# The Twentieth Century - Best Novels (First Cut) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901 "2006-04-08T23:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/21 "2006-04-09T06:15:10Z")
**Pale Fire** by Vladimir Nabokov. A hell of a mystery, alternately soaked in pathos and hilarity. Probably the most influential “Unreliable Narrator” novel written, and one of the most effective. The poem that Nabokov wrote for the book - Shade’s poem that the “author”/narrator is dissecting - is absolutely masterful, with some of the most amazingly gorgeous couplets existing in _any_ poetry - “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain/by the false azure of the window paine…” **Labyrinths** by Jorge Luis Borges. Short stories as math problems, as paradoxes, as puzzles, as optical-literal illusions, as theorems given flesh. Untouched by anyone attempting to do the same thing. **Gravity’s Rainbow** by Thomas Pynchon. Alternately hilarious, denser-than-dense, full of allusions to literally everything in human history, from music to literature to 14th century politics to comic books. Transformative and mind-reprogramming; text as mind-altering drug. Epic. Kierkegaard reference in one sentence, potty humor in the next. Somehow completely different every time you read it. An unreadable book that’s simultaneously a page-turner. The book that “Ulysses” wants to be when it grows up. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/22 "2006-04-09T08:12:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > > [@OtakuLoki](#): > > > > The War of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. A truly ground-breaking work - one of the more influential works of the twentieth century, almost single-handedly creating a new fiction industry. > > Did he write another Rings novel I’m not familiar with? er… It was a _test_. Yeah, that’s it. I was testing to see who’d call me on mistitling The **Lord** of the Rings. :smack: :o ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/23 "2006-04-09T09:29:37Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Erich Maria Remarque. Not sure when exactly the English translation first appeared, or if the first translation is the one I know and love (beginning “We are at rest five miles behind the front”), but a painful and poetic work. I think you’re safe with this one, since it’s about WWI and so was definitely written in the twentieth century. I’m sure you knew that though, so I will just casually toss off that it was published in German in the late 1920s and translated into English soon after that. I’m not sure who else is going to agree with me with the next two suggestions, since I haven’t met too many other people who enjoyed these books as much as I did, but to hell with that. Epistolary novels are an on-again/off-again passion of mine, and these are two of my favorites. _Possession_ by AS Byatt – Told partly through diary entries and letters from the nineteenth century, this is a story of entangling romances and family secrets and a billion other delicious things. It’s kind of a Victorian novel set in late 1980s England, but it’s Victorian without the treacle. Naturally, much better and more subtle than the movie based on it. Byatt has a beautiful prose style that matches the topic and themes of the book perfectly. The only criticism I have of it is that it the ending relies upon coincidence, but that’s appropriate considering the nineteenth century influence. _Freedom & Necessity_ by Emma Bull and Steven Brust – Totally an epistolary novel, the authors absolutely nail the voice of the characters. Each one is separate and distinct in the letters and journal entries, which is no mean feat. Class struggle and Corn Laws and Frederich Engels, all set during the period England was closest to a real revolution. The saddest part about it is that it was marketed as a sci-fi/fantasy novel, as Brust and Bull usually write in that genre, but it’s almost pure historical fiction. Easily one of the best books I’ve read. Here’s one I can’t imagine many people arguing with: _Flowers for Algernon_ by Daniel Keyes. Probably the best and most effective use of the epistolary technique in the 20th century. Definitely the most well-known. I’m tempted to suggest _The Doomsday Book_ by Connie Willis, just because it’s really, really good, but I’m not sure it has enough “literary” force to propel onto the list. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/24 "2006-04-10T09:09:29Z")
A couple of more nominations (And bumping the thread for the work week crowd.): Last Call, by Tim Powers. A fascinating book, taking the Fisher King legend, the Tarot, mystical powers, gambling, and math all as fodder for this story of redemption and struggle. I’ve been re-reading it every four or five years since I first discovered it, and always find something new to fascinate me in the prose, and story. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. (How did I forget it in my original suggestions?) Do I really need to say more? 😉 Seriously, a charming, simple book that is about so much more than it appears. Another book that rewards rereading, and simply refreshes the spirit. The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis. Another wonderful epistlatory novel. Since I’m the OP, I’m also going to twist the definition of ‘novel’ to allow me to put The Lorax by Dr. Suess on this list. Good propaganda goes down the reader’s mental throat without a hiccough - just sits there lurking, and adusting the way the reader then views the world. The Lorax, I think, is likely to prove, in the end, even more influential and important to modern environmentalism than even Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/25 "2006-04-10T11:37:06Z")
**Animal Farm** by George Orwell- one of the few books I know that I can appreciate both when read to a 12-year-old child and when discussed by an English Lit. class. Actually, nearly anything by Orwell is really good (Down and Out, Homage to Catalonia, Burmese Days) **The Man in the High Castle** by Philip K. Dick. A serious work of brilliance, probably the best Dick novel I’ve read, and grossly underappreciated. **Starship Troopers** Probably in the top 5 sf books of all time, and also in the bottom 5 film adaptions of all time. The only piece of sci-fi to be on the reading list of all five US military academies (according to Wikipedia), and a powerful discussion of what it means to be a citizen. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/26 "2006-04-10T15:07:43Z")
I would lean heavily toward “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee as a nearly perfect work. Translated works opens a huge can of worms and personal preferences. I would lean toward S.Y. Agnon, though I really can’t pick which of his works to include. If we can include Poetry, I vote for “Transformations” by Anne Sexton as a must read from the 20th Century. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/27 "2006-04-10T15:28:18Z")
Something I love about this board: Answers like my favorite the Lord of the Rings are very common but I have seen many people put “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee up and yet of all my IRL friends only one has even read it. I like that \*\*ddgryphon \*\* also thinks it is near perfect. This book was never required reading in school that I know of and yet many people on the SDMB have found and read it. Jim ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/28 "2006-04-10T15:35:53Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > If we can include Poetry, I vote for “Transformations” by Anne Sexton as a must read from the 20th Century. I think I’d prefer to keep both poetry and plays out of this. I know that will cut Anne Sexton’s works out from consideration, as well as Jean-Paul Satre and George Bernard Shaw. But my reasoning is that a proper play is supposed to be more than just words on the page, but an interactive creation with people other than the author getting involved. Poetry is so subjective as to make concerns about translations trivial. If we get to arguing poetry, or even trying to nominate poetry, we’ll end up with a contingent of people pushing Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot. And others pushing Ogden Nash. And there just seems to be no room for compromise between the two camps. 😉 On preview: Jim, I have to burst your bubble - I got TKAM in HS reading. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/29 "2006-04-10T15:40:09Z")
Jim: If it makes you feel better, I read it (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) on my own in my 20’s and was never assigned it in High School. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/30 "2006-04-10T16:03:06Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > Jim: > > If it makes you feel better, I read it (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) on my own in my 20’s and was never assigned it in High School. Though I think most folks in my school district read it in high school or middle school (1990s). ---
**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:** [April 10, 2006, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/31 "2006-04-10T16:10:04Z")
**The Great Gatsby** is perhaps the most beautifully written of the great American novels. Every time I read it I’m just stunned all over again by the language. **Catch-22** is so good that I have to deliberately keep myself from going anywhere near the book, because every time I open it I reread the whole thing. **To Kill a Mockingbird** is about children, race, law, and culture. The logical successor to The Adventures of Huck Finn as the great American novel. Now for choices others haven’t already mentioned. E. L. Doctorow has done a string of distinguished books but he never topped the one-two punch of **The Book of Daniel** and **Ragtime**. Ralph Ellison poured everything he had into **Invisible Man**. So what if he never published anything else. Salmon Rushdie’s **Midnight’s Children** , winner of the Booker of Bookers, the seminal novel about the Indian nation and the endless unfulfilled possibilities it suffers with. A couple of more recent books that I think will attain classic status: **Cloudsplitter** , by Russell Banks, a huge fictionalized life of John Brown that captures the pre-war U.S. in powerful precise detail. **Cryptonomicon** , by Neal Stephenson, another huge book, sprawling, exhausting, but more richly imagined than any other recent novel. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/32 "2006-04-10T16:16:28Z")
I’ll second **Babbitt** but suggest **Main Street** , also Sinclair Lewis, as well. They’re both superb. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/33 "2006-04-10T16:48:08Z")
I’m going to vote for **My Antonia** by Willa Cather. It’s a wonderfully elegiac book, and perfectly captures that pioneer era that lasted for about a nanosecond before the land was filled up and tamed, and before the ethnic stew of the pioneers was boiled down into Americans. And just to give a nod to non-American authors, I’m a big admirer of **The Radetzky March** , by Joseph Roth. As with **My Antonia** , it’s an elegiac look back at a world that couldn’t last – in this case, the world of the Austro-Hungarian empire just before World War I. Its nostalgia is shot through with a sense of decadence and doom. I like the translation by Eve Tucker, but unfortunately it’s out of print. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/34 "2006-04-10T17:22:40Z")
> [@Miss Purl McKnittington](#): > > _Freedom & Necessity_ by Emma Bull and Steven Brust – Totally an epistolary novel, the authors absolutely nail the voice of the characters. Each one is separate and distinct in the letters and journal entries, which is no mean feat. Class struggle and Corn Laws and Frederich Engels, all set during the period England was closest to a real revolution. The saddest part about it is that it was marketed as a sci-fi/fantasy novel, as Brust and Bull usually write in that genre, but it’s almost pure historical fiction. Easily one of the best books I’ve read. > > Here’s one I can’t imagine many people arguing with: _Flowers for Algernon_ by Daniel Keyes. Probably the best and most effective use of the epistolary technique in the 20th century. Definitely the most well-known. But neither is up to John Barth’s **LETTERS, an old time epistolary novel by seven fictitious drolls & dreamers, each of which himself himself factual.** Barth takes the letters of seven different characters, most from his previous novels, and weaves them amazingly. For instance, the first letter of each letter, if placed on a calendar turned sideways according to the date they were written, spells out LETTERS and the subtitle of the novel I’d pick **Sot-Wee** over it as Barth’s entry, but if you like that sort of thing, take a look at Letters. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/35 "2006-04-10T17:44:16Z")
Okay, let’s see how much further we can bend the rules. How about Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” or perhaps _Youth_, the collection in which it appeared? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/36 "2006-04-10T17:55:43Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > Okay, let’s see how much further we can bend the rules. How about Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” or perhaps _Youth_, the collection in which it appeared? Well, considering that I said nothing for **VC03** ’s nomination of **Labyrinths** by Jorge Luis Borges, I think I’ll have to allow short story collections. (Or at least novellas… yeah, that’s my figleaf - novellas.) Seriously, let’s put Youth by Joseph Conrad on the list. Any objections from the rest of you? ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/37 "2006-04-10T18:52:00Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Well, considering that I said nothing for **VC03** ’s nomination of **Labyrinths** by Jorge Luis Borges, I think I’ll have to allow short story collections. (Or at least novellas… yeah, that’s my figleaf - novellas.) > > Seriously, let’s put Youth by Joseph Conrad on the list. > > Any objections from the rest of you? ::thumps walking stick on floor:: ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/38 "2006-04-10T20:16:16Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Well, > > **Ulysses** by Joyce is the obvious, conventional-wisdom choice. It’s the best novel noone’s ever read. _I’ve_ read it! (who you callin’ noone??) Okay, yes it is indeed a slough, and doesn’t seem like it has any direction for most of the novel, but I will say by the end of the book I hadn’t gotten so into the rhythm of the prose that it was tough reading anything else, without it sounding simplistic & juvenile. In that way, it reminded me of “100 Years of Solitude” - I didn’t realize how much I liked the book until after I’d finished it. Anyhoo…some books I didn’t see listed yet: **One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest** by Ken Kesey - It not merely captures the hysteria & revolutions of the 1960s, it predicted them. That was quite a literary feat - to realize ahead of time the social upheaval that would take place. **Alias Grace** by Margaret Atwood - Forget the Handmaid’s Tale, this is her best book (IMO). **Giovanni’s Room** by James Baldwin - Anyone who felt moved to tears by ‘Brokeback Mountain’ - either the book or the movie - really ought to check out this earlier, much better story on the same subject matter. **Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil** by Mark Berendt **Go Ask Alice** by anonymous dead teen - ahahahahaha, just kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/39 "2006-04-10T20:31:02Z")
I didn’t mean to hit “submit” so soon. I wasn’t finished with my post. Actually, I just realized “Midnight” wouldn’t be eligible since it’s non-fiction. Sorry, I withdraw it. **the Phantom Tollbooth** and **A Wrinkle in Time** are both aimed primarily at young audiences, but great novels nonetheless (and if "Harry Potter’ can be considered for this list, well then so can these two books!) Would **Breakfast at Tiffany’s** count? It is typically considered a _novella_ rather than a short-story. **Catcher in the Rye** by J.D. Salinger - I didn’t see this mentioned. **On the Road** by Jack Kerouac - also seems to be neglected. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901/40 "2006-04-10T20:55:43Z")
A few more modern ones from me: **The Satanic Verses** and **Midnight’s Children** , Salman Rushdie. **The Ghost Road** trilogy by Pat Barker is a most amazing and harrowing recounting of the mental effects of World War I. For children, the **His Dark Materials** trilogy by Phillip Pullman. I’ll also add a vote **A Prayer for Owen Meany**. It might not be ground-breaking, but it is still significant in its treatment of Vietnam. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-twentieth-century-best-novels-first-cut/351901.md?page=3)