"Top 100 books of all time"

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
1

**The top 100 books of all time**, The Guardian, 8 May 2002

Full list of the 100 best works of fiction, alphabetically by author, as determined from a vote by 100 noted writers from 54 countries as released by the Norwegian Book Clubs. Don Quixote was named as the top book in history but otherwise no ranking was provided.

Chinua Achebe, Nigeria, (b. 1930), Things Fall Apart
Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark, (1805-1875), Fairy Tales and Stories
Jane Austen, England, (1775-1817), Pride and Prejudice
Honore de Balzac, France, (1799-1850), Old Goriot
Samuel Beckett, Ireland, (1906-1989), Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable
Giovanni Boccaccio, Italy, (1313-1375), Decameron
Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina, (1899-1986), Collected Fictions
Emily Bronte, England, (1818-1848), Wuthering Heights

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Albert Camus, France, (1913-1960), The Stranger
Paul Celan, Romania/France, (1920-1970), Poems
Louis-Ferdinand Celine, France, (1894-1961), Journey to the End of the Night
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spain, (1547-1616), Don Quixote
Geoffrey Chaucer, England, (1340-1400), Canterbury Tales
Joseph Conrad, England,(1857-1924), Nostromo
Dante Alighieri, Italy, (1265-1321), The Divine Comedy
Charles Dickens, England, (1812-1870), Great Expectations

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Denis Diderot, France, (1713-1784), Jacques the Fatalist and His Master
Alfred Doblin, Germany, (1878-1957), Berlin Alexanderplatz
Fyodor M Dostoyevsky, Russia, (1821-1881), Crime and Punishment; The Idiot; The Possessed; The Brothers Karamazov
George Eliot, England, (1819-1880), Middlemarch
Ralph Ellison, United States, (1914-1994), Invisible Man
Euripides, Greece, (c 480-406 BC), Medea
William Faulkner, United States, (1897-1962), Absalom, Absalom; The Sound and the Fury
Gustave Flaubert, France, (1821-1880), Madame Bovary; A Sentimental Education
Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain, (1898-1936), Gypsy Ballads
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Colombia, (b. 1928), One Hundred Years of Solitude; Love in the Time of Cholera

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Gilgamesh, Mesopotamia (c 1800 BC).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany, (1749-1832), Faust
Nikolai Gogol, Russia, (1809-1852), Dead Souls
Gunter Grass, Germany, (b.1927), The Tin Drum
Joao Guimaraes Rosa, Brazil, (1880-1967), The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
Knut Hamsun, Norway, (1859-1952), Hunger.
Ernest Hemingway, United States, (1899-1961), The Old Man and the Sea
Homer, Greece, (c 700 BC), The Iliad and The Odyssey

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Henrik Ibsen, Norway (1828-1906), A Doll’s House
The Book of Job, Israel. (600-400 BC).
James Joyce, Ireland, (1882-1941), Ulysses
Franz Kafka, Bohemia, (1883-1924), The Complete Stories; The Trial; The Castle Bohemia
Kalidasa, India, (c. 400), The Recognition of Sakuntala
Yasunari Kawabata, Japan, (1899-1972), The Sound of the Mountain
Nikos Kazantzakis, Greece, (1883-1957), Zorba the Greek
DH Lawrence, England, (1885-1930), Sons and Lovers
Halldor K Laxness, Iceland, (1902-1998), Independent People
Giacomo Leopardi, Italy, (1798-1837), Complete Poems
Doris Lessing, England, (b.1919), The Golden Notebook
Astrid Lindgren, Sweden, (1907-2002), Pippi Longstocking
Lu Xun, China, (1881-1936), Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
Mahabharata, India, (c 500 BC). Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt, (b. 1911), Children of Gebelawi
Thomas Mann, Germany, (1875-1955), Buddenbrook; The Magic Mountain
Herman Melville, United States, (1819-1891), Moby Dick
Michel de Montaigne, France, (1533-1592), Essays. Elsa Morante, Italy, (1918-1985), History
Toni Morrison, United States, (b. 1931), Beloved
Shikibu Murasaki, Japan, (N/A), The Tale of Genji Genji
Robert Musil, Austria, (1880-1942), The Man Without Qualities
Vladimir Nabokov, Russia/United States, (1899-1977), Lolita
Njaals Saga, Iceland, (c 1300).
George Orwell, England, (1903-1950), 1984
Ovid, Italy, (c 43 BC), Metamorphoses
Fernando Pessoa, Portugal, (1888-1935), The Book of Disquiet
Edgar Allan Poe, United States, (1809-1849), The Complete Tales

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Marcel Proust, France, (1871-1922), Remembrance of Things Past
Francois Rabelais, France, (1495-1553), Gargantua and Pantagruel
Juan Rulfo, Mexico, (1918-1986), Pedro Paramo
Jalal ad-din Rumi, Iran, (1207-1273), Mathnawi
Salman Rushdie, India/Britain, (b. 1947), Midnight’s Children
Sheikh Musharrif ud-din Sadi, Iran, (c 1200-1292), The Orchard
Tayeb Salih, Sudan, (b. 1929), Season of Migration to the North
Jose Saramago, Portugal, (b. 1922), Blindness
William Shakespeare, England, (1564-1616), Hamlet; King Lear; Othello
Sophocles, Greece, (496-406 BC), Oedipus the King
Stendhal, France, (1783-1842), The Red and the Black
Laurence Sterne, Ireland, (1713-1768), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
Italo Svevo, Italy, (1861-1928), Confessions of Zeno
Jonathan Swift, Ireland, (1667-1745), Gulliver’s Travels
Leo Tolstoy, Russia, (1828-1910), War and Peace; Anna Karenina; The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
Anton P Chekhov, Russia, (1860-1904), Selected Stories
Thousand and One Nights, India/Iran/Iraq/Egypt, (700-1500).
Mark Twain, United States, (1835-1910), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Valmiki, India, (c 300 BC), Ramayana
Virgil, Italy, (70-19 BC), The Aeneid
Walt Whitman, United States, (1819-1892), Leaves of Grass
Virginia Woolf, England, (1882-1941), Mrs. Dalloway; To the Lighthouse
Marguerite Yourcenar, France, (1903-1987), Memoirs of Hadrian

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Nadia…thank you for making me look so dumb. I have only read (even seen) a handful out of this list. There are lots other that I thought would certainly be among the top 100. Oh well. I still have time.

Thanks for sharing.

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I would still maintain that the hitchhikers guide by douglas adams deserves to be in that list

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4

Why is Mahabharatha dated before Ramayana?

Was Tholkappiyam, thirukkural etc were considered in this?

5

Nadia, thanks for sharing. I've hardly read any of these, and the ones I did were for school only. sigh

Did you come across any such list for non-fiction books? smile

Learn to love yourself, then learn to love one-another

This is not my Paradise

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Did somebody say "

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"?

Maharani jee di JAY HO!

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NYA, has someone hacked into your account?

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What, no sarcasm or wit in your post? …Many of us probably haven’t read the majority of those books, so you are not alone.

Kumarakn, although your queries are excellent I’m afraid I don’t have any answers to them. Bear in mind that drawing up lists like this is highly subjective, and there are certainly many who would argue that books that deserve to be on it are excluded.

Munni, **this** is the best that I was able to come up with; it’s the Modern Library’s list of “the century’s top 100 works of nonfiction”. Out of a hundred, I was able to recognize about two or there in there that I had read

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Nadia…I used up my weekly quota of sarcasm in the Politics forum (what a waste it was!). Wait until next week, I will show you the money. Actually, I have read them all. In fact, I was the one who came up with such a list in the first place. Many of the books on this last were authored by yours truly.

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[This message has been edited by Nadia_H (edited May 09, 2002).]

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Nadia,

Thank you for responding so quickly. So sweet. smile

Learn to love yourself, then learn to love one-another

This is not my Paradise

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No problem, Munni. :)

12

Not having read most of these books is ok i guess and to tell you the truth i have read only 25% of these books but what is frustrating is that there are so many titles n authors i am not even familiar with...never even heard about before. I feel like a cultural failure...sigh

And i dont like this list at all. "Pride and Prejudice" and Anderson's fairy tales are at the very top and books like "Candide", "Heart of Darkness", "Siddhartha" and "Misanthrope" cudn't even make it to the list ? and there is not even a single naturalist writer mentioned in da list...:--/

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Naiko, only 25%? I would never want to meet with you again. KahaN say Un-PaRh loug uth kay aa jatay haiN!

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Jane Austen, England, (1775-1817), Pride and Prejudice – my all time favorite book

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…Wuthering Heights is fine too.

Otherwise I was also not familiar with most of these books.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany, (1749-1832), Faust

This book is a killer but a classical no doubt..the mother of all german books …had to read it for my final year exams in German.

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Ahmadi Saab, i can read 10 to 15 more books from the list if you promise to meet me again...dont be so cruel and give me some credit for reading Austin n Andreson.

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ohh .. Jeeral Ke Wapsi does not count? I am not even 1% then .. :-(

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Thanx for sharing

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Thank you for sharing.. My Favourites are:

Emily Bronte, England, (1818-1848),Wuthering Heights

Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark, (1805 1875), Fairy Tales and Stories
Charles Dickens, England, (1812-1870),Great Expectations

[This message has been edited by Dil he Pakistani (edited May 10, 2002).]

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Don't feel bad Azkar you are not alone out there. Infact most desis fall under the catagory of "cultural nightmares"....

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Does the watching of Mahabharat and Ramayan TV serials count? or one has to read them in English?

I can't read properly most of the author names above...forget reading their books.

NaikLarki, jehRa tusi paRheya ay thoRha thoRha sanu vi piya diyo ghoal ke.:)