The Guardian's 100 best books of all time

[Ponietz]

100 My Ántonia
99 The Go-Between
98 The Road
97 Catch-22
96 Pedro Páramo
95 The Return of the Native
94 The Known World
93 Invisible Cities
92 Sentimental Education
91 Life and Fate
90 Jacob's Room
89 The Left Hand of Darkness
88 Ragtime
87 The Line of Beauty
86 The Turn of the Screw
85 The Vegetarian
84 The Talented Mr Ripley
83 A Farewell to Arms
82 The End of the Affair
81 Buddenbrooks
80 Rebecca
79 Go Tell It on the Mountain
78 A House for Mr Biswas
77 The Rainbow
76 Dracula
75 The Bluest Eye
74 Nervous Conditions
73 Austerlitz
72 Our Mutual Friend
71 Kindred
70 Jude the Obscure
69 Crime and Punishment
68 Blood Meridian
67 The Man Without Qualities
66 The Master and Margarita
65 The Color Purple
64 The Good Soldier
63 White Teeth
62 Half of a Yellow Sun
61 The Rings of Saturn
60 Howards End
59 Never Let Me Go
58 Disgrace
57 The Sound and the Fury
56 Mansfield Park
55 The Waves
54 Orlando
53 The Transit of Venus
52 The Golden Bowl
51 My Brilliant Friend
50 Wide Sargasso Sea
49 A Fine Balance
48 The Metamorphosis
47 Vanity Fair
46 The Leopard
45 The Golden Notebook
44 Giovanni's Room
43 Housekeeping
42 The Magic Mountain
41 Heart of Darkness
40 Song of Solomon
39 Their Eyes Were Watching God
38 The Age of Innocence
37 Invisible Man
36 The Handmaid's Tale
35 Great Expectations
34 Wolf Hall
33 David Copperfield
32 The God of Small Things
31 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
30 Frankenstein
29 Pale Fire
28 The Brothers Karamazov
27 The Trial
26 Don Quixote
25 Lolita
24 The Remains of the Day
23 Midnight's Children
22 Things Fall Apart
21 The Portrait of a Lady
20 Wuthering Heights
19 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
18 Persuasion
17 One Hundred Years of Solitude
16 Nineteen Eighty-Four
15 Moby-Dick
14 Mrs Dalloway
13 Emma
12 Bleak House
11 The Great Gatsby
10 Madame Bovary
9 Pride and Prejudice
8 Jane Eyre
7 War and Peace
6 Anna Karenina
5 In Search of Lost Time
4 To the Lighthouse
3 Ulysses
2 Beloved
1 Middlemarch
https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

Nifty, interactive piece. Obviously, they’re wrong about most of it, like Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary both in the top 10, and The God of Small Things was rubbish in my opinion, but book recommendations are always welcome. Happy reading!

[biophile]

1. Looks like I need more time

Or live to be 120 with good eyesight!

[DaBronx]

2. There's always audiobooks!

🤓

[biophile]

14. True, but I'll still need the extra years!

I have a thousand books already here at home to read! It’s a happy dilemma, though!

[irisblue]

6. Audiobooks thru the library?

A hundred yrs ago I listened to Great Gatsby on tape(yes I'm old) driving 90 min a day to & from college. I got so involved with the story I started speeding. Cop asked me why I was speeding, I held up the cassette cover. He did not write me a ticket, just told me to slow down.

[mountain grammy]

3. No Grapes of Wrath?

The most honest tale of America ever written.

[intheflow]

10. Well, it's a British-generated list, so

maybe it didn't resonate with folks across the Atlantic.

[70sEraVet]

12. I chalked up to that excuse for not including On The Road by Kerouac

[werdna]

4. A word on who generated the list and by what criteria were used.

As Stephen King points out, compiling a list of the greatest novels of all time is an impossible task. King is one of more than 170 novelists, critics and academics the Guardian polled for their top 10, ranked in order, which we tallied to compile an overall 100. But, as he argued, 10 books is “not enough!. . . Is the best novel one that changes the genre, society or the individual? One that captures the zeitgeist, or has an afterlife far beyond its pages. Or a novel that scorches itself so deeply into your soul you can remember exactly when and where you were when you first read it? None of these criteria on their own is enough.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/16/story-behind-100-best-novels-all-time

[irisblue]

5. No A Room of One's Own by Wolfe, 1929, but the descendant The HandMaids Tale

No Sherlock Holmes?
Come on.....

However I am going to bookmark this for library visits

[intheflow]

9. I curious about your use of "descendant" here.

I don't understand how the word applies to The Handmaid's Tale.

[irisblue]

15. Wolffe book was about a womans need for financial independence & space to be her authentic self

Atwoods' book is about the loss of both. The books were published less then 60 yrs apart.l
Wolffes' book, which I first read in the mid 70s is in my memory is....hopefull ; Atwoods' book, which I read in 88/89 is mostly not.
I used descent in the definition of going downwards, not inthe sense of spawning children.

Also I have not read either book in this century, and it appears to be time to this summer.

Make sense?

[pfitz59]

7. I've read 17

I really liked 'The Leopard', probably because I married a Sicilian.

[NewLarry]

8. Surprisingly enough

I just started re-reading The Left Hand of Darkness for the first time in about 30 years. I'm about 40 pages in, and it's as captivating as I remember.

[Make7]

16. 41 Heart of Darkness

[yardwork]

11. Heavy emphasis on the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Highly Eurocentric.

But it's a nice list of books.

[Make7]

17. Ninety seven?

"When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as Catch-22, I'm tempted to reply, 'Who has?'"
— Joseph Heller



Still my favorite book.