20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction
January 01, 1970
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]
January 01, 1970
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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 Author 1 1962 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 2 1922 Ulysses James Joyce 3 1973 Gravity s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 4 1977 The Public Burning Robert Coover 5 1929 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 6 1955 1956 1958 The Trilogy Molloy Malone Dies The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 7 1925 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 8 1961 1962 1964 The Nova Trilogy The Soft Machine The Ticket That Exploded Nova Express William S Burroughs 9 1955 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 10 1939 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 11 1976 Take It or Leave It Raymond Federman 12 1987 Beloved Toni Morrison 13 1994 Going Native Stephen Wright 14 1947 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 15 1927 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 16 1968 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H Gass 17 1975 J R William Gaddis 18 1952 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 19 1997 Underworld Don DeLillo 20 1926 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 21 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 22 1925 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald 23 1903 The Ambassadors Henry James 24 1920 Women in Love D H Lawrence 25 1981 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 26 1994 The Rifles William T Vollmann 27 1955 The Recognitions William Gaddis 28 1902 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 29 1961 Catch 22 Joseph Heller 30 1949 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 31 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 32 1936 Absalom Absalom William Faulkner 33 1975 Dhalgren Samuel R Delany 34 1939 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 35 1984 1986 1992 1993 The Four Elements Tetralogy The Stain Entering Fire The Fountains of Neptune The Jade Cabinet Rikki Ducornet 36 1984 1986 1988 Cyberspace Trilogy Neuromancer Count Zero Mona Lisa Overdrive William Gibson 37 1934 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 38 1957 On the Road Jack Kerouac 39 1974 Lookout Cartridge Joseph McElroy 40 1973 Crash J G Ballard 41 1981 Midnight s Children Salman Rushdie 42 1960 The Sot Weed Factor John Barth 43 1965 Genoa Paul Metcalf 44 1932 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 45 1924 A Passage to India E M Forster 46 1972 Double or Nothing Raymond Federman 47 1939 At Swim Two Birds Flann O Brien 48 1985 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 49 1949 The Cannibal John Hawkes 50 1940 Native Son Richard Wright 51 1939 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 52 1936 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 53 1980 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 54 1969 Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut 55 1988 Libra Don DeLillo 56 1952 Wise Blood Flannery O Connor 57 1985 Always Coming Home Ursula K Le Guin 58 1930 1932 1936 U S A Trilogy The 42nd Parallel 1919 The Big Money John Dos Passos 59 1962 The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing 60 1951 The Catcher in the Rye J D Salinger 61 1929 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 62 1981 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver 63 1914 Dubliners James Joyce 64 1923 Cane Jean Toomer 65 1905 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 66 1980 Riddley Walker Russell Hoban 67 1956 1958 1963 The Checkerboard Trilogy Go in Beauty The Bronc People Portrait of the Artist with 26 Horses William Eastlake 68 1976 The Franchiser Stanley Elkin 69 1985 1986 1986 The New York Trilogy City of Glass Ghosts The Locked Room Paul Auster 70 1990 Skinny Legs and All Tom Robbins 71 1996 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 72 1995 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 73 1966 Tlooth Harry Mathews 74 1969 Pricksongs and Descants Robert Coover 75 1962 The Man in the High Castle Philip K Dick 76 1991 American Psycho Brett Easton Ellis 77 1969 The French Lieutenant s Woman John Fowles 78 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 Wolfe 79 1962 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 80 1975 1978 1983 Albany Cycle Legs Billy Phelan s Greatest Game Ironweed William Kennedy 81 1995 The Tunnel William H Gass 82 1966 Omensetter s Luck William H Gass 83 1949 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles 84 1981 Darconville s Cat Alexander Theroux 85 1968 Up Ronald Sukenick 86 1969 Yellow Back Radio Broke Down Ishmael Reed 87 1919 Winesburg Ohio Sherwood Anderson 88 1987 You Bright and Risen Angels William T Vollmann 89 1948 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 90 1968 The Universal Baseball Association Inc J Henry Waugh Prop Robert Coover 91 1970 Creamy and Delicious Steve Katz 92 1980 Waiting for the Barbarians J M Coetzee 93 1953 More Than Human Theodore Sturgeon 94 1979 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 95 1929 Look Homeward Angel Thomas Wolfe 96 1925 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 97 1981 Easy Travel to Other Planets Ted Mooney 98 1989 Tours of the Black Clock Steve Erickson 99 1990 In Memoriam to Identity Kathy Acker 100 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 1192904424, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
