Guardian's 1000 Novels Everyone Should Read

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Selected by the Guardian’s Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. Originally published in thematic supplements – love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel – they appear here for the first time in a single list.

The novels are organised into themes:

Love: #1 – 141

Crime: #142 – 288

Comedy: #289 – 437

Family and Self: #438 – 583

State of the Nation: #584 – 717

Science Fiction and Fantasy: #718 – 866

War and Travel: #867 – 998

Note: In the list provided by The Guardian at the link below, there are only 998 books. The Guardian has been informed.

Pages: 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 19 20

  1. 1.
    Le Grand Meaulnes (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
    by Henri Alain-Fournier
  2. 2.
    ?
    Dom Casmurro Joaquim
    by Maria Machado de Assis
  3. 3.
    Northanger Abbey (Vintage Classics)
    by Jane Austen
  4. 4.
    Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)
    by Jane Austen
  5. 5.
    Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Jane Austen
  6. 6.
    Mansfield Park (Penguin Classics)
    by Jane Austen
  7. 7.
    Emma (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Jane Austen
  8. 8.
    Persuasion
    by Jane Austen
  9. 9.
    Giovanni's Room
    by James Baldwin
  10. 10.
    Nightwood (New Edition)
    by Djuna Barnes
  12. 12.
    ?
    Love For Lydia
    by H.E. Bates
  13. 13.
    More Die of Heartbreak (Penguin Classics)
    by Saul Bellow
  14. 14.
    Lorna Doone (Penguin Classics)
    by R. D. Blackmore
  15. 15.
    The Death of the Heart
    by Elizabeth Bowen
  16. 16.
    The Heat of the Day
    by Elizabeth Bowen
  17. 17.
    Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)
    by Charlotte Brontë
  18. 18.
    Villette (Penguin Classics)
    by Charlotte Brontë
  19. 19.
    Wuthering Heights (Penguin Popular Classics)
    by Emily Bronte
  20. 20.
    Look at Me
    by Anita Brookner
  21. 21.
    Rubyfruit Jungle
    by Rita Mae Brown
  22. 22.
    Possession A. S.. Byatt
    by A S BYATT
  23. 23.
    Breakfast At Tiffany's.
    by Truman Capote
  24. 24.
    Oscar and Lucinda
    by Carey Peter
  25. 25.
  26. 26.
    My Antonia (Willa Cather Scholarly Edition)
    by Willa Cather
  27. 27.
    A Lost Lady (Willa Cather Scholarly Edition)
    by Willa Cather
  28. 28.
    ?
    Claudine à l'école
    by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
  29. 29.
    Chéri
    by Colette
  31. 31.
    ?
    The Princess of Cleves
    by Madame de La Fayette
  32. 32.
    ?
    The Parasites
    by Daphne Du Maurier
  33. 33.
    Rebecca
    by Daphne Du Maurier
  34. 34.
    The Lover
    by Marguerite Duras
  35. 35.
    Adam Bede (Penguin Classics)
    by George Eliot
  36. 36.
    Daniel Deronda (Modern Library Classics)
    by George Eliot
  37. 37.
    The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics)
    by George Eliot
  38. 38.
    The Virgin Suicides
    by Jeffrey Eugenides
  39. 39.
    The Great Gatsby (Penguin Popular Classics)
    by F.Scott Fitzgerald
  40. 40.
    Tender is the Night
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  41. 41.
    The Blue Flower
    by Penelope Fitzgerald
  42. 42.
    Madame Bovary (Penguin Classics)
    by Gustave Flaubert
  43. 43.
    The Good Soldier (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
    by Ford Madox Ford
  44. 44.
    A Room With a View
    by E. M. Forster
  45. 45.
    The French Lieutenant's Woman
    by John Fowles
  46. 46.
    The Snow Goose
    by Paul Gallico
  47. 47.
    Ruth (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Elizabeth Gaskell
  48. 48.
    Strait is the Gate (La Porte etroite)
    by Andre Gide
  49. 49.
    Sunset Song (Dodo Press)
    by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
  50. 50.
    The Sorrows of Young Werther (Modern Library Classics)
    by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Pages: 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 19 20

This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists.
Created by Athena08 on Jan 21, 2009.
 

Comments

lgarland

changing worth consuming — 5 weeks ago

I accidentally marked Indriðason’s book as not worth consuming which is far from how I feel. How can I change that?

Apr 17, 05:39PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Sandi Finis

Untitled — 49 weeks ago

There are currently only 998 titles…that means two are missing. Could anyone find out which those are?

Jun 10, 09:49AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Deanne Beech

Native son — 3 years ago

What happened to number 287 it was Native son by Wright but it seems to have disappeared.

Jul 02, 01:57AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

tassini

Number 606 — 4 years ago

Judging from where the book is on the list, I think the Waiting for the Barbarians should be the one authored by Coetzee.

Jan 29, 08:49PM | 1 comment | Reply to this

cfrydj

Helping Out — 4 years ago

This is a huge list, so I thought I’d give you a hand. I deleted a bunch of duplicates, and fixed The Hollow Man to the correct version, which is actually under the name The Three Coffins, which is what it was published as in the USA.

I’m also going through just to double-check that you didn’t miss any, and then I’ll start adding from where you finished.

Jan 25, 04:34PM | 3 comments | Reply to this



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