The Guardian, Books You Can't Live Without: The Top 100 [2007]
114 ventries: 113 monographical, one otherwise
Ranked
The Guardian's list stands apart as the first of several lists published from 2007 onward, but otherwise is easily one of the least important, barely meeting the Greater Books criteria, with only one book from ancient times, the Bible. This list includes a significant number of modern-day popular favorites.
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813English
- J R R Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
published in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King, 1954-5English
- Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, 1847English
J K Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
1997English
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
1998English
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
1999English
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2000English
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2003English
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2005English
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2007English
- Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
1960English
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- The Bible
Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
- Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850English
- George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
1949English
- Phillip Pullman
His Dark Materials
originally published in three volumes: Northern Lights, 1995 (U S title: The Golden Compass); The Subtle Knife, 1997; The Amber Spyglass, 2000English
- Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
originally published serially Dec. 1860-Aug. 1861 in All the Year RoundEnglish
- Louisa M Alcott
Little Women
originally published in two volumes: Little Women, 1868; and Good Wives, 1869English
- Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the GraphicEnglish
- Joseph Heller
Catch-22
1961English
Complete works
late Sixteenth-early Seventeenth centuriesEnglish
- Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca
1938English
- J R R Tolkien
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
1937English
- Sebastian Faulks
Birdsong
1993English
- J D Salinger
Catcher in the Rye
1951English
- Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler's Wife
2003English
- George Eliot
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
originally published serially Dec. 1871-Dec. 1872English
- Margaret Mitchell
Gone With the Wind
1936English
- F Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
1925English
- Charles Dickens
Bleak House
originally published serially Mar. 1852-Sep. 1853English
- Leo Tolstoy
Voyna i Mir"
War and Peace
originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869Russian
- Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1979 novel based on 1978 radio playEnglish
- Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
1945English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
Crime and Punishment
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath
1939English
- Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
1865English
- Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows
1908English
- Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877Russian
- Charles Dickens
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)
originally published serially May 1849-Nov. 1850English
C S Lewis
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
1950English
- Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
1951English
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
1952English
- The Silver Chair
1953English
- The Horse and His Boy
1954English
- The Magician's Nephew
1955English
- The Last Battle
1956English
Jane Austen
- Emma
originally anonymously published 1815English
- Persuasion
originally anonymously published 1817English
- Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner
2003English
- Louis de Bernières
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
1994English
- Arthur Golden
Memoirs of a Geisha
1997English
- A A Milne
Winnie-the-Pooh
published in part serially 1924-5; in its entirety, 1926English
- George Orwell
Animal Farm
1945English
- Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code
2003English
- Gabriel García Márquez
Cien Anõs de Soledad
One Hundred Years of Solitude
1967Spanish
- John Irving
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
1989English
- Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White
originally published serially in All the Year Round Nov. 1859-Aug. 1860English
- L M Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables
1908English
- Thomas Hardy
Far From the Madding Crowd
originally anonymously published serially Jan.-Dec. 1874 in Cornhill Magazine; revised 1895 and 1901English
- Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale
1985English
- William Golding
Lord of the Flies
1954English
- Ian McEwan
Atonement
2001English
- Yann Martel
Life of Pi
2001English
- Frank Herbert
Dune
1965English
- Stella Gibbons
Cold Comfort Farm
1932English
- Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility
originally published under the pseudonym, A Lady, 1811English
- Vikram Seth
A Suitable Boy
1993English
- Carlos Ruiz Zafón
La Sombra del Viento
2001Spanish
- Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
originally published serially Apr.-Nov. 1859 in All the Year RoundEnglish
- Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
1932English
- Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
2003English
- Gabriel García Márquez
El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera
Love in the Time of Cholera
1985Spanish
- John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men
1937English
- Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita
1955English
- Donna Tartt
The Secret History
1992English
- Alice Sebold
The Lovely Bones
2002English
- Alexandre Dumas
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
originally published serially Aug. 1844-Jan. 1846 in Journal des DébatsFrench
- Jack Kerouac
On the Road
published in part as 'The Mexican Girl', the Paris Review; 'Jazz of the Beat Generation', New World Writing; and 'A Billowy Trip in the World', New Dimensions; in its entirety, 1957; alternate version, 2007English
- Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure
originally published serially Dec. 1894-Nov. 1895 in Harper's New Monthly MagazineEnglish
- Helen Fielding
Bridget Jones's Diary
1996English
- Salman Rushdie
Midnight's Children
1981English
- Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
1851English
- Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress
originally published under the pseudonym, Boz, serially Feb. 1837-April 1839 in Bentley's MiscellanyEnglish
- Bram Stoker
Dracula
1897English
- Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden
originally published serially 1910-11 in the American MagazineEnglish
- Bill Bryson
Notes From a Small Island
1995English
- James Joyce
Ulysses
published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922English
- Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar
originally published under the pseudonym, Victoria Lucas, 1963English
- Arthur Ransome
Swallows and Amazons
1930English
- Émile Zola
Germinal
originally published serially Apr. 1884-Jan. 1885 in Gil BlasFrench
- William Makepeace Thackeray
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848English
- A S Byatt
Possession
1990English
- Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
1843English
- David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas
2004English
- Alice Walker
The Color Purple
1982English
- Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
1989English
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de ParisFrench
- Rohinton Mistry
A Fine Balance
1995English
- E B White
Charlotte's Web
1952English
- Mitch Albom
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
2003English
- Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1892; stories originally published serially Jul. 1891-Jun. 1892 in the StrandEnglish
Enid Blyton
- The Enchanted Wood
1939English
- The Magic Faraway Tree
1943English
- The Folk of the Faraway Tree
1946English
- Up the Faraway Tree
1951English
- Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood'sEnglish
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Le Petit Prince
1943French
- Iain Banks
The Wasp Factory
1984English
- Richard Adams
Watership Down
1972English
- John Kennedy Toole
A Confederacy of Dunces
written early 1960's; published 1980English
- Nevil Shute
A Town Like Alice
1950English
- Alexandre Dumas
Les Trois Mousquetaires
The Three Musketeers
originally published serially Mar.-Jul. 1844 in Le SiècleFrench
- William Shakespeare
Hamlet
1602English
- Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
1964English
- Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
1862French