# greatest novel of the 20th century? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793 "2015-01-24T21:55:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/61 "2015-01-26T17:52:17Z")
While there is no “consensus” as to what the greatest novel(s) of the 20th century might be, almost all the leading contenders are to be found on this list: [http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/](http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/) (The Board’s list, not the readers’ list! The readers show appalling taste, and too much fondness for Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard!) My favorite only made it to #61, alas. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/62 "2015-01-26T17:52:35Z")
> [@Donegal\_Dragon](#): > > Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain I was thinking of that one two, weighed against **A Dance to the Music of Time** ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/63 "2015-01-26T17:57:59Z")
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry The only book I finished and reread a week later. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/64 "2015-01-26T20:52:44Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > While there is no “consensus” as to what the greatest novel(s) of the 20th century might be, almost all the leading contenders are to be found on this list: > > [http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/](http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/) > > (The Board’s list, not the readers’ list! The readers show appalling taste, and too much fondness for Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard!) > > My favorite only made it to #61, alas. So convenient for the compilers of that list that only those who write in English have ever produced something worth reading… ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/65 "2015-01-26T21:02:00Z")
Two non-English contenders are _The Master and Margarita_ (I see already mentioned upthread) and _If on a winter’s night a traveller_ (_Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore_) by Italo Calvino. Another great Italian is Primo Levy: _The Periodic Table_. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/66 "2015-01-26T21:04:54Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > So convenient for the compilers of that list that only those who write in English have ever produced something worth reading… …and, for the most part, who have penises. I counted six women on the list, with no Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Doris Lessing, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, etc., etc. Maybe not all of them deserve to be on the list, but I would expect to find at least a few of them. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/67 "2015-01-26T21:10:02Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > …and, for the most part, who have penises. I counted six women on the list, with no Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Doris Lessing, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, etc., etc. > > Maybe not all of them deserve to be on the list, but I would expect to find at least a few of them. Maya Angelou was not a writer. She was a typist. But the others you name all belong on that list, and Isabel Allende belongs on it twice. ---
**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:** [January 26, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/68 "2015-01-26T21:19:55Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > The readers show appalling taste, and too much fondness for Ayn Rand . . . This is an example of what Rand called “the argument from intimidation.” And it’s obviously fallacious. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/69 "2015-01-26T21:21:56Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This is an example of what Rand called “the argument from intimidation.” And it’s obviously fallacious. Ayn Rand thought Mickey Spillane was the greatest author of the 20th century. She had lousy taste, too. ---
**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:** [January 26, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/70 "2015-01-26T22:46:35Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Ayn Rand thought Mickey Spillane was the greatest author of the 20th century. She had lousy taste, too. She was critical of my paintings, because she could see the brush strokes. You win. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/71 "2015-01-26T23:27:05Z")
Lord of the Rings I found Magic Mountain to be only OK for me. I also think the Silver Chair by CS Lewis is a simply charming book that has almost no faults. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/72 "2015-01-27T00:23:29Z")
Since these are the greatest works ‘in our opinion’, I have to go with the titles that were the most meaningful to me personally. Brave New World - Huxley - incredibly thought-provoking LOTR trilogy - Tolkien - the sheer beauty of language and the power of mythology The Once and Future King - T H White - taught me that a non-fiction master writer could put out a darn good novel, too Centennial - Michener - inspired my lifelong love affair with the American West and taught me the value in impeccable research, even for a work of fiction ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/73 "2015-01-27T01:13:50Z")
Cloudstreet - Tim Winton Greatest Australian novel ever, a novel about finding one’s place in the world when everything you know is changed. or as this audience has a large American contingent a runner up would be Catch 22. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/74 "2015-01-27T01:16:03Z")
LOTR, I prefer the saga he based it largely on “The Kalavala” but that’s not a novel. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/75 "2015-01-27T03:16:21Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > or as this audience has a large American contingent a runner up would be Catch 22. To his credit, I doubt Joseph Heller would accept himself being rated a greater American novelist than (Canadian-born) Saul Bellow. ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/76 "2015-01-27T05:33:30Z")
Journey To The End Of The Night, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/77 "2015-01-27T17:07:29Z")
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. For describing feelings so well that you really experience them. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/78 "2015-01-27T17:22:43Z")
American: **A Confederacy of Dunces** - John Kennedy Toole Non American: **Perfume** - Patrick Suskind ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/79 "2015-01-27T18:17:58Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > To his credit, I doubt Joseph Heller would accept himself being rated a greater American novelist than (Canadian-born) Saul Bellow. Oh, I don’t know. His standard line when people would say that he never wrote another novel as good as _Catch-22_ was, “Who has?” ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793/80 "2015-01-27T21:01:56Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This is an example of what Rand called “the argument from intimidation.” And it’s obviously fallacious. How ironic. “Argument from intimidation” is a far more common fallacy, in my experience, exhibited by Rand sycophants than by detractors. Rand and Hubbard are not on that list for any reasons connected to literary quality, but rather because of the zealotry of their followers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-novel-of-the-20th-century/710793.md?page=5)