What a daunting task it would be to write a list like this, but fortunately for us, Norton (of the Norton Anthologies) asked 125 of the greatest living writers to select their top 10, and then (using statistics) produced a final list of the ten greatest books ever written. I certainly agree with the majority of the selections. This is a list of the top 10 fictional books of all time – needless to say, if you have not read these books, you probably should.
10. Middlemarch George Eliot
Middlemarch is considered by many scholars to be one of the most important novels of the Victorian era. It was written by George Eliot (pen name of Mary Anne Evans) and was first published in 1871 to 1872. It is set in the 1830s in Middlemarch, a fictional provincial town in England, based on Coventry.
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov was a Russian short story writer and playwright. He was born in Taganrog, southern Russia, on 29 January 1860. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later employed by Virginia Woolf and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure.
8. In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust
I appreciate the great artistic merit in Proust’s writing, but I have to be honest and say that I have never managed to get more than half way through the first book of this multiple-book novel. I found it extremely slow paced and boring. This is Proust’s most prominent work, it is popularly known for its extended length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the “episode of the madeleine” in which he describes in great (boring) detail, eating a madeleine dipped in tea.
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
I agree with the inclusion of this book – it is one of my favorites and one of the best examples of Fitzgerald’s writing. The Great Gatsby is a tale from the Jazz age of Gatsby – a wealthy man whose life is surrounded by mystery. A brilliant read.
6. Hamlet William Shakespeare
It is no surprise that Mr Shakespeare is on the list. I am not sure that I would have picked Hamlet as his best book, but who am I to debate 125 brilliant authors? Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, probably written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle for murdering Hamlet’s father, the King, gaining the throne through this treachery, and subsequently marrying his mother.
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
It is good to see such a great book for the younger generation on the list. Huckleberry Finn is commonly accounted as one of the first Great American Novels. It is also one of the first major American novels ever written using Local Color Regionalism, or vernacular, told in the first person by the eponymous Huckleberry “Huck” Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer (hero of three other Mark Twain books).
4. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita was first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris. The novel is both internationally famous for its innovative style and infamous for its controversial subject: the book’s narrator and protagonist Humbert Humbert becoming sexually obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl named Dolores Haze.
3. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace was first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russkii Vestnik, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy’s two major masterpieces (the other being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world’s greatest novels.
2. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors when it was first serialised in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, resulting in a trial in January 1857 that made it notorious. The novel focuses on a doctor’s wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. Though the basic plot is rather simple, even archetypal, the novel’s true art lies in its details and hidden patterns.
1. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina is widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered this book his first true novel. Although most Russian critics panned the novel on its publication as a “trifling romance of high life,” Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be “flawless as a work of art.” Tolstoy’s style in Anna Karenina is considered by many critics to be transitional, forming a bridge between the realist and modernist novel.
Afterword
Obviously a list of this type is very subjective and it is likely to cause discomfort to many people. We are priveleged on this site to have such a great variety of generally very smart readers. I am very interested to know what your top 10 – or even your number 1 – books are. Do you agree with this list? If not, tell us who should be here and tell us why they should be here.
the top 10 fictional book of all time?
What about the Bible?
the bible is ***** and there are to many different versions anyway
oh wait i c what ur saying now…my bad
can atheists please stop *****ting on religion? it makes you look bad and pises people off. i am offended by it and you can avoid a lot of tension by not doing that
Well, I’m offended by your horrible spelling and grammar, but you don’t see me telling you not to write because of it.
There is no proof that anything written in the Bible is true, and no one will ever be able to prove it. But you still can’t dis on it because frankly, are entire world has been shaped by it for thousands of years, going all the way back to the start of monotheism in mesopotamia. And if there was no Bible, there could be no atheism.
Great list!
#3 the bible is not fictional!
Religious works, like the bible, shouldn't be included on lists such as this.
prove it.
pretty sure they’ve proved that a few of the stories in the bible were taken from other sources such as the Egyptians and a few of them have even come up in other religions scripture/fables 3 or 4 times previous to the bible being written. This includes moses in the reeds and the story of the stone being rolled away and Jesus’ resurrection. Do some research, don’t believe everything your told in church or by other religious sources.
Did you just say, “pretty sure they’ve proved that a few of the stories in the bible were taken from other sources…” to prove that people need to do THEIR research about the Bible? Sounds like someone needs to do THEIR research before saying the Bible is fictional.
Hey, christians relax with all the bible attacks. There is no historical evidence that most of the things described in the bible really happened but there is some evidence that the didn’t. Of course you cant prove it but its more believable
I have to be honest and say that while I read Catcher in the Rye from cover to cover, I really don't see what the big deal is. I found it quite dull.
arob: I would also have liked to have seen Tennessee Williams – or – more importantly, John Steinbeck. Everything I have read of Steinbeck has truly transported me to the time and place of his books.
Thank You!
Steinbeck is great. Really great. And I really enjoyed Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.
Yes, yes, yes! I thought I was the only one. It’s almost not cool to say out loud. “I didn’t like Catcher in the Rye.”
Wow 1 comment! I think the list really needed Roll of thunder,Hear my cry, its a truly moving book.
One of my favorite books was War of the Worlds, I don’t know why but I’ve read it multiple times and can’t get enough of it.
Other then that there’s way to many books to make any kind of ranked list, in my opinion.
haha these lame best book lists always tend to go back only as far as the Victorians. Aside from Shakespeare (Hamlet is not a “book”), nothing here older than that. Figures. People just live in such a literary ghetto that they probably think Tolstoy is “ancient.” These are the same folks who refer to Shakespeare as “Old English.” Get out of the ghetto, people! Read something more than 150 years old! I could see if this were a “greatest novels” list (though Don Quixote could hardly be excluded from such a list), but the inclusion of Shakespeare signals that we’re not only dealing with novels here.
Hamlet is a book, you might be refering to the word "novel" but mistaking it for book, a book can be any piece of work in book form, and as "Hamlet" is printed in book form it is a book. And I agree with you, Don Quixote should be on the list, or any list, just as Anna Karenina should.
I haven’t read any of them…
I probably can’t name my top 10 books, I’m not that widely read in the classics so it’d be a rather simpler list.
So here’s some of them.
Stephen King – Dark Tower series
Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials series
Billy Hopkins – Our Kid and High Hopes
Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
J.R.R. Tolkien – The Hobbit (I havent actually managed to complete LOTR yet…)
Well, theres 5 of them, even though 3 are series…
Gone with the Wind?
My personal favorite is “The Shawshank Redemption” (Stephen King), it’s not even literature i think, but i just love it.
@anon: because it’s well read, that doesn’t mean that it’s actually a good book.
Great list though, can’t really doubt the choices.
Hey, Shawshank Redemption is literature dude. It is a literary work. And yes, that’s a good book. But then I seriously don’t think it should enter the list. I am seriously disappointed that ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘Brothers Karmazov’ didn’t get a place in the list.
The dream of Eagles series By Jack Whyte is amazing.
What about “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
One H undred Years would Definitely would be in my top ten list.
Hands down favorite book of all time.
interesting list, I only know The Great Gatsby (which we read in school, and I didn’t like it really) and Hamlet, which I am reading right now.
I wonder why there is no German Author like Fontane, Mann, Goethe etc. doesn’t appear here. To my mind, “Faust I” has to be in here…
Bob: Just curious, what books would you have included on the list?
very interesting list!
i loved huckleberry finn!
i think i need to buy the top 3…
and the great gatsby.
The Catcher in the Rye?
I know the second foundation novels were included on the greatest sci-fi books list, but I think they could’ve found a spot on here as well.
1984, the old man and the sea?
I’m afraid I regard most of the books on that list as dull. I don’t regard myself as a lazy reader but I reached your “Proust conclusion” for many of these works.
My list of greatest five books of all time would include Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”.
I would add Robert Graves’ “The Greek Myths” as a formative book of my childhood but that’s deeply personal rather than acclaim for the quality of the writing.
I would also add “a book of George Orwell’s essays” to my personal list. I think he was a far finer essayist than fiction writer, personally, though he’s now best known for “1984″ and “Animal Farm”.
Laurie Lee’s “As I Walked Out One Summer Morning” is a piece of breathtakingly beautiful writing, though his “Cider With Rosie” comes a close second.
I notice that the top ten are all fiction and I think that’s a bad sign. Fine writing can be fiction, autobiography, biography, poetry or plain documentary fact. Any decent top ten should include a mix.
That would be true only if such work were of greater aesthetic quality than the oneslisted above. But as much of a fan of say, Rimbaud, or Byron, or so on… I don't think any of their works would have the magnitude that these have to crack the top 10 (though I would argue that Gatsby shouldn't be on the list–I mean it was good, but not that good). I also don't take these lists seriously because its stupid to say which works are better than which, because each work has a different goal in mind. I wouldn't compare Everyone Poops to Ulysses (which I would also put on this list), because they are two completely different works. And each one says something different to everyone else who reads it, it never seems to say the same thing twice, which is something high school teachers should have in mind while teaching these books to their students. There isn't one set interpretation, especially with poetry, so for someone (or more than one) to say that one book is better than another is suffering form stupidity, and they need to just leave it alone. The only really good thing that lists like this one does is introduce people to new books, and new minds–which is why I like to read them.
great list bob am going to try find 'as i walked……morning' maybe online its a tough choice to make and the bench marks are different for each one of us and often different as we grow older, would stick to 'to kill a mockingbird' as the greatest it hasn't moved from my list in 25 years.
To #8: The Bible is not really widely read, just widely thumped.
I liked the list, very good, although I would have included Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. That book is amazingly complex but well written and a great story.
Oohhhhh and I forgot; “Lord of the Flies”
Lord of the Flies? A very good book but surely not worth a place in the top ten list.
wow, a list like this makes me realize im not as knowledgeable as i should be, as i havent read any.
i will def. read 1 of these asap
One last comment; jfrater, ever thought of doing a “Greatest Graphic Novels” list? If so, number one will obviously be Watchmen!
A list like this is so subjective. I would’ve included A Rage to Live by John O’Hara.
It’s all Hermanne Hesse for me. But I do need to do some more reading, don’t I?
Derek99, WATCHMEN or V FOR VENDETTA. Definitely something by Alan Moore. Maybe SANDMAN if that counts.
Darn it where’s: “Curious George Goes to the Hospital”
I’m never reading this site again!
or
Until you start using smaller word. Big words give me a headache.
Sandman is awesome too. I would add ‘Empire’ to that list also, but it’s probably too obscure.
I would agree with “Lolita”,”Huck Finn”, and “Gatsby”…. but some of these on the list are questionable.
Sometimes when you get “the greatest living writers’” opinions, you get more haughtiness and over-sentimentality than anything.
I don’t think Tolstoy is readable, and I simply cannot see how you can throw the work of Proust into this category. “In Search Of Lost Time” is nothing more than an incredibly detailed epic auto-biography. Top 10 material? I don’t think so. They just don’t apply to most people. Only the ostentatious writer types can enjoy the detail of these works.
Books like “A Clockwork Orange”, “1984″, “Animal Farm”, “David Copperfield” are all better examples of quality writing that can reach a wider audience without having to go into how good cake tastes.
And Hamlet??? Seriously? Come on… The Tempest. Merchant Of Venice. King Lear. All of them much better than Hamlet.
animal farm
dracula
winter of our discontent
frankenstein
to kill a mockingbird
and maybe something from dr. suess?
Well I agree with most of these.
I might add a few more:
Sons and Lovers (Which I did not enjoy, but I appreciated the literary quality)
Catcher in the Rye (not the best book, but very enjoyable)
Martian Chronicles
The Aeneid
The Illiad, The Odyssey
A list like this is so broad and subjective that it’s really hard to argue. However, I will say that I think there is a difference between greatest book of all time and my personal favorite book.
I think the greatest book of all time is Don Quixote. Meanwhile, I agree with BEING SARAH, and would choose a Herman Hesse novel as my favorite book of all time (probably Demian or Steppenwolf).
Where would (or should)”Catch-22″ fall on such a list as this?
The only book I’ve read on this list is Anna Karenina (mind you, I have a copy of a couple of the others listed). There’s one book that I rarely see on lists of the best books ever; Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I’m actually still reading it (200 pages to go, but that’s nothing considering its an almost 1500-page book) but it is an incredible, moving book, and I urge everyone to read it, unabridged, of course.
“The Stand” by Stephen King (I would also second the “Dark Tower” series)
“The Damnation Game” by Clive Barker (?)
“The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli
“The Republic” by Plato
“Faustus” by Goethe ( I know it’s actually a play, but it’s still an awesome read.)
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway
I could name more, but I think will suffice.
I have a strange lack of interest in literary classics, not many of them have really struck me as brilliant. I would include the following:
The Color Purple
The Things They Carried
His Dark Materials
Black Beauty
Lolita (I haven’t read the whole thing unfortunately, but what I have read is beautiful)
Animal Dreams
The Vampire Armand
Childhood’s End
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Handmaid's Tale I could not agree more with…Margaret Atwood did a phenominal job and I must say her book The Blind Assassin also belongs on this list.
I love the perks of being a wallflower!!! I've read alot of books but that one is turly one of my favorites.
Hooray for Hesse #22.
I was sad not to see Dostoevsky on the list, perhaps Brothers Karamazov.
Also, Thomas Mann could’ve used a nod for the Magic Mountain.
Very glad to see Nabokov on there.
Anyone ever read the Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle? It shouldn’t be on this list of course but in terms of historical fiction, I find it tough to beat.
Where’s LOTR?
you serious?…The hobbit made a much finer novel than the entire LOTR series altogether
Are YOU serious Greg? Hobbit vs LOTR? LOTR. No brainer. But one man's meat is another man's poision innit?
A lot of the books that I would have chosen have already been mentioned in the comments, but I definitely enjoyed 1984 and A Clockwork Orange. I just loved how the authors sort of invented a language that existed solely within the context of those books.
wow….very daunting task i must say…
I really wished to see Catcher in the Rye, but I guess it doesn’t hold up on the list for those certain “greatest living writers.”
If they are including drama as well, I think it would be appropriate to add something from Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, etc. The 20th century had some amazing writers. Since this list included novels, short story collections and drama—I cant imagine how they could possibly all agree on a top ten.
My opinion…
Middlemarch, Proust, Anna Karenina – very, very, very tedious. Lolita is also vastly overrated.
I would include Moby Dick, Brideshead Revisited, Appointment in Samarra, A Dance to the Music of Time, and One Deadly Summer (in English). As a replacement for the uninspiring Russian works mentioned, I would add Oblomov (Goncharov). Also, I prefer Katherine Mansfield to Chekov.
If I were to choose a Shakespeare play, it would probably be Macbeth or The Merchant of Venice.
My Number 1 would be a close call between Bovary, Huck Finn and Appointment in Samarra.
Lolita overrated? Are you kidding me
I don’t understand why the western are not much interested with russians authors in which one can find real knowledge.Haw can you replace Chekov ? what makes me sad with this list is excluding The great teahear Destoevisky(see all his books)…and kafka,Søren Kierkegaard(see all his books).
I’d like to nominate Yukio Mishima, the greatest writer of post-war Japan. His stories have a trajic bent and are about people who find themselves in unique or at least quite unusual circumstances. Three titles come to mind – Forbidden Colors, Confessions of a Mask and Silent Snow – all very beautiful and quite unforgettable.
kiwiboi: I agree with Proust – haven’t read the other two. I also agree that Brideshead Revisited is brilliant. What do you think of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich? Is that a contender? And your Shakespeare selections are EXACTLY what I would have picked over Hamlet – Merchant of Venice first and Macbeth second.
I would also consider Paul Bowles for a place with his “The Sheltering Sky” – a beautiful book that is very unique.
sooooo glad to not see the bible on this list.. not fiction? hmmmmm amazing how there’s a limited number of selective books in the bible. no, there were no other prophets or versions of what happened. you know stories from when unless you were a somewhat wealthy man, you were worthless. nah, there’s no bias in the bible.
As “naughty” as Lolita is supposed to be, I found it to be incredibly boring.
Lord of the Flies and The Chrysalids are my 2 picks.
I also really enjoyed the social commentary from Sense and Sensibility but I’m not sure if it would qualify.
Oh and in reply to comment #7 aman: This is fully a matter of opinion.
I’d have to have Watership Down, The Complete works of Saki, and The Catcher in the Rye as my top 3.
jfrater – Heh…great minds think alike…we could be related
Ivan Denisovich is ok, in my view. But I tended to judge it as a gulag story as opposed to a work of literature, so I’m not a particularly big fan.
Thanks for the tip about Paul Bowles; I’ll be sure to read it.
Also, I should’ve mentioned Bernard Malamud (The Assistant, The Natural) – an eminently readable genius!
While there are some great books here and this is a quality list, I personally believe that “Top 10 Books” is too broad of a category. Especially with only 10 books.
Sure, there is a top movie list, but film can be so much accessible as it requires no effort to enjoy.
One’s preference for books varies considerably as different people enjoy a very wide range of books.
JFrater, what I think might be a good idea is do something similar to what you did with the joke list and allow people to submit their favorite book. It would be a lot of work, but I would be willing to help out (or to do it).
I loved the Merchant of Venice!
Where’s “Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers”?
lmao
Honestly, about the Bible debate, I still think that what they wrote into the TV series “Red Dwarf” sums it up best.
“Archaeologists have found a new page of the Bible. They believe that it goes at the front before the rest of the pages. It reads, ‘To my darling Candace. All of the works contained within are purely fictional. Any similarities to actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.’ Religious leaders worldwide are denouncing the discovery.”
It’s probably not a good Greatest of All Time list, but they’re my favourite novels:
#5= “Brave New World” –Aldous Huxley.
#5= “Nineteen Eighty-Four” –George Orwell.
#4. “The Code of the Woosters” –P. G. Wodehouse.
#3. “The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” –Douglas Adams.
#2. “The Lord of the Rings” –J. R. R. Tolkien.
#1. “The Iliad” –Homer.
Numbers five are both extraordinarily terrifying in their own way… number four is probably the funniest book ever written; number three is also very funny, but a brilliant satire of just about everything (rather like Life of Brian); number two is *the* most extensively referenced homage-making high fantasy epic ever; and number one…
…well, it’s beautifully tragic, wonderfully epic, endearingly meandering, and, erm, *far* gorier than anything by Quentin Tarantino.
D Holmes: that is a good idea – I am still struggling with the best format to do a “you pick the list” lists. The jokes one was extremely hard work – an easier way would be welcome!
slipstick: hahaha – red dwarf is brilliant.
Philip: thanks for the mentions – I will be sure to check those books out.
kiwiboi: I will check out Malamud. Make sure you read Bowles – a much ignored member of the Beat Generation! As for related: I am adopted
I’m afraid I have to confess that I haven’t read any of those books (though I have heard of some of them:)), but I’m more of the (modern) fantasy reader or science-fiction. And I would agree that the Bible is largely fictional, as most of the described events are meant as parabels (or metaphors?) rather than actual facts.
jfrater – “As for related: I am adopted”
Aaaahh…that explains a few things !
BTW…you will enjoy Malamud’s The Assistant more than The Natural.
Oh! How about that one book, with that guy. You know, he goes somewhere…and meets that one girl. It was set in some year…
That’s a great book
I agree with Borg, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes should have been on that list, one of the best (if not the best) books of all time.
kiwiboi: har har
I will definitely check out Malamud – do you have one I can borrow or should I buy one on Amazon? BTW: when are you going to write me a list?!
For those not in on the joke – I am not adopted – kiwiboi is my brother.
Derek99: ah such the comedian!
CARD: what about the Decameron? I think it is not too far from Cervantes in date and it is a great book.
I would also like to point out the glaring lack of early literature from the east – there must be at least one decent arab book that deserves a place on the top 10. Any takers?
i believe catcher in the rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and 1984 should be on here. And you should probobly add Beowulf, it is the very first thing ever written in the “english” language.(though technicaly it is a poem, but then again hamlet is a play) But overall fantastic list (thank you for no steven king)
not a single Dickens novel? No “A Tale of Two Cities”?? I freaking love that book.
“1984″ is very famous and everyone seems to love it so it probably deserves a place on here too – however I thought it was very dull in parts.
also, the Harry Potter series isn’t world famous for nothing (don’t fling dung at me, please). it may not have political messages worked into everything but the plots in those books are phenomenal.
Dung flung
@JFrater:
Well, one idea may be to do a submission form.
Perhaps, even more, you could separate the books into genres. So when the person submits their book, they click on a pull down menu that dignifies the genre the book falls in. And with maybe a final list containing the books with the most votes.
You could then assign a person to a genre (or a person to two genres) and have them comb through and create a list from that. Its less work by far for you and other people get to be involved. I would be more than willing to help out on it.
Its just a thought and I have other ideas, if you don’t like this one.
I just think it would be easier to separate the books into genres to appease fans of other genres who may not be satisfied with the final list. There is less complaining about favoritism for a certain genre and everyone is happier.
Green eggs and ham!!!