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The Guardian's 100 Greatest Novels of All Time

The Guardian's canonical 100 greatest novels of all time, as compiled on Goodreads.

98 books•Created by BookTribes Team•6/9/2026
To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

1984

1984

George Orwell

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Emma

Emma

Jane Austen

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë

Brave New World

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

Frankenstein

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

Lord of the Flies: (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)

Lord of the Flies: (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)

William Golding

Little Women

Little Women

Louisa May Alcott

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

Catch-22

Catch-22

Joseph Heller

Don Quixote

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger

Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows

Kenneth Grahame

The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue

The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Lolita

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Trial

The Trial

Franz Kafka

Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web

Elwyn Brooks White

Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway

Virginia Woolf

David Copperfield

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

Moby-Dick: or, The Whale

Moby-Dick: or, The Whale

Herman Melville

Three Men in a Boat

Three Men in a Boat

Jerome Klapka Jerome

Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas

Atonement

Atonement

Ian McEwan

Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray

The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild

Jack London

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass

Philip Pullman

The Woman in White

The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe, Robert Blaisdell, John Green

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson

In Search of Lost Time: Volume 1

In Search of Lost Time: Volume 1

Marcel Proust

A Passage to India

A Passage to India

E. M. Forster

Ulysses

Ulysses

James Joyce

The Plague

The Plague

Albert Camus

On the Road

On the Road

Jack Kerouac

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Laurence Sterne

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Muriel Spark

The Quiet American

The Quiet American

Graham Greene

Jude the obscure

Jude the obscure

Thomas Hardy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

John Le Carré

The BFG

The BFG

Roald Dahl

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

The Tin Drum

The Tin Drum

Günter Grass

The New York Trilogy

The New York Trilogy

Paul Auster

The Good Soldier

The Good Soldier

Ford Madox Ford

American Pastoral

American Pastoral

Philip Roth

Waiting for the Barbarians

Waiting for the Barbarians

J. M. Coetzee

The Way We Live Now

The Way We Live Now

Anthony Trollope

The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady

Henry James

Nostromo

Nostromo

Joseph Conrad

The History of Tom Jones A Foundling

The History of Tom Jones A Foundling

Henry Fielding

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Italo Calvino

Song of Solomon: Introduction by Reynolds Price

Song of Solomon: Introduction by Reynolds Price

Toni Morrison

AS I LAY DYING.

AS I LAY DYING.

WILLIAM FAULKNER.

The Pursuit of Love

The Pursuit of Love

Nancy Mitford

The Rainbow

The Rainbow

D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps

John Buchan

Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda

George Eliot

Austerlitz

Austerlitz

Winfried Georg Sebald

Scoop

Scoop

Evelyn Waugh

Oscar and Lucinda

Oscar and Lucinda

Peter Carey

Lanark

Lanark

Alasdair Gray

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Milan Kundera

Herzog

Herzog

Saul Bellow

A Bend in the River

A Bend in the River

V.S. Naipaul

The Bottle Factory Outing

The Bottle Factory Outing

Beryl Bainbridge

Nightmare Abbey

Nightmare Abbey

Thomas Love Peacock

The Charterhouse of Parma

The Charterhouse of Parma

Stendhal

Journey to the End of the Night

Journey to the End of the Night

Louis-Ferdinand Céline

The Diary of a Nobody

The Diary of a Nobody

George Grossmith

Wise Blood

Wise Blood

Flannery O'Connor

The Riddle of the Sands

The Riddle of the Sands

Erskine Childers

Lucky Jim

Lucky Jim

Kingsley Amis

U.S.A.

U.S.A.

John Dos Passos

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Salman Rushdie

Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont

Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont

Elizabeth Taylor

Money

Money

Martin Amis

An Artist of the Floating World

An Artist of the Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro

Clarissa, or the History of A Young Lady

Clarissa, or the History of A Young Lady

Samuel Richardson

Housekeeping

Housekeeping

Marilynne Robinson

The Black Sheep

The Black Sheep

Honoré de Balzac

Wise Children

Wise Children

Angela Carter

The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress

John Bunyan

Malone Dies

Malone Dies

Samuel Beckett

Men Without Women

Men Without Women

Ernest Hemingway

The Periodic Table

The Periodic Table

Primo Levi

Sybil, or, The Two Nations

Sybil, or, The Two Nations

Benjamin Disraeli