- Modern Library 100 Best Novels
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Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a list of the best English-language[1] novels of the 20th century as selected by the Modern Library. Both Modern Library and Random House USA, the parent company, are US companies. Critics have argued that this is responsible for a very American view of the greatest novels. Most British, Canadian and Australian academics, and even Random House UK, have differing lists of "greatest novels".
In early 1998, the Modern Library polled its editorial board to find the best 100 novels of the 20th century. The board consisted of Daniel J. Boorstin, A. S. Byatt, Christopher Cerf, Shelby Foote, Vartan Gregorian, Edmund Morris, John Richardson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William Styron and Gore Vidal.
Ulysses by James Joyce topped the list, followed by The Great Gatsby and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The most recent novel in the list is Ironweed (1983) by William Kennedy, and the oldest is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which was first published in 1899. Conrad has four novels on the list, the most of any author. William Faulkner, E. M. Forster, Henry James, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and Evelyn Waugh each have three novels. There are ten other authors with two novels.
A Reader's List 100 Best Novels was published separately by Modern Library in 1999. In an unscientific poll, over 200,000 self-selected voters[2] indicated four of the ten best novels of the 20th century were written by Ayn Rand. Pulp science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had three novels in the top ten. The Reader's Poll has been used as an example of the unreliability of internet polls.[3]
Criticism of the Modern Library list includes that it did not include enough novels by women (and that only one woman was on the panel) and not enough novels from outside North America and Europe. For example, in the UK many of the novels on the list are regarded as given undue credit.[4] In addition, some contend it was a "sales gimmick", since most of the titles in the list are also sold by Modern Library.[5]
A separate Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the 20th century was created the same year.
Contents
Lists
Editors' list
# Year Title Author 1 1922 Ulysses James Joyce 2 1925 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 3 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 4 1955 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 5 1932 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 6 1929 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 7 1961 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 8 1940 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 9 1913 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 10 1939 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck See also
- Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction
- Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
- The 100 Best Books of All Time
- Western canon
- Banned Books
Notes
- ^ Darkness at Noon was originally written in German, but since the original German text was lost, and German versions, published under the title Sonnenfinsternis (literally "solar eclipse") are back translations from English, it is reasonable to consider the English version the canonical text.
- ^ Search for a Title or Author. "100 Best Novels-Modern Library". Modernlibrary.com. http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ Jesse Walker (May 17, 2007). "What Internet Polls Are Good For". Reason.com. http://reason.com/blog/2007/05/17/what-internet-polls-are-good-f. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ "The Top 100? 100 best novels list draws heavy dose of criticism", via CNN. By Jamie Allen, May 6, 1999
- ^ "Sound and Fury Over Top Novel List N.Y. publisher's selections signify little, critics say", SFGate, Steve Rubenstein, Tuesday, July 21, 1998
External links
- The Modern Library list
- New York Times Book Reviews of the 100 novels
- "Sound and Fury Over Top Novel List N.Y. publisher's selections signify little, critics say", SFGate, Steve Rubenstein, Tuesday, July 21, 1998
Categories:- 20th-century novels
- Lists of novels
- Top book lists
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