# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/121 "2012-07-01T04:29:41Z")
_Lord of the Flies_ is considered a great book? ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/122 "2012-07-01T04:38:45Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > _Lord of the Flies_ is considered a great book? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/123 "2012-07-01T10:25:36Z")
31 (former English major) and suspect in ten years time, that # will not have changed much ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/124 "2012-07-01T10:40:49Z")
No \*To Kill a Mockingbird, \*no \*Watership Down, \*no _Fountainhead_? Who the hell came up with this list? ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/125 "2012-07-01T14:07:16Z")
1. But no A.S. Byatt? No TKaM?! Sod this list. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/126 "2012-07-01T14:16:40Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > Some very excellent short stories - _The Dead_ perhaps foremost among them (although I love _Araby_ too). > > I vote for 20 but have actually read Call of the Wild as well, so 21. And I’d say I got something out of almost all of them. Maybe not A House for Mr. Biswas, which was indeed pretty dire - although I read it because I adored A Bend in the River. > > And yeah, Things Fall Apart should be on there as well as To Kill a Mockingbird, but this isn’t really a thread about the list, I suppose. > > Very surprised there was nothing by Marquez either - or was this English only? I am pretty sure it was English only. There were many books recognized as better than many of those published in other European languages in the 20th century, never mind Latin America and other continents. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/127 "2012-07-01T15:46:41Z")
I too don’t think this list is perfect. But compare it to almost any _musical_ best-of list and it’s the best list since Schindler. ETA my gripe is no Tolkien. I suspect that the movies actually bumped him off the list as being too pop, since when I was growing up Tolkien was in the top 50 of books that we were allowed to for literary references in our literature essays (select anything not on the list at your peril.) ---
**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:** [July 1, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/128 "2012-07-01T18:08:17Z")
The list was compiled in 1998–a couple of years before the first\* LOTR\* movie, But I think the popularity of the book didn’t work in its favor. [A quick look](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels) at the ages of the selection panel makes me feel young! They first knew _LOTR_ as a curious oddity written by an old-fashioned philologist, then saw it become hugely popular among the college kids. (Hey, are there any _new_-fashioned philologists?) The youngest work on the list was published in 1983. Some of the choices are obvious–sorry, Joyce has to be there! But others are the favorites of book lovers who had midcentury heydays. A S Byatt, b. 1936, was on the panel–perhaps she was too shy to nominate her own stuff. _Time Magazine_ made a list of the 100 best novels in the English language published since 1923–when the magazine started. So it will probably skew newer. I haven’t begun paging through–since no unselfish person has typed out for me. From the [How We Picked The List](http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/#how-we-picked-the-list): > [@](#): > > Lists like this one have two purposes. One is to instruct. The other of course is to enrage. We’re bracing ourselves for the e-mails that start out: “You moron! You pathetic bourgeoise insect! How could you have left off…(insert title here).” We say _Mrs. Dalloway_. You say _Mrs. Bridge_. We say _Naked Lunch_. You say _Breakfast at Tiffanys_. Let’s call the whole thing off? Just the opposite—bring it on. Sometimes judgment is best formed under fire. But please, no e-mails about _Ulysses_. Rules are rules. Here’s [the list](http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/#all). ---
**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:** [July 1, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/129 "2012-07-01T18:28:46Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > The list was compiled in 1998–a couple of years before the first\* LOTR\* movie, But I think the popularity of the book didn’t work in its favor. [A quick look](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels) at the ages of the selection panel makes me feel young! They first knew _LOTR_ as a curious oddity written by an old-fashioned philologist, then saw it become hugely popular among the college kids. (Hey, are there any _new_-fashioned philologists?) > > The youngest work on the list was published in 1983. Some of the choices are obvious–sorry, Joyce has to be there! But others are the favorites of book lovers who had midcentury heydays. A S Byatt, b. 1936, was on the panel–perhaps she was too shy to nominate her own stuff. > > _Time Magazine_ made a list of the 100 best novels in the English language published since 1923–when the magazine started. So it will probably skew newer. I haven’t begun paging through–since no unselfish person has typed out for me. From the [How We Picked The List](http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/#how-we-picked-the-list): > > Here’s [the list](http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/#all). I like this list better! Where it doesn’t overlap, the TIME choices are generally more to my taste (there’s a View All button, by the way). 39 of these. ---
**Author:** ![MyFactCheckBounced](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MyFactCheckBounced](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFactCheckBounced)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/130 "2012-07-01T18:32:54Z")
Ha! Another middle-brow 22. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/131 "2012-07-02T04:29:26Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > Yes. Was it a bad century for novels or something? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/132 "2012-07-02T04:51:39Z")
I’ve read more of them than not, but since I was an English major in college, some of them were not exactly my choice (cough, Dreiser, cough). I didn’t count when I’ve only read one of a trilogy (Dos Passos) or quartet (Durrell, actually I think there were five, and I read the last two) or if I started it and gave up. There are some major gaps on that list! Where are the women? Where’s Flannery O’Connor? Where THE FUCK is Toni Morrison? ---
**Author:** ![MyFactCheckBounced](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MyFactCheckBounced](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFactCheckBounced)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/133 "2012-07-02T11:19:15Z")
Oh good lord. Fine. Where’s the genre fiction then? And specifically where’s the genre fiction from the genres I like? And why do we get _Snow Crash_ as the Stephenson entry, because it was the **first** time he messed with our minds, and helped kick off the cyberpunk thing? Can you really tell me that his baroque cycle wasn’t as well written as _Snow Crash?_ (and that’s just on the up-to-date newspaper list most recently posted.) These lists have to be past-biased. We’re surer of things everybody’s argued for 50 years. It gets rid of the “Oh mannnnnn this book’ll blow your minnnnnd man it’s so **relevant** mannnnn” response. Unfortunately in the case of an excluded gender, racial/ethnic group, or genre, you’re stuck in yesterday’s prejudices for 50 more years on the Big Boards. Until time does its inexorable work and fear of genre, gender, and the like disappear with those who found them faddish, we’ll have to accept the tokenism not just of some writers (who conclude, for example, that one can write “women’s fiction,” or “black fiction,” or for that matter, fiction about robots,) but also of the reactionary canon-keepers – who won’t accept a great book that happens to be by someone of a given demographic, or a story about humanity whose _sine qua non_ is nonetheless technological in nature. ---
**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:** [July 2, 2012, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/134 "2012-07-02T11:35:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Unfortunately in the case of an excluded gender, racial/ethnic group, or genre, you’re stuck in yesterday’s prejudices for 50 more years on the Big Boards. So let’s have some alternate lists! If you can’t find one you like, start typing. I’m serious–I’d really like to see some recommendations for the best books by the authors that fit into the neglected demographics. ---
**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:** [July 2, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/135 "2012-07-02T12:32:53Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > _Time Magazine_ made a list of the 100 best novels in the English language published since 1923–when the magazine started. I much prefer that list in that, unlike the OP’s list, all the ones here which I’ve read (23 in all) are books I would heartily recommend to others. Plus it’s got _Watchmen_ on it, which clearly indicates a less stuffy approach to choosing the list. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/136 "2012-07-02T13:03:36Z")
About 25 for me, mostly through high school and college lit courses. It’s a strange list, definitely centered on English-language, British or North American writers. Lots of realism and/or social or political agendas, which define greatness for many, but are not my self-chosen reading favorites. **Colonial** , I agree with you on James Joyce. I suffered through a Joyce seminar in grad school. One of my happiest days was when I sold my Joyce books and Joycean criticism (for good prices!) to the used book stores. After, I stood up straighter, smiled more brightly, and there was a song in my heart again. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/137 "2012-07-02T13:36:41Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > _Time Magazine_ made a list of the 100 best novels in the English language published since 1923–when the magazine started. So it will probably skew newer. I haven’t begun paging through–since no unselfish person has typed out for me. From the [How We Picked The List](http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/#how-we-picked-the-list): > > Here’s [the list](http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/#all). Oh, this is a more modern and inclusive list, and quite a bit more to my taste. I’d be hard put to create such a list…and I’d also be more inclined to create my personal “best-loved” 100, rather than a “best” books list. ---
**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:** [July 2, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/138 "2012-07-02T23:18:05Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > As for startling omissions: _Sacred Hunger,_ anyone? And something from Robinson Davies wouldn’t have been out of place. Pat Barker’s _Regeneration_. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/139 "2012-07-03T01:02:28Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > No \*To Kill a Mockingbird, \*no \*Watership Down, \*no _Fountainhead_? Who the hell came up with this list? :dubious: _Fountainhead_ as in _The Fountainhead_ by Ayn Rand? Whatever one’s political or philosophical leanings, and acknowledging that _Fountainhead_ is certainly a very **important and influential** 20th-century novel, I don’t see how it could possibly qualify for any mainstream list of the **best** 20th-century novels. The writing is, to put it mildly, pretty clunky. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598/140 "2012-07-03T02:50:36Z")
I’ve read fourteen on that list, most of them in high school or college. None of them are among my favorites today. _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and something by Ray Bradbury really ought to be on the list. And omitting _The Lord of the Rings_ is a terrible oversight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-20th-century-novels-which-have-you-read/626598.md?page=8)