# Greatest 20th Century Novels: Which Have You Read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598 "2012-06-28T16:24:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/61 "2012-06-29T03:42:42Z")
_A Dance to the Music of Time_ is actually a series of something like 12 books. I once set out to read it, and got through the first volume at least (possibly the second, I can’t remember now) but I certainly came nowhere near completing the set, so I did not check it. I notice it only has one vote. I am surprised that people are saying they couldn’t finish _Heart of Darkness_. It is very short - more a novella than a novel - and, I would have said, a fairly easy read (certainly compared to many of the others on the list). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/62 "2012-06-29T03:47:26Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Only 9 for me, but I missed marking Catcher in the Rye. > > Sad to see no sci-fi/fantasy, that I noticed anyway. No Bradbury, Clarke, Dick, Tolkien… Vonnegut is there, and _Brave New World_ and (very arguably) _1984_ are science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/63 "2012-06-29T04:13:15Z")
17 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/64 "2012-06-29T04:14:04Z")
I picked the ones I did read, but any such list that doesn’t have _To Kill a Mockingbird_ is not the best of lists. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/65 "2012-06-29T04:23:44Z")
My dislike of public polls is well known here, and I’m not voting. But I can say I’ve been going through the same list for a few years now and have read 52 of them including the first 19 on the list. (_Ironweed_ is the farthest one down the list that I’ve read, #92.) Earlier this week, I checked out two others from the library – _The Heart of the Matter_ and _Sister Carrie_ – and that will make 54 when I finish them. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/66 "2012-06-29T04:30:25Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Is anyone else surprised that _To Kill a Mockingbird_ isn’t on this list? Yes. Hadn’t noticed until you mentioned it, but yes. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > This is a weird list. I have to admit that I find it weird that \*\*Deliverance, Portnoy’s Complaint, \*\* and **the Maltese Falcon** are on it. Good reads, but “Greatest 20th Century Novels”? Agreed, a very weird list, and agreed regarding Portnoy and Maltese. (I think _Deliverance_ does belong on a “Greatest 20th Century Novels” list.) So many ommissions. The only two authors whose complete works I’ve read are Steinbeck and Aldous Huxley; I expected to see more of them on the list. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/67 "2012-06-29T04:47:24Z")
Jean Rhys is half Welsh and half Dominican Creole with Scots ancestry whatever that means. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/68 "2012-06-29T04:55:46Z")
Frank Herbert’s Dune should definitely be on this list, and I’ve read it. I have only read the absolutely most popular books from this list, most as high school reading assignments. In fact, the only one I’ve gone out of my way to read is The Great Gatsby, which was ok but not incredible. And although it is rarely regarded as one of the best 20th century books ever written, The Long Walk by Stephen King deserves to start being recognized as the masterpiece it is. To Kill A Mockingbird probably deserves to be on the list, though I vastly preferred the movie to the book. ETA: Finnegan’s Wake? Honestly? One of the best of the 20th century? This joke of a book was called out as the joke that it was when it was published. How could anyone think that it is one of the best books written in the 20th century? ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/69 "2012-06-29T05:25:17Z")
_Lord of the Flies_ at school. Though tit was rubbish then, still do. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/70 "2012-06-29T11:42:17Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > _A Dance to the Music of Time_ is actually a series of something like 12 books. I once set out to read it, and got through the first volume at least (possibly the second, I can’t remember now) but I certainly came nowhere near completing the set, so I did not check it. I notice it only has one vote. > > I am surprised that people are saying they couldn’t finish _Heart of Darkness_. It is very short - more a novella than a novel - and, I would have said, a fairly easy read (certainly compared to many of the others on the list). I started it twice and gave up. Then I picked up a version with good notes. It’s funny–once I had the whole “rivets” thing explained to me, the rest of the piece made perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/71 "2012-06-29T12:13:18Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > I’ve read 27, I couldn’t finish Heart of Darkness or Ulysses, so i didn’t count them. Am I right in thinking Salman Rushdie, James Baldwin and V.S. Naipaul are the only non whites on the list? Nope. Ralph Ellison is black and that’s what Invisible Man is about. The Magus was my favorite by far. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/72 "2012-06-29T12:25:22Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I am surprised that people are saying they couldn’t finish _Heart of Darkness_. It is very short - more a novella than a novel - and, I would have said, a fairly easy read (certainly compared to many of the others on the list). It wasn’t too hard. I just realized that no matter what happened in the remaining pages, it couldn’t redeem the time I’d already wasted. Maybe I’m not smart enough, maybe I’m not ready yet for _Heart of Darkness_. But I prefer to think it just sucked. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/73 "2012-06-29T13:17:54Z")
This is [a list compiled by human beings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels)–it didn’t come down on stone tablets. Of course many of your favorites are missing–but don’t just assume that books you’ve tried & disliked are simply fakes that _nobody_ likes. > [@](#): > > Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels is a list of the best English-language novels of the 20th century as selected by the Modern Library. Both Modern Library and Random House USA, the parent company, are US companies. Critics have argued that this is responsible for a very American view of the greatest novels. Most British, Canadian and Australian academics, and even Random House UK, have differing lists of “greatest novels”. > > In early 1998, the Modern Library polled its editorial board to find the best 100 novels of the 20th century. The board consisted of Daniel J. Boorstin, A. S. Byatt, Christopher Cerf, Shelby Foote, Vartan Gregorian, Edmund Morris, John Richardson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William Styron and Gore Vidal. The point of _any_ list like this is to get people talking! It’s not enough to say a certain category was underrepresented. That’s probably true, but why not accompany your complaint with some examples from _your_ list? The Wikipedia article (linked above) contains links to other lists… I’m currently fascinated by Kenneth Rexroth’s list–published as _Classics Revisited_ & _More Classics Revisited_. He goes 'way back–to The Epic of Gilgamesh–& covers more than novels & works in English. The scope of his list doesn’t extend vary far into the 20th century; he died in 1982 & probably considers most readers have their own recent faves… [Here’s the list](http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/cr/index.htm), where you can read many of the individual essays. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/74 "2012-06-29T13:35:10Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > This is [a list compiled by human beings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels)–it didn’t come down on stone tablets. Of course many of your favorites are missing–but don’t just assume that books you’ve tried & disliked are simply fakes that _nobody_ likes. > > The point of _any_ list like this is to get people talking! It’s not enough to say a certain category was underrepresented. That’s probably true, but why not accompany your complaint with some examples from _your_ list? The Wikipedia article (linked above) contains links to other lists… > > I’m currently fascinated by Kenneth Rexroth’s list–published as _Classics Revisited_ & _More Classics Revisited_. He goes 'way back–to The Epic of Gilgamesh–& covers more than novels & works in English. The scope of his list doesn’t extend vary far into the 20th century; he died in 1982 & probably considers most readers have their own recent faves… [Here’s the list](http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/cr/index.htm), where you can read many of the individual essays. I’m surprised Aristophanes isn’t on this list. ::ducks, runs:: ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/75 "2012-06-29T13:46:43Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Not that any literary “canon” should be accepted uncritically (there are some books on the following list I think were awful), but… of the books on the following ist created by the Modern Library, which have you read? First, thank you for typing that whole damned list into a poll. Second, I’ve read 47 of these, but a bunch more are floating here on the bookshelves, so maybe I should take a crack at a few of them (once I finish reading this zombie novel). > [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I was surprised at the choices, too. > > Like, I loved Graham Greene’s **The Heart of the Matter** , but why was that chosen over his more famous (and far more accessible) **The End of the Affair** , **Brighton Rock** , or **The Power and Glory**? Indeed. A couple of the inclusions on the list made me suspicious that there was ultimately some snobbery involved. Either _The End of the Affair_ or _The Power and the Glory_ would have made more sense; similarly, _Finnegan’s Wake_, really? > [@colonial](#): > > I’d like to see lie detector results for those who claim to have slogged through either _Ulysses_ or _Finnegan’s Wake._ > > James Joyce is actually probably the _worst_ writer in the _entire history_ of English literature, and he would have to be on the short list of the worst in the history of _world_ literature. I’d like to see lie detector results for those who claim James Joyce is the worst writer in the world without having read _Ulysses_ cover-to-cover, or \*The Dead \*for that matter. > [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > 43 for certain, mostly the older and British ones. I’m up on James, Wharton, Waugh, and Forster. Some of the Hemingways, Faulkners, and Fitzergeralds, I’m not sure of; it’s been a long time since I took 20th-century American lit and I get the titles mixed up. It is no surprise to me that someone named “Miss Mapp” has read a lot of classics. 🙂 As for startling omissions: _Sacred Hunger,_ anyone? And something from Robinson Davies wouldn’t have been out of place. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/76 "2012-06-29T14:06:48Z")
It looks like I’ve read about 80%, and it surprised me how few of them I look back on with enjoyment. V.S.Naipal, Nabokov, and many others on that list I’d pay to avoid reading in future. Nearly all of my favorite authors apparently either wrote in the 19th century or are women. I was glad to see Wise Blood and Wide Sargasso Sea on there, but what about Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, Doris Lessing, Willa Cather, Eudora Welty? The “readers’ choice” list was also deeply dispiriting. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/77 "2012-06-29T14:13:38Z")
I got 15. A few others I have tried to read, even more than once, but ended up putting down. I also am surprised at the omission of To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone With the Wind. I was pleased to see my all-time favorite, Main Street, there, however. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/78 "2012-06-29T14:27:15Z")
17, although some of those were so long ago and so little enjoyed that I couldn’t tell you now what they were about. And bloody _Ulysses_ - some of the prose is beautiful but never ever read an annotated Joyce novel - it just makes the whole thing umpteen times more painful. On the other hand, some of those books kicked my ass all over the shop. I remember absolutely loving _The Sheltering Sky_. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/79 "2012-06-29T14:34:58Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > It looks like I’ve read about 80%, and it surprised me how few of them I look back on with enjoyment. V.S.Naipal, Nabokov, and many others on that list I’d pay to avoid reading in future. Nearly all of my favorite authors apparently either wrote in the 19th century or are women. I was glad to see Wise Blood and Wide Sargasso Sea on there, but what about Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, Doris Lessing, Willa Cather, Eudora Welty? > > The “readers’ choice” list was also deeply dispiriting. I indexed a run of \*The Nabokovian \*a few years ago. I’m afraid I agree with you. I also agree with you about the readers choice list. It appears that democracy does have its limitations. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/80 "2012-06-29T14:44:30Z")
I was surprised to find that I have read 32 of them. Most of the others I have no interest in reading but there are quite a few that I have never heard of - I didn’t expect that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598.md?page=5)