top of page
#50 - 41
Heading 6
50. Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie
Surprised it's not Satanic Verses, but great choice
49. Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Umm...WTF? Shock to all literary scholars. #49?!?!
48. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Mann is worthy, but I would have chosen Death in Venice
47. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Poetry on a novel chart?!
46. Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
A memoir - HUGE influence to Post-Modernism - Great choice!
45. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
My first Dickens read as a boy - holds a dear spot in my heart.
44. The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway.
My favorite personal favorite Hemingway novel
43. Collected Fiction by Jorge Luis Borges
Another non-novel work on the list. I don't know of this work
42. The Aeneid, by Virgil
I haven't read it.
41. Jayne Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Ranked a little high for me. Top 100, not 50
#40 - 31
40. The Stranger by Albert Camus
French philosopical work - BRILLIANT! Ranked too low!
39. The Stories of Anton Chekov by Anton Chekov
Not-read, but Russian novels should be abundant
38. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf
Not read
37. Beloved by Toni Morrison
Popular, but Song of Solomon is more literary!
36. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift
YET ANOTHER Irish satirist novel!
35. Middlemarch by George Elliot
Masterpiece - ranked way to low!
34. Red and the Black by Stendal
Not-read
33. The Trial by Franz Kofka
Very Nice! Very misunderstood novel - its dark humor is often overlooked. A personal favorite!
32. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
American classic, but ranking probably spot on.
31. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Greatest American Novel!
#30 - 21
30. Absolom Absolom by William Faulkner
Read too long ago to comment
29. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
No argument, but hard to get through, not my fav Steinbeck
28. One Thousand and One Night by India, Egypt, Iran, Iraq
YES! Did not expect this. My favorite story collection, much better than Chaucer for me.
27. Great Expectation by Charles Dickens
Another too low in ranking for me. I have it quite high for so many reasons!
26. 1984 by George Orwell
Orwell wanted the title to be 1948. It's actually a reference to post-war Britain. Second best opening line in literature.
25. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
I'm not a modernist fan and I actually skipped it.
24. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Interesting interpretations of today's readers, quite different then in my college classrooms discourse.
23. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
I remember two things - very funny. but difficult read.
22. To the Light House by Virginia Woolf
Ranked way to high!
21. The Illiad by Homer
Okay! Okay?
INTERRUPTION FOR DONOVAN'S TOP 20 LIST
Unlike the AI list, I only included novels or novellas - no plays or poetry.
Donovan Noel's Top 20 All-Time Best Novels
20. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (England)
19. Candide - Voltaire (France)
18. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (France)
17. Slaughter House 5 - Kurt Vonnegutt (USA)
16. Invisible man - Ralph Ellison (USA)
15. Middlemarch - George Elliot (England)
14. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (France)
13. The Stranger - Albert Camus (France)
12. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (Canada)
11. In Search of Lost time - Marcel Proust (France)
10. Death with Interuptions - Jose Saramago (Portugal)
9. One Flew Over the Cucoos Nest - Ken Kesey (USA)
8. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
7. No Exit - Jean-Paul Sartre (France)
6. 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbia)
5. The Count of Monte Christo - Alexander Dumas (France)
4. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (France) Highest selling book in history for a reason!
3. Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce (Ireland)
2. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (England)
1. Ulysses by James Joyce (Ireland)
National Count:
France - 8, USA - 4, Russia / England/ Ireland - 2, Canada / Colombia -1
AI Top 50 Greatest Novels Continued
#52 - 11
20. Alice Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Caroll
Nothing against this great work, but it's far, far from the level of The Little Prince when comparing children's books. Worthy of top 100.
19. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Solid - Solid - Solid! This was my first Russian read
18. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Hmmm!
17. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Emma was a superior literary read.
16. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Sorry to say I've not read it.
15. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Best of all the Bronte's novels by far
14. Crime & Punishment - Fyador Dostoyevsky
Haven't read it
13. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyador Dostoyevsky
Russians rank strong and deservedly so. Many writers fav!
12. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Another Russian strike - college memories reading this
11. The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri
Over Inferno??? What?
TOP 10
10. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Ahhh! Influenced modern writing. Beautiful read!
9. The Olyssey - Homer
Ranked too high for me! It's all about the translation edition
8. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Not a novel! Best work from him, but my fav is Othello?
7. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Russians are well represented. I haven't read it.
6. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
I need to reread to appreciate its depth.
5. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hmmm! Remember this list is by algorithms, not a person.
4. 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Worthy of Top 5. Stunning with beautiful writing
3. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
Does - arguably - the first book ever written deserve #3, some say YES!
2 Ullysees - James Joyce
Demands multiple rereads. Requires literary experience, but it's very, very worthy of this ranking. Every novel written afterwards is influenced by Joyce.
1. In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
This is a 7 volume novel with 3200 pages. I've read part. Those who've read it agree it's ranking should be quite high. I have read parts. The opening setting description was over 200 pages.
bottom of page