By Author

It’s hard to come up with a list of the top novels of all time.  No one agrees on what they are.  The best you can do is come up with a combination of lists from different sources.  This is a list of the top 272 books from a combination of lists. The list is numbered, but this is not meant to imply a ranking system. Instead they are in order by title. If you want to see how I rank the novels, you would have to see if it is listed on my personal reading page. I've put a checkmark next to the ones I've read.

This list is a combination of 7 different sources; one of those in fact a consolidation on its own.  I count them as 5 sources.  They are as follows:

(1) MODERN LIBRARY book publishers.

(2) Time Magazine

(3) The Novel 100: A Ranking of Greatest Novels All Time (Checkmark Books/Facts On File, Inc.: New York, 2004), written by Daniel S. Burt

(4) NYTimes - Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

(5) The Friendswood library has consolidated four sources' lists:

a. Harvard Bookstore's Top 100 Recommended Titles,

b. Modern Library's 100 Best Novels, - which means this got twice the weight.. hum...

c. Koen Book Distributors' Top 100 Books of the Past Century, and

d. Library Journal's 150 20th-century Most Influential Fiction. (list includes only English-language books written in the 1900's)

The colors mean:

RED – The book appears on all 5 lists

ORANGE – The book appears on 4 lists

YELLOW– The book appears on 3 lists

GREEN – The book appears on 2 lists

means I've read it. A review on my books page.

The movie projector symbols mean 2 things.. means there is a movie and means I've seen it. NOTE: You can click on the projector to see the IMDB link to that movie. Also, I did not include TV productions (for example Their Eyes Were Watching God)

(#) - next to the Author's name indicates that the author appears more than once on the list, and how many times.

And it should be obvious what.. and mean

How to use this page

I use this page to explore books and authors when deciding what to read next. Every author and every title is linked to it's matching WIKIPEDIA entry. The Wikipedia is a free on-line encyclopedia of information available to all. The articles will contain information about the author, plot summaries, analysis, etc. that will make the reading more enjoyable.

1	Things Fall Apart		Achebe, Chinua			2,3,4
2	Watership Down		Adams, Richard			5
3	Death in the Family (A)		Agee, James			4,5
4	Bastard out of Carolina		Allison, Dorothy			5
5	Lucky Jim		Amis, Kingsley			2,4
6	Money		Amis, Martin			2,4
7	Winesburg, Ohio		Anderson, Sherwood			1,5
8	Kane and Abel		Archer, Jeffrey			5
9	The Blind Assassin		Atwood, Margaret (2)			2,4
10	The Handmaid's Tale		Atwood, Margaret (2)			5
11	Emma		Austen, Jane (2)			3
12	Pride and Prejudice		Austen, Jane (2)			3
13	Go Tell It on the Mountain		Baldwin, James			1,4,5
14	The Sot-Weed Factor		Barth, John			2,4
15	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz		Baum, Frank L.			5
16	Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable		Beckett, Samuel			3
17	Zuleika Dobson		Beerbohm, Max			1,5
18	Adventures of Augie March (The)		Bellow, Saul (3)			1,2,4
19	Henderson the Rain King		Bellow, Saul (3)			1,5
20	Herzog		Bellow, Saul (3)			3,4
21	Petersburg		Bely, Andrey			3
22	The Old Wives' Tale		Bennett, Arnold			1
23	Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.		Blume, Judy			2,4
24	The Death of the Heart		Bowen, Elizabeth			1,4
25	The Sheltering Sky		Bowles, Paul			1,2,4
26	Fahrenheit 451		Bradbury, Ray			5
27	The Mists of Avalon		Bradley, Marion Zimmer			5
28	Jane Eyre		Bronte, Charlotte			3
29	Wuthering Heights		Bronte, Emily			3
30	The Good Earth		Buck, Pearl S. (2)			5
31	The Rainbow		Buck, Pearl S. (2)			5
32	A Clockwork Orange		Burgess, Anthony			1,2,4,5
33	Cold Sassy Tree		Burns, Olive Ann			5
34	Naked Lunch		Burroughs, William			2,4
35	The Way of All Flesh		Butler, Samuel			1,5
36	Possession		Byatt, A.S.			2,4,5
37	The Postman Always Rings Twice		Cain, James M.			1
38	Tobacco Road		Caldwell, Erskine			1
39	The Stranger		Camus, Albert			3
40	Death Comes for the Archbishop		Cather, Willa (2)			1,2,4,5
41	My Antonia		Cather, Willa (2)			3,5
42	Don Quixote		Cervantes, Miguel de			3
43	The Big Sleep		Chandler,Raymond			2,4
44	Falconer		Cheever, John (2)			4
45	The Wapshot Chronicles		Cheever, John (2)			1,5
46	The Awakening		Chopin, Kate			3
47	2001: A Space Odyssey		Clarke, Arthur C.			5
48	The Woman in White		Collins, Wilkie			3
49	Heart of Darkness		Conrad, Joseph (4)			1,5
50	Lord Jim		Conrad, Joseph (4)			1
51	Nostromo		Conrad, Joseph (4)			1,3,5
52	The Secret Agent		Conrad, Joseph (4)			1,5
53	The Red Badge of Courage		Crane, Stephen			3,5
54	Le Pere Goriot		de Balzac, Honore			3
55	Robinson Crusoe		Defoe, Daniel			3
56	White Noise		DeLillo, Don			2,4,5
57	Ubik		Dick, Philip K.			2,4
58	Bleak House		Dickens, Charles (3)			3
59	Great Expectations		Dickens, Charles (3)			3
60	The Pickwick Papers		Dickens, Charles (3)			3
61	Deliverance		Dickey, James			1,4,5
62	Play It As It Lays		Didion, Joan			2,4
63	Berlin, Alexanderplatz		Doblin, Alfred			3
64	Ragtime		Doctorow, E. L.			1,2,4,5
65	The Ginger Man		Donleavy, J.P.			1
66	The Brothers Karamazov		Dostoevsky, Feodor (2)			3
67	Crime and Punishment		Dostoevsky, Feodor (2)			3
68	The Hound of the Baskervilles		Doyle, Arthur Conan			3,5
69	Sister Carrie		Dreiser, Theodore			1,5
70	An American Tragedy		Dreiser, Theodore (2)			1,2,3,4,5
71	The Three Musketeers		Dumas, Alexandre			3
72	The Alexandria Quartet		Durrell, Lawrence			1,5
73	Middlemarch		Eliot, George			3
74	Invisible Man		Ellison,Ralph			1,2,3,4,5
75	The Studs Lonigan Trilogy		Farrell, James T.			1,5
76	Absalom, Absalom!		Faulkner, William (4)			3
77	As I Lay Dying		Faulkner, William (4)			1,5
78	Light in August		Faulkner, William (4)			1,2,4,5
79	The Sound and the Fury		Faulkner, William (4)			1,2,3,4,5
80	Tom Jones		Fielding, Henry			3
81	Tender Is the Night		Fitzgerald, F. Scott (3)			1,5
82	The Grapes of Wrath		Fitzgerald, F. Scott (3)			1,3,4,5
83	The Great Gatsby		Fitzgerald, F. Scott (3)			1,3,4,5
84	Madame Bovary		Flaubert, Gustave			3
85	Parade's End		Ford, Ford Madox (2)			1,5
86	The Good Soldier		Ford, Ford Madox (2)			1,3,5
87	The Sportswriter		Ford, Richard			2,4
88	Howards End		Forster, E. M. (3)			1,5
89	A Passage to India		Forster, E. M. (3)			1,2,3,4,5
90	A Room With a View		Forster, E. M. (3)			1,5
91	The French Lieutenant's Woman		Fowles, John (2)			4
92	The Magus		Fowles, John (2)			1
93	The Corrections		Franzen, Jonathan			2,4
94	The Death of Artemio Cruz		Fuentes, Carlos			3
95	The Recognitions		Gaddis, William			2,4
96	Ellen Foster		Gibbons, Kaye			5
97	Neuromancer		Gibson, William			2,4
98	The Counterfeiters		Gide. Andre			3
99	The Sorrows of Young Werther		Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von			3
100	Dead Souls		Gogol, Nikolai			3
101	Lord of the Flies		Golding, William			1,2,4,5
102	Oblomov		Goncharov, Ivan			3
103	The Burger's Daughter		Gordimer, Nadine			5
104	The Tin Drum		Grass, Gunter			3
105	I, Claudius		Graves, Robert			1,4,5
106	Loving		Green, Henry			1,2,4
107	The Power and the Glory		Greene, Graham (2)			2,4
108	The Heart of the Matter		Greene, Graham (2)			1,4,5
109	Snow Falling on Cedars		Guterson, David			5
110	Roots		Haley, Alex			5
111	The Maltese Falcon		Hammett, Dashiell (2)			1,5
112	Red Harvest		Hammett, Dashiell (2)			2,4
113	Hunger		Hamsun, Knut			3
114	Tess of the D'Urbervilles		Hardy, Thomas			3
115	The Scarlet Letter		Hawthorne, Nathaniel			3
116	Stranger in a Strange Land		Heinlein, Robert			5
117	Catch-22		Heller, Joseph			1,2,4,5
118	A Farewell to Arms		Hemingway, Ernest (4)			1,3,5
119	For Whom the Bell Tolls		Hemingway, Ernest (4)			5
120	The Old Man and the Sea		Hemingway, Ernest (4)			5
121	The Sun Also Rises		Hemingway, Ernest (4)			1,2,4,5
122	Dune		Herbert, Frank			5
123	A High Wind in Jamaica		Hughes, Richard			1,5
124	Les Miserables		Hugo, Victor			3
125	Their Eyes Were Watching God		Hurston, Zora Neale			2,3,4,5
126	Brave New World		Huxley, Aldous (2)			1,5
127	Point Counter Point		Huxley, Aldous (2)			1,5
128	A Prayer for Owen Meany		Irving, John (2)			5
129	The World According to Garp		Irving, John (2)			5
130	The Berlin Stories		Isherwood, Christopher			2,4
131	Never Let Me Go		Ishiguro, Kazuo (2)			2,4
132	The Remains of the Day		Ishiguro, Kazuo (2)			5
133	Last of the Mohicans		James Fenimore Cooper			3
134	The Ambassadors		James, Henry (4)			1,3,5
135	The Golden Bowl		James, Henry (4)			1,5
136	The Portrait of a Lady		James, Henry (4)			3
137	The Wings of the Dove		James, Henry (4)			1,5
138	From Here to Eternity		Jones, James			1,5
139	Finnegan's Wake		Joyce, James (3)			1,3
140	Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man		Joyce, James (3)			1,3,5
141	Ulysses		Joyce, James (3)			1,3,5
142	The Trial		Kafka, Franz			3
143	Ironweed		Kennedy, William			1,5
144	On the Road		Kerouac, Jack			1,2,3,4,5
145	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest		Kesey, Ken			2,4,5
146	The Bean Trees		Kingsolver, Barbara			5
147	Kim		Kipling, Rudyard			1
148	Darkness at Noon		Koestler, Arthur			1,5
149	The Painted Bird		Kosinski, Jerzy			2,4
150	The Princess of Cleves		Lafayette, Madame de			3
151	The Leopard		Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi di			3
152	Lady Chatterley's Lover		Lawrence, D. H. (4)			5
153	The Rainbow		Lawrence, D. H. (4)			1
154	Sons and Lovers		Lawrence, D. H. (4)			1,5
155	Women in Love		Lawrence, D. H. (4)			1,3,5
156	To Kill a Mockingbird		Lee, Harper			2,4,5
157	The Golden Notebook		Lessing, Doris			3,4,5
158	The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe		Lewis, C.S.			2,4,5
159	Main Street		Lewis, Sinclair			1,5
160	The Call of the Wild		London, Jack			1,5
161	Under the Volcano		Lowry, Malcolm			1,2,3,4,5
162	The Naked and the Dead		Mailer, Norman			1,5
163	The Assistant		Malamud, Bernard			2,4
164	Buddenbrooks		Mann, Thomas (2)			3
165	The Magic Mountain		Mann, Thomas (2)			3
166	The Betrothed		Manzoni, Alessandro			3
167	One Hundred Years of Solitude		Marquez, Gabriel Garcia			3
168	Of Human Bondage		Maugham, W. Somerset			1,5
169	Rebecca		Maurier, Daphne du			5
170	Blood Meridian		McCarthy, Cormac			2,4
171	The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter		McCullers, Carson			1,4,5
172	Atonement		McEwan, Ian			2,4
173	Lonesome Dove		McMurtry, Larry			5
174	Moby-Dick		Melville, Herman			3
175	Tropic of Cancer		Miller, Henry			1,2,4,5
176	Winnie-the-Pooh		Milne, A. A.			5
177	Gone with the Wind		Mitchell, Margaret			3,4,5
178	Watchmen		Moore, Alan & Gibbons, Dave			2,4
179	Beloved		Morrison, Toni (2)			2,3,4,5
180	Song of Solomon		Morrison, Toni (2)			5
181	Cities of Salt		Munif,'Abd al-Rahman			3
182	Under the Net		Murdoch, Iris			1,2,4
183	The Man Without Qualities		Musil, Robert			3
184	Lolita		Nabokov, Vladimir (2)			1,2,3,4,5
185	Pale Fire		Nabokov, Vladimir (2)			1,2,4,5
186	A Bend in the River		Naipaul, V. S (2)			1
187	A House for Mr. Biswas		Naipaul, V.S. (2)			1,4
188	Appointment in Samarra		O' Hara, John			1,2,4,5
189	At Swim Two Birds		O'Brien, Flann			2,4
190	Good Man is Hard to Find (A)		O'Connor, Flannery			5
191	1984		Orwell, George (2)			1,2,3,4,5
192	Animal Farm		Orwell, George (2)			1,2,4,5
193	U.S.A. (trilogy)		Passos, John Dos			1,3,5
194	Cry the Beloved Country		Paton, Alan			5
195	The Moviegoer		Percy, Walker			1,2,4,5
196	The Bell Jar		Plath, Sylvia			5
197	Pale Horse, Pale Rider		Porter, Katherine Anne			5
198	A Dance to the Music of Time - 12 Volumns		Powell, Anthony			1,2,4,5
199	The Shipping News		Proulx, Annie			5
200	In Search of Lost Time		Proust, Marcel			3
201	The Godfather		Puzo, Mario			5
202	The Crying of Lot 49		Pynchon, Thomas (2)			2,4
203	Gravity's Rainbow		Pynchon, Thomas (2)			3,4
204	Atlas Shrugged		Rand, Ayn (2)			5
205	The Fountainhead		Rand, Ayn (2)			5
206	All Quiet on the Western Front		ReMarque, Erich Maria			5
207	Wide Sargasso Sea		Rhys, Jean			1,2,4,5
208	Clarissa		Richardson, Samuel			3
209	Housekeeping		Robinson, Marilynne			4
210	Call It Sleep		Roth, Henry			2,3,4,5
211	American Pastoral		Roth, Phillip (2)			2,4
212	Portnoy's Complaint		Roth, Phillip (2)			1,2,4,5
213	Midnight's Children		Rushdie, Salman			1,2,4
214	The Catcher in the Rye		Salinger, J. D.			1,2,3,4,5
215	Waverley		Scott, Sir Walter			3
216	Where the Wild Things Are		Sendak, Maurice			5
217	The Killer Angels		Shaara, Michael			5
218	Frankenstein		Shelley, Mary			3
219	Stone Diaries		Shields, Carol			5
220	The Tale of Genji		Shikibu, Murasaki			3
221	The Jungle		Sinclair, Upton			5
222	Thousand Acres		Smiley, Jane			5
223	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn		Smith, Betty			5
224	White Teeth		Smith, Zadie			2,4
225	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie		Spark, Muriel			1,2,4,5
226	The Man Who Loved Children		Stead, Christina			2,4
227	Angle of Repose		Stegner, Wallace			1,5
228	East of Eden		Steinbeck, John (2)			5
229	Of Mice and Men		Steinbeck, John (2)			5
230	The Red and the Black		Stendhal			3
231	Snow Crash		Stephenson, Neal			2,4
232	Tristram Shandy		Sterne, Laurence			3
233	Dracula		Stoker, Bram			3
234	Dog Soldiers		Stone, Robert			4
235	Uncle Tom's Cabin		Stowe, Harriet Beecher			3
236	Sophie's Choice		Styron, William			1,5
237	The Confessions of Nat Turner		Styron, William (2)			2,4
238	The Joy Luck Club		Tan, Amy			5
239	The Magnificent Ambersons		Tarkington, Booth			1
240	Vanity Fair		Thackeray, William Makepeace			3
241	The Hobbit		Tolkien, J.R.R. (2)			5
242	The Lord of the Rings		Tolkien, J.R.R. (2)			2,4,5
243	Anna Karenina		Tolstoy, Leo (2)			3
244	War and Peace		Tolstoy, Leo (2)			3
245	A Confederacy of Dunces		Toole, John K			5
246	The Last Chronicle of Barset		Trollope, Anthony			3
247	Fathers and Sons		Turgenev, Ivan			3
248	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn		Twain, Mark			3
249	Rabbit, Run		Updike, John			2,4,5
250	Exodus		Uris, Leon			5
251	Candide		Voltaire			3
252	Slaughterhouse Five		Vonnegut, Kurt			1,2,4,5
253	The Color Purple		Walker, Alice			5
254	Infinite Jest		Wallace, David Foster			2,4
255	All the King's Men		Warren, Robert Penn			1,2,4,5
256	Brideshead Revisited		Waugh, Evelyn (3)			1,2,3,4,5
257	A Handful of Dust		Waugh, Evelyn (3)			1,4,5
258	Scoop		Waugh, Evelyn (3)			1
259	The Day of the Locust		West, Nathanael			1,2,4
260	The Age of Innocence		Wharton, Edith (3)			1,3,5
261	Ethan Frome		Wharton, Edith (3)			5
262	The House of Mirth		Wharton, Edith (3)			1,5
263	Charlotte's Web		White, E. B.			5
264	Little House on the Prarie		Wilder, Laura Ingalls			5
265	The Bridge of San Luis Rey		Wilder, Thornton			1,2,4,5
266	Look Homeward, Angel		Wolfe, Thomas			5
267	Mrs. Dalloway		Woolf, Virginia (2)			2,4
268	To the Lighthouse		Woolf, Virginia (2)			1,2,3,4,5
269	Native Son		Wright, Richard			1,2,3,4,5
270	Dream of the Red Chamber		Xueqin, Cao			3
271	Snow Country		Yasunari, Kawabata			3
272	Revolutionary Road		Yates, Richard			2,4
273	Germinal		Zola, Emile			3