Time's Top 100 Novels 1923-present

[honeychile]

If this is in the wrong place, Mods, please feel free to move it.

Time Magazine has just published their Top 100 Best English Speaking Novels from 1923 to the Present. The full list, along with the "whys" is here.

While I agree with many of them, there's a couple which I find profoundly disturbing. I haven't read every one of them, but I don't believe in banning books, either. Any thoughts? Oh, here's the list, for those who don't want the "whys":

The Complete List
In Alphabetical Order

The Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow

All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren

American Pastoral
Philip Roth

An American Tragedy
Theodore Dreiser

Animal Farm
George Orwell

Appointment in Samarra
John O'Hara

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume

The Assistant
Bernard Malamud

At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien

Atonement
Ian McEwan

Beloved
Toni Morrison

The Berlin Stories
Christopher Isherwood

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler

The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood

Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy

Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh

The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder

Call It Sleep
Henry Roth

Catch-22
Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron

The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen

The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon

A Dance to the Music of Time
Anthony Powell

The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West

Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa Cather

A Death in the Family
James Agee

The Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen

Deliverance
James Dickey

Dog Soldiers
Robert Stone

Falconer
John Cheever

The French Lieutenant's Woman
John Fowles

The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing

Go Tell it on the Mountain
James Baldwin

Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck

Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers

The Heart of the Matter
Graham Greene

Herzog
Saul Bellow

Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson

A House for Mr. Biswas
V.S. Naipaul

I, Claudius
Robert Graves

Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace

Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison

Light in August
William Faulkner

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis

Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov

Lord of the Flies
William Golding

The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien

Loving
Henry Green

Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis

The Man Who Loved Children
Christina Stead

Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie

Money
Martin Amis

The Moviegoer
Walker Percy

Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf

Naked Lunch
William Burroughs

Native Son
Richard Wright

Neuromancer
William Gibson

Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro

1984
George Orwell

On the Road
Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey

The Painted Bird
Jerzy Kosinski

Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov

A Passage to India
E.M. Forster

Play It As It Lays
Joan Didion

Portnoy's Complaint
Philip Roth

Possession
A.S. Byatt

The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark

Rabbit, Run
John Updike

Ragtime
E.L. Doctorow

The Recognitions
William Gaddis

Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett

Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates

The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson

The Sot-Weed Factor
John Barth

The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner

The Sportswriter
Richard Ford

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
John le Carre

The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf

Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller

Ubik
Philip K. Dick

Under the Net
Iris Murdoch

Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry

Watchmen
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White Noise
Don DeLillo

White Teeth
Zadie Smith

Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys

[Buttonz]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume

The Assistant
Bernard Malamud

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis

1984
George Orwell

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

I read all of the ones above....oddly, most of them that I've read on that list werent' for school...at least, not hte irst time I rea it...then agian, I'm a reader.

Of Mice & Men should have been on there, I would have liked to see Night on there, and A Brave New World.

[SigKapSweetie]

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

Gag me. I hated that book!

[Still BLUTANG]

i've read 10, and i'm very excited that my 2 favorite authors are on the list (Hurston & Baldwin).

[tunatartare]

Read a few of those. I personally couldn't stand Catch-22 and To the Lighthouse.

[speedsters]

Animal Farm
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Beloved
Catch-22
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
Gone With the Wind
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
1984
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Sun Also Rises
To Kill a Mockingbird

i really like to read, and most of these i've read for school or in the summers i try to read a lot of classics and books i should have read

[honeychile]

I've read the following, both for class and on my own:

All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren

An American Tragedy
Theodore Dreiser

Animal Farm
George Orwell

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume

Beloved
Toni Morrison

Catch-22
Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West

A Death in the Family
James Agee

Deliverance
James Dickey

Falconer
John Cheever

Go Tell it on the Mountain
James Baldwin

Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Heart of the Matter
Graham Greene

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis

Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov

Lord of the Flies
William Golding

The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien

Naked Lunch
William Burroughs

Native Son
Richard Wright

1984
George Orwell

On the Road
Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey

The Painted Bird
Jerzy Kosinski

Portnoy's Complaint
Philip Roth

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark

Rabbit, Run
John Updike

Ragtime
E.L. Doctorow

Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
John le Carre

The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller


I agree with Buttonz; both Night and Brave New World both deserved a mention. The Painted Bird has to be one of THE sickest books I've ever read, and I don't care if it's somewhat of a biography of Roman Polanski! I don't know if Dr. Zhivago could be included, as it was first written in Russian, but it would be a better contender than many of the above. I would've expected to see In Cold Blood, too.

[squirrely girl]

i've read 19 of them - i guess i've got some catch up to play...

totally agree with night, of mice and men, and brave new world

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Native Son
Richard Wright
1984
George Orwell
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf
Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys

Read all of those. I really loved Things Fall Apart and Slaughterhouse Five. I'm a big fan of Vonnegut's, but personally, Galapagos is my favorite of his works. Like Buttonz and everyone else said, I'm surprised that Brave New World didn't make the list. Also, I was kind of expecting to see Kafka's Metamorphosis or Camus's The Stranger somewhere on the list.

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by squirrely girl

i've read 19 of them - i guess i've got some catch up to play...

totally agree with night, of mice and men, and brave new world

Is Night considered to be a novel or an autobiographical work? I always thought it was the latter, which would explain why it didn't make the list.

[shinerbock]

On The Road is one of my favorite books...kinda odd considering my more conservative leanings...but then I like journey-type books...Following the Equator may be my favorite book.

[AEPhiSierra]

Animal Farm - George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
1984 - George Orwell
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

i guess 17 isn't too bad, but some of those I read so long in school. does make me feel not very well-read though.

[AEPhiSierra]

Originally Posted by KLPDaisy

Read all of those. I really loved Things Fall Apart and Slaughterhouse Five. I'm a big fan of Vonnegut's, but personally, Galapagos is my favorite of his works. Like Buttonz and everyone else said, I'm surprised that Brave New World didn't make the list. Also, I was kind of expecting to see Kafka's Metamorphosis or Camus's The Stranger somewhere on the list.

I am also suprised about a Brave New World.

The Stranger was originally in french so that's why it was left off the list. I am guessing Metamorphosis is also a translated work.

[tunatartare]

good call

[bluefish81]

I haven't read much from this list:

Animal Farm
The Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Their Eyes Were Watching God
To Kill a Mockingbird

Two of my favorites aren't on here: East of Eden and In Cold Blood. I wonder if In Cold Blood isn't listed because it's considered a non-fiction novel.