The top 100 novels

V

Voodoo Child

Registered Senior Member
Taken from:

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100best/novels.html

The "board's" top ten:
<font size="2">
<table><tr bgcolor="#ccccff"><td>1)</td><td>ULYSSES by James Joyce</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#9999ff"><td>2)</td><td>THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ccccff"><td>3)</td><td> A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#9999ff"><td>4)</td><td>LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ccccff"><td>5)</td><td>BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#9999ff"><td>6)</td><td> THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ccccff"><td>7)</td><td>CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#9999ff"><td>8)</td><td>DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ccccff"><td>9)</td><td>SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#9999ff"><td>10)</td><td>THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck</td></tr></table>
</font>(the link has the top 100 for both the experts and the general public)
Comments? I thought it was funny how Portraits scored no. 3 whilst Finnegan's Wake was down in the 70's. Also, I thought that Catcher deserved better than 60ish.
 
Last edited:
I think the fact that Ayn Rand was on the list so much and so high should show you who mainly participiated in this poll, eh?

I'd like to honestly say that Brave New World should not be that high. It's a remarkable book with nice insight; but Huxley was a maniac. Huxley was just plain wrong on many, many things. He lacked proper forsight. And no, I'm not going to get into defending this. If you disagree with me, fine, there's a good chance I'm wrong and it's just my personal distaste for the man and his lack of forsight. He reminds me of people who say "oh yeah man, the internet's gonna be the thing for the next 100 years". Just not a smart comment.
 
Ayn Rand is popular since she is entertaining and easy to read. Something like Ulysses suffers because it is harder to read because of the language and the wide ranging literary allusion. And the fact that it is 900 bloody pages. Not a single Ayn Rand book made the experts list.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top