Lists of Bests: Jane Smiley's "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" http://www.listsofbests.com/list/27306 "My list is not and was never intended to be a 'Hundred Greatest,' only a list of individual novels that would illuminate the whole concept of the novel...I didn't conceive the list as being any sort of 'best of' list, because in order to understand the nature of the novel, sometimes the reader has to read novels that don't work for her and think about why they don't work -- representative lists, unlike 'my favorite' lists have to include uncongenial works...As my list shaped up, it became a little arbitrary, and that came to seem like a necessary feature of any reading list that takes three years to complete, but not a fault in a list of novels because random variety is part of the nature of the novel." -- Jane Smiley, from _13 Ways of Looking at the Novel_ _Note: There are more books on this list than the source list because she chose more than one book for some authors._ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:51:12 GMT en-us 0 50 108 50 0 The Tale of Genji (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/39340 <div id="position">1</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/39340"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0670030201.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Murasaki Shikibu</div> Laxdaela Saga (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/55114 <div id="position">2</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/55114"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140442189.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anonymous</div> Egil's Saga (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/38107 <div id="position">3</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/38107"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140447709.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anonymous</div> The Decameron (Signet Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13969 <div id="position">4</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13969"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0451528662.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Giovanni Boccaccio</div> The Heptameron (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/906382 <div id="position">5</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/906382"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/014044355X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Marguerite de Navarre</div> The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes (New York Review Books Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/905415 <div id="position">6</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/905415"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1590171322.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div> Don Quixote (P.S.) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1359 <div id="position">7</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1359"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060934344.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Miguel de Cervantes</div> The Princess of Cleves http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/906543 <div id="position">8</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/906543"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1404325239.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Madame De Lafayette</div> Oroonoko (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1172671 <div id="position">9</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1172671"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140439889.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Aphra Behn</div> Robinson Crusoe (Modern Library Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9355 <div id="position">10</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9355"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375757325.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Daniel Defoe</div> Roxana: Or the Fortunate Mistress (The Everyman Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/768233 <div id="position">11</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/768233"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0460876767.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Daniel Defoe</div> Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2717553 <div id="position">12</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2717553"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1406932922.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V44269990_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Samuel Richardson</div> The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/207830 <div id="position">13</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/207830"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140436227.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V43031961_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Henry Fielding</div> The Female Quixote http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1026609 <div id="position">14</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1026609"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1419162128.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Charlotte Lennox</div> The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Everyman's Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2483886 <div id="position">15</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2483886"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0460877631.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Laurence Sterne</div> Candide (Dover Thrift Editions) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/14658 <div id="position">16</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/14658"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0486266893.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Voltaire</div> The Expedition of Humphry Clinker http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2717563 <div id="position">17</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2717563"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1406923540.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V44272759_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Tobias George Smollett</div> Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Or Letters Collected in a Private Society and Published for the Instruction of Others (Thrift Edition) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2527287 <div id="position">18</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2527287"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/048645245X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Choderlos de Laclos</div> Justine http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/356601 <div id="position">19</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/356601"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/950877035X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Marquis de Sade</div> The Tale of Old Mortality (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/907130 <div id="position">20</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/907130"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140436537.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Walter Scott</div> The Bride of Lammermoor (Tales of My Landlord) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1275013 <div id="position">21</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1275013"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000FD96IE.01-A173YVKVW3EUM._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Sir Walter Scott</div> Frankenstein (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/23705 <div id="position">22</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/23705"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439475.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Mary Shelley</div> Persuasion (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3521 <div id="position">23</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3521"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439688.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jane Austen</div> The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4301 <div id="position">24</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4301"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0192835904.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by James Hogg</div> The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/46024 <div id="position">25</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/46024"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0192838717.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Stendhal</div> Taras Bulba (Magnum Books) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1562166 <div id="position">26</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1562166"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000FV35VA.01-AP5EGDGANY8DS._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Nicolai Gogol</div> A Hero of Our Time http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2551207 <div id="position">27</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2551207"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1406943886.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V44283170_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov</div> Cousin Pons & Cousin Bette http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2717620 <div id="position">28</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Honore de Balzac</div> Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3704 <div id="position">29</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3704"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0142437204.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Charlotte Brontë</div> Wuthering Heights (Signet Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/43232 <div id="position">30</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/43232"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0451529251.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Emily Bronte</div> Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3528 <div id="position">31</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3528"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439831.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Makepeace Thackeray</div> Uncle Tom's Cabin (Thrift Edition) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/107647 <div id="position">32</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/107647"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0486440281.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Harriet Beecher Stowe</div> Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (Modern Library Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/41500 <div id="position">33</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/41500"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/067978327X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Herman Melville</div> The House of the Seven Gables (Norton Critical Edition) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/147353 <div id="position">34</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/147353"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0393924769.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V45261710_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Nathaniel Hawthorne</div> Madame Bovary (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/988252 <div id="position">35</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/988252"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0192840398.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Gustave Flaubert</div> A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3517 <div id="position">36</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3517"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439602.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Charles Dickens</div> The Woman in White (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/668629 <div id="position">37</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/668629"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439610.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Wilkie Collins</div> The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/979673 <div id="position">38</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/979673"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375757856.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Wilkie Collins</div> Fathers and Sons (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4265 <div id="position">39</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4265"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0192833928.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ivan Turgenev</div> Therese Raquin (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/58641 <div id="position">40</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/58641"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140449442.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ãmile Zola</div> The Last Chronicle of Barset (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/785683 <div id="position">41</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/785683"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140437525.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anthony Trollope</div> The Eustace Diamonds (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1278087 <div id="position">42</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1278087"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141441208.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anthony Trollope</div> The Idiot http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9047 <div id="position">43</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9047"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375702245.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Fyodor Dostoevsky</div> Little Women (Signet Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13979 <div id="position">44</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13979"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0451529308.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Louisa May Alcott</div> Middlemarch http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3531 <div id="position">45</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3531"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141804513.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by George Eliot</div> Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3758 <div id="position">46</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3758"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0143035002.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Leo Tolstoy</div> The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3518 <div id="position">47</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3518"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439637.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Henry James</div> The Awkward Age http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2698046 <div id="position">48</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2698046"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1426423594.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Henry James</div> The Picture of Dorian Gray http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/53664 <div id="position">49</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/53664"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1420925288.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Oscar Wilde</div> Dracula (Norton Critical Editions) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/11038 <div id="position">50</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/11038"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0393970124.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Bram Stoker</div>