The Novel 100, Revised Edition: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time

640 Pages·2010·4.82 MB·English

by  Daniel S. Burt

THE NOVEL 100
REVISED EDITION

THE NOVEL 100
REVISED EDITION
A Ranking of the Greatest Novels
of All Time
Daniel S. Burt
The Novel 100, Revised Edition
Copyright © 2010, 2004 by Daniel S. Burt
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burt, Daniel S.
The novel 100, revised edition : a ranking of the greatest novels of all time /
Daniel S. Burt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8160-7859-2 (hc : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4381-3185-6 (e-book)
1. Fiction—History and criticism. 2. Fiction—Stories, plots, etc. 3. Fiction—Themes,
motives. I. Title. II. Title: Novel one hundred, revised edition.
PN3491.B87 2010
809.3—dc22 2009034906
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Text design by Annie O’Donnell
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Book printed and bound by Maple Press, York, Pa.
Date printed: July 2010
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
CONTENTS
Preface to Revised Edition ix
Introduction xi
1. DON QUIXOTE 1
2. WAR AND PEACE 5
3. ULYSSES 10
4. IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME 15
5. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV 20
6. MOBY-DICK 25
7. MADAME BOVARY 30
8. MIDDLEMARCH 34
9. THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN 39
10. THE TALE OF GENJI 44
11. EMMA 48
12. BLEAK HOUSE 53
13. ANNA KARENINA 58
14. ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN 63
15. TOM JONES 68
16. GREAT EXPECTATIONS 72
17. ABSALOM, ABSALOM! 77
18. THE AMBASSADORS 81
19. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE 85
20. THE GREAT GATSBY 90
21. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE 95
22. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 99
23. THE SOUND AND THE FURY 104
24. VANITY FAIR 109
25. DEAD SOULS 114
26. LE PÈRE GORIOT 119
27. THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY 124
28. WOMEN IN LOVE 129
29. THE RED AND THE BLACK 133
30. TRISTRAM SHANDY 137
31. FINNEGANS WAKE 141
32. TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES 146
33. BUDDENBROOKS 151
34. INVISIBLE MAN 155
35. THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES 159
36. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A
YOUNG MAN 163
37. MOLLOY, MALONE DIES, THE UNNAMABLE 167
38. THE TIN DRUM 172
39. WUTHERING HEIGHTS 177
40. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 181
41. THE SCARLET LETTER 185
42. GRAVITY’S RAINBOW 190
43. BELOVED 195
44. NOSTROMO 199
45. FATHERS AND SONS 203
46. THE TRIAL 207
47. LOLITA 212
48. MRS DALLOWAY 217
49. DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER 223
50. CLARISSA 227
51. PERSUASION 232
52. JANE EYRE 237
53. DAVID COPPERFIELD 241
54. PETERSBURG 247
55. THINGS FALL APART 251
56. THE PRINCESS OF CLEVES 255
57. THE STRANGER 260
58. THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE 264
59. THE COUNTERFEITERS 269
60. THE GRAPES OF WRATH 273
61. THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK 278
62. SONS AND LOVERS 283
63. THE GOOD SOLDIER 289
64. A PASSAGE TO INDIA 293
65. DANIEL DERONDA 298
66. GERMINAL 304
67. MY ÁNTONIA 308
68. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY 313
69. HUNGER 318
70. BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ 323
71. MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN 328
72. U.S.A. TRILOGY 334
73. LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES 338
74. THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA 344
75. THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER 350
76. CITIES OF SALT 354
77. A FAREWELL TO ARMS 358
78. THE DEATH OF ARTEMIO CRUZ 362
79. HERZOG 366
80. CANDIDE 370
81. THE SLEEPWALKERS 374
82. THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET 379
83. THE AWAKENING 383
84. ROBINSON CRUSOE 387
85. CALL IT SLEEP 391
86. WAVERLEY 396
87. OBLOMOV 400
88. THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD 405
89. UNDER THE VOLCANO 410
90. SNOW COUNTRY 414
91. NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR 418
92. AS I LAY DYING 422
93. THE PICKWICK PAPERS 428
94. THE BETROTHED 432
95. PALE FIRE 436
96. THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS 441
97. LES MISÉRABLES 446
98. UNCLE TOM’S CABIN 451
99. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO 456
100. NATIVE SON 462
101. ON THE ROAD 467
102. FRANKENSTEIN 472
103. THE LEOPARD 476
104. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE 480
105. DOM CASMURRO 485
106. A HERO OF OUR TIME 490
107. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE 495
108. MOLL FLANDERS 500
109. THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK 506
110. THE MASTER AND MARGARITA 510
111. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED 516
112. THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING 522
113. AMERICAN PASTORAL 528
114. THE HANDMAID’S TALE 534
115. MANON LESCAUT 538
116. THE WOMAN IN WHITE 544
117. SOME PREFER NETTLES 549
118. A BEND IN THE RIVER 555
119. COLD NIGHTS 561
120. DRACULA 567
121. THE WOMAN IN THE DUNES 572
122. GONE WITH THE WIND 577
123. THE THREE MUSKETEERS 581
124. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES 586
125. TREASURE ISLAND 591
Novels by Year of Publication 596
A Second Hundred
(Honorable Mentions) 600
Index 604
PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION
Afforded the opportunity to add an additional 25 books to my ranking of
the greatest novels of all times, I have undertaken a full-scale review of The
Novel 100 rather than simply promote the most deserving candidates from the
honorable mentions list. Rarely is an author given a “do-over,” and more than
i ve years after the initial conception of The Novel 100, I have been allowed
to test my i rst choices from my current perspective, while adding another
25 titles to the mix.
In making my choice and arranging the ranking, I have been guided, as
with the original edition of The Novel 100, by a self-imposed selection criteria
to try to identify the novels that have exerted the strongest impact, that have
changed or altered the form in signii cant ways, and, based on critical con-
sensus and the test of time, that continue to deliver importance, relevance,
and enjoyment years, decades, or centuries after publication.
Among the new entries selected, nine are additional works by novelists
already represented—Austen, Defoe, Dickens, Eliot, Faulkner, Lawrence,
Nabokov, Stendhal, and Woolf—that have allowed me to increase consider-
ation of the range and achievement of these superb writers. The remaining
16 novels represent works published between 1731 (Manon Lescaut by Abbé
Prévost) and 1997 (American Pastoral by Philip Roth) and originate from 12
different countries—Austria, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Czechoslova-
kia, France, India, Japan, Russia, Trinidad, and the United States. All of the
novels selected are more than able to withstand a comparison with the great-
est of the form, and I hope, by including them in the ranking, I have given
readers a chance to reencounter old favorites and possibly make some new
acquaintances as well.
As to the ranking, I will let the changes I have made stand on their own
without specii c comment, only to say that any such ranking is of course sub-
jective and unstable over time. To the great chagrin of my students, I often
comment that you need to reread the greatest works of literature perhaps
every i ve years, not because they change but because you do. Since i rst mak-
ing my choices and rankings for The Novel 100 six years ago, I have become,
ix