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Modern Library's 100 Best Novels

Description: A 1998 list of the best English-language novels published during the 20th century, as selected by the American publishing imprint, Modern Library, from among 400 novels published by Random House, which owns Modern Library.

Rank Title Author Added

1

The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

83,009 members

1,304 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

2

A High Wind in Jamaica

by Richard Hughes

2,379 members

70 reviews

3.9

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

3

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

23,562 members

252 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

4

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

by Carson McCullers

11,984 members

272 reviews

4

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

5

The Secret Agent

by Joseph Conrad

7,266 members

108 reviews

½ 3.6

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

6

by Vladimir Nabokov

35,331 members

636 reviews

4.1

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

7

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

61,596 members

869 reviews

3.9

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

8

To the Lighthouse

by Virginia Woolf

20,347 members

312 reviews

3.9

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

9

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

39,202 members

519 reviews

4.1

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

10

The Day of the Locust

by Nathanael West

2,079 members

58 reviews

½ 3.6

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

11

Slaughterhouse-Five

by Kurt Vonnegut

49,253 members

779 reviews

4.1

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

12

27,486 members

377 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

13

Nineteen Eighty-Four

by George Orwell

94,403 members

1,450 reviews

4.2

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

14

by E. M. Forster

9,674 members

144 reviews

4

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

15

The Old Wives' Tale

by Arnold Bennett

1,675 members

27 reviews

3.9

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

16

by Ford Madox Ford

1,992 members

29 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

17

Winesburg, Ohio

by Sherwood Anderson

6,556 members

136 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

18

The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

77,264 members

1,198 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

19

A Passage to India

by E. M. Forster

13,899 members

167 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

20

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

26,416 members

431 reviews

½ 3.6

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

21

The Sun Also Rises

by Ernest Hemingway

25,741 members

374 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

22

by George Orwell

70,138 members

1,007 reviews

4

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

23

Wide Sargasso Sea

9,484 members

274 reviews

½ 3.6

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

24

Of Human Bondage

by W. Somerset Maugham

9,398 members

165 reviews

4.1

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

25

The Maltese Falcon

by Dashiell Hammett

10,373 members

302 reviews

3.9

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

26

The Call of the Wild

22,865 members

346 reviews

3.8

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

27

The Postman Always Rings Twice

by James M. Cain

3,912 members

144 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

28

Brideshead Revisited

by Evelyn Waugh

14,133 members

286 reviews

4

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

29

The Magus {original}

1,654 members

33 reviews

3.9

2 Members: ManWithAnAgenda, Readerino

30

The Sound and the Fury

by William Faulkner

19,553 members

247 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

31

by Joseph Heller

44,406 members

578 reviews

4.1

Member: Readerino

32

Darkness at Noon

by Arthur Koestler

5,980 members

121 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

33

Sons and Lovers

by D. H. Lawrence

10,442 members

104 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Readerino

34

Under the Volcano

by Malcolm Lowry

5,018 members

101 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

35

The Way of All Flesh

by Samuel Butler

4,061 members

45 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Readerino

36

by Robert Graves

10,133 members

181 reviews

4.2

Member: Readerino

37

An American Tragedy

by Theodore Dreiser

4,379 members

53 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

38

by Ralph Ellison

18,436 members

231 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

39

by Richard Wright

8,761 members

112 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

40

Henderson the Rain King

3,132 members

58 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

41

Appointment in Samarra

2,020 members

46 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

42

by John Dos Passos

1,709 members

14 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

43

The Wings of the Dove

3,772 members

49 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

44

The Ambassadors

4,433 members

50 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

45

Tender Is the Night

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

14,579 members

195 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

46

by James T. Farrell

1,072 members

13 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

47

The Good Soldier

by Ford Madox Ford

5,321 members

121 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

48

The Golden Bowl

3,067 members

33 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

49

by Theodore Dreiser

4,390 members

67 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

50

A Handful of Dust

by Evelyn Waugh

4,825 members

98 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

51

by William Faulkner

16,887 members

238 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

52

All the King's Men

by Robert Penn Warren

8,114 members

133 reviews

4.1

Member: Readerino

53

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

by Thornton Wilder

5,397 members

129 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

54

Go Tell It on the Mountain

by James Baldwin

6,928 members

134 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

55

The Heart of the Matter

by Graham Greene

5,566 members

91 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

56

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding

57,444 members

818 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

57

by James Dickey

2,852 members

63 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

58

A Dance to the Music of Time

by Anthony Powell

194 members

6 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: Readerino

59

Point Counter Point

by Aldous Huxley

2,882 members

30 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

60

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard

by Joseph Conrad

5,331 members

70 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

61

by D. H. Lawrence

4,641 members

54 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

62

by D. H. Lawrence

7,647 members

57 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Readerino

63

Tropic of Cancer

by Henry Miller

9,853 members

146 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Readerino

64

The Naked and the Dead

by Norman Mailer

4,544 members

49 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

65

Portnoy's Complaint

8,034 members

160 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Readerino

66

by Vladimir Nabokov

9,021 members

157 reviews

4.2

Member: Readerino

67

Light in August

by William Faulkner

10,407 members

113 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

68

by Jack Kerouac

30,469 members

425 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Readerino

69

The Age of Innocence

by Edith Wharton

15,834 members

335 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

70

by Max Beerbohm

1,851 members

38 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: Readerino

71

by Walker Percy

5,138 members

102 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

72

Death Comes for the Archbishop

by Willa Cather

6,918 members

174 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

73

From Here to Eternity

2,303 members

34 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

74

The Wapshot Chronicle

by John Cheever

1,718 members

18 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

75

A Clockwork Orange

by Anthony Burgess

28,709 members

416 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

76

by Sinclair Lewis

4,526 members

79 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

77

The House of Mirth

by Edith Wharton

10,760 members

212 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

78

The Alexandria Quartet

by Lawrence Durrell

2,370 members

30 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Readerino

79

A House for Mr Biswas

by V. S. Naipaul

3,867 members

73 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

80

A Farewell to Arms

by Ernest Hemingway

25,717 members

282 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

81

by Evelyn Waugh

4,224 members

94 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

82

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

by Muriel Spark

5,884 members

191 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

83

6,009 members

64 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

84

by Rudyard Kipling

10,223 members

217 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

85

A Room with a View

by E. M. Forster

12,613 members

246 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

86

The Adventures of Augie March

4,244 members

80 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

87

Angle of Repose

by Wallace Stegner

5,989 members

198 reviews

4.2

Member: Readerino

88

A Bend in the River

by V. S. Naipaul

3,480 members

58 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

89

The Death of the Heart

by Elizabeth Bowen

1,918 members

42 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

90

by Joseph Conrad

10,168 members

127 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Readerino

91

by E. L. Doctorow

6,842 members

139 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

92

803 members

21 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: Readerino

93

Midnight's Children

by Salman Rushdie

15,563 members

270 reviews

4

Member: Readerino

94

by Erskine Caldwell

1,716 members

58 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: Readerino

95

by William Kennedy

2,659 members

52 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

96

by Iris Murdoch

2,357 members

60 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Readerino

97

Sophie's Choice

by William Styron

6,574 members

91 reviews

4.1

Member: Readerino

98

The Sheltering Sky

4,766 members

89 reviews

3.9

Member: Readerino

99

by J. P. Donleavy

2,031 members

32 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: Readerino

100

The Magnificent Ambersons

by Booth Tarkington

1,824 members

54 reviews

3.8

Member: Readerino

About This List

Started: Readerino
February 13
Type: Numbered, Adding restricted

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