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So called 'classic' novels top 100 from The Guardian

Jean Paul Sartre not there!
I would have Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn in there too.
I also agree with @Son of Stan about Joyce. Overrated imo. Same goes for Woolf in my “book” - though I might give her a reread.
 

cluffy said:
21. Massively helped by studying (and enjoying) Jane Austen for a-levels.
Not sure about that list at all. I mean, Frankenstein and Dracula certainly merit their place in popular culture but are they really two of the best novels ever? I haven’t read them so maybe they are.
No Vonnegut? No Iris Murdoch? A Clockwork Orange? Camus? Kundera?
Some great novelists missed out there imo
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The outsider is on the list.

Frankenstein was a proto-sci-fi book written by a teenager so imho is quite a remarkable novel.
 
57 for me.

There's a definite sense that the big American beasts of literature are being given the shove. Updike's firmly out of fashion (though his letters, published last year, were great). Philip Roth, DeLillo, Pynchon, Vonnegut, Steinbeck - all by the wayside. Surprised Cormac McCarthy's still in favour, given the revelations about him - this is probably the last time he'll make it.

Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March really should be in there. Also Stefan Zweig's Beware of Pity. The initial omission of Camus was astonishing - but they issued a correction that put The Stranger in at 71.

One writer who never makes these lists is Patrick White, one of the most neglected Nobel Laureates. Voss should definitely be on the list.
 
Visiting owl said:
With it being the Guardian I will put my bottom dollar on none of the top 10 (being generous) will be a White British male.

Am I close?
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Most random way of asking someone to read the list of the top ten books out loud to you because you can't. :D

In the 100 there about 13 or 14 British White males and quite a few other white males too, mainly Irish, German, American, Russian.

Surely an interesting list like this doesn't have to have British white males disproportionately represented amongst the whole world of literature for it to be worth considering to see if there is something you might fancy trying?

What serious suggestions have you got who are missing that absolutely need to be there for you to recognise that it is a valid list?

There are a couple I would like to see among the 100, top 10 I am not so sure.

It's probably the case that the top ten would have probably featured the same books 30 years ago. Lower down there is more representation of what might be 'world literature' and a few more women authors than might have been the case but not being so parochial isn't a bad thing.
I'll just add, the Telegraph might have Waugh and Wodehouse in there but I am a little surprised they don't feature as they are both very popular with UK lefties
 
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Exapno Mapcase said:
Most random way of asking someone to read the list of the top ten books out loud to you because you can't. :D

In the 100 there about 13 or 14 British White males and quite a few other white males too, mainly Irish, German, American, Russian.

Surely an interesting list like this doesn't have to have British white males disproportionately represented amongst the whole world of literature for it to be worth considering to see if there is something you might fancy trying?

What serious suggestions have you got who are missing that absolutely need to be there for you to recognise that it is a valid list?

There are a couple I would like to see among the 100, top 10 I am not so sure.

It's probably the case that the top ten would have probably featured the same books 30 years ago. Lower down there is more representation of what might be 'world literature' and a few more women authors than might have been the case but not being so parochial isn't a bad thing.
I'll just add, the Telegraph might have Waugh and Wodehouse in there but I am a little surprised they don't feature as they are both very popular with UK lefties
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I don't know man, white British males have traditionally found it very hard to break into the world of publishing. Which makes it all the more annoying when some woman takes the place of a male author under a false name like George Eliot. Think of all the unfortunate white English men who couldn't even get a novel published with all the lasses muscling in on their turf in Manface
 
Only 11 for me but if I included ones I'd started but not finished (yes Ulysses is in that category) it's more like 20.

I'd like to think of myself as reasonably educated but there are some on here I've never even heard of :oops:. I don't know if that's because I'm not that well read, or if the list is just a bit up itself. It's looks a bit Anglo-centric too (the French would be asking where Camus or Zola are, for instance) but I suppose that's to be expected.
 
Only book I ever remember reading at school was Cider With Rosie. I would have enjoyed it if it wasn't read as a chapter a week. I finally read the two follow ups about 30 years later and enjoyed them both. Would love to follow Laurie Lee's journey from Vigo to Malaga one day on a bike.
 
I read about 1/4 of Catch 22 and I didn’t understand what the hell was going on.

Surprised at the omission of the few classics that I have read ie grapes of wrath, mockingbird, animal farm
 
rochey said:
Never read Ulysses but am lead to believe from mates that have, it's a pile of tripe, unintelligible and rambling..

Have Middlemarch on Audiobook and it's good, but no where near as good as anything Hardy wrote and note even top twenty in my book....
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Ulysses not getting much love on here. Like others, I made many attempts to get into it, but couldn't. The key to unlock it was RTE's full cast unabridged audiobook. It brought the whole thing to life. It's now, without doubt, one of my favourite books. A genuine work of genius.

Free download here:

You must be logged on to see external links
 
cluffy said:
Jean Paul Sartre not there!
I would have Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn in there too.
I also agree with @Son of Stan about Joyce. Overrated imo. Same goes for Woolf in my “book” - though I might give her a reread.
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Yes Solzhenitsyn an omission - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich had a huge impact on me, totally out of favour these days.

3 Virginia Woolf's in that list. 3 too many. Hugely influential I appreciate but not particularly an author I enjoyed reading. Surprised the Grapes of Wrath wasn't in there, but having studied that for A Level it put me right off Steinback.

Not much in the way of laughs in that list either.
 
Monty Pigeon said:
Ulysses not getting much love on here. Like others, I made many attempts to get into it, but couldn't. The key to unlock it was RTE's full cast unabridged audiobook. It brought the whole thing to life. It's now, without doubt, one of my favourite books. A genuine work of genius.

Free download here:

You must be logged on to see external links
Click to expand...

Same, couldn't deal with the lack of punctuation in Ulysses, but I'll give that audiobook a go

7 for me

Return of the native
Jude the obscure
Great expectations
David Copperfield
Wuthering heights
Jane Ayre
Middlemarch (I thought Mill on the Floss was better)
 
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