The Guardian: 100 best novels written in English
List · 100 items

The Guardian: 100 best novels written in English

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100 items
List

The Guardian: 100 best novels written in English

TheBookworm
TheBookworm
@TheBookworm
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100 picks in “The Guardian: 100 best novels written in English”, curated by TheBookworm on TheLysts.

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The Guardian: 100 best novels written in English — 10 items
NameAuthorYearSynopsis
21MiddlemarchGeorge Eliot1871-2This cathedral of words stands today as perhaps the greatest of the great Victorian fictions.
22The Way We Live NowAnthony Trollope1875Inspired by the author’s fury at the corrupt state of England, and dismissed by critics at the time, The Way We Live Now is recognised as Trollope’s masterpiece.
23The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnMark Twain1884/5Mark Twain’s tale of a rebel boy and a runaway slave seeking liberation upon the waters of the Mississippi remains a defining classic of American literature.
24KidnappedRobert Louis Stevenson1886A thrilling adventure story, gripping history and fascinating study of the Scottish character, Kidnapped has lost none of its power.
25Three Men in a BoatJerome K Jerome1889Jerome K Jerome’s accidental classic about messing about on the Thames remains a comic gem.
26The Sign of FourArthur Conan Doyle1890Sherlock Holmes’s second outing sees Conan Doyle’s brilliant sleuth – and his bluff sidekick Watson – come into their own.
27The Picture of Dorian GrayOscar Wilde1891Wilde’s brilliantly allusive moral tale of youth, beauty and corruption was greeted with howls of protest on publication.
28New Grub StreetGeorge Gissing1891George Gissing’s portrayal of the hard facts of a literary life remains as relevant today as it was in the late 19th century.
29Jude the ObscureThomas Hardy1895Hardy exposed his deepest feelings in this bleak, angry novel and, stung by the hostile response, he never wrote another.
30The Red Badge of CourageStephen Crane1895Stephen Crane’s account of a young man’s passage to manhood through soldiery is a blueprint for the great American war novel.
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