20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction
October 30, 2023
The 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction is a list of the 100 best English-language books of the 20th century compiled by American literary critic Larry McCaffery. The list was created largely in response to the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list (1999), which McCaffery considered out of touch with 20th-century fiction. McCaffery wrote that he saw his list "as a means of sharing with readers my own views about what books are going to be read 100 or 1000 years from now".[1]
List on librarything.com with images of contemporary covers [3]
October 30, 2023
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The 20th Century s Greatest Hits 100 English Language Books of Fiction is a list of the 100 best English language books of the 20th century compiled by American literary critic Larry McCaffery The list was created largely in response to the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list 1999 which McCaffery considered out of touch with 20th century fiction McCaffery wrote that he saw his list as a means of sharing with readers my own views about what books are going to be read 100 or 1000 years from now 1 The list includes many books not included in the Modern Library list including five of the top ten Thomas Pynchon s Gravity s Rainbow Robert Coover s The Public Burning Samuel Beckett s Trilogy Molloy Malone Dies and The Unnamable Gertrude Stein s The Making of Americans and William S Burrough s The Nova Trilogy Topping the list is Vladimir Nabokov s 1962 novel Pale Fire which McCaffery called the most audaciously conceived novel of the century Contents 1 List 2 Statistics 3 Titles in common with Modern Library 100 Best Novels 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksList editRank Year Title Author1 1962 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov2 1922 Ulysses James Joyce3 1973 Gravity s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon4 1977 The Public Burning Robert Coover5 1929 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner6 1955 1956 1958 The Trilogy Molloy Malone Dies The Unnamable Samuel Beckett7 1925 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein8 1961 1962 1964 The Nova Trilogy The Soft Machine The Ticket That Exploded Nova Express William S Burroughs9 1955 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov10 1939 Finnegans Wake James Joyce11 1976 Take It or Leave It Raymond Federman12 1987 Beloved Toni Morrison13 1994 Going Native Stephen Wright14 1947 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry15 1927 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf16 1968 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H Gass17 1975 J R William Gaddis18 1952 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison19 1997 Underworld Don DeLillo20 1926 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway21 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce22 1925 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald23 1903 The Ambassadors Henry James24 1920 Women in Love D H Lawrence25 1981 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme26 1994 The Rifles William T Vollmann27 1955 The Recognitions William Gaddis28 1902 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad29 1961 Catch 22 Joseph Heller30 1949 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell31 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston32 1936 Absalom Absalom William Faulkner33 1975 Dhalgren Samuel R Delany34 1939 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck35 1984 1986 1992 1993 The Four Elements Tetralogy The Stain Entering Fire The Fountains of Neptune The Jade Cabinet Rikki Ducornet36 1984 1986 1988 Cyberspace Trilogy Neuromancer Count Zero Mona Lisa Overdrive William Gibson37 1934 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller38 1957 On the Road Jack Kerouac39 1974 Lookout Cartridge Joseph McElroy40 1973 Crash J G Ballard41 1981 Midnight s Children Salman Rushdie42 1960 The Sot Weed Factor John Barth43 1965 Genoa Paul Metcalf44 1932 Brave New World Aldous Huxley45 1924 A Passage to India E M Forster46 1972 Double or Nothing Raymond Federman47 1939 At Swim Two Birds Flann O Brien48 1985 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy49 1949 The Cannibal John Hawkes50 1940 Native Son Richard Wright51 1939 The Day of the Locust Nathaniel West52 1936 Nightwood Djuna Barnes53 1980 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson54 1969 Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut55 1988 Libra Don DeLillo56 1952 Wise Blood Flannery O Connor57 1985 Always Coming Home Ursula K Le Guin58 1930 1932 1936 U S A Trilogy The 42nd Parallel 1919 The Big Money John Dos Passos59 1962 The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing60 1951 The Catcher in the Rye J D Salinger61 1929 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett62 1981 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver63 1914 Dubliners James Joyce64 1923 Cane Jean Toomer65 1905 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton66 1980 Riddley Walker Russell Hoban67 1956 1958 1963 The Checkerboard Trilogy Go in Beauty The Bronc People Portrait of the Artist with 26 Horses William Eastlake68 1976 The Franchiser Stanley Elkin69 1985 1986 1986 The New York Trilogy City of Glass Ghosts The Locked Room Paul Auster70 1990 Skinny Legs and All Tom Robbins71 1996 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace72 1995 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus73 1966 Tlooth Harry Mathews74 1969 Pricksongs and Descants Robert Coover75 1962 The Man in the High Castle Philip K Dick76 1991 American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis77 1969 The French Lieutenant s Woman John Fowles78 1980 1981 1982 1983 The Book of the New Sun Tetralogy The Shadow of the Torturer The Claw of the Conciliator The Sword of the Lictor The Citadel of the Autarch Gene Wolfe79 1962 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess80 1975 1978 1983 Albany Cycle Legs Billy Phelan s Greatest Game Ironweed William Kennedy81 1995 The Tunnel William H Gass82 1966 Omensetter s Luck William H Gass83 1949 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles84 1981 Darconville s Cat Alexander Theroux85 1968 Up Ronald Sukenick86 1969 Yellow Back Radio Broke Down Ishmael Reed87 1919 Winesburg Ohio Sherwood Anderson88 1987 You Bright and Risen Angels William T Vollmann89 1948 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer90 1968 The Universal Baseball Association Inc J Henry Waugh Prop Robert Coover91 1970 Creamy and Delicious Steve Katz92 1980 Waiting for the Barbarians J M Coetzee93 1953 More Than Human Theodore Sturgeon94 1979 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino95 1929 Look Homeward Angel Thomas Wolfe96 1925 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser97 1981 Easy Travel to Other Planets Ted Mooney98 1989 Tours of the Black Clock Steve Erickson99 1990 In Memoriam to Identity Kathy Acker100 1995 Hogg Samuel R DelanyStatistics editNot counting the tetralogies of Rikki Ducornet 35 and Gene Wolfe 78 the most cited author is James Joyce who has written four works on the list Ulysses 2 Finnegans Wake 10 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 21 and Dubliners 63 Robert Coover and William H Gass each have three works on the list while Samuel Delany Don DeLillo William Faulkner Raymond Federman William Gaddis Vladimir Nabokov and William Vollmann have two apiece Titles in common with Modern Library 100 Best Novels editAltogether there are 34 titles in common between the Modern Library list and the Greatest Hits list The Ambassadors An American Tragedy Brave New World Catch 22 The Catcher in the Rye A Clockwork Orange The Day of the Locust Finnegans Wake The Grapes of Wrath The Great Gatsby Heart of Darkness The House of Mirth Invisible Man Ironweed note 1 Lolita Midnight s Children The Naked and the Dead Native Son Nineteen Eighty Four On the Road Pale Fire A Passage to India A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man The Sheltering Sky Slaughterhouse Five The Sound and the Fury The Sun Also Rises To the Lighthouse Tropic of Cancer Ulysses Under the Volcano The USA Trilogy Winesburg Ohio Women in Love The entire Albany Cycle was included on the list where Ironweed was listed as a solo work on the Modern Library list See also editModern Library 100 Best Novels Marcel Reich Ranicki s anthology of exemplary German literature Der KanonReferences edit Top 100 List with comments at Spineless Books Larry McCaffery archiveExternal links editList published in American Book Review Volume 20 Issue 6 1 List featured on Spineless Books website 2 List on librarything com with images of contemporary covers 3 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 20th Century 27s Greatest Hits 100 English Language Books of Fiction amp oldid 1162711752, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
