Here’s the official list of 100 greatest novels written in the English language. The ones highlighted are ones that I have read, and I’m embarrassed that I’ve only read 15 of them. Of those 15, I read all but 1 of them at least 14 years ago. *Hanging my head in nerd shame*
Here’s my dilemma. This is the official list, but there’s one that is more of a reader’s choice, and I think would include books that I’d enjoy more, like Infinite Jest. This one includes a lot of people that honestly, I find mind-numbingly boring. That being said, I was 17 or younger when I HAD to read Dreiser, Faulkner, and by far my LEAST favorites, Thomas Hardy & Joseph Conrad. So, I don’t really know if I would enjoy these authors more now, or if I would still find them tedious and dull. I guess I won’t know until I try, right? If I extend the time I want to dedicate to this project, I suppose it could include both lists…Wow. I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed right now. I think I need to lie down.
1. *ULYSSES* by James Joyce
2. *THE GREAT GATSBY* by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. *A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN* by James Joyce
4. *LOLITA* by Vladimir Nabokov
5. *BRAVE NEW WORLD* by Aldous Huxley
6. *THE SOUND AND THE FURY* by William Faulkner
7. *CATCH-22*
8. *DARKNESS AT NOON* by Arthur Koestler
9. *SONS AND LOVERS* by D.H. Lawrence
10. *THE GRAPES OF WRATH* by John Steinbeck
11. *UNDER THE VOLCANO* by Malcolm Lowry
12. *THE WAY OF ALL FLESH* by Samuel Butler
13. *1984* by George Orwell
14. *I, CLAUDIUS* by Robert Graves
15. *TO THE LIGHTHOUSE* by Virginia Woolf
16. *AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY* by Theodore Dreiser
17. *THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER* by Carson McCullers
18. *SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE* by Kurt Vonnegut
19. *INVISIBLE MAN* by Ralph Ellison
20. *NATIVE SON* by Richard Wright
21. *HENDERSON THE RAIN KING* by Saul Bellow
22. *APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA* by John O'Hara
23. *U.S.A. (trilogy)* by John Dos Passos
24. *WINESBURG, OHIO* by Sherwood Anderson
25. *A PASSAGE TO INDIA* by E.M. Forster
26. *THE WINGS OF THE DOVE* by Henry James
27. *THE AMBASSADORS* by Henry James
28. *TENDER IS THE NIGHT* by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. *THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY* by James T. Farrell
30. *THE GOOD SOLDIER* by Ford Madox Ford
31. *ANIMAL FARM* by George Orwell
32. *THE GOLDEN BOWL* by Henry James
33. *SISTER CARRIE* by Theodore Dreiser
34. *A HANDFUL OF DUST* by Evelyn Waugh
35. *AS I LAY DYING* by William Faulkner
36. *ALL THE KING'S MEN* by Robert Penn Warren
37. *THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY* by Thornton Wilder
38. *HOWARDS END* by E.M. Forster
39. *GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN* by James Baldwin
40. *THE HEART OF THE MATTER* by Graham Greene
41. *LORD OF THE FLIES* by William Golding
42. *DELIVERANCE* by James Dickey
43. *A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series)* by Anthony Powell
44. *POINT COUNTER POINT* by Aldous Huxley
45. *THE SUN ALSO RISES* by Ernest Hemingway
46. *THE SECRET AGENT* by Joseph Conrad
47. *NOSTROMO* by Joseph Conrad
48. *THE RAINBOW* by D.H. Lawrence
49. *WOMEN IN LOVE* by D.H. Lawrence
50. *TROPIC OF CANCER* by Henry Miller
51. *THE NAKED AND THE DEAD* by Norman Mailer
52. *PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT* by Philip Roth
53. *PALE FIRE* by Vladimir Nabokov
54. *LIGHT IN AUGUST* by William Faulkner
55. *ON THE ROAD* by Jack Kerouac
56. *THE MALTESE FALCON* by Dashiell Hammett
57. *PARADE'S END* by Ford Madox Ford
58. *THE AGE OF INNOCENCE* by Edith Wharton
59. *ZULEIKA DOBSON* by Max Beerbohm
60. *THE MOVIEGOER* by Walker Percy
61. *DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP* by Willa Cather
62. *FROM HERE TO ETERNITY* by James Jones
63. *THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES* by John Cheever
64. *THE CATCHER IN THE RYE* by J.D. Salinger
65. *A CLOCKWORK ORANGE* by Anthony Burgess
66. *OF HUMAN BONDAGE* by W. Somerset Maugham
67. *HEART OF DARKNESS* by Joseph Conrad
68. *MAIN STREET* by Sinclair Lewis
69. *THE HOUSE OF MIRTH* by Edith Wharton
70. *THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET* by Lawrence Durell
71. *A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA* by Richard Hughes
72. *A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS* by V.S. Naipaul
73. *THE DAY OF THE LOCUST* by Nathanael West
74. *A FAREWELL TO ARMS* by Ernest Hemingway
75. *SCOOP* by Evelyn Waugh
76. *THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE* by Muriel Spark
77. *FINNEGANS WAKE* by James Joyce
78. *KIM* by Rudyard Kipling
79. *A ROOM WITH A VIEW* by E.M. Forster
80. *BRIDESHEAD REVISITED* by Evelyn Waugh
81. *THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH* by Saul Bellow
82. *ANGLE OF REPOSE* by Wallace Stegner
83. *A BEND IN THE RIVER* by V.S. Naipaul
84. *THE DEATH OF THE HEART* by Elizabeth Bowen
85. *LORD JIM* by Joseph Conrad
86. *RAGTIME* by E.L. Doctorow
87. *THE OLD WIVES' TALE* by Arnold Bennett
88. *THE CALL OF THE WILD* by Jack London
89. *LOVING* by Henry Green
90. *MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN* by Salman Rushdie
91. *TOBACCO ROAD* by Erskine Caldwell
92. *IRONWEED* by William Kennedy
93. *THE MAGUS* by John Fowles
94. *WIDE SARGASSO SEA* by Jean Rhys
95. *UNDER THE NET* by Iris Murdoch
96. *SOPHIE'S CHOICE* by William Styron
97. *THE SHELTERING SKY* by Paul Bowles
98. *THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE* by James M. Cain
99. *THE GINGER MAN* by J.P. Donleavy
100. *THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS* by Booth Tarkington
Just an aside: Thomas Hardy is not even on this list. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, AP English Lit teacher, Peg Borden!
1 comment:
There are a handfull of books on that list that I think, "did I read the book or did I see the movie? I mean... maybe that character IS SUPPOSED TO look like Elizabeth Taylor?"
And I"m pretty sure that this means I need to start all over again...
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