Modern library´s best novels of 20 century

[JoanS]

For those who dont know yet the list.

The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels.

Rank Novel Author
1 ULYSSES James Joyce
2 THE GREAT GATSBY F. Scott Fitzgerald
3 A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN James Joyce
4 LOLITA Vladimir Nabokov
5 BRAVE NEW WORLD Aldous Huxley
6 THE SOUND AND THE FURY William Faulkner
7 CATCH-22 Joseph Heller
8 DARKNESS AT NOON Arthur Koestler
9 SONS AND LOVERS D.H. Lawrence
10 THE GRAPES OF WRATH John Steinbeck
11 UNDER THE VOLCANO Malcolm Lowry
12 THE WAY OF ALL FLESH Samuel Butler
13 1984 George Orwell
14 I CLAUDIUS Robert Graves
15 TO THE LIGHTHOUSE Virginia Woolf
16 AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY Theodore Dreiser
17 THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER Carson McCullers
18 SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE Kurt Vonnegut
19 INVISIBLE MAN Ralph Ellison
20 NATIVE SON Richard Wright
21 HENDERSON THE RAIN KING Saul Bellow
22 APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA John O'Hara
23 U.S.A. John Dos Passos
24 WINESBURG, OHIO Sherwood Anderson
25 A PASSAGE TO INDIA E.M. Forster
26 THE WINGS OF THE DOVE Henry James
27 THE AMBASSADORS Henry James
28 TENDER IS THE NIGHT F. Scott Fitzgerald
29 THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY James T. Farrell
30 THE GOOD SOLDIER Ford Madox Ford
31 ANIMAL FARM George Orwell
32 THE GOLDEN BOWL Henry James
33 SISTER CARRIE Theodore Dreiser
34 A HANDFUL OF DUST Evelyn Waugh
35 AS I LAY DYING William Faulkner
36 ALL THE KING'S MEN Robert Penn Warren
37 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY Thornton Wilder
38 HOWARDS END E.M. Forster
39 GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN James Baldwin
40 THE HEART OF THE MATTER Graham Greene
41 LORD OF THE FLIES William Golding
42 DELIVERANCE James Dickey
43 A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME Anthony Powell
44 POINT COUNTER POINT Aldous Huxley
45 THE SUN ALSO RISES Ernest Hemingway
46 THE SECRET AGENT Joseph Conrad
47 NOSTROMO Joseph Conrad
48 THE RAINBOW D.H. Lawrence
49 WOMEN IN LOVE D.H. Lawrence
50 TROPIC OF CANCER Henry Miller
51 THE NAKED AND THE DEAD Norman Mailer
52 PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT Philip Roth
53 PALE FIRE Vladimir Nabokov
54 LIGHT IN AUGUST William Faulkner
55 ON THE ROAD Jack Kerouac
56 THE MALTESE FALCON Dashiell Hammett
57 PARADE'S END Ford Madox Ford
58 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE Edith Wharton
59 ZULEIKA DOBSON Max Beerbohm
60 THE MOVIEGOER Walker Percy
61 DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP Willa Cather
62 FROM HERE TO ETERNITY James Jones
63 THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES John Cheever
64 THE CATCHER IN THE RYE J.D. Salinger
65 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE Anthony Burgess
66 OF HUMAN BONDAGE W. Somerset Maugham
67 HEART OF DARKNESS Joseph Conrad
68 MAIN STREET Sinclair Lewis
69 THE HOUSE OF MIRTH Edith Wharton
70 THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET Lawrence Durell
71 A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA Richard Hughes
72 A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS V.S. Naipaul
73 THE DAY OF THE LOCUST Nathanael West
74 A FAREWELL TO ARMS Ernest Hemingway
75 SCOOP Evelyn Waugh
76 THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE Muriel Spark
77 FINNEGANS WAKE James Joyce
78 KIM Rudyard Kipling
79 A ROOM WITH A VIEW E.M. Forster
80 BRIDESHEAD REVISITED Evelyn Waugh
81 THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH Saul Bellow
82 ANGLE OF REPOSE Wallace Stegner
83 A BEND IN THE RIVER V.S. Naipaul
84 THE DEATH OF THE HEART Elizabeth Bowen
85 LORD JIM Joseph Conrad
86 RAGTIME E.L. Doctorow
87 THE OLD WIVES' TALE Arnold Bennett
88 THE CALL OF THE WILD Jack London
89 LOVING Henry Green
90 MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN Salman Rushdie
91 TOBACCO ROAD Erskine Caldwell
92 IRONWEED William Kennedy
93 THE MAGUS John Fowles
94 WIDE SARGASSO SEA Jean Rhys
95 UNDER THE NET Iris Murdoch
96 SOPHIE'S CHOICE William Styron
97 THE SHELTERING SKY Paul Bowles
98 THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE James M. Cain
99 THE GINGER MAN J.P. Donleavy
100 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS Booth Tarkington

[chasestalling]

where's proust?

[Lambert]

where's proust?

He got bumped off the list because of literary populism.

Another annoying thing about this list: Why are Salinger and Kerouac there? Critical opinion on those authors has changed drastically in the last few years.

And another annoying thing about this list: Where's William Gaddis?
Isn't his work vital in understanding the origin of most contemporary literature? It's a crime to have left him out.

[Virgil]

where's proust?

Those are all novels written in English. The title should be best 20th Century Novels Written in English.

[JoanS]

thanks Virgil, i ve forgotten write it..

[PeterL]

I saw that list before, and I was surprised. I am still surprised. Many of the others also are good but not among the top 100. And a few on the list aren't very good at all. For example, On the Road has some good features, but it isn't one of the 100 best novels of the 20th cen.

[ivette]

I think Hermann Hesse should definitely be on the list...

[jon1jt]

I saw that list before, and I was surprised. I am still surprised. Many of the others also are good but not among the top 100. And a few on the list aren't very good at all. For example, On the Road has some good features, but it isn't one of the 100 best novels of the 20th cen.

Jack Kerouac's Road shows up at the 55 spot on this list, and #6 on the ALL TIME BEST SELLING PENGUIN BOOKS. you say it has only, "some good features." not a top 100, huh? read it again. or maybe you stopped dreaming long ago.

yet, nobody calls out Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath on this list?? and they have Tropic of Cancer at 50???? okay, ssurrrreeee.

[PeterL]

Jack Kerouac's Road shows up at the 55 spot on this list, and #6 on the ALL TIME BEST SELLING PENGUIN BOOKS. you say it has only, "some good features." not a top 100, huh? read it again. or maybe you stopped dreaming long ago.

On the Road is on the list because it was influential to a generation. The beatniks and hippies drew inspiration from it, but the narrative wasn't very good, and the writing was mediocre. Maybe I will read it again. It isn't a sort of book that I like. It should be experienced rather than read about.

[jon1jt]

On the Road is on the list because it was influential to a generation. The beatniks and hippies drew inspiration from it, but the narrative wasn't very good, and the writing was mediocre. Maybe I will read it again. It isn't a sort of book that I like. It should be experienced rather than read about.

well i'm happy to hear that you'll consider reading On the Road again. as far as your point aobut experiencing that book rather than reading it, i have to disagree with you. can't we say that for many great books? i've had my own on the roads and some still to accomplish. places to see, people to meet. there's a whole world out there. but that shouldn't detract from the exileration of reading Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty's experience, who were just two guys searching for something. aren't we all searching in a way, peter?

[Lambert]

well i'm happy to hear that you'll consider reading On the Road again. as far as your point aobut experiencing that book rather than reading it, i have to disagree with you. can't we say that for many great books? i've had my own on the roads and some still to accomplish. places to see, people to meet. there's a whole world out there. but that shouldn't detract from the exileration of reading Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty's experience, who were just two guys searching for something. aren't we all searching in a way, peter?

I'm think you're a little too overwhelmed by gushy idealism to see how bad Kerouac’s prose is. Frankly, it’s the dullest, flattest, most one-dimensional prose I've ever had the misfortune come across. Bored me to tears that book.

PeterL: Don't bother reading Kerouac. It's all hype and no substance. Teenage naivety gone haywire...

[PeterL]

well i'm happy to hear that you'll consider reading On the Road again. as far as your point aobut experiencing that book rather than reading it, i have to disagree with you. can't we say that for many great books? i've had my own on the roads and some still to accomplish. places to see, people to meet. there's a whole world out there. but that shouldn't detract from the exileration of reading Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty's experience, who were just two guys searching for something. aren't we all searching in a way, peter?

It is my opinion that there are many books that shouldn't have been written, because they seek to convey experiences, rather than ideas, and the experiences that they seek to convey are readily available in the real world. Another such book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair Contrast those with The Lord of the Rings or Stranger in a Strange Land, or Foucault's Pendulum, all of which are more about abstract ideas than about day-to-day experiences. It isn't easy to hitchike around the country any more, but people do drive randomly around, drink cheap wine, smoke pot, and hang out with interesting characters. You may prefer reading about such experiences, but I preferred engaging in them.

[Demian]

Yeah, what about Hesse, Nikos K., Graham Greene? (Was he not on the list?) You can't get around to every body, but I think that these three have had a more profound influence on their contemporaries and audiences than at least half of these writers!

[jon1jt]

I'm think you're a little too overwhelmed by gushy idealism to see how bad Kerouac’s prose is. Frankly, it’s the dullest, flattest, most one-dimensional prose I've ever had the misfortune come across. Bored me to tears that book.

you can call me a gushy idealist, i take that as a compliment. thank you.

perhaps the world's become too small for you, or maybe you're one of those modern hipster types who backpacked across Europe on borrowed Pell Grant money (or your parents' credit cards) trailing the scent of every spot deemed exotic by Outsider Magazine or cool friends. i'm waiting for some three-dimensional prose to be published, Lam, let me know i'll be sure to go out and buy it.

PeterL: Don't bother reading Kerouac. It's all hype and no substance. Teenage naivety gone haywire...

Teen naivety gone haywire?? (oh boy) kerouac went on those road trips when he was in his late 20's and wrote about them at 32. the book was published six years later.

for some reason i don't think you read the book, or even the intro.

[stlukesguild]

I'm think you're a little too overwhelmed by gushy idealism to see how bad Kerouac’s prose is. Frankly, it’s the dullest, flattest, most one-dimensional prose I've ever had the misfortune come across. Bored me to tears that book.

PeterL: Don't bother reading Kerouac. It's all hype and no substance. Teenage naivety gone haywire...

Hey! I'm usually the one who says things like that! And you can throw Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath in there as well (yes, yes... I know, poets not novelists... but Gaaack!)