Mine's an "outie"...

/Wait... what?

Tristam Shandy is high on the list. I thought no one could finish it.

36. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
Its savage bleakness makes it one of the first twentieth-century novels.

Um... wouldn't it's publishing date be what makes it one of the first twentieth-century novels?

Dammit! Its, not it's.

Grrr....

It's not news; it's old news.

Read 11 & parts of about 20 others. List is about 50% right if you are counting only English speaking writers, heavy on the Brits.

Robinson Crusoe is so awesome. So is Catcher in the Rye. And Catch 22. And all the other books on this list I've read. Hell, I even like Jude the Obscure.

The descriptions are breathtakingly mindboggling, bringing the story to life right inside your noggin!

2. Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan
The one with the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair.

what no one has complained that the Bible isn't on that list?

/kidding
//Cath-o-lic
///Roman Catholic
////slashies

Henderson the Rain King is better than Herzog, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles is better than Jude the obscure. But nice to see both authors make the list, anyway.

The 100 greatest novels of all time

...according to some geeks with no ideas for something newsworthy...

34. The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
A coded and epigrammatic melodrama inspired by his own tortured homosexuality.

Not really, but I guess anytime someone's gay, their sexuality needs to be a focal point in the interpretation of all of their life's work.

Methinks he missed the point of the whole damn book.

How could The Fountainhead miss the list?

Eddie's Bastard by William Kowalski is about the greatest book I've ever read.

What's a novel?

I'm guessing this is here to couteract the 10 most dangerous books thread?

No John Steinbeck? What a suckie list! For sure some good ones on there.... but without Steinbeck???? Meh.

/obviously my favorite author

And no, i'm not trolling :-)

Not to say communism has worked well so far but philispohically it's hard to fault it or socialism.

Probably is people are arseholes.

But hey...this happens in 'democracy' too....

probably = problem

Pretty good list. I've read a lot of them, but I may use it as a reading list for a little while.

Seems to be bending over backwards to include American stuff though (LA Confidential, indeed), probably because the Waterstones one was criticised for not doing so.

It's so heavy on Victorian writing that the list can safely be ignored.

How could The Fountainhead miss the list?

cus it sucks?

lardog: How could The Fountainhead miss the list?

My experience with that novel begins and ends when a college roommate of mine - with whom I didn't always agree, but whose intellect I have always and will always admire - came home from class one day, and, having finished with his obligatory reading of that book, tossed The Fountainhead on the barbecue in our backyard, said "here's your farking Fountainhead!!" as he doused it with charcoal fluid, then set it ablaze and walked off.

THAT is one book I know I needn't ever bother with...

I've read about half of them. Then I quit reading. Books.

Unemployment and a library card sometimes can be enriching.

"Stranger In A Strange Land" didn't make the cut.

"Atlas Shrugged" didn't make it either.

I could have tolerated lesser novels by either author, supported by the arguments that their lesser works contained a stronger, simpler, purer form of the essence each author was trying to convey.

But to ignore and omit both of these great 20th century thinkers is both shallow and ignorant.

Furthermore, a lot of the stuff included wasn't all that good.

Oh yeah, and where was Steinbeck? And why was only the most obscure Hemingway included, anyone ever heard of "The Old Man And The Sea?"

Crap, pure crap.

I call BS, Twain wasn't even in the top 20.

Not enough flamewars on Fark.com today? Another "best books" / "worst books" thread? Give me a break.

Go go advertising dollars! Flamewar away!

Where are War And Peace and Crime And Punishment? Where's Jules Verne or Turgenev or Dreiser or..... fark it, lists like these are idiotic.

Meh, I have read about 15 of these books and liked maybe 5 of them. Give me some David Foster Wallace or Tom Robbins anyday.

No Watership Down....

...and so many other great novels. Good to see The Tin Drum there - great book!

No John Irving?

/pout

Original Gamer:

Communist Manifesto is not a Novel. Though it does deserve to be up there with the best philosophical works of all time.

I've read about 1/4 of those, and I'm an English major. Some of them I disagree with (I loved Jane Eyre, but Wuthering Heights can DIAF).

I didn't see Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath...that should be on there. And no Chronicles of Narnia? Richard Wright's Native Son? A few Iris Murdoch novels?

Of course, YMMV..

Don Quioxte at number 1 makes the list useless. Thank you for sparing my time.

The British are much much better when it comes to these literary "Best of..." things than Americans and the Guardian/Observer, in my mind, is the best newspaper in the world.

Having just read Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" I think I'd have trouble putting it in the top 100 - though it is an enjoyable book.

Kerouc's "On the Road" bores me to tears. I've wanted to like this book, tried reading it three times and can never make it more than halfway through. Overrated.

Feh. The list includes Ulysses and excludes The Fountainhead. Crapola.

Every day it's top 100 best novels this, 50 best books that. I've seen lists with Ulysses at #1 and Deliverence at #2. A list that includes Lord of the Rings but does not include A Clockwork Orange is free to eat the corn out of my freshly excreted dinner.

64. The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien
Enough said!


Raising the question, "Is this a greatest all-time list of novels or just a favourites list?"


The Lord of the Rings was a great trilogy of books, but when you put something like, "Enough Said!". It kind of puts a damper on your credibility to make a list like this.

The Fountainhead is great, Atlas Shrugged is greater.

My favorite on the list is To Kill a Mockingbird.

Of Dahl's books, I favor Matilda and The Witches over the BFG, but the BFG is probably the better writing, I'll admit.

The list is in chronological order that's why Don Quioxte is number 1.

Rand was a definate miss, even if you don't like her philosophy Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are both among the greatest english language novels ever written.

What?

Oscar And Lucinda by none other than Peter Carey was only 92nd?

What is the world coming to? Drew Carey's Dirty Jokes and Beer was f'ing 23rd.

mattejob: Good to see The Tin Drum there - great book!

Amen! That book inspired me to learn German - just to read the original.

/it was worth it.

Dune?

LA Confidential is on the list but The Grapes of Wrath isnt? East of Eden? Gravity's Rainbow?

List's anglocentric.

Didn't know Roald Dahl helped make Doom.

I've read five of them, I must be in the dumb 50%. I'll give back my Ph.D.

to all those who are whining about ayn rand not being listed: stfu. she is a piece of shiat whose writing is not worth the pages it's printed on.

I don't know when was the last time this story was posted, but the following is definitely the first time it was posted.

[Guardian.com] [Unlikely] The 100 greatest novels of all time (∞)

October 13, 2003

How could The Fountainhead miss the list?

You're kidding, right?