sign in sign up
<<
Home , English novel, Harper Lee, Paul Auster, The Diary of a Nobody, The Riddle of the Sands

’s 100 Greatest

1. 6. CLARISSA by by Miguel De Cervantes FICTION RIC FICTION CER, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, One of the longest novels in the OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA English language, but EBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK unputdownable. The story of the gentle knight and his servant Sancho Panza has 7. TRISTRAM SHANDY entranced readers for centuries. by FICTION STE 2. PILGRIM’S PROGRESS One of the first bestsellers, dismissed by John Bunyan by Dr Johnson as too fashionable for HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK its own good. The one with the Slough of Despond and . 8. LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos 3. FICTION LAC by An epistolary and a handbook Y FICTION DEF, CD AUDIOBOOK, for seducers: foppish, French, and OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK ferocious. The first English novel. 9. by 4. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS FICTION AUS, CD AUDIOBOOK, by OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA FICTION SWI, CD AUDIOBOOK, AUDIOBOOK OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA Near impossible choice between this AUDIOBOOK and . But Emma A wonderful that still works for never fails to fascinate and annoy. all ages, despite the savagery of Swift's vision. 10. by FICTION SHE, CD AUDIOBOOK, 5. TOM JONES by OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA FICTION FIE AUDIOBOOK The adventures of a high-spirited Inspired by spending too much time orphan boy: an unbeatable plot with Shelley and Byron. and a lot of sex ending in a blissful marriage. 11. by A classic miniature: a brilliant satire on the Romantic novel.

Updated 7/16

12. THE BLACK SHEEP 18. by Charlotte Brontë by Honoré De Balzac FICTION BRO, LARGE PRINT, Two rivals fight for the love of a OVERDRIVE EBOOK, OVERDRIVE femme fatale. Wrongly overlooked. AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA EBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK 13. THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA by Obsessive emotional grip and Stendhal haunting narrative. FICTION STE Penetrating and compelling 19. VANITY FAIR chronicle of life in an Italian court in by William Makepeace Thackeray post-Napoleonic France. FICTION THA, CD AUDIOBOOK The improving tale of Becky Sharp. 14. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas 20. THE SCARLET LETTER FICTION DUM, CD AUDIOBOOK, by OVERDRIVE EBOOK, OVERDRIVE FICTION HAW, LARGE PRINT, CD AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, A revenge thriller also set in France OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA after Bonaparte: a masterpiece of EBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK adventure writing. A classic investigation of the American mind. 15. SYBIL by Apart from Churchill, no other British 21. MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville political figure shows literary genius. FICTION MEL, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK 'Call me Ishmael' is one of the most 16. DAVID COPPERFIELD famous opening sentences of any by novel. FICTION DIC, LARGE PRINT, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, OVERDRIVE 22. MADAME BOVARY AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK by Gustave Flaubert This highly autobiographical novel is FICTION FLA, CD AUDIOBOOK, the one its author liked best. OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK 17. You could summarise this as a story by Emily Brontë of adultery in provincial France, and FICTION BRO, LARGE PRINT, miss the point entirely. CD AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK 23. THE WOMAN IN WHITE Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff by have passed into the language. MYSTERY COL, CD AUDIOBOOK Impossible to ignore. Gripping mystery novel of concealed identity, abduction, fraud and mental cruelty.

Updated 7/16

24. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN 30. THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY WONDERLAND by by FICTION CAR, CD AUDIOBOOK, FICTION JAM, CD AUDIOBOOK OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA The story of Isabel Archer shows AUDIOBOOK James at his witty and polished best. A story written for the nine-year-old daughter of an Oxford don that still 31. THE ADVENTURES OF baffles most kids. HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain FICTION TWA, CD AUDIOBOOK, 25. LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA J FICTION ALC, J CD AUDIOBOOK, EBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK OVERDRIVE EBOOK, OVERDRIVE Twain was a humorist, but this picture AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA EBOOK, of Mississippi life is profoundly moral HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK and still incredibly influential. Victorian bestseller about a New England family of girls. 32. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE 26. THE WAY WE LIVE NOW by by FICTION STE A majestic assault on the corruption A brilliantly suggestive, resonant of late Victorian England. study of human duality by a natural storyteller. 27. ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy FICTION TOL, LARGE PRINT, 33. THREE MEN IN A BOAT OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA by Jerome K. Jerome EBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK FICTION JER, CD AUDIOBOOK, The supreme novel of the married OVERDRIVE EBOOK, OVERDRIVE woman's passion for a younger man. AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK One of the funniest English books 28. DANIEL DERONDA ever written. by A passion and an exotic grandeur 34. THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY that is strange and unsettling. by FICTION WIL, CD AUDIOBOOK 29. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV A coded and epigrammatic by Fyodor Dostoevsky melodrama inspired by his own FICTION DOS, CD AUDIOBOOK BRO, tortured homosexuality. HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK Mystical by the author of 35. THE DIARY OF A NOBODY Crime and Punishment. by This classic of Victorian suburbia will always be renowned for the character of Mr Pooter.

Updated 7/16

36. 42. THE RAINBOW by D. H. Lawrence by FICTION LAW FICTION HAR Novels seized by the police, like this Its savage bleakness makes it one of one, have a special afterlife. the first twentieth-century novels. 43. THE GOOD SOLDIER 37. THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS by by Erskine Childers FICTION FOR A prewar invasion-scare spy thriller This account of the adulterous lives by a writer later shot for his part in of two Edwardian couples is a classic the Irish republican rising. of unreliable narration.

38. THE CALL OF THE WILD 44. THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS by Jack by FICTION LON, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, A classic adventure story for boys, OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA jammed with action, violence and EBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK suspense. The story of a dog who joins a pack of wolves after his master's death. 45. by FICTION JOY, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, 39. NOSTROMO by HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK FICTION CON, OVERDRIVE Also pursued by the British police, this AUDIOBOOK is a novel more discussed than read. Conrad's masterpiece: a tale of money, love and revolutionary 46. MRS. DALLOWAY politics. by FICTION WOO, HOOPLA EBOOK, 40. THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK by Kenneth Grahame Secures Woolf's position as one of J FICTION GRA, OVERDRIVE the great twentieth-century English AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK . This children's classic was inspired by bedtime stories for Grahame's son. 47. by EM Forster 41. IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME FICTION FOR, HOOPLA EBOOK by Marcel Proust Forster's great love song to India. FICTION PRO An unforgettable portrait of Paris in 48. THE GREAT GATSBY the belle époque. Probably the by F. Scott Fitzgerald longest novel on this list. FICTION FIT, CD AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK The quintessential Jazz Age novel.

Updated 7/16

49. THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka 56. THE BIG SLEEP FICTION KAF by Raymond Chandler The enigmatic story of Joseph K. MYSTERY CHA, LARGE PRINT Introducing Philip Marlowe: cool, 50. MEN WITHOUT WOMEN sharp, handsome - and bitterly by alone. FICTION HEM He is remembered for his novels, but 57. THE PURSUIT OF LOVE it was the short stories that first by Nancy Mitford attracted notice. An exquisite comedy of manners with countless fans. 51. JOURNEY TO THE END OF NIGHT by Louis-Ferdinand Celine 58. THE PLAGUE by Albert Camus The experiences of an unattractive FICTION CAM slum doctor during the Great War: a A mysterious plague sweeps through masterpiece of linguistic innovation. the Algerian town of Oran.

52. AS I LAY DYING 59. NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR by by FICTION FAU, OVERDRIVE FICTION ORW, CD AUDIOBOOK, AUDIOBOOK OVERDRIVE EBOOK, HOOPLA A strange black comedy by an AUDIOBOOK American master. This tale of one man's struggle against totalitarianism has been 53. appropriated the world over. by SF HUX, CD AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE 60. MALONE DIES by AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK FICTION BEC Dystopian fantasy about the world of Part of a trilogy of astonishing the seventh century AF (after Ford). monologues in the black comic voice of the author of Waiting for 54. SCOOP by Godot. FICTION WAU The supreme Fleet Street novel. 61. CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger 55. USA by John Dos Passos FICTION SAL An extraordinary trilogy that uses a A week in the life of Holden variety of narrative devices to Caulfield. A cult novel that still express the story of America. mesmerises.

Updated 7/16

62. WISE BLOOD 70. THE TIN DRUM by Günter Grass by Flannery O'Connor FICTION GRA HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK Hugely influential, Rabelaisian novel A disturbing novel of religious of Hitler's Germany. extremism set in the Deep South. 71. THINGS FALL APART 63. CHARLOTTE’S WEB by EB White by Chinua Achebe J FICTION WHI FICTION ACH, OVERDRIVE EBOOK How Wilbur the pig was saved by the Nigeria at the beginning of literary genius of a friendly spider. colonialism. A classic of African literature. 64. THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J. R. R. Tolkien 72. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE FICTION TOL, CD AUDIOBOOK by Enough said! FICTION SPA, OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK 65. LUCKY JIM by A writer who made her debut in The FICTION AMI Observer - and her prose is like cut An astonishing debut: the painfully glass. funny English novel of the Fifties. 73. 66. by Lee by FICTION LEE, LARGE PRINT, FICTION GOL, CD AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, OVERDRIVE OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK, Schoolboys become savages: a BOOK CLUB TO GO bleak vision of human nature. Scout, a six-year-old girl, narrates an enthralling story of racial prejudice in 67. THE QUIET AMERICAN the Deep South. by FICTION GRE, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK 74. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller Prophetic novel set in 1950s Vietnam. FICTION HEL, CD AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, HOOPLA 68. ON by Jack Kerouac AUDIOBOOK FICTION KER, OVERDRIVE 'He would be crazy to fly more AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA AUDIOBOOK missions and sane if he didn't, but if The Beat Generation bible. he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't 69. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov have to; if he didn't want to he was FICTION NAB sane and had to.' Humbert Humbert's obsession with Lolita is a tour de force of style and 75. HERZOG by narrative. Adultery and nervous breakdown in Chicago.

Updated 7/16

76. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF 83. A BEND IN THE RIVER SOLITUDE by Gabriel García Márquez by VS Naipaul FICTION GAR, CD AUDIOBOOK, FICTION NAI, CD AUDIOBOOK OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK, HOOPLA The finest living writer of English AUDIOBOOK prose. This is his masterpiece: edgily A postmodern masterpiece. reminiscent of Heart of Darkness.

77. MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT 84. WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by Elizabeth Taylor by JM Coetzee A haunting, understated study of old FICTION COE age. Bleak but haunting of apartheid by the Nobel prizewinner. 78. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY by John Le Carré 85. HOUSEKEEPING FICTION LEC, CD AUDIOBOOK by A thrilling elegy for post-imperial FICTION ROB Britain. Haunting, poetic story, drowned in water and light, about three 79. SONG OF SOLOMON generations of women. by FICTION MOR 86. LANARK by The definitive of the African- Seething vision of . A American experience. Scottish classic.

80. THE BOTTLE FACTORY OUTING 87. by Beryl Bainbridge by Paul Auster Macabre comedy of provincial life. Dazzling metaphysical thriller set in the of the 1970s. 81. THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG by 88. THE BFG by Roald Dahl FICTION MAI J FICTION DAH, OVERDRIVE This quasi-documentary account of AUDIOBOOK the life and death of Gary Gilmore is A bestseller by the most popular possibly his masterpiece. postwar writer for children of all ages. 82. IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELLER by Italo Calvino 89. THE PERIODIC TABLE by Primo Levi FICTION CAL 854 LEV A strange, compelling story about A prose poem about the delights of the pleasures of reading. chemistry.

Updated 7/16

90. MONEY by 96. WISE CHILDREN by FICTION AMI FICTION CAR The novel that bags Amis's place on A theatrical extravaganza by a any list. brilliant exponent of magic realism.

91. AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING 97. ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan WORLD by FICTION MCE, LARGE PRINT, CD A collaborator from prewar Japan AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, reluctantly discloses his betrayal of OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOK friends and family. Acclaimed short-story writer achieves a contemporary classic of 92. OSCAR AND LUCINDA mesmerising narrative conviction. by Peter Carey A great contemporary love story set 98. THE GOLDEN COMPASS in nineteenth-century Australia by by double Booker prizewinner. Y FICTION PUL, Y CD AUDIOBOOK, OVERDRIVE EBOOK, OVERDRIVE 93. THE BOOK OF LAUGHTER AND AUDIOBOOK FORGETTING by Milan Kundera Lyra's quest weaves fantasy, horror Inspired by the Soviet invasion of and the play of ideas into a truly Czechoslovakia in 1968, this is a great contemporary children's book. magical fusion of history, autobiography and ideas. 99. by 94. HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES FICTION ROT by For years, Roth was famous for FICTION RUS Portnoy's Complaint. Recently, he In this entrancing story Rushdie plays has enjoyed an extraordinary revival. with the idea of narrative itself. 100. AUSTERLITZ by W. G. Sebald 95. LA CONFIDENTIAL by James Ellroy FICTION SEB MYSTERY ELL Posthumously published volume in a Three LAPD detectives are brought sequence of dream-like fictions spun face to face with the secrets of their from memory, photographs and the corrupt and violent careers. German past.

Updated 7/16