100 books time magazine

All-TIME 100 Novels

Critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923—the beginning of TIME.

TIME’S List of the 100 Best Novels

We all love lists, but even I was surprised by how popular our TIME 100 list of the world’s greatest movies turned out to be when it premiered on TIME.com in May. Compiled by our film critics, Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel, the list has been viewed by millions of visitors, drawn cheers (thanks for including Sweet Smell of Success ) and jeers (what happened to Gone With the Wind ?) and still remains one of TIME.com’s most clicked-on special features.

This week we introduce our TIME 100 list of the best novels on TIME.com and I expect the debates will be just as lively. There were only two ground rules. As with our film list, we picked 1923–when TIME began publishing–as our starting point. And we focused on books written in English. That’s why there is no Ulysses (published in 1922) or One Hundred Years of Solitude (originally written in Spanish).

Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, our book critics, reread many of the classics and discovered a few that they had never had a chance to read. There were some easy calls ( The Sound and the Fury , Invisible Man , Herzog ) and some not so easy (Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer did not make the cut, though both critics admire their essays and nonfiction books). Several authors appear twice, including William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov and Saul Bellow. And one author on the list is actually a TIME alumnus: James Agee, who reviewed movies and books for the magazine in the 1940s and is represented by A Death in the Family .

I know the list will spark lots of discussions, but I hope it also sends you back to books you read with pleasure years ago as well as to books that you may not have heard of. I’d also love to hear what you think of our selections. I find almost all our critics’ arguments persuasive, but I still feel John le Carré’s best book is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (not on the list) instead of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (on the list). Oh, and one more thing: this time around, Gone With the Wind fans get their revenge. The film may not have made the movie list, but Margaret Mitchell’s book makes this one.

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Making the List

How We Picked the List
The Adventures of Augie March
All the King’s Men
American Pastoral
An American Tragedy
Animal Farm
Appointment in Samarra
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
The Assistant
At Swim-Two-Birds
The Berlin Stories
The Big Sleep
The Blind Assassin
Blood Meridian
Brideshead Revisited
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Call It Sleep
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
The Confessions of Nat Turner
The Corrections
The Crying of Lot 49
A Dance to the Music of Time
The Day of the Locust
Death Comes for the Archbishop
A Death in the Family
The Death of the Heart
Deliverance
Dog Soldiers
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The Golden Notebook
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Gone With the Wind
The Grapes of Wrath
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Great Gatsby
A Handful of Dust
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter
The Heart of the Matter
Housekeeping
A House for Mr. Biswas
I, Claudius
Infinite Jest
Invisible Man
Light in August
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
The Moviegoer
The Man Who Loved Children
Midnight’s Children
Mrs. Dalloway
Naked Lunch
Neuromancer
Never Let Me Go
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Painted Bird
A Passage to India
Play It As It Lays
Portnoy’s Complaint
The Power and the Glory
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Rabbit, Run
The Recognitions
Red Harvest
Revolutionary Road
The Sheltering Sky
Slaughterhouse Five
The Sot-Weed Factor
The Sound and the Fury
The Sportswriter
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The Sun Also Rises
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird
To the Lighthouse
Tropic of Cancer
Under the Net
Under the Volcano
White Noise
White Teeth
Wide Sargasso Sea

About the List

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Bucket List Book Reviews

Miz Parker’s Quest to Read Every Book on the List "1,001 Books to Read Before You Die."

Time Magazine’s 100 Best Novels

This is a list of the 100 Best Novels published since 1923, as chosen by Editors Richard Lacayo and Lev Grossman at Time Magazine. Books I have read will appear in bold . Books I have read and reviewed will appear in bold red (links.)

In alphabetical order by book title:

1. The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow 2. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren 3. American Pastoral, by Philip Roth 4. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Drieser 5. Animal Farm, by George Orwell 6. Appointment in Samarra, by John Ohara 7. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume 8. The Assistant, by Bernard Malamud 9. At Swim – Two Birds, by Flann O’Brien 10. Atonement, by Ian McEwan 11. Beloved, by Toni Morrison 12. The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood 13. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler 14. The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood 15. Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy 16. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh 17. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder 18. Call It Sleep, by Henry Roth 19. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 20. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger 21. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess 22. The Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron 23. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen 24. The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon 25. A Dance to the Music of Time, by Anthony Powell 26. The Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West 27. Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather 28. A Death in the Family, by James Agee 29. The Death of the Heart, by Elizabeth Bowen 30. Deliverance, by James Dickey 31. Dog Soldiers, by Robert Stone 32. Falconer, by John Cheever 33. The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles 34. The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing 35. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin 36. Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell 37. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck 38. Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon 39. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald 40. A Handful of Dust, by Evelyn Waugh 41. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers 42. The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene 43. Herzog, by Saul Bellow 44. Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson 45. A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul 46. I, Claudius, by Robert Graves 47. Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace 48. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison 49. Light in August, by William Faulkner 50. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis 51. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov 52. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding 53. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien 54. Loving, by Henry Green 55. The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy 56. Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis 57. The Man Who Loved Children, by Christina Stead 58. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie 59. Money, by Martin Amis 60. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf 61. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs 62. Native Son, by Richard Wright 63. Neuromancer, by William Gibson 64. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro 65. 1984, by George Orwell 66. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac 67. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey 68. The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski 69. Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov 70. A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster 71. Play It As it Lays, by Joan Didion 72. Portnoy’s Complaint, by Philip Roth 73. Possession, by A.S. Byatt 74. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene 75. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark 76. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike 77. Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow 78. The Recognitions, by William Gaddis 79. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett 80. Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates 81. The Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowles 82. Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 83. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson 84. The Sot-Weed Factor, by John Barth 85. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner 86. The Sportswriter, by Richard Ford 87. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John Le Carre 88. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway 89. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston 90. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe 91. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee 92. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf 93. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller 94. Ubik, by Philip K. Dick 95. Under the Net, by Iris Murdoch 96. Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry 97. Watchmen, by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 98. White Noise, by Don DeLillo 99. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith 100. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

Top 100 Fiction Books of All Time (Board's List)
Book Riot's 100 Greatest Novels
Radcliffe's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century

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Time names the 100 best mystery and thriller books of all time. The 2023 T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist is announced. Catharina Coenen wins the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. October booklists arrive. Rick Riordan teases potential future Percy Jackson books. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner turns 20. Plus, Netflix’s adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind gets a trailer.

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Awards & booklists.

Time names the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time . Time explains its methodology in “ How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time .” Tana French shares why mysteries are so satisfying . Plus, project panelist Rachel Howzell Hall pens an essay: “ The Rich, Underappreciated History of Mystery Writers of Color .”

The 2023 T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist is announced . The Guardian has coverage .

LitHub announced Catharina Coenen as the winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing .

Word Without Borders shares interviews with 2023’s National Book Award–longlisted authors .

The Millions highlights “ Must-Read Poetry: Fall 2024 .”

Washington Post recommends the best books of the month .

Shondaland suggests the best books for October.

Briefly N oted

Jonathan Lethem chats with ElectricLit about his new book , Brooklyn Crime Novel (Ecco).

Rick Riordan teases potential future Percy Jackson books at Entertainment Weekly.

Khaled Hosseini reflects on the 20th anniversary of The Kite Runner , at LitHub .

FoxNews offers author Jack Carr’s take on the “Black Hawk Down” event on October 3, 1993 .

Vulture offers an excerpt from Lou Reed: The King of New York by Will Hermes (Farrar).

CrimeReads checks into the best hotels and bars in espionage fiction .

BookRiot rounds up the best books from July to September 2023 .

YA author and performer Echo Brown dies at 39 . NYT has an obituary.

Syrian author, poet, and screenwriter Khaled Khalifa dies at the age of 59 . The Guardian has an obituary.

Authors on Air

Jordan Peele talks about editing the new book , Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (Random), with NPR’s Morning Edition .

Mahogany Browne offers her “Brief But Spectacular take” on poetry as ritual at PBS Canvas .

Geri Halliwell-Horner, Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen (Philomel), visits The Tonight Show .

Anderson Cooper, Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune , written with Katherine Howe (Harper), will visit with Stephen Colbert tomorrow.

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