Authors' Favourites

Description
For each author, add only the work(s) they consider their best, their favourite, their magnum opus, ... (NOT YOUR OWN favourites, and only favourites from THEIR OWN WORK!). Ideally, one per author, but more than one (ties) are possible. If their preferences changed throughout their life, let's follow their final opinion. Always add a sourced quote and possibly your own interpretation/explanation, please!
1
Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
49,213 members
776 reviews
4.1
3 Members
hipdeep, ianreads, ahef1963
Explanations
ianreads: "A-plus" [1 of 2] Source
2
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut
24,843 members
347 reviews
4.1
2 Members
ianreads, ahef1963
Explanations
ianreads: "A-plus" [1 of 2] Source
3
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
24,103 members
325 reviews
4.1
2 Members
ianreads, ahef1963
Explanations
ianreads: "Of all my books, I like this the best. [...] I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD." Source
4
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf
20,372 members
312 reviews
3.9
2 Members
ianreads, ahef1963
Explanations
ianreads: "Woolf herself thought it ‘easily the best of my books’." Source
5
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
19,459 members
247 reviews
4
2 Members
ianreads, ahef1963
Explanations
ianreads: The Sound and the Fury, because I worked at it the longest and the hardest. [most splendid failure!] Source
6
Men at Arms
by Terry Pratchett
11,612 members
145 reviews
4.2
2 Members
hipdeep, ahef1963
Explanations
hipdeep: "Always the last book -- although I have a long-term affection for Men at Arms." Source
7
Lisey's Story
by Stephen King
9,746 members
202 reviews
½ 3.6
2 Members
ianreads, ahef1963
Explanations
ianreads: "Lisey’s Story is my favorite of the books" [2017] Source

"Misery, The Stand and Lisey's Story" [2021] Source

Singling out Lisey's Story due to its subject.

8
Endless Night
by Agatha Christie
3,544 members
85 reviews
½ 3.6
2 Members
ianreads, ahef1963
Explanations
ianreads: "my own favourite at present" [1972] Source
9
The Bridge
by Iain Banks
2,329 members
32 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
anglemark, ianreads
Explanations
anglemark: "Iain Banks frequently cited The Bridge as his own favourite of his own novels." Source
10
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
27,314 members
480 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
ianreads
Explanations
ianreads: "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years"; the author later said, "I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this." Source
11
The Ambassadors
by Henry James
4,419 members
50 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
ianreads
Explanations
ianreads: "frankly, quite the best, “all round,” of all my productions" Source
12
Last Chance to See
by Douglas Adams
4,412 members
87 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
hipdeep
Explanations
hipdeep: "In 1990, Adams, with zoologist Mark Carwardine, wrote Last Chance to See. It’s one of his hardest books to find and his favorite." - Daily Nexus, April 5, 2001
13
Joan of Arc
by Mark Twain
2,570 members
30 reviews
4
Member
ianreads
Explanations
ianreads: "I like the Joan of Arc best of all my books; & it is the best; I know it perfectly well" Source
14
No One Writes to the Colonel {novella}
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2,084 members
41 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
ianreads
Explanations
ianreads: "García Márquez considered it his best book, saying that he had to write One Hundred Years of Solitude so that people would read No One Writes to the Colonel." Source
15
The Last Chronicle of Barset
by Anthony Trollope
2,015 members
52 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
ianreads
Explanations
ianreads: "Taking it as a whole, I regard this as the best novel I have written." Source
16
Helena
by Evelyn Waugh
847 members
17 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
ianreads
Explanations
ianreads: Waugh considered this novel his greatest literary achievement: he told his biographer that "it's far the best book I have ever written or ever will write". Source