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1. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678)
A communicative of a antheral successful hunt of information told with the elemental clarity and quality of Bunyan’s prose marque this the eventual English classic.
2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1719)
By the extremity of the 19th century, nary publication successful English literate past had enjoyed much editions, spin-offs and translations. Crusoe’s world-famous caller is simply a analyzable literate confection, and it’s irresistible.
3. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)
A satirical masterpiece that’s ne'er been retired of print, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels comes 3rd successful our database of the champion novels written successful English
4. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1748)
Clarissa is simply a tragic heroine, pressured by her unscrupulous nouveau-riche household to wed a affluent antheral she detests, successful the publication that Samuel Johnson described arsenic “the archetypal publication successful the satellite for the cognition it displays of the quality heart.”
5. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749)
Tom Jones is simply a classical English caller that captures the tone of its property and whose celebrated characters person travel to correspond Augustan nine successful each its loquacious, turbulent, comic variety.
6. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (1759)
Laurence Sterne’s vivid caller caused delight and consternation erstwhile it archetypal appeared and has mislaid small of its archetypal bite.
7. Emma by Jane Austen (1816)
Jane Austen’s Emma is her masterpiece, mixing the sparkle of her aboriginal books with a heavy sensibility.
8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
Mary Shelley’s archetypal caller has been hailed arsenic a masterpiece of fearfulness and the macabre.
9. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock (1818)
The large pleasance of Nightmare Abbey, which was inspired by Thomas Love Peacock’s relationship with Shelley, lies successful the delight the writer takes successful poking amusive astatine the romanticist movement.
10. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe (1838)
Edgar Allan Poe’s lone caller – a classical escapade communicative with supernatural elements – has fascinated and influenced generations of writers.
11. Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli (1845)
The aboriginal premier curate displayed flashes of brilliance that equalled the top Victorian novelists.
12. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
Charlotte Brontë’s erotic, gothic masterpiece became the sensation of Victorian England. Its large breakthrough was its intimate dialog with the reader.
13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)
Emily Brontë’s windswept masterpiece is notable not conscionable for its chaotic quality but for its daring reinvention of the caller signifier itself.
14. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (1848)
William Thackeray’s masterpiece, acceptable successful Regency England, is simply a bravura show by a writer astatine the apical of his game.
15. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)
David Copperfield marked the constituent astatine which Dickens became the large entertainer and besides laid the foundations for his later, darker masterpieces.
16. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s astounding publication is afloat of aggravated symbolism and arsenic haunting arsenic thing by Edgar Allan Poe.
17. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Wise, comic and gripping, Melville’s epic enactment continues to formed a agelong shadiness implicit American literature.
18. Alice’s Adventures successful Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)
Lewis Carroll’s superb nonsense communicative is 1 of the astir influential and champion loved successful the English canon.
19. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)
Wilkie Collins’s masterpiece, hailed by galore arsenic the top English detective novel, is simply a superb matrimony of the sensational and the realistic.
20. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868-9)
Louisa May Alcott’s highly archetypal communicative aimed astatine a young pistillate marketplace has iconic presumption successful America and ne'er been retired of print.
21. Middlemarch by George Eliot (1871-2)
This cathedral of words stands contiguous arsenic possibly the top of the large Victorian fictions.
22. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (1875)
Inspired by the author’s fury astatine the corrupt authorities of England, and dismissed by critics astatine the time, The Way We Live Now is recognised arsenic Trollope’s masterpiece.
23. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884/5)
Mark Twain’s communicative of a rebel lad and a runaway enslaved seeking liberation upon the waters of the Mississippi remains a defining classical of American literature.
24. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
A thrilling escapade story, gripping past and fascinating survey of the Scottish character, Kidnapped has mislaid nary of its power.
25. Three Men successful a Boat by Jerome K Jerome (1889)
Jerome K Jerome’s accidental classical astir messing astir connected the Thames remains a comic gem.
26. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)
Sherlock Holmes’s 2nd outing sees Conan Doyle’s superb sleuth – and his bluff sidekick Watson – travel into their own.
27. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891)
Wilde’s brilliantly allusive motivation communicative of youth, quality and corruption was greeted with howls of protestation connected publication.
28. New Grub Street by George Gissing (1891)
George Gissing’s portrayal of the hard facts of a literate beingness remains arsenic applicable contiguous arsenic it was successful the precocious 19th century.
29. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (1895)
Hardy exposed his deepest feelings successful this bleak, aggravated caller and, stung by the hostile response, helium ne'er wrote another.
30. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895)
Stephen Crane’s relationship of a young man’s transition to manhood done soldiery is simply a blueprint for the large American warfare novel.
31. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
Bram Stoker’s classical vampire communicative was precise overmuch of its clip but inactive resonates much than a period later.
32. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899)
Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece astir a life-changing travel successful hunt of Mr Kurtz has the simplicity of large myth.
33. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (1900)
Theodore Dreiser was nary stylist, but there’s a terrific momentum to his unflinching caller astir a state girl’s American dream.
34. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901)
In Kipling’s classical boy’s ain spy story, an orphan successful British India indispensable marque a prime betwixt eastbound and west.
35. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)
Jack London’s vivid adventures of a favored canine that goes backmost to quality uncover an bonzer benignant and consummate storytelling.
36. The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1904)
American lit contains thing other rather similar Henry James’s amazing, labyrinthine and claustrophobic novel.
37. Hadrian the Seventh by Frederick Rolfe (1904)
This entertaining if contrived communicative of a hack writer and clergyman who becomes pope sheds vivid airy connected its eccentric writer – described by DH Lawrence arsenic a “man-demon”.
38. The Wind successful the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
The evergreen communicative from the riverbank and a almighty publication to the mythology of Edwardian England.
39. The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells (1910)
The prime is great, but Wells’s ironic representation of a antheral precise similar himself is the caller that stands out.
40. Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm (1911)
The transition of clip has conferred a acheronian powerfulness upon Beerbohm’s ostensibly airy and witty Edwardian satire.
41. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (1915)
Ford’s masterpiece is simply a searing survey of motivation dissolution down the facade of an English man – and its stylistic power lingers to this day.
42. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915)
John Buchan’s espionage thriller, with its sparse, modern prose, is hard to enactment down.
43. The Rainbow by DH Lawrence (1915)
The Rainbow is possibly DH Lawrence’s finest work, showing him for the radical, protean, thoroughly modern writer helium was.
44. Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham (1915)
Somerset Maugham’s semi-autobiographical caller shows the author’s savage honesty and acquisition for storytelling astatine their best.
45. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920)
The communicative of a blighted New York matrimony stands arsenic a fierce indictment of a nine estranged from culture.
46. Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
This representation of a time successful the lives of 3 Dubliners remains a towering work, successful its connection play surpassing adjacent Shakespeare.
47. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1922)
What it lacks successful operation and guile, this enthralling instrumentality connected 20s America makes up for successful vivid satire and characterisation.
48. A Passage to India by EM Forster (1924)
EM Forster’s astir palmy enactment is eerily prescient connected the taxable of empire.
49. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos (1925)
A blameworthy pleasance it whitethorn be, but it is intolerable to place the enduring power of a communicative that helped to specify the jazz age.
50. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)
Woolf’s large caller makes a time of enactment preparations the canvas for themes of mislaid love, beingness choices and intelligence illness.
51. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
Fitzgerald’s jazz property masterpiece has go a tantalising metaphor for the eternal enigma of art.
52. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner (1926)
A young pistillate escapes normal by becoming a witch successful this archetypal satire astir England aft the archetypal satellite war.
53. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)
Hemingway’s archetypal and champion caller makes an flight to 1920s Spain to research courage, cowardice and manly authenticity.
54. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1929)
Dashiell Hammett’s transgression thriller and its hard-boiled leader Sam Spade influenced everyone from Chandler to Le Carré.
55. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (1930)
The power of William Faulkner’s immersive communicative of earthy Mississippi agrarian beingness tin beryllium felt to this day.
56. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
Aldous Huxley’s imaginativeness of a aboriginal quality contention controlled by planetary capitalism is each spot arsenic prescient arsenic Orwell’s much celebrated dystopia.
57. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (1932)
The publication for which Gibbons is champion remembered was a satire of late-Victorian pastoral fabrication but went connected to power galore consequent generations.
58. Nineteen Nineteen by John Dos Passos (1932)
The mediate measurement of John Dos Passos’s USA trilogy is revolutionary successful its intent, techniques and lasting impact.
59. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934)
The US novelist’s debut revelled successful a Paris underworld of seedy enactment and changed the people of the caller – though not without a combat with the censors.
60. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (1938)
Evelyn Waugh’s Fleet Street satire remains sharp, pertinent and memorable.
61. Murphy by Samuel Beckett (1938)
Samuel Beckett’s archetypal published caller is an absurdist masterpiece, a showcase for his uniquely comic voice.
62. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled debut brings to beingness the seedy LA underworld – and Philip Marlowe, the archetypal fictional detective.
63. Party Going by Henry Green (1939)
Set connected the eve of war, this neglected modernist masterpiece centres connected a radical of agleam young revellers delayed by fog.
64. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien (1939)
Labyrinthine and multilayered, Flann O’Brien’s humorous debut is some a reflection on, and an exemplar of, the Irish novel.
65. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
One of the top of large American novels, this survey of a household torn isolated by poorness and desperation successful the Great Depression shocked US society.
66. Joy successful the Morning by PG Wodehouse (1946)
PG Wodehouse’s elegiac Jeeves novel, written during his disastrous years successful wartime Germany, remains his masterpiece.
67. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)
A compelling communicative of idiosyncratic and governmental corruption, acceptable successful the 1930s successful the American south.
68. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (1947)
Malcolm Lowry’s masterpiece astir the past hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat successful Mexico is acceptable to the drumbeat of coming conflict.
69. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen (1948)
Elizabeth Bowen’s 1948 caller perfectly captures the ambiance of London during the blitz portion providing superb insights into the quality heart.
70. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
George Orwell’s dystopian classical outgo its writer beloved but is arguably the best-known caller successful English of the 20th century.
71. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (1951)
Graham Greene’s moving communicative of adultery and its aftermath ties unneurotic respective captious strands successful his work.
72. The Catcher successful the Rye by JD Salinger (1951)
JD Salinger’s survey of teenage rebellion remains 1 of the astir arguable and best-loved American novels of the 20th century.
73. The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1953)
In the long-running hunt to place the great American novel, Saul Bellow’s picaresque 3rd publication often hits the mark.
74. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)
Dismissed astatine archetypal arsenic “rubbish & dull”, Golding’s brilliantly observed dystopian godforsaken land communicative has since go a classic.
75. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Nabokov’s tragicomic circuit de unit crosses the boundaries of bully sensation with glee.
76. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
The originative past of Kerouac’s beat-generation classic, fuelled by pea crockery and benzedrine, has go arsenic celebrated arsenic the caller itself.
77. Voss by Patrick White (1957)
A emotion communicative acceptable against the disappearance of an explorer successful the outback, Voss paved the mode for a procreation of Australian writers to motion disconnected the assemblage past.
78. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
Her 2nd caller yet arrived this summer, but Harper Lee’s archetypal did capable unsocial to unafraid her lasting fame, and remains a genuinely fashionable classic.
79. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1960)
Short and bittersweet, Muriel Spark’s communicative of the downfall of a Scottish schoolmistress is simply a masterpiece of communicative fiction.
80. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
This acerbic anti-war caller was dilatory to occurrence the nationalist imagination, but is rightly regarded arsenic a groundbreaking critique of subject madness.
81. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (1962)
Hailed arsenic 1 of the cardinal texts of the women’s question of the 1960s, this survey of a divorced azygous mother’s hunt for idiosyncratic and governmental individuality remains a defiant, ambitious circuit de force.
82. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
Anthony Burgess’s dystopian classical inactive continues to startle and provoke, refusing to beryllium outshone by Stanley Kubrick’s superb movie adaptation.
83. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (1964)
Christopher Isherwood’s communicative of a cheery Englishman struggling with bereavement successful LA is simply a enactment of compressed brilliance.
84. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)
Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, a existent communicative of bloody execution successful agrarian Kansas, opens a model connected the acheronian underbelly of postwar America.
85. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1966)
Sylvia Plath’s painfully graphic roman à clef, successful which a pistillate struggles with her individuality successful the look of societal pressure, is simply a cardinal substance of Anglo-American feminism.
86. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth (1969)
This wickedly comic caller astir a young Jewish American’s obsession with masturbation caused outrage connected publication, but remains his astir dazzling work.
87. Mrs Palfrey astatine the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (1971)
Elizabeth Taylor’s exquisitely drawn quality survey of eccentricity successful aged property is simply a crisp and witty representation of genteel postwar English beingness facing the changes taking signifier successful the 60s.
88. Rabbit Redux by John Updike (1971)
Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, Updike’s lovably mediocre change ego, is 1 of America’s large literate protoganists, up determination with Huck Finn and Jay Gatsby.
89. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977)
The caller with which the Nobel prize-winning writer established her sanction is simply a kaleidoscopic evocation of the African-American acquisition successful the 20th century.
90. A Bend successful the River by VS Naipaul (1979)
VS Naipaul’s hellish imaginativeness of an African nation’s way to independency saw him accused of racism, but remains his masterpiece.
91. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)
The idiosyncratic and the humanities merge successful Salman Rushdie’s dazzling, game-changing Indian English caller of a young antheral calved astatine the precise infinitesimal of Indian independence.
92. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1981)
Marilynne Robinson’s communicative of orphaned sisters and their oddball aunt successful a distant Idaho municipality is admired by everyone from Barack Obama to Bret Easton Ellis.
93. Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis (1984)
Martin Amis’s era-defining ode to excess unleashed 1 of literature’s top modern monsters successful self-destructive antihero John Self.
94. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (1986)
Kazuo Ishiguro’s caller astir a retired creator successful postwar Japan, reflecting connected his vocation during the country’s acheronian years, is simply a circuit de unit of unreliable narration.
95. The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald (1988)
Fitzgerald’s story, acceptable successful Russia conscionable earlier the Bolshevik revolution, is her masterpiece: a superb miniature whose peculiar magic astir defies analysis.
96. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1988)
Anne Tyler’s portrayal of a middle-aged, mid-American matrimony displays her communicative clarity, comic timing and receptor for American code to perfection.
97. Amongst Women by John McGahern (1990)
This modern Irish masterpiece is some a survey of the faultlines of Irish patriarchy and an elegy for a mislaid world.
98. Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)
A writer of “frightening perception”, Don DeLillo guides the scholar successful an epic travel done America’s past and fashionable culture.
99. Disgrace by JM Coetzee (1999)
In his Booker-winning masterpiece, Coetzee’s intensely quality imaginativeness infuses a fictional satellite that some invites and confounds governmental interpretation.
100. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (2000)
Peter Carey rounds disconnected our database of literate milestones with a Booker prize-winning tour-de-force examining the beingness and times of Australia’s infamous antihero, Ned Kelly.
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