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Random House | Library Journal | ALA 1995

Random House/Modern Library Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century

Here’s the controversial list put out by Random House/Modern Library publishers last year. Keep in mind that all of these titles are currently or soon to be available through this publisher.

HAVE YOU READ THE 100 BEST NOVELS OF THE 20TH CENTURY?

1. Ulysses, Joyce
2. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
3. A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, Joyce
4. Lolita, Nabokov
5. Brave New World, Huxley
6. The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
7. Catch-22, Heller
8. Darkness At Noon, Koestler
9. Sons and Lovers, Lawrence
10. The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
11. Under the Volcano, Lowry
12. The Way of All Flesh, Butler
13. 1984, Orwell
14. I, Claudius, Graves
15. To the Lighthouse, Woolf
16. An American Tragedy, Dreiser
17. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers
18. Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut
19. Invisible Man, Ellison
20. Native Son, Wright
21. Henderson the Rain King, Bellow
22. Appointment in Samarra, O’Hara
23. U.S.A. (Trilogy), Dos Passos
24. Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson
25. A Passage to India, Forster
26. The Wings of the Dove, James
27. The Ambassadors, James
28. Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald
29. The Studs Lonigan Trilogy, Farrell
30. The Good Soldier, Ford
31. Animal Farm, Orwell
32. The Golden Bowl, James
33. Sister Carrie, Dreiser
34. A Handful of Dust, Waugh
35. As I Lay Dying, Faulkner
36. All the King’s Men, Warren
37. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder
38. Howards End, Forster
39. Go Tell It On the Mountain, Baldwin
40. The Heart of the Matter, Greene
41. Lord of the Flies, Golding
42. Deliverance, Dickey
43. A Dance to the Music of Time (Series), Powell
44. Point Counter Point, Huxley
45. The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway
46. The Secret Agent, Conrad
47. Nostromo, Conrad
48. The Rainbo, Lawrence
49. Women in Love, Lawrence
50. Tropic of Cancer, Miller
51. The Naked and the Dead, Mailer
52. Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
53. Pale Fire, Nabokov
54. Light in August, Faulkner
55. On the Road, Kerouac
56. The Maltese Falcon, Hammett
57. Parade’s End, Ford
58. The Age of Innocence, Wharton
59. Zuleika Dobson, Beerbohm
60. The Moviegoer, Percy
61. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather
62. From Here to Eternity, Jones
63. The Wapshot Chronicle, Cheever
64. The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
65. A Clockwork Orange, Burgess
66. Of Human Bondage, Maugham
67. Heart of Darkness, Conrad
68. Main Street, Lewis
69. The House of Mirth, Wharton
70. The Alexandria Quartet, Durrell
71. A High Wind in Jamaica, Hughes
72. A House for Mr. Biswas, Naipaul
73. The Day of the Locust, West
74. A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway
75. Scoop, Waugh
76. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Spark
77. Finnegans Wake, Joyce
78. Kim, Kipling
79. A Room with a View, Forster
80. Brideshead Revisited, Waugh
81. The Adventures of Augie March, Bellow
82. Angle of Repose, Stegner
83. A Bend in theRiver, Naipaul
84. The Death of the Heart, Bowen
85. Lord Jim, Conrad
86. Ragtime, Doctorow
87. The Old Wives’ Tale, Bennett
88. The Call of the Wild, London
89. Loving, Green
90. Midnight’s Children, Rushdie
91. Tobacco Road, Caldwell
92. Ironweed, Kennedy
93. The Magus, Fowles
94. Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys
95. Under the Net, Murdoch
96. Sophie’s Choice, Styron
97. The Sheltering Sky, Bowles
98. The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain
99. The Ginger Man, Donleavy
100. The Magnificent Ambersons, Tarkington
Librarians' List of the Century

Thanks to Carol Berard, of the Canton Free Library, for this list of works of fiction from The Library Journal, "Librarians Choose A Century of Good Books," presented in order of votes received from participating librarians.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee 1960
2. The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger 1951
3. Lord of the Rings, Tolkien 1956
4. Gone with the Wind, Mitchell 1936
5. Beloved, Morrison 1987
6. The Color Purple, Walker 1982
7. 1984, Orwell 1949
8. Animal Farm, Orwell 1954
9. Lord of the Flies, Golding 1954
10. Catch 22, Heller 1961
11. The Good Earth, Buck 1931
12. Charlotte’s Web, White 1952
13. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald 1925
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut 1969
15. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez 1970
16. Lonesome Dove, McMurtry 1986
17. Lolita, Nabokov 1955
18. Farenheit 451, Bradbury 1952
19. Rebecca, Du Maurier 1938
20. The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck 1939
21. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith 1947
22. The Hobbit, Tolkien 1937
23. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey 1962
24. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Spark 1962
25. My Antonia, Cather 1918
26. The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway 1952
27. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Lawrence 1928
28. Invisible Man, Ellison 1952
29. Exodus, Uris 1957
30. Sophie’s Choice, Styron 1979
31. Native Son, Wright 1940
32. Little House on the Prairie, Wilder 1935
33. A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway 1929
34. Winne the Pooh, Milne 1926
35. The Jungle, Sinclair 1906
36. The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood 1986
37. The Age of Innocence, Wharton 1920
38. Rabbit Run, Updike 1960
39. On the Road, Kerouac 1957
40. Stanger in a Strange Land, Heinlein 1961
41. Brave New World, Huxley 1932
42. Angle of Repose, Stegner 1971
43. All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque 1929
44. Ulysses, Joyce 1922
45. The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway 1926
46. The Stranger, Camus 1942
47. The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner 1929
48. Possession, Byatt 1990
49. Stone Diaries, Shields 1994
50. Song of Solomon, Morrison 1977
51. The Joy Luck Club, Tan 1989
52. Roots, Haley 1976
53. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce 1916
54. Look Homeward Angel, Wolfe 1929
55. Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Porter 1939
56. Ethan Frome, Wharton 1911
57. The Lover, Duras 1972
58. A Clockwork Orange, Burgess1962
59. Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson 1919
60. To the Lighthouse, Woolf 1927
61. The World According to Garp, Irving 1978
62. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Buam 1900
63. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis 1950
64. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Doyle 1902
65. The Fountainhead, Rand 1943
66. The Burger’s Daughter, Gordimer 1979
67. The Call of the Wild, London 1903
68. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn 1963
69. The Mists of Avalon, Bradley 1983
70. I, Claudius, Graves 1934
71. From Here to Eternity, Jones 1951
72. East of Eden, Steinbeck 1952
73. Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton 1948
74. Advise and Consent, Drury 1959
75. A Passage to India, Forster 1924
76. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke 1968
77. The Good Soldier, Ford 1927
78. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston 1937
79. The Wind in the Willows, Graham 1908
80. Portnoy’s Complaint, Roth 1969
81. The Plague, Camus 1947
82. The Little Prince, Saint-Exupery 1943
83. The Bluest Eye, Morrison 1969
84. The Bean Trees, Kingsolver 1988
85. Tarzan of the Apes, Burroughs 1914
86. Sister Carrie, Dreiser 1900
87. A Good Man is Hard to Find, O’Connor 1955
88. Remembrance of Things Past, Proust 1960
89. Ragtime, Doctorow 1975
90. Ordinary People, Guest 1976
91. Of Human Bondage, Maugham 1915
92. Heart of Darkness, Conrad 1902
93. Babbit, Lewis 1922
94. All the King’s Men, Warren 1946
95. Women in Love, Lawrence 1920
96. Waiting for Godot, Beckett 1953
97. USA, Dos Passos 1919,1936, 1938
98. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera 1984
99. A Death in the Family, Agee 1957
100. The Once & Future King, White 1953
101. The Maltese Falcon, Hammett 1930
102. The Golden Bowl, James 1904
103. The Golden Notebook, Lessing 1962
104. The Forsyte Saga, Galsworthy 1922
105. The Big Sleep, Chandler 1939
106. The Bell Jar, Plath 1963
107. The Ambassadors, James 1903
108. The House of the Spirits, Allende 1985
109. Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck 1937
110. The Naked and the Dead, Mailer 1948
111. Magic Mountain, Mann 1924
112. Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo 1959
113. Ironweed, Kennedy 1983
114. A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway 1929
115. Dune, Herbert 1965
116. Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak 1958
117. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather 1927
118. Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut 1963
119. Brideshead Revisited, Waugh 1945
120. Breathing Lessons, Tyler 1988
121. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, Blume 1970
122. The Accidental Tourist, Tyler 1985
123. A Thousand Acres, Smiley 1991
124. A Room with a View, Forster 1908
125. Wise Blood, O’Connor 1952
126. The Tin Drum, Grass 1959
127. Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys 1966
128. White Noise, De Lillo 1985
129. Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak 1963
130. Wapshot Chronicle, Cheever 1979
131. Under the Volcano, Lowry 1947
132. Tropic of Cancer, Miller 1934
133. Things Fall Apart, Achebe 1959
134. The Yearling, Rawlings 1948
135. The Winds of War, Wouk 1971
136. The Moviegoer, Percy 1961
137. The Razor’s Edge, Maugham 1944
138. The Rebel, Camus 1954
139. The Pearl, Steinbeck 1947
140. The Outsider, Wilson 1956
141. Call It Sleep, Roth 1934
142. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers 1940
143. The Godfather, Puzo 1969
144. A Curtain of Green, Welty 1941
145. The End of the Affair, Greene 1951
146. The Color of Water, McBride 1996
147. The Caine Mutiny, Wouk 1951
148. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder 1927
149. The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stone 1961
150. Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy, Farrell 1935
American Library Association Best of 1995

Now, you might want to compare the above list with the selections made by librarians in 1995 as notable for children and young adults. Here’s the suggested reading list from the American Library Association for books published in 1995...just one year’s bounty!


 Young Readers
The Golly Sisters Ride Again, Byars
Barnyard Banter, Fleming
Tough Boris, Fox
The Rattlebang Picnic, Mahy
Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm, Nolen
How to make an apple pie and see the world, Priceman
Good Night, Gorilla, Rathmann
The Surprise Family, Reiser
How Now, Brown Cow?, Schertle
Herbert Hi!, Scott
Don’t Fidget a Feather!, Silverman
A Hat for Minerva Louise, Stoeke
Too Tired, Turnbull
Going Home, Wild
Our Granny, Wild

Middle Readers
Misoso: Once Upon a Time Tales From Africa, Aardema
Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes, Cooper
Sister Shako and Kolo the Goat: Memories of My Childhood in Turkey, Dalakoy
The Big Bug Book, Flackham
Beast Peast, Florian
Meet Danitra Brown, Grimes
Sweet and Sour Animal Book, Hughes Jones
Russian Girl: Life in an Old Russian Town, Kendall
The Three Princes: A Tale from the Middle East, Kimmel
Three Terrible Twins, King-Smith
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, Lasky
John Henry, Lester
The Last Tales of Uncle Remus, Lester
Seven Spiders Spinning, Maguire
Outside and Inside Birds, Markle
Hob and the Goblins, Mayne
Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest, McDermott
My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, Polacco
Pink and Say, Polacco
Cleopatra, Stanley & Vennema

Young Adults
In the Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez
Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust, Bachrach
Am I Blue?: Coming Out From the Silence,
Song of Be, Beake
Dakota Dream, Bennett
Heartbreak and Roses Real-Life Stories of Troubled Love, Bode & Mack
Looking After Lily: A Novel, Bennet
The Examination, Bosse
Traveling on into the Light: And Other Stories, Brooks
Pigs Don’t Fly, Brown
Finder: A Novel of the Borderlands, Bull
Parable of the Sower, Butler
Cool Salsa, Carlson
Driver’s, Cooney
Oddly Enough, Coville
Catherine, Called Birdy, Cushman
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, Farmer
Flight of the Dragon Kyn, Fletcher
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor, Freedman
Billy, French
Stranger at the Wedding, Hambly
No Effect, Hayes
Phoenix Rising, Hesse
It’s Nothing to a Mountain, Hite
Say It Loud! The Story of Rap Music, Jones
Wolf-Woman, Jordan
Deliver Us From Evie, Kerr
Owl in Love, Kindl
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, King
Zoo Book: The Evolution of Wildlife Conservation Centers, Koebner
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright, Koertge
Spite Fences, Krisher
After a Suicide, Kiklin
Beyond the Burning Time, Lasky
Shadow Catcher: The Life & Work of Edward Curtis, Lawlor
Escape From Egypt, Levitin
Gypsy Davey, Lynch
Iceman, Lynch
Unconditional Surrender: U.S. Grant and the Civil War, Marrin
Letters from the Inside, Marsden
Makes Me Wanna Holler, McCall
The Glory Field, Myers
Sarajevo: A Portrait of the Siege, Naythons
Earthshine: A Novel, Nelson
The Great Apes: Between Two Worlds, Nichols
The Magic and the Healing, O’Donohoe
Celebrate America: In Poetry and Art, Panzer
Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, Paulsen
Something Terrible Happened: A Novel, Porte
The Grass Dancer, Power
Come in From the Cold, Qualey
Missing the Piano, Rapp
The Boys From St. Petri, Reuter
Too Soon for Jeff, Reynolds
Those Who Love the Game: Glenn "Doc" Rivers on Life in the NBA and Elsewhere, Rivers & Brooks
Hannah in Between, Rodowsky
Shakespeare & Macbeth: The Story Behind the Play, Ross
Billy, Roybal
Something Permanent, Rylant & Evans
Under the Blood-Red Sun, Salisbury
The Cage, Schulman
Wish You Were Here, Shoup
Coffee Will Make You Black, Sinclair
Toughing It, Springer
Cezanne Pinto, Stolz
Hearing Us Out: Voices from the Gay & Lesbian Community, Sutton
Shadow: A Novel, Sweeney
The Ramsay Scallop, Temple
When She Hollers, Voigt
My Brother, My Sister, and I, Watkins
Mysterium, Wilson
Focus: Five Women Photographers, Wolf
I Hadn’t Meant to Telll You This, Woodson