The Best Novels Ever Written – After two years of careful consideration, Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in the English language. Check out his list
The story of a man in search of truth is told with the usual clarity and beauty of Bunyan’s prose, making it the ultimate English classic.
The Best Novels Ever Written
By the end of the 19th century, no book in the history of English literature had more editions, spin-offs and translations. The world-famous Crusoe novel is a complex literary confection and it is impossible to resist.
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A masterpiece of satire that has never been printed, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is number three on our list of the best novels ever written in English.
Clarissa is the tragic heroine forced by her unscrupulous wealthy family to marry a rich man she hates in a book Samuel Johnson described as “the world’s first book of wisdom in the human heart.”
Tom Jones is a classic English novel that captures the spirit of its time and whose famous characters represent Augustan society in all its luxurious, tumultuous and comic variants.
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Laurence Stern’s lively novel delighted and confused when it first appeared and has lost its original bite.
Inspired by Thomas Love Peacock’s friendship with Shelley, Nightmare Abbey is rooted in the writer’s delight in poking fun at the Romantic movement.
Edgar Allan Poe’s only novel—a classic adventure story with supernatural elements—has captivated and influenced generations of writers.
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Charlotte Brontë’s romantic, Gothic masterpiece became a sensation in Victorian England. His biggest breakthrough is intimate communication with readers.
Emily Brontë’s windswept masterpiece is notable not only for its wild beauty, but also for its bold revival of the novel form.
Set in Regency England, William Thackeray’s masterpiece is a daring performance by a writer at the top of his game.
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David Copperfield marked the point at which Dickens became a great entertainer while laying the groundwork for his later, darker works.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s excellent book is full of intense symbolism and haunts anything by Edgar Allan Poe.
Lewis Carroll’s Ingenious Nonsense is one of the most influential and beloved stories in the English canon.
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Hailed by many as the greatest English detective novel, Wilkie Collins’ masterpiece is a brilliant blend of sensationalism and realism.
Louisa May Alcott’s highly original story aimed at the young women market has iconic status in America and has never been out of print.
Inspired by the author’s indignation at the corrupt state of England, The Way We Live Now is considered Trollope’s masterpiece, which was dismissed by critics at the time.
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Mark Twain’s story of a rebellious boy and a runaway slave who seeks emancipation in the waters of the Mississippi remains a descriptive classic of American literature.
A thrilling adventure story, a gripping history and a fascinating study of the Scottish character, Abduction never loses its power.
Conan Doyle’s brilliant detective – and his bluffing sidekick Watson – come into their own in Sherlock Holmes’ second outing.
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Wilde’s brilliantly suggestive morality tale of youth, beauty and corruption was greeted with howls of protest upon publication.
George Gissing’s portrayal of the harsh reality of literary life is as relevant today as it was in the late 19th century.
Hardy gave vent to his deepest feelings in this bleak, angry novel and, discouraged by the hostile response, wrote no more.
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Stephen Crane’s story of a young man coming to manhood through the soldiers is the blueprint for the great American war novel.
Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale has been around for a long time, but it still resonates a century later.
Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece about a life-changing journey in search of Mr. Kurtz has the simplicity of a great myth.
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Theodore Dreiser is no stylist, but his bleak novel about a country girl’s American dream has a wonderful dynamism.
In Kipling’s classic spy story Boy’s Own, an orphan in British India must choose between East and West.
The vivid adventures of Jack London’s pet dog, who returns to nature, reveal extraordinary style and a complete story.
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This entertaining tale of a pope-turned-writer-turned-priest sheds vivid light on its extraordinary author, described by DH Lawrence as a “spirit-man.”
The selection is great, but it’s Wells’ caricature of a man like him that stands out.
Ford’s masterpiece is a brilliant study of the moral destruction behind the facade of the English gentleman – and its stylistic influence continues to this day.
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The Rainbow is perhaps DH Lawrence’s best work, showing him as a radical, protean and thoroughly modern writer.
The story of a wedding in New York is a searing indictment of a society alienated from culture.
This portrait of a day in the life of three Dubliners remains a masterpiece that surpasses even Shakespeare in its wordplay.
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What it lacks in structure and cunning, this charming look at 1920s America makes up for in vivid satire and characterization.
It may be a guilty pleasure, but it’s impossible to ignore the lasting impact of a story that helped define the Jazz Age.
Woolf’s brilliant novel makes party preparations a canvas for themes of lost love, life choices and mental illness.
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A young woman escapes convention and becomes a witch in this original satire of post-World War I England.
Hemingway’s first and best novel escapes to 1920s Spain to explore courage, cowardice and masculine authenticity.
The influence of William Faulkner’s engrossing story of rough rural life in Mississippi is still felt today.
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Aldous Huxley’s vision of a future human race dominated by global capitalism is as good as Orwell’s most famous dystopia.
Gibbons’ most memorable book is a satire of late Victorian pastoral fiction, but one that influenced many generations to come.
The middle volume of John Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy is revolutionary in its intent, methods and lasting impact.
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The American writer’s debut takes place in the Parisian underworld of gray sex and changes the course of the novel – but not without a fight with the censors.
Raymond Chandler’s Hardboiled debut brings to life the seedy underworld of LA – and the archetypal fictional detective Philip Marlowe.
Set on the eve of war, this discarded modernist masterpiece centers on a group of bright young entertainers who are delayed due to fog.
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Flann O’Brien’s labyrinthine and multi-layered comic debut is both a reflection and an example of the Irish novel.
One of the greatest American novels, this study of a family torn apart by poverty and despair shocked American society.
Malcolm Lowry’s masterpiece about the final hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico is set to the rhythm of impending conflict.
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Elizabeth Bowen’s 1948 novel perfectly captures the atmosphere of London during the Blitz, while also offering wonderful insights into the human heart.
George Orwell’s dystopian classic is the most famous novel of the 20th century in English, although it owes much to its author.
JD Salinger’s study of teenage rebellion is one of the most controversial and beloved American novels of the 20th century.
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Initially dismissed as “trash and boring”, Golding’s brilliantly observed dystopian tale of a desert island has since become a classic.
Kerouac’s creative history of the Beat-Generation classic, fueled by pea soup and benzedrine, is popular as a novel.
A love story set against the disappearance of an outback explorer, Voss paved the way for a generation of Australian writers to downplay the colonial past.
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Her second novel finally came out this summer, but Harper Lee’s first novel was enough on its own to garner lasting fame and remains a truly popular classic.
Muriel Spark’s short and bitter tale of the downfall of a Scottish teacher is a masterpiece of narrative fiction.
This scathing anti-war novel was slow to ignite the public imagination, but it was considered a pioneering critique of military madness.
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Hailed as one of the seminal texts of the 1960s women’s movement, this study of a divorced single mother’s search for personal and political identity remains a defiantly ambitious tour de force.
Anthony Burgess’s dystopian classic continues to surprise and provoke and refuses to be overshadowed by Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant cinematography.
Christopher Isherwood’s tale of a gay Englishman battling death in LA is a work of compressed brilliance.
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Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, the true story of a bloody murder in rural Kansas, opens a window into the dark underbelly of postwar America.
Sylvia Plath’s painfully graphic roman à clef, in which a woman struggles with her identity in the face of social pressure, is a key text of Anglo-American feminism.
This wickedly funny novel about a young Jewish American’s obsession with masturbation caused outrage upon publication, but remains his most brilliant work.
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Elizabeth Taylor’s brilliantly rendered character study of old-age eccentricity is an engaging and witty portrait of post-war English life as it confronts the changes taking shape in the 1960s.
Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, Updike’s lovable middle-aged alter ego, is one of America’s greatest literary protagonists, along with Huck Finn and Jay Gatsby.
The novel that made the Nobel Prize-winning author famous is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the African-American experience in the 20th century.
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