Best 20th Century English Novels

I have recently modified my list of life goals (which I blogged about recently). After much reflection, I have abandoned bridge as my main hobby. I am giving up on the goal of winning a national bridge championship. This makes me a bit sad, considering how hard I worked toward that goal for fifteen years (see chart of the rating points I've acquired since starting in 1992). In the end, I've realized that my favorite part of bridge is making an insanely detailed bidding system, which requires a fully dedicated partner. I have not been able to find one here. The idea of all the traveling to tournaments is also much less appealing now that I'm a family man. So with a heavy heart, I abandoning bridge after Memorial Day of last year.


In place of all the time I would normally have spent studying bridge, I have turned to literature. I've missed out on a lot of reading with all the constant studying, and I'm trying to catch up now. Not knowing where to start, I did a search one day for "best novels" or some such. I came upon this site, which combined four semi-scholarly lists of the best novels written in English during the 20th century. My new life goal is to read all 223 books on the list. I've read 12 novels from the list over the past six months or so, bringing me to 54 books total. Just 169 left to read! (Katie has read 47 on the list, but she's not as much into the classics as I am.)

Below is my reading list, with the 54 books that I've read to date indicated in the penultimate column. (Katie's are indicated in the last column.) If you have read any of the books and would like to start a discussion, let me know! I'll happily defend the antithesis to any point you make. I love a good scholarly debate!

Next time I'll explain how the ranking system was decided on along with some amusing correspondence between myself and the person who initially generated the combination list.

Rank	Author	Title	Date	JMA	KAM
1	Fitzgerald, F. Scott	Great Gatsby, The	1925	y	y
2	Orwell, George	Nineteen Eighty Four	1949	y
3	Steinbeck, John	Grapes of Wrath, The	1939	y
4	Heller, Joseph	Catch 22	1961	y
5	Nabokov, Vladimir	Lolita	1955	y
6	Joyce, James	Ulysses	1922
7	Orwell, George	Animal Farm	1954	y
8	Golding, William	Lord of the Flies	1954	y	y
8	Salinger, J. D.	Catcher in the Rye, The	1951	y
10	Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.	Slaughterhouse Five	1969	y
11	Ellison, Ralph	Invisible Man	1952
11	Huxley, Aldous	Brave New World	1932	y
13	Faulkner, William	Sound and the Fury, The	1929
14	Joyce, James	Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A	1916
15	Hemingway, Ernest	Sun Also Rises, The	1926	y	y
16	Wright, Richard	Native Son	1940	y
17	Woolf, Virginia	To the Lighthouse	1927
18	Kerouac, Jack	On the Road	1957
19	Lee, Harper	To Kill a Mockingbird	1960	y	y
20	Wharton, Edith	Age of Innocence, The	1920
21	Hemingway, Ernest	Farewell to Arms, A	1929
22	Walker, Alice	Color Purple, The	1982		y
23	Morrison, Toni	Beloved	1987		y
24	Mitchell, Margaret	Gone With the Wind	1936	y
25	Burgess, Anthony	Clockwork Orange, A	1962
26	Tolkien, J. R. R.	Lord of the Rings	1956	y
27	White, E. B.	Charlotte's Web	1952	y	y
28	London, Jack	Call of the Wild, The	1903		y
29	Cather, Willa	My Antonia	1918		y
30	Hemingway, Ernest	Old Man and the Sea, The	1952	y
31	Hurston, Zora Neale	Their Eyes Were Watching God	1937		y
32	Du Maurier, Daphne	Rebecca	1938
33	Forster, E. M.	Room With a View, A	1908
34	Irving, John	World According to Garp, The	1978		y
35	Wharton, Edith	Ethan Frome	1911		y
36	Kesey, Ken	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	1962	y	y
37	Forster, E. M.	Passage to India, A	1924
38	Warren, Robert Penn	All the King's Men	1946
39	Steinbeck, John	Of Mice and Men	1937
40	Graves, Robert	I, Claudius	1934
41	Fitzgerald, F. Scott	Tender is the Night	1934
42	Conrad, Joseph	Heart of Darkness	1902	y
43	Rhys, Jean	Wide Sargasso Sea	1966
44	Styron, William	Sophie's Choice	1979
45	Rand, Ayn	Fountainhead, The	1943
46	Forster, E. M.	Howard's End	1910
47	Buck, Pearl S.	Good Earth, The	1931
48	Bradbury, Ray	Fahrenheit 451	1952	y	y
48	Tolkien, J. R. R.	Hobbit, The	1937	y	y
50	Lawrence, D. H.	Women in Love	1920
51	Atwood, Margaret	Handmaid's Tale, The	1986	y	y
51	Updike, John	Rabbit, Run	1960
53	Heinlein, Robert A.	Stranger in a Strange Land	1961
53	Milne, A. A.	Winnie the Pooh	1926	y
55	Hammett, Dashiell	Maltese Falcon, The	1930	y
56	Mailer, Norman	Naked and the Dead, The	1948
57	Faulkner, William	As I Lay Dying	1930		y
58	Morrison, Toni	Song of Solomon	1977
59	Lawrence, D. H.	Lady Chatterley's Lover	1928	y
60	Anderson, Sherwood	Winesburg, Ohio	1919
61	Smith, Betty	Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A	1947
62	Sinclair, Upton	Jungle, The	1906		y
63	Cather, Willa	Death Comes for the Archbishop	1927
63	Miller, Henry	Tropic of Cancer	1934
65	Lawrence, D. H.	Sons and Lovers	1913	y
66	Baldwin, James	Go Tell It on the Mountain	1953
67	DeLillo, Don	White Noise	1985
68	Spark, Muriel	Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The	1962
68	Waugh, Evelyn	Brideshead Revisited	1945
70	Ford, Ford Madox	Good Soldier, The	1927
71	Baum, L. Frank	Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The	1900	y
72	Lewis, Sinclair	Main Street	1920
73	Dos Passos, John	U.S.A. (trilogy)	1919/38
73	Dreiser, Theodore	Sister Carrie	1900
75	James, Henry	Wings of the Dove, The	1902
76	Tan, Amy	Joy Luck Club, The	1989		y
77	Hemingway, Ernest	For Whom the Bell Tolls	1940	y
78	Dreiser, Theodore	American Tragedy, An	1925
79	Stegner, Wallace	Angle of Repose	1971
80	James, Henry	Ambassadors, The	1903
80	James, Henry	Golden Bowl, The	1904
82	Roth, Philip	Portnoy's Complaint	1969
83	Lessing, Doris	Golden Notebook. The	1962
83	Wolfe, Thomas	Look Homeward, Angel	1929
85	Jones, James	From Here to Eternity	1951
86	Lowry, Malcolm	Under the Volcano	1947
87	Kingsolver, Barbara	Bean Trees, The	1988		y
88	Clarke, Arthur C.	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	y
89	Byatt, A. S.	Possession	1990		y
90	Faulkner, William	Light in August	1932
91	Joyce, James	Finnegans Wake	1939
92	O'Connor, Flannery	Good Man is Hard to Find, A	1955		y
93	Wharton, Edith	House of Mirth, The	1905
94	McCullers, Carson	Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The	1940
95	Maugham, W. Somerset	Of Human Bondage	1915	y
96	Rand, Ayn	Atlas Shrugged	1957	y
97	Herbert, Frank	Dune	1965
98	Graham, Kenneth	Wind in the Willows, The	1908		y
99	Farrell, James T.	Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy	1935
100	Doctorow, E. L.	Ragtime	1975		y
101	Wilder, Thornton	Bridge of San Luis Rey, The	1927	y
102	Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.	Cat's Cradle	1963	y
103	Burroughs, William S.	Naked Lunch	1959
104	Plath, Sylvia	Bell Jar, The	1963		y
104	Smiley, Jane	Thousand Acres, A	1991
106	Lewis, Sinclair	Babbit	1922
107	McMurtry, Larry	Lonesome Dove	1986		y
108	Cheever, John	Wapshot Chronicles, The	1979
109	Percy, Walker	Moviegoer, The	1961
110	Conrad, Joseph	Lord Jim	1900
111	Kipling, Rudyard	Kim	1901
112	Sendak, Maurice	Where the Wild Things Are	1963	y	y
113	Achebe, Chinua	Things Fall Apart	1959	y
113	Uris, Leon	Exodus	1957	y
115	Butler, Samuel	Way of All Flesh, The	1903
116	Wilder, Laura Ingalls	Little House on the Prairie	1935	y
117	Kennedy, William	Ironweed	1983
118	Toole, John K.	Confederacy of Dunces, A	1980
119	Bellow, Saul	Henderson the Rain King	1959
120	O'Hara, John	Appointment at Samarra	1934
120	Roth, Henry	Call It Sleep	1934
122	Rushdie, Salman	Midnight's Children	1981
123	Shields, Carol	Stone Diaries	1994	y	y
124	Puzo, Mario	Godfather, The	1969	y
125	Haley, Alex	Roots	1976
126	Waugh, Evelyn	Handful of Dust, A	1934
127	Porter, Katherine Anne	Pale Horse, Pale Rider	1939
128	Allison, Dorothy	Bastard Out of Carolina	1992		y
129	Greene, Graham	Heart of the Matter, The	1948
130	Shaara, Michael	Killer, Angels, The	1974
131	Proulx, E. Annie	Shipping News, The	1993	y	y
132	Dickey, James	Deliverance	1970
132	Lewis, C. S.	Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The	1950	y	y
134	Doyle, Arthur Conan	Hound of the Baskervilles, The	1902	y	y
134	Powell, Anthony	Dance to the Music of Time, A (series)	1951/75
136	Keneally, Thomas	Schindler's List	1982
137	Huxley, Aldous	Point Counter Point	1928
138	Gordimer, Nadine	Burger's Daughter, The	1979
139	Conrad, Joseph	Secret Agent, The	1907
140	Bradley, Marion Zimmer	Mists of Avalon, The	1983	y
140	Conrad, Joseph	Nostromo	1904
142	Guterson, David	Snow Falling on Cedars	1994		y
143	Lawrence, D. H.	Rainbow, The	1915
144	Adams, Richard	Watership Down	1972
144	Woolf, Virginia	Mrs. Dalloway	1925
146	Steinbeck, John	East of Eden	1952	y
147	Paton, Alan	Cry, the Beloved Country	1948
148	Drury, Allen	Advise and Consent	1959
149	Irving, John	Prayer for Owen Meany, A	1989		y
150	Nabokov, Vladimir	Pale Fire	1962
151	Salinger, J. D.	Franny and Zooey	1961		y
152	Rushdie, Salman	Satanic Verses	1988
153	Morrison, Toni	Jazz	1992
154	Ford, Ford Madox	Parade's End	1924/28
155	Faulkner, William	Absalom, Absalom!	1936
156	Beerbohm, Max	Zuleika Dobson	1911
156	Morrison, Toni	Bluest Eye, The	1969		y
158	Archer, Jeffrey	Kane and Abel	1980
159	Burroughs, Edgar Rice	Tarzan of the Apes	1914
160	Woolf, Virginia	Orlando	1928		y
161	Guest, Judith	Ordinary People	1976
162	Wolfe, Tom	Bonfire of the Vanities	1987	y
163	Knowles, John	Separate Peace, A	1959
164	Gibbons, Kaye	Ellen Foster	1987		y
165	Burns, Olive-Ann	Cold Sassy Tree	1984		y
166	Durrell, Lawrence	Alexandria Quartet, The	1957/60
167	Ishiguro, Kazuo	Remains of the Day, The	1989
168	Hughes, Richard	High Wind in Jamaica, A	1929
168	Price, Reynolds	Kate Vaiden	1986
170	Wouk, Herman	War and Remembrance	1978
171	Naipaul, V. S.	House for Mr. Biswas, A	1961
172	Adams, Douglas	Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The	1979	y	y
173	Agee, James	Death in the Family, A	1957
173	West, Nathanael	Day of the Locust, The	1939
175	Michener, James A.	Centennial	1974
176	White, T. H.	Once and Future King, The	1953	y
177	Waugh, Evelyn	Scoop	1938
178	Morrison, Toni	Sula	1973
179	King, Stephen	Stand, The	1978		y
180	Finney, Jack	Time and Again	1970
180	Hemingway, Ernest	In Our Time	1925
182	Galsworthy, John	Forsyte Saga, The	1922
183	Chandler, Raymond	Big Sleep, The	1939	y
184	Bellow, Saul	Adventures of Augie March, The	1953
185	Cather, Willa	O Pioneers!	1913
186	Naipaul, V. S.	Bend in the River, A	1979
187	McCullough, Colleen	Thorn Birds, The	1977
188	Bowen, Elizabeth	Death of the Heart, The	1938
188	Trumbo, Dalton	Johnny Got His Gun	1959
190	Carr, Caleb	Alienist, The	1994
191	Berg, Elizabeth	Talk Before Sleep	1994
192	Oates, Joyce Carol	Them	1969
193	Pilcher, Rosamunde	Shell Seekers, The	1987
194	Bennett, Arnold	Old Wives' Tale, The	1908
195	Brown, Rita Mae	Rubyfruit Jungle	1973		y
196	Fitzgerald, F. Scott	This Side of Paradise	1920		y
197	Green, Henry	Loving	1945
198	Conroy, Pat	Prince of Tides, The	1986	y
199	Fowles, John	French Lieutenant's Woman, The	1969
200	Caldwell, Erskine	Tobacco Road	1932
200	Tyler, Anne	Breathing Lessons	1988	y	y
202	Blume, Judy	Are You There God, It's Me Margaret	1970	y	y
203	Fowles, John	Magus, the	1966
203	Tyler, Anne	Accidental Tourist, The	1985	y	y
205	Fitzgerald, F. Scott	Beautiful and Damned, The	1922
206	de Bernieres, Louis	Corelli's Mandolin	1994
207	Murdoch, Iris	Under the Net	1954
208	Forster, E. M.	Where Angels Fear to Tread	1905
208	Michener, James A.	Hawaii	1959
210	O'Connor, Flannery	Wise Blood	1952		y
211	Bowles, Paul	Sheltering Sky, The	1949
212	Cain, James M.	Postman Always Rings Twice, The	1934	y
213	Donleavy, J. P.	Ginger Man, The	1955
214	Tarkington, Booth	Magnificent Ambersons, The	1918
215	Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan	Yearling, The	1948
216	Wouk, Herman	Winds of War, The	1971
217	Maugham, W. Somerset	Razor's Edge, The	1944	y
218	Steinbeck, John	Pearl, The	1947
219	Wilson, Colin	Outsider, The	1956
220	Welty, Eudora	Curtain of Green, A	1941
221	Greene, Graham	End of the Affair, The	1951
222	Wouk, Herman	Caine Mutiny, The	1951
223	Stone, Irving	Agony and the Ecstasy, The	1961