Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of all Time

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Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of all Time

Post by Chauncey »

Which have you read ?

The Board List:

ULYSSES by James Joyce

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce

LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner

CATCH-22

DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler

SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence

THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry

THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler

1984 by George Orwell

I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison

NATIVE SON by Richard Wright

HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow

APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara

U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos

WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson

A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster

THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James

THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James

TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald

THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell

THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James

SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser

A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh

AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner

ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren

THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder

HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin

THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene

LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

DELIVERANCE by James Dickey

A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell

POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley

THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway

THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad

NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad

THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence

WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence

TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer

PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth

PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov

LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett

PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford

HE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton

ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm

THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy

DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones

THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham

HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad

MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis

THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton

THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell

A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes

A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway

SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark

FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce

KIM by Rudyard Kipling

A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh

THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow

ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner

A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul

THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen

LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad

RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow

THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett

THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London

LOVING by Henry Green

MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie

TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell

IRONWEED by William Kennedy

THE MAGUS by John Fowles

WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys

UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch

SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron

THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain

THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
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Post by Chauncey »

There is also a Readers List which was decided by poll. In that list 7 out of the top 10 are either by Ayn Rand or L.R. Hubard. I Like Ayn Rand's novels even though I don't agree with her philosophy but I didn't expect to see sooooo many books by her so high on the list. I havn't read L. Ron. There are other great books on that list though and I may post it later depending on how this thread goes.
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Re: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of all Time

Post by Chauncey »

heres my answer:

not even 1/4 of them! (And its the usual suspects as well)


BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner

THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

1984 by George Orwell

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

DELIVERANCE by James Dickey

TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce

THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London

WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
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Post by crotchgrabber »

where did this list come from?
who decided what goes on it?

i mean... no camus? no dostoevsky?
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Re: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of all Time

Post by ReverseEngineer »

Chauncey";p="937096 wrote:Which have you read ?

The Broad List:

ULYSSES by James Joyce
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
CATCH-22
1984 by George Orwell
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
That said, I've read other authors on the list,
and many of the books are on my "to do" pile

but I don't think it's a very good list.
crotchgrabber";p="937107 wrote:i mean... no camus? no dostoevsky?
i mean... no garcia-marquez?
how many faulkner and joyce books does one really need to read?
And can Finnegan's Wake really be considered a "novel", given its circularity?
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Post by Don Eduardo »

No Dickens. No Moby Dick.

All in all, not much of a list.
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Post by touchy feely »

oh fuck! its LIST CONTROVERSY~!
:doubt:
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Post by ReverseEngineer »

Chauncey";p="937101 wrote:I Like Ayn Rand's novels even though I don't agree with her philosophy
I'm sort of (SORT OF!) the opposite. Her 'philosophy' has some (SOME!) merits, but her novels are garbage that children can read, thus undoing the 'integrity' she holds dear.
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Post by Chauncey »

I put the sexy in dislexic. I put "Broad list" but it should have said "Board list". The Modern Library made the list and heres what they say about it:

In 1998 and 1999, members of the Modern Library Board participated in the "100 Best" project, voting on the 100 Best Novels and 100 Best Non-fiction works, respectively.The Modern Library project was designed to spark a lively, ongoing discussion about great literature

Board Members:

Maya Angelou

Caleb Carr

Christopher Cerf

Richard Howard

Charles Johnson

Jon Krakauer


Edmund Morris

Azar Nafisi

Joyce Carol Oates

Elaine Pagels

Salman Rushdie

Oliver Sacks

Carolyn See

Gore Vidal
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Post by Chauncey »

ReverseEngineer";p="937185 wrote:
Chauncey";p="937101 wrote:I Like Ayn Rand's novels even though I don't agree with her philosophy
I'm sort of (SORT OF!) the opposite. Her 'philosophy' has some (SOME!) merits, but her novels are garbage that children can read, thus undoing the 'integrity' she holds dear.
I like that they are trashy. I enjoy trash every once in a while but I refuse to read King or Clancey.

Ayn Rand is like Jane Austin for Objectivists. The stories are very cut and dry. "Good guys" come out on top "Bad guys" loose. Her stories never fail to resolve in a satisfying way. You hate who you are supposed to hate. You root for who you are supposed to root for. Exactly like how in Jane Austin's books the humble second son with no fortune who wants to be a vicar always ends up with the humble girl in the end and they marry and have many humble babies.
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Post by Chauncey »

On July 21, 1998, the Radcliffe Publishing Course compiled and released its own list of the century's top 100 novels, at the request of the Modern Library editorial board.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E.M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
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Post by touchy feely »

Chauncey";p="937188 wrote:In 1998 and 1999, members of the Modern Library Board participated in the "100 Best" project, voting on the 100 Best Novels and 100 Best Non-fiction works, respectively.The Modern Library project was designed to provide a needlessly competitive context to "great" literature
can everyone please stop this?
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Post by Chauncey »

as you can see a lot of the books are the same it looks like they, maybe, tried to be a tiny bit more contemporary and added a few children's books for some reason. Yeah these lists are by no means definitive. I think they are meant to get people talking about books they have read. I personally like to read mostly contemporary authors especially lately.

I have never read Dostoevsky but I agree Marquez should be on the list and the fact that Moby Dick didn't make it is probably one of the major upsets of this list. I'm sure they heard plenty about that from all sides.

btw here are the ones from this list that I have read that aren't on the other list:



12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
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Post by Chauncey »

touchy feely";p="937192 wrote:
Chauncey";p="937188 wrote:In 1998 and 1999, members of the Modern Library Board participated in the "100 Best" project, voting on the 100 Best Novels and 100 Best Non-fiction works, respectively.The Modern Library project was designed to provide a needlessly competitive context to "great" literature
can everyone please stop this?



I think it was also to promote the modern library collection which I am willing to bet features a lot of these titles.

That being said I don't think any authors are competing to get on that list. They care more about the best sellers list.
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Post by Rick Cave »

I'd rather see touchy feely's 100 greatest book list.
And I'm with Phil. No Dostoevsky no list.

I'd read shampoo bottles before Ayn Rand.
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Post by Chauncey »

List making is the great past time of the 21st century. You guys won't say which books you have read just for fun so we can discuss them ? You hate the list that much ? Or haven't read any of the shitty books on it because the list sucks that bad ?

I'll read anything I get my hands on. If it doesn't make me turn the page I'll put it down. I just read The Year of Ice. A book about a young man who's mother dies/kills herself. His dad was cheating on her. His dad marries his mistress cause shes pregnant but the baby comes out retarded. Then the young man discovers hes homosexual. It was great. I stated it this morning and just finished it.
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Re: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of all Time

Post by Don Eduardo »

Ok, here's what I've read from the first one. There is a lot I disliked here, mind you.
Chauncey";p="937096 wrote:Which have you read ?

The Board List:

ULYSSES by James Joyce
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
CATCH-22
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
1984 by George Orwell
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
HE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
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Post by touchy feely »

im going to wait until the top 100 "top 100 modern library lists" list to reveal my inner most thoughts
:doubt:
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Post by judasmuppet »

touchy feely";p="937182 wrote:oh fuck! its LIST CONTROVERSY~!
Is it controversy if we all agree the list sucks?
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Re: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of all Time

Post by Eviltoastman »

ULYSSES by James Joyce

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

CATCH-22

DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler <One of my favourites.

1984 by George Orwell

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James

THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad < Another fantastic book.

TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller < Preferred Capricorn

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad < Better than The Secret Agent.

FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce

KIM by Rudyard Kipling

LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad < Better than Heart of Darkness.

WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
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Post by Eviltoastman »

Rick Cave";p="937196 wrote:And I'm with Phil. No Dostoevsky no list.
I prefer Koestler and Conrad. Dostoevsky's exploration of humanism and psychology in his novels doesn't seem to hold true. I'd take Conrad or Koestler over him any time of the day.

I don't like Dostoevsky and feels he is highly hugely over rated.
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Post by ReverseEngineer »

Rick Cave";p="937196 wrote:I'd read shampoo bottles before Ayn Rand.
I'm less likely to predict the ending of a shampoo bottle.
("Repeat if necessary"?!? NO FUCKING WAY!)
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