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The Greatest Books of All Time, As Voted by 125 Famous Authors. “Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work,” Jennifer Egan once said. This intersection of reading and writing is both a necessary bi-directional life skill for us mere mortals and a secret of iconic writers’ success, as bespoken by their personal libraries. The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books asks 125 of modernity’s greatest British and American writers — including Norman Mailer, Ann Patchett, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, and Joyce Carol Oates — “to provide a list, ranked, in order, of what [they] consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time– novels, story collections, plays, or poems.”

Of the 544 separate titles selected, each is assigned a reverse-order point value based on the number position at which it appears on any list — so, a book that tops a list at number one receives 10 points, and a book that graces the bottom, at number ten, receives 1 point. In introducing the lists, David Orr offers a litmus test for greatness: 100 novels everyone should read. The 100 greatest non-fiction books. The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list | Books | The Observer.

1. Don Quixote Miguel De CervantesThe story of the gentle knight and his servant Sancho Panza has entranced readers for centuries. • Harold Bloom on Don Quixote – the first modern novel 2. Pilgrim's Progress John BunyanThe one with the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair. • Robert McCrum's 100 best novels: The Pilgrim's Progress 3. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe The first English novel. • Robert McCrum's 100 best novels: Robinson Crusoe 4. Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift A wonderful satire that still works for all ages, despite the savagery of Swift's vision. • Robert McCrum's 100 best novels: Gulliver's Travels 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83.

100 Best Novels « Modern Library. ULYSSES by James Joyce Written as an homage to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, Ulysses follows its hero, Leopold Bloom, through the streets of Dublin. Overflowing with puns, references to classical literature, and stream-of-consciousness writing, this is a complex, multilayered novel about one day in the life of an ordinary man. Initially banned in the United States but overturned by a legal challenge by Random House’s Bennett Cerf, Ulysses was called “a memorable catastrophe” (Virginia Woolf), “a book to which we are all indebted” (T. S. Eliot), and “the most faithful X-ray ever taken of the ordinary human consciousness” (Edmund Wilson).

Click here to read more about ULYSSES THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Set in the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby tells the story of the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, his decadent parties, and his love for the alluring Daisy Buchanan. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce Click here to read more about A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN U.S.A.