Fan of Fiction: Updating the Best Novels Meta-Lists

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I’ve added four recent “best novels” lists to the Best Novels meta-lists. As you will see, the definition of “novel” is flexible. Some listers have included books that don’t fit within the most strict definitions of the form, such as, for example, A Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories with a framing story. Here are the links:

Best Novels of All Time – Ranked
Best Novels of All Time – Chronological

Here are the top 10 novels:

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Colombia, 1967). By Gabriel García Márquez (on 25 lists)
The Great Gatsby (US, 1925). By F. Scott Fitzgerald (on 24 lists)
Lolita (USSR/US, 1955). By Vladimir Nabokov (on 22 lists)
Anna Karenina (Russia, 1877). By Leo Tolstoy (on 21 lists)
Madame Bovary (France, 1856). By Gustave Flaubert (on 20 lists)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (US, 1884). By Mark Twain (on 20 lists)
Don Quixote (Spain, Pt. 1: 1605; Pt. 2: 1615). By Miguel de Cervantes (on 19 lists)
Wuthering Heights (UK, 1847). By Emily Bronte (on 19 lists)
Moby-Dick (US, 1851). By Herman Melville (on 19 lists)
Crime and Punishment (Russia, 1866). By Fyodor Dostoyevsky (on 19 lists)

The Best Novels lists contain 297 books (or, in some cases, series of books). The great majority of the novels on the list were originally written in English. If you’re looking for more diversity, check out the Best Literature lists.  For your convenience, I’ve included a list of the 239 novels (or, in some cases, works of prose fiction that may not meet the definition of a novel) on the Best Literature list that are not on the Best Novels list (in chronological order):

  1. The Panchatantra (linked stories) (India, c. 300 BCE) – Vishnu Sharma (attrib.)
  2. Satyricon (Roman Empire, c.27-66 CE) – Petronius
  3. The Golden Ass (Roman Empire, c. 158-180 CE) – Apuleius
  4. Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh) (China, c. 1296-1372) – Shi Nai’an (attrib.)
  5. The Decameron (linked stories) Italy, 1350-1353) – Giovanni Boccaccio
  6. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (China, c. 1380-1400) – Luo Guanzhong
  7. The Book of the City of Ladies (Italy/France, 1405) – Christine de Pizan
  8. Le Morte d’Arthur (linked stories) (England, 1485) – Thomas Malory
  9. Utopia (England, 1516) – Thomas More
  10. Journey to the West (Monkey) (China, c. 1540-1560) – Wu Cheng’en
  11. The Heptameron (linked stories) (France, 1558) – Marguerite de Navarre
  12. The Plum in the Golden Vase (China, 1600) – Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng
  13. New Atlantis (England, 1623-1626, pub. 1627) – Francis Bacon
  14. Simplicius Simplicissimus (Germany, 1668) – Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelhausen
  15. The Princess of Cleves (France, 1678) – Madame de La Fayette
  16. Oroonoko (England, 1688) – Aphra Behn
  17. Manon Lescaut (France, 1731) – Abbé Prévost
  18. Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (Great Britain, 1740) – Samuel Richardson
  19. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews(Great Britain, 1742) – Henry Fielding
  20. The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (novella) (Great Britain, 1759) – Samuel Johnson
  21. The Castle of Otranto (Great Britain, 1765) – Horace Walpole
  22. Jacques the Fatalist (France, 1765-1780) – Denis Diderot
  23. The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (Great Britain, 1771) – Tobias Smollett
  24. Evelina (Great Britain, 1778) – Fanny Burney
  25. Dangerous Liaisons (France,1782) – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
  26. Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (Germany, 1796) – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  27. Castle Rackrent (UK, 1800) – Maria Edgeworth
  28. Sense and Sensibility (UK,1811) – Jane Austen
  29. Mansfield Park (UK, 1814) – Jane Austen
  30. Waverley (UK, 1814) – Walter Scott
  31. Ivanhoe (UK, 1820) – Walter Scott
  32. Melmoth the Wanderer (Ireland, 1820) – Charles Maturin
  33. The Betrothed (Italy, 1827) – Alessandro Manzoni
  34. The Wild Ass’s Skin (France, 1831) – Honoré de Balzac
  35. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (France, 1831) – Victor Hugo
  36. Louis Lambert (France, 1832) – Honoré de Balzac
  37. The Girl with the Golden Eyes (France, 1833) – Honoré de Balzac
  38. Eugénie Grandet (France, 1833) – Honoré de Balzac
  39. The Pickwick Papers (UK, 1837) – Charles Dickens
  40. A Hero of Our Time (Russia, pub. 1840, revised 1841) – Mikhail Lermontov
  41. The Deerslayer (US, 1841) – James Fenimore Cooper
  42. Ursule Mirouet (France, 1841) – Honoré de Balzac
  43. A Christmas Carol (UK, 1843) – Charles Dickens
  44. A Harlot High and Low (France, 1847) – Honoré de Balzac
  45. Mary Barton (UK, 1848) – Elizabeth Gaskell
  46. Hard Times (UK, 1854) – Charles Dickens
  47. North and South (UK, 1854-1855) – Elizabeth Gaskell
  48. The Warden (UK, 1855) – Anthony Trollope
  49. Barchester Towers (UK, 1857) – Anthony Trollope
  50. Little Dorrit (UK, 1857) – Charles Dickens
  51. Adam Bede (UK, 1859) – George Eliot
  52. First Love (Russia, 1860) – Ivan Turgenev
  53. The Woman in White (UK, 1860) – Wilkie Collins
  54. The Mill on the Floss (UK, 1860) – George Eliot
  55. Our Mutual Friend (UK, 1864) – Charles Dickens
  56. The Last Chronicle of Barset (UK, 1867) – Anthony Trollope
  57. Thérèse Raquin (France, 1867) – Émile Zola
  58. Phineas Finn (UK, 1869) – Anthony Trollope
  59. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (France, 1870) – Jules Verne
  60. Through the Looking Glass (and What Alice Found There) (UK, 1871) – Lewis Carroll
  61. Erewhon (UK, 1872) – Samuel Butler
  62. Around the World in Eighty Days (France, 1873) – Jules Verne
  63. Far from the Madding Crowd (UK, 1874) – Thomas Hardy
  64. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (US, 1876) – Mark Twain
  65. L’Assommoir (France, 1877) – Émile Zola
  66. Ben-Hur (US, 1880) – Lew Wallace
  67. Nana (France, 1880) – Émile Zola
  68. The Red Room (Sweden, 1880) – August Strindberg
  69. Little Novels of Sicily (Italy, 1883) – Giovanni Verga
  70. Treasure Island (UK, 1883) – Robert Louis Stevenson
  71. The Bostonians (US/UK, 1886) – Henry James
  72. Kidnapped (UK, 1886) – Robert Louis Stevenson
  73. The Mayor of Casterbridge (UK, 1886) – Thomas Hardy
  74. Fortunata and Jacinta (Spain, 1887) – Benito Pérez Galdós
  75. The People of Hemsö (Sweden, 1887) – August Strindberg
  76. The Maias (Portugal, 1888) – José Maria de Eça de Queiroz
  77. The Master of Ballantrae (UK, 1889) – Robert Louis Stevenson
  78. News from Nowhere (UK, 1890) – William Morris
  79. The House by the Medlar Tree (Italy, 1890) – Giovanni Verga
  80. Hunger (Norway, 1890) – Knut Hamsun
  81. Billy Budd (novella) (US, c. 1891, pub. 1924) – Herman Melville
  82. Diary of a Nobody (UK, 1892) – George & Weedon Grossmith
  83. The Time Machine (UK, 1895) – H.G. Wells
  84. Effi Briest (Germany, 1896) – Theodor Fontane
  85. Misericordia (Spain, 1897) – Benito Pérez Galdós
  86. The Invisible Man (UK, 1897) – H.G. Wells
  87. The Way of All Flesh (UK, c. 1899) – Samuel Butler
  88. The Kreutzer Sonata (novella) (Russia, 1899) – Leo Tolstoy
  89. The Confusions of Young Törless (Germany, 1906) – Robert Musil
  90. The Secret Agent (Poland/UK, 1907) – Joseph Conrad
  91. Anne of Green Gables (Canada, 1908) – Lucy Maud Montgomery
  92. The Old Wive’s Tale (UK, 1908) – Arnold Bennett
  93. Under Western Eyes (Poland/UK, 1911) – Joseph Conrad
  94. Zuleika Dobson (UK, 1911) – Max Beerbohm
  95. Death in Venice (novella) (Germany, 1912) – Thomas Mann
  96. Le Grand Meaulnes (France, 1913) – Henry Alain-Fournier
  97. Kokoro (Japan, 1914) – Natsume Soseki
  98. The Metamorphosis (novella) (Austria-Hungary/Czechoslovakia, 1912, pub. 1915) – Franz Kafka
  99. The Magnificent Ambersons (US, 1918) – Booth Tarkington
  100. The Forsyte Saga (three novels and two stories) (UK, 1906-1921) – John Galsworthy
  101. The True Story of Ah Q (novella) (China, 1921-1922) – Lu Xun (Lu Hsun)
  102. Siddhartha (Germany/Switzerland, 1922) – Hermann Hesse
  103. A Lost Lady (US, 1923) – Willa Cather
  104. The Counterfeiters (France, 1925) – André Gide
  105. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (UK, 1926) – Agatha Christie
  106. Amerika (Czechoslovakia, 1911-1914, pub. 1927) – Franz Kafka
  107. Steppenwolf (Germany/Switzerland, 1927) – Hermann Hesse
  108. Lady Chatterley’s Lover (UK, 1928) – D.H. Lawrence
  109. Nadja (France, 1928) – André Breton
  110. Les Enfants Terribles (Frances, 1929) – Jean Cocteau
  111. Point Counter Point (UK, 1928) – Aldous Huxley
  112. The Good Earth (US, 1931) – Pearl Buck
  113. The Radetzky March (Austria, 1932) – Joseph Roth
  114. Tobacco Road (US, 1932) – Erskine Caldwell
  115. Young Lonigan (US, 1932) – James T. Farrell
  116. Miss Lonelyhearts (US, 1933) – Nathanael West
  117. Man’s Fate (France, 1933) – André Malraux
  118. The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (US, 1934) – James T. Farrell
  119. The Postman Always Rings Twice(US, 1934) – James M. Cain
  120. Judgment Day (US, 1935) – James T. Farrell
  121. The Book of Disquiet (Portugal, 1935) – Fernando Pessoa
  122. Rickshaw Boy (China, 1937) – Lao She
  123. Murphy (Ireland, 1938) – Samuel Beckett
  124. Brighton Rock (UK, 1938) – Graham Greene
  125. And Then There Were None (UK, 1939) – Agatha Christie
  126. And Quiet Flows the Don (USSR, 1928-1940) – Mikhail Sholokhov
  127. The Third Policeman (Ireland, 1939-1940) – Flann O’Brien
  128. The Tartar Steppe (Italy, 1940) – Dino Buzzati
  129. Our Lady of the Flowers (France, 1942-1943) – Jean Genet
  130. The Bridge on the Drina (Yugoslavia, 1945) – Ivo Andrić
  131. The Berlin Stories (two novellas) (UK, 1945) – Christopher Isherwood
  132. Pippi Longstocking (Sweden, 1945) – Astrid Lindgren
  133. Titus Groan (UK, 1946) – Mervyn Peake
  134. The Palm-Wine Drinkard (Nigeria, 1946) – Amos Tutola
  135. Doctor Faustus (Germany, 1947) – Thomas Mann
  136. The Makioka Sisters (Japan, 1948) – Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
  137. Snow Country (Japan, 1948) – Yasunari Kawabata
  138. Cry, the Beloved Country (South Africa, 1948) – Alan Paton
  139. The Kingdom of This World (Cuba, 1949) – Alejo Carpentier
  140. The Man with the Golden Arm (US, 1949) – Nelson Algren
  141. A Town Like Alice (UK, 1950) – Nevil Shute
  142. The Family Moskat (Poland/US, 1950) – Isaac Bashevis Singer
  143. Gormenghast (UK, 1950) – Mervyn Peake
  144. The Opposing Shore (France, 1951) – Julien Gracq
  145. Foundation (USSR/US, 1951) – Isaac Asimov
  146. From Here to Eternity (US, 1951) – James Jones
  147. Day of the Triffids (UK, 1951) – John Wyndham
  148. Lucky Jim (UK, 1953) – Kingsley Amis
  149. The Long Goodbye (US, 1953) – Raymond Chandler
  150. The Lost Steps(Cuba, 1953) – Alejo Carpentier
  151. Bonjour Tristesse (France, 1954) – Françoise Sagan
  152. I’m Not Stiller (Switzerland, 1954) – Max Frisch
  153. The Quiet American (UK, 1955) – Graham Greene
  154. The Talented Mr. Ripley (UK, 1955) – Patricia Highsmith
  155. The Fall (France, 1956) – Albert Camus
  156. Seize the Day (US, 1956) – Saul Bellow
  157. The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (Brazil, 1956)
    – João Guimarães Rosa
  158. The Wapshot Chronicle (US, 1957) – John Cheever
  159. A Death in the Family (US, 1957) – James Agee
  160. Voss (Australia, 1957) – Patrick White
  161. The Baron in the Trees (Italy, 1957) – Italo Calvino
  162. Jealousy (France, 1957) – Alain Robbe-Grillet
  163. The Once and Future King (UK, 1958) – T.H. White
  164. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (US, 1958) – Truman Capote
  165. Titus Alone (UK, 1959) – Mervyn Peake
  166. Henderson the Rain King (US, 1959) – Saul Bellow
  167. Solaris (Poland, 1961) – Stanislaw Lem
  168. The Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1962) – Kobo Abe
  169. Cat’s Cradle(US, 1963) – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
  170. (US, 1963) – Thomas Pynchon
  171. Arrow of God (Nigeria, 1964) – Chinua Achebe
  172. Dune (US, 1965) – Frank Herbert
  173. The Magus (UK, 1966) – John Fowles
  174. The Crying of Lot 49 (US, 1966) – Thomas Pynchon
  175. The Fixer (US, 1966) – Bernard Malamud
  176. The First Circle (USSR, 1968) – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  177. Myra Breckenridge (US, 1968) – Gore Vidal
  178. The Godfather (US, 1969) – Mario Puzo
  179. Them (US, 1969) – Joyce Carol Oates
  180. The Left Hand of Darkness (US, 1969) – Ursula K. Le Guin
  181. The Sea of Fertility (four novels) (Japan, 1964-1970, pub. 1969-1971) – Yukio Mishima
  182. Deliverance (US, 1970) – James Dickey
  183. The Ogre (France, 1970) – Michel Tournier
  184. Angle of Repose (US, 1971) – Wallace Stegner
  185. Watership Down (US, 1972) – Richard Adams
  186. The Siege of Krishnapur (UK, 1973) – J.G. Farrell
  187. The Conservationist (South Africa, 1974) – Nadine Gordimer
  188. Dog Soldiers (US, 1974) – Robert Stone
  189. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (UK, 1974) – John Le Carré
  190. Humboldt’s Gift (US, 1975) – Saul Bellow
  191. The Periodic Table (Italy, 1975) – Primo Levi
  192. The Shining (US, 1977) – Stephen King
  193. The Sea, the Sea (UK, 1978) – Iris Murdoch
  194. The Ghost Writer (US, 1979) – Philip Roth
  195. The Executioner’s Song (US, 1980) – Norman Mailer
  196. So Long, See You Tomorrow (US, 1980) – William Maxwell
  197. Obasan (Canada, 1981) – Joy Kogawa
  198. So Long A Letter (Senegal, 1981) – Mariama Bâ
  199. The Women of Brewster Place (US, 1982) – Gloria Naylor
  200. The Life and Times of Michael K. (South Africa, 1983) – J.M. Coetzee
  201. Ironweed (US, 1983) – William Kennedy
  202. The Accidental Tourist (US, 1985) – Anne Tyler
  203. Nervous Conditions (Zimbabwe, 1988) – Tsitsi Dangaremba
  204. Oscar and Lucinda (Australia, 1988) – Peter Carey
  205. The Alchemist (Brazil, 1988) – Paulo Coelho
  206. A Prayer for Owen Meany (US, 1989) – John Irving
  207. The Power of One (South Africa/Australia, 1989) – Bryce Courtenay
  208. Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico, 1989) – Laura Esquivel
  209. Billy Bathgate (US, 1989) – E.L. Doctorow
  210. Get Shorty (US, 1990) – Elmore Leonard
  211. Possession (UK, 1990) – A.S. Byatt
  212. A Thousand Acres (US, 1991) – Jane Smiley
  213. Mao II (US, 1991) – Don DeLillo
  214. The English Patient (Canada, 1992) – Michael Ondaatje
  215. The Secret History (US, 1992) – Donna Tartt
  216. Operation Shylock (US, 1993) – Philip Roth
  217. The Stone Diaries (US/Canada, 1993) – Carol Shields
  218. The Shipping News (US, 1993) – E. Annie Proulx
  219. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (UK, 1994) – Louis De Bernières
  220. The Rings of Saturn (Germany, 1995) – W.G. Sebald
  221. A Fine Balance (India/Canada, 1995) – Rohinton Mistry
  222. Mason & Dixon (US, 1997) – Thomas Pynchon
  223. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials II) (UK, 1997) – Philip Pullman
  224. The God of Small Things (India, 1997) – Arundhati Roy
  225. The Hours (US, 1998) – Michael Cunningham
  226. Waiting (China/US, 1999) – Ha Jin
  227. The Human Stain(US, 2000) – Philip Roth
  228. The Blind Assassin (Canada, 2000) – Margaret Atwood
  229. Blonde (US, 2000) – Joyce Carol Oates
  230. The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials III) (UK, 2000) – Philip Pullman
  231. Life of Pi (Canada, 2001) – Yann Martel
  232. The Namesake (India/US, 2003) – Jhumpa Lahiri
  233. The Kite Runner (Afghanistan/US, 2003) – Khaled Hosseini
  234. The Known World (US, 2003) – Edward P. Jones
  235. Gilead (US, 2004) – Marilynne Robinson
  236. The Book Thief (Australia, 2005) – Markus Zusak
  237. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Dominican Republic/US, 2007) – Junot Diaz
  238. Station Eleven (Canada, 2014) – Emily St. John Mandel
  239. The Underground Railroad (US, 2016) – Colson Whitehead

 

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