I think A farewell to Arms is better than the ssun also rises
I think A farewell to Arms is better than the ssun also rises
I don't think The Great Gatsby is nearly universal enough of a topic to be #4.
But I suppose I am bias due to my belief that the strength of a piece of literature is its ability to describe an original thought/problem/idea/emotion.
I've only read 24 of these! Some of them I'm not even familiar with which is cool...gives me something to look up. Like most other posters, Rand and Tolkein wouldn't have made the cut with me and The Great Gatsby is overrated but probably would've made my list towards the bottom...
I've read 45 and five-halves of them. I'm pretty pleased with this list. There are a few I'd count as pretentious and over-rated, but some people count some of my favorites (Dostoyevsky, Moby Dick, Lolita) as pretentious. I'm pleased to see Cervantes, Camus, Conrad, Borges, & Miller up there. Shakespeare still tops the list, but at least people managed to limit themselves to his non-crap plays.Originally Posted by Drkshadow03
The Idiot is a very Christian novel. It has one central philosophical view / assumption, and not enough outside of that for people not sharing that assumption to get around it.
War and Peace is an in-depth, hyper-realistic study of many different characters. When I say "hyper-realistic" I mean that Tolstoy portrays his characters so realistically that they can't function as characters in a novel are supposed to, to generate sympathy and tension. None of them are villainous or completely admirable; you never know who to root for; you often follow their actions with interest yet wouldn't mind if they were killed off. They have little impact on their world, and when they have impact, it's generally by accident.
All very realistic and insightful, but it's a very long book that at no point gives you a compelling reason to pick it back up if you put it down. To me, as a writer, it's a study in how fiction differs from reality, and why. Authors always think they want to write realistic and complex characters, but War & Peace shows what happens if you manage to do that.
Sure - but how the hell is the Hobbit in the top 100!?
Hmm ... personally I'm not sure - but I think The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls are better than both. Funny, I thought that was a pretty strong consensus. Well, always nice to be surprised!
PS: apologies for double posting ...
1. The Bible
2. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
3. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
8. Don Quixote by Cervantes
9. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
10. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
11. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
12. The Odyssey by Homer
13. Paradise Lost by John Milton
14. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
15. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
16. Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire
17. The Illiad by Homer
18. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
19. Essays by Montaigne
20. The Stranger by Albert Camus
21. The Oresteia by Aeschylus
22. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
23. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
24. The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin
25. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
26. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
27. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
28. Emma by Jane Austen
29. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
30. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
31. Eugene Onegin by Pushkin
32. Watership Down by Richard Adams
33. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
34. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
35. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
36. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
37. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
38. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
39. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
40. The Trial by Franz Kafka
41. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
42. Shahnameh by Ferdowsi
43. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
44. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
45. Fictions by J.L. Borges
46. El Aleph by J.L. Borges
47. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
48. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
49. The Magus by John Fowles
50. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
51. Testament by R.C. Hutchinson
52. Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
53. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
54. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
55. Oedipus the King by Sophocles
56. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
57. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
58. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
59. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
60. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
61. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
62. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
63. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
64. No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
65. Othello by William Shakespeare
66. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
67. Vanity Fair by William Thackerey
68. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
69. Voss by Patrick White
70. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
71. Manfred by Lord Byron
72. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
73. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
74. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
75. Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
76. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
77. 1984 by George Orwell
78. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
79. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramagos
80. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
81. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
82. Tristam Shandy by Laurence Sterne
83. The Tree of Man by Patrick White
84. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
85. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
86. 2666 by Robert Bolano
87. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
88. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
89. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
90. The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad
91. The Recognitions by William Gaddis
92. The Castle by Franz Kafka
93. I Canti by Giacomo Leopardi
94. Man’s Fate by André Malraux
95. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
96. Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
97. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
98. Confessions by Rousseau
99. The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer
100. Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
Eh, 26/100. Not great, but most of my literary interests are with American literature with a sprinkle of Russian literature. Surprised only one Nabokov work made it, I was sure Pale Fire would have been included, and Speak, Memory as well, seeing as there are non-fiction books listed there. Pleasantly surprised Walden was so high at #35. Very disappointed that Resurrection made it on the list, it was one of the few Tolstoy works that I didn't enjoy; The Death of Ivan Illyich is far better in my opinion. Also thought As I Lay Dying was better than The Sound and the Fury.
Last edited by R.F. Schiller; 04-10-2014 at 02:33 AM.
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is a book of poems. I'm surprised you counted it as a literary book. I think Don Quixote is generally considered the best book ever written, usually.
Many great books, and quite a few that should never be allowed near a list like this. Iam only batting .450.
1. The Bible
2. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
3. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
8. Don Quixote by Cervantes
9. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
10. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
11. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
12. The Odyssey by Homer
13. Paradise Lost by John Milton
14. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
15. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
16. Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire
17. The Illiad by Homer
18. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
19. Essays by Montaigne
20. The Stranger by Albert Camus
21. The Oresteia by Aeschylus
22. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
23. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
24. The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin
25. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
26. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
27. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
28. Emma by Jane Austen
29. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
30. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
31. Eugene Onegin by Pushkin
32. Watership Down by Richard Adams
33. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
34. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
35. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
36. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
37. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
38. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
39. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
40. The Trial by Franz Kafka
41. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
42. Shahnameh by Ferdowsi
43. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
44. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
45. Fictions by J.L. Borges
46. El Aleph by J.L. Borges
47. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
48. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
49. The Magus by John Fowles
50. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
51. Testament by R.C. Hutchinson
52. Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
53. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
54. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
55. Oedipus the King by Sophocles
56. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
57. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
58. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
59. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
60. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
61. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
62. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
63. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
64. No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
65. Othello by William Shakespeare
66. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
67. Vanity Fair by William Thackerey
68. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
69. Voss by Patrick White
70. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
71. Manfred by Lord Byron
72. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
73. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
74. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
75. Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
76. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
77. 1984 by George Orwell
78. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
79. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramagos
80. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
81. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
82. Tristam Shandy by Laurence Sterne
83. The Tree of Man by Patrick White
84. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
85. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
86. 2666 by Robert Bolano
87. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
88. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
89. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
90. The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad
91. The Recognitions by William Gaddis
92. The Castle by Franz Kafka
93. I Canti by Giacomo Leopardi
94. Man’s Fate by André Malraux
95. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
96. Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
97. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
98. Confessions by Rousseau
99. The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer
100. Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
Last edited by desiresjab; 04-19-2014 at 03:35 AM.
What is more literary than poetry?Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is a book of poems. I'm surprised you counted it as a literary book. I think Don Quixote is generally considered the best book ever written, usually.
Hello, I'm new to this site. This top 100 list is actually quite good and better than many other lists I've read. I'm pleased to see that there is a mixture of literature, poetry and philosophical works in the mix. Also, there's a healthy number of foreign literature represented. It will be interesting to see how another poll turns out 2 years on.
Here are the one's I've read with a short personal impression behind. Not that many read, I'm afraid
1. The Bible : only read the New Testament entirely, the Old only parts.
7. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville: read it when I was about twelve. If my memory is not playing tricks on me, I generally enjoyed it.
20. The Stranger by Albert Camus: read it in French when I was in highschool, mainly inspired by Killing an Arab of the Cure which is Robert Smith's popmusic take on the book. Should probably give it a new read as I fear I actually missed a lot.
66. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift : read it long ago.
77. 1984 by George Orwell: deserves to be higher imo.
78. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: this was a struggle to get to the end, mainly because the philosphical side of it resulted in a very long book. The general plot is very good imo, where the successive actions of the looters that Rand imagines, betray a strong capacity to tell a story. However, it could have been told with much less words imo. The whole John Galt-radio speech e.g. I failed to see the added value of that. I understand that it's considered the basis of Ayn Rand's philosophy, but I feel it doesn't belong in the book. The root of money-speech and the conversations taking place in Galt's Gulch already more than amply covered the topic imo.
80. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: too long ago. Should reread this.
In general it seems a good list and I'm pretty sure that I will use it as a starting point to pick books to read.
Still, as it is a mainly anglosaxon list, I'm surprised to see none of the more contemporary American and UK-writers such as, e.g., Tom Wolfe or Brett Easton Ellis, or the English writers Douglas Adams or Nick Hornsby.
FM
Nearly two years? Time for a refresher?
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