movie Clockwork Orange before reading the book. Must read and must watch. One of the best movie adaptations of a book.
Same is the case with Lolita.
Is this your compilation? It looks like a heavy English Hons. syllabus. π I had tough time waking up from my sleep once I started reading Ulysses. And Invisible Man is the silliest novel I have read so far. I cribbed and cribbed more while reading it. lol!
I also searched the net for to 100 novels and I found these two lists:
http://www.thebest100lists.com/best100novels/
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html (the reader’s list)
I am pretty happy with them. π
By the way recently a friend told us that he bought 33 Booker’s Prize winning books in one go and most of them turned out to be good. I planning to go by his plan.
It’s been so many days I haven’t read.:( Thanks for this post.
Read a mere 5 π¦ I liked Animal Farm…. π
@Shruti.. there’s only 7 best novels in the last 30yrs and 30 best novels in the last 50yrs … Guess we need some good writers… π
(maybe I am missing cat) π
Call of the wild is pretty good…Should try that..
Hi maam,
nah nah, this isnt my compilation! Modern Library’s !! This is the list Kumar sir talks about often I guess cuz that ‘Ulysses’ is listed here π
Ya, those 2 lists seem better off!! N I’l check out the Booker Prize lists π
Dhiraj, yeh, I’l try reading that. Thnx!
OTG, Animal Farm was grt!
Bazinga, even I hv read Lolita, catcher in the rye and 1984! Liked all the 3 π I’l read clockwork orange!
OMG! So much to read, and so lil time !!!
Happy reading Maam!
Have read 20-25 of them…courtesy ‘Kumar Sir’
My Top Picks:
Women in Love D. H. Lawrence
Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: James Joyce
A Farewell to Arms: Ernest Hemingway
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
No Guessing DH Lawrence is my favorite author, James Joyce is awesome too though reading his books needs a lot of patience…. I have read ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ almost thrice. Planning to read Ulysses for the second time.
Even I enjy DH Lawrence but I enjoyed Lady Chatterley n Sons n Lovers more than Women in Love! Found the latter very slow!! Am yet to read The Rainbow!!!
Wil read James Joyce soon, am hearing loads of good reviews abt him π
where’s emma?
Midnight’s children is an excellent work. Arguably one of the best indian works. It is one of my best reads.
No harry potter? A consistent good writing in all 7 novels shouldn’t be ignored..just as you cannot ignore consistent great music by Led Zeppelin. π
Ahh! I love Harry potter!!! And I am sick of asking sum friends of mine to read HP! These people just assume it to b kiddish n too silly to read π¦
wowwwwwwwwwww !!
i love harry potter as well !!!
aren’t they amazinggggggggg !!!
toooo goooooooooood !
lolz
@Shruti Agrawal – who the hell doesn’t like them . Kill them !!
i toh love them and i adore the person who made me read them (or tried doing that) !!
u know what i have just read 15 pages of the HP series and am a big fan already π
see such is the charm of the novel !
Purav,
Godddddd!! Dont make fun of Harry Potter! I want my book back, I dint give it to u so that u can mock!
EVery1 loves it, only idiots like u cant enjoy it π
hey shruti..i agree with u. koi bhi HP ke jadoo se bach nahi sakta. Everyone must have a read.
And I liked the TWILIGHT series too..