Lists of Bests: Larry McCaffery's "20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English Language Books of Fiction" http://www.listsofbests.com/list/51 McCaffery teaches American literature at San Diego State University. This is exactly the type of list that I find especially valuable, because prepared by someone who clearly has a broad literary knowledge and critical appreciation, and has the boldness to draw upon all of it. It's so rare to find someone who'll bring "genre" and underground literature into comparison with the received canon. [Webmaster's note: this list was suggested by a user, and the wide range of authors on here makes it a pretty interesting list.] Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:12:57 GMT en-us 0 50 100 50 0 Pale Fire http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18665 <div id="position">1</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18665"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uBGYBkR6L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Vladimir Nabokov</div> Ulysses http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18652 <div id="position">2</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18652"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iEK3J3hNL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by James Joyce</div> Gravity's Rainbow (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2805 <div id="position">3</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2805"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41oZMgL79OL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Thomas Pynchon</div> The Public Burning (Coover, Robert) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24093 <div id="position">4</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24093"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-S42chzOL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Robert Coover</div> The Sound and the Fury: The Corrected Text http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18742 <div id="position">5</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18742"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31bPt5KpXtL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Faulkner</div> Three Novels by Samuel Beckett: Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24198 <div id="position">6</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24198"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0802150918.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1056491878_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Samuel Beckett</div> The Making of Americans (American Literature Series) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/30310 <div id="position">7</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/30310"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MxiQB2GJL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Gertrude Stein</div> Three Novels: The Soft Machine, Nova Express, the Wild Boys http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65482 <div id="position">8</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William S. Burroughs</div> Lolita, 50th Anniversary Edition http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18659 <div id="position">9</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18659"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41gMT3BaWiL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Vladimir Nabokov</div> Finnegans Wake (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3451 <div id="position">10</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3451"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZWM2BWY0L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by James Joyce</div> Take It or Leave It http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/27878 <div id="position">11</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Raymond Federman</div> Beloved http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/14098 <div id="position">12</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/14098"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0452280621.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Toni Morrison</div> Going Native http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65483 <div id="position">13</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65483"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385313861.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Stephen Wright</div> Under the Volcano: A Novel (Perennial Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1431 <div id="position">14</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1431"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060955228.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Malcolm Lowry</div> To the Lighthouse http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4172 <div id="position">15</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4172"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51l-vSYoj0L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Virginia Woolf</div> In the Heart of the Heart of the Country & Other Stories (Nonpareil Books, #21) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/53053 <div id="position">16</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/53053"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RQSCNE8KL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William H. Gass</div> JR (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2795 <div id="position">17</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2795"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140187073.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Gaddis</div> Invisible Man http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18757 <div id="position">18</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18757"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BPEBYp8FL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ralph Ellison</div> Underworld: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19456 <div id="position">19</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19456"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fud7To5DL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Don DeLillo</div> The Sun Also Rises http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19227 <div id="position">20</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19227"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YECFM808L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ernest Hemingway</div> A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Twentieth-Century Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2792 <div id="position">21</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2792"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Hn-FGzSbL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by James Joyce</div> The Great Gatsby (Scribner Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19350 <div id="position">22</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19350"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41U1U7u5IUL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by F. Scott Fitzgerald</div> The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/53047 <div id="position">23</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/53047"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51p8boPLVNL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Henry James</div> Women in Love (Modern Library Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9334 <div id="position">24</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9334"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375754881.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1113578239_.gif" /></a></div> Sixty Stories http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2693 <div id="position">25</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2693"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514ETP9F1RL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Donald Barthelme</div> The Rifles (Seven Dreams) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65484 <div id="position">26</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65484"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Qw3f2uAcL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Vollmann</div> The Recognitions (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2796 <div id="position">27</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2796"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zDYy5jhbL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Gaddis</div> Heart of Darkness (Hesperus Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/33081 <div id="position">28</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/33081"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41x6LtZ3RBL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Joseph Conrad</div> Catch-22 http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19372 <div id="position">29</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19372"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eW-wH1K-L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Joseph Heller</div> 1984 (Signet Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13902 <div id="position">30</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13902"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31bMi9gBjXL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by George Orwell</div> Their Eyes Were Watching God http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1316 <div id="position">31</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1316"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060931418.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Zora Neale Hurston</div> Absalom, Absalom! The Corrected Text http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18740 <div id="position">32</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18740"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qM4HwvTyL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Faulkner</div> Dhalgren http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9134 <div id="position">33</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9134"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SGDNBKVGL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Samuel R. Delany</div> The Grapes of Wrath (20th Century Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2788 <div id="position">34</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2788"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KQ6R5GZBL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Steinbeck</div> The Four Elements Tetrology http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65485 <div id="position">35</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Rikki Ducornet</div> Neuromancer http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/12857 <div id="position">36</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/12857"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0441569595.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Gibson</div> Tropic of Cancer http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24058 <div id="position">37</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24058"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513zeH8Li3L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Henry Miller</div> On the Road http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2525 <div id="position">38</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2525"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140042598.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1131418748_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jack Kerouac</div> Lookout Cartridge http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65486 <div id="position">39</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Joseph McElroy</div> Crash: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6375 <div id="position">40</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6375"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BBeX7h1-L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by J. G. Ballard</div> Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64958 <div id="position">41</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64958"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679444629.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1114075700_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Salman Rushdie</div> The Sot-Weed Factor (Anchor Literary Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9989 <div id="position">42</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9989"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SAxyBBZmL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Barth</div> Genoa: A Telling of Wonders http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65488 <div id="position">43</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Paul Metcalf</div> Brave New World http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1283 <div id="position">44</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1283"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SJW829TEL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Aldous Huxley</div> A Passage to India http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64943 <div id="position">45</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64943"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0736629521.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by E. M. Forster</div> Double or nothing;: A real fictitious discourse http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65489 <div id="position">46</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Raymond Federman</div> At Swim-Two-Birds (Irish Literature Series) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/30319 <div id="position">47</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/30319"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oo8lRzCDL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Flann O'Brien</div> Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18710 <div id="position">48</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18710"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-fUEeoCvL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Cormac McCarthy</div> The Cannibal http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65490 <div id="position">49</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/65490"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TDXMBC1WL._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Hawkes</div> Native Son http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1168 <div id="position">50</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1168"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JWCZZ215L._SL75_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Richard Wright</div>