The Best Novels of All Time
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The Best Novels of All Time
A List of the Top 10 Best Novels of All Time
From a massive 2005 poll taken by Time, here's the result of what hundreds of people decided!
#10: The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck (1939)
The Grapes of Wrath
Amazon Price: $7.45 (as of 06/02/2012)
Set during the Great Depression, it traces the migration of an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family to California and their subsequent hardships as migrant farm workers. Controversial, even shocking, when it was written, the work continues to be so even today. The keen listener can hear why, because it poses fundamental questions about justice, the ownership and stewardship of the land, the role of government, power, and the very foundations of capitalist society.
#9: An American Tragedy
by Theodore Dreiser (1925)
An American Tragedy (Signet Classics)
Amazon Price: $4.72 (as of 06/03/2012)
A complex and compassionate account of the life and death of a young antihero named Clyde Griffiths. The novel begins with Clyde's blighted background, recounts his path to success, and culminates in his apprehension, trial, and execution for murder. The novel was called by one influential critic "the worst-written great novel in the world," but its questionable grammar and style are transcended by its narrative power.
#8: Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
Amazon Price: $5.57 (as of 06/03/2012)
This novel introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet "Tralfamadore." In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
#7: Call It Sleep: A Novel
by Henry Roth (1934)
Call It Sleep: A Novel
Amazon Price: $8.15 (as of 06/02/2012)
This novel is the story of an Austrian-Jewish immigrant family in a ghetto of New York's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century. It takes the reader through the life of 6-year-old David Schearl, and his development between the fear of his father's potential violence and the degradation of life in the streets of the tenement slums
#6: Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh (1945)
Brideshead Revisited
Amazon Price: $6.00 (as of 06/03/2012)
This novel tells the story of the difficult loves of insular Englishman Charles Ryder, and his peculiarly intense relationship with the wealthy but dysfunctional family that inhabited Brideshead. Taking place in the years after World War II, Brideshead Revisited shows us a part of upper-class English culture that has been disappearing steadily.
#5: Revolutionary Road
by Richard Yates (1961)
Revolutionary Road
Amazon Price: $1.66 (as of 06/02/2012)
Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy.
#4: Beloved
by Toni Morrison (1987)
Beloved (Everyman's Library)
Amazon Price: $12.60 (as of 06/03/2012)
In the troubled years following the Civil War, the spirit of a murdered child haunts the Ohio home of a former slave. This angry, destructive ghost breaks mirrors, leaves its fingerprints in cake icing, and generally makes life difficult for Sethe and her family; nevertheless, the woman finds the haunting oddly comforting for the spirit is that of her own dead baby, never named, thought of only as Beloved.
#3: Gone With the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell (1936)
Gone with the Wind
Amazon Price: $6.25 (as of 06/02/2012)
Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives. In the two main characters, the white-shouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett, Margaret Mitchell not only conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.
#2: The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1922)
The Great Gatsby (A Cornell Edition)
Amazon Price: $10.14 (as of 06/02/2012)
Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. It is a narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. Events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama.
#1: Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien (1949)
The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition
Amazon Price: $11.32 (as of 06/03/2012)
The story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, notably the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, but also the hobbits' chief allies: Aragorn, a ranger, Gimli, a dwarf, Legolas, an elf, and Gandalf, a wizard.
Do You Agree With This List?
Sound off and give YOUR opinion!
Creating a list of the top 10 best ANYthing will always spark debate, and sometimes, outrage! What are your thoughts of the results of this poll, resulting in the 10 best novels ever?
Is this list of top 10 novels accurate, by any means?
[YES] It appears on target...here are my feelings in support of this list:
Earthwormick says:
I agree that Lord of the Rings is the best novel of all time for sure!
Peter.Murray says:
Lord of the Rings at the top of the list is right. I haven't read the rest, but if the are of the same calibre then the list is on target.
[NO] It's ridiculous! How could they forget (insert novel title here!):
Shadrosky says:
'Brave New World' and '1984' are two that very much deserve to be on the list, though I'm not sure what they'd replace...
Alula says:
Ive only read 2 books on this list!!!
Stev says:
Several milestone works missing, specifically Catch-22
brandon says:
no dickens?
Cass says:
Where's Harry Potter?
I agree with some of the books on the list, but others..... er, no. Just, no. How could they forget THE BEST SELLING SERIES OF ALL TIME? Just saying. And I"ve read The Lord of the Rings and utterly detested it, so this was obviously one person's opinion.
A List of Top Classic Literary Novels
While these didn't make Time's top 10 best novels list, they are still considered to be profound contributions to world literature!
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville (1851)
Moby Dick (Oxford World's Classics)
Amazon Price: $5.73 (as of 06/02/2012)
In his great whaling epic Melville roamed both the seas, and the secret places of men's minds. In the alternate playfulness and ferocity of the great white whale he found the perfect metaphor within which to develope his views on life, death and God.
Native Son
by Richard Wright (1940)
Native Son (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)
Amazon Price: $22.88 (as of 06/02/2012)
Bigger Thomas is doomed, trapped in a downward spiral that will lead to arrest, prison, or death, driven by despair, frustration, poverty, and incomprehension. As a young black man in the Chicago of the '30s, he has no way out of the walls of poverty and racism that surround him, and after he murders a young white woman in a moment of panic, these walls begin to close in. There is no help for him--not from his hapless family; not from liberal do-gooders or from his well-meaning yet naive friend Jan; certainly not from the police, prosecutors, or judges. Bigger is debased, aggressive, dangerous, and a violent criminal.
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens (1861)
Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $4.40 (as of 06/03/2012)
A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor - these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens' haunting late novel depicts Pip's education and development through adversity as he discovers thetrue nature of his 'great expectations'.
Dracula
by Bram Stoker (1897)
Dracula (Qualitas Classics)
Amazon Price: $11.95 (as of 06/02/2012)
A naive young Englishman travels to Transylvania to do business with a client, Count Dracula. After showing his true and terrifying colors, Dracula boards a ship for England in search of new, fresh blood. Unexplained disasters begin to occur in the streets of London before the mystery and the evil doer are finally put to rest. Told in a series of news reports from eyewitness observers to writers of personal diaries, this has a ring of believability that counterbalances nicely with Dracula's too-macabre-to-be-true exploits. An array of voices from talented actors makes for interesting variety.
A Catcher In the Rye
by J.D. Salinger (1951)
The Catcher in the Rye
Amazon Price: $4.98 (as of 06/02/2012)
The influential and widely acclaimed story details the two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, he searches for truth and rails against the "phoniness" of the adult world. He ends up exhausted and emotionally ill, in a psychiatrist's office. After he recovers from his breakdown, Holden relates his experiences to the reader.
Farenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury (1953)
Fahrenheit 451
Amazon Price: $4.98 (as of 06/02/2012)
A frightening vision of the future where firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."
1984
by George Orwell (1949)
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Amazon Price: $6.98 (as of 06/02/2012)
A rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. The book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life--the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language--and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.
The Old Man and The Sea
by Ernest Hemingway (1952)
The Old Man and The Sea
Amazon Price: $4.88 (as of 06/03/2012)
This tale of an aged Cuban fisherman going head-to-head (or hand-to-fin) with a magnificent marlin encapsulates Hemingway's favorite motifs of physical and moral challenge. Yet Santiago is too old and infirm to partake of the gun-toting machismo that disfigured much of the author's later work.
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck (1952)
East of Eden
Amazon Price: $12.43 (as of 06/02/2012)
It is a symbolic recreation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel woven into a history of California's Salinas Valley. With East of Eden Steinbeck hoped to reclaim his standing as a major novelist, but his broad depictions of good and evil come at the expense of subtlety in characterization and plot and it was not a critical success. Spanning the period between the American Civil War and the end of World War I, the novel highlights the conflicts of two generations of brothers; the first being the kind, gentle Adam Trask and his wild brother Charles.
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller (1961)
Catch-22
Amazon Price: $4.44 (as of 06/02/2012)
A classic satire on how the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it's impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel's undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller's characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess (1962)
A Clockwork Orange
Amazon Price: $6.92 (as of 06/02/2012)
The first-person account of a juvenile delinquent who undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior. The novel satirizes extreme political systems that are based on opposing models of the perfectibility or incorrigibility of humanity. Written in a futuristic slang vocabulary invented by Burgess, in part by adaptation of Russian words, it was his most original and best-known work. Alex, the protagonist, has a passion for classical music and is a member of a vicious teenage gang that commits random acts of brutality. Captured and imprisoned, he is transformed through behavioral conditioning into a model citizen, but his taming also leaves him defenseless. He ultimately reverts to his former behavior.
Of Mice And Men
by John Steinbeck (1937)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)
Amazon Price: $6.37 (as of 06/02/2012)
A tragic tale of a retarded man and the friend who loves and tries to protect him. Oddly absorbing - this picture of the strange friendship between the strong man and the giant with the mind of a not-quite-bright child. Driven from job to job by the failure of the giant child to fit into the social pattern, they finally find - in a ranch - what they feel their chance to achieve a homely dream they have built. There's a simplicity, a directness, a poignancy in the story that gives it a singular power, difficult to define.
Feedback on Novels
Got something to say, add or comment on?
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Joan4
Aug 12, 2011 @ 8:13 pm | delete
- I certainly have not read all of these, but the list itself is thought-provoking. Since I am an avid reader, I am surprised by the best novels of all time. I would change that list. :) Blessed by a Squidangel.
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MamaRuth
Feb 19, 2011 @ 9:12 am | delete
- I agree that there are some great novels on the list. (I do think though that people tend to feel they "should" like certain books and are embarrassed to say what they really like!) There are a couple of "great" novels that I could barely drag through.
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KarenCookieJar
Jan 26, 2011 @ 6:06 pm | delete
- Some good ones on the list, but I think this is a list more suited toward male interests. It doesn't have some of my favs like: Pride & Prejudice, The Handmaid's Tale, The Giver, Atonement
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Jodi_k Nov 18, 2010 @ 3:18 pm | delete
- Interesting. I'm an avid (OK, voracious) reader and I've never heard of Call it Sleep
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jenms
Nov 18, 2010 @ 8:14 am | delete
- The second list is definitely a better representation of great literature.
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