J. Peder Zane, The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books [2007]
182 entries: 167 monographical, 15 otherwise
Ranked
Zane's book compiles lists from 125 writers naming "the ten greatest works of fiction of all time." The cumulative top ten that emerged from the project, presented at the beginning of the book, does not reveal any surprises. While some of the contributors definitely saw this project as an opportunity to promote obscure works, many of them clearly did not, producing lists no more idiosyncratic than most of the "great books" lists created by critics and scholars. Given that the top ten does not include any poetry or non-fiction, I have drawn out a longer list from this book. Thankfully, at least a few contributors ignored the "fiction" requirement, so we at least have one quasi-historical work, the Bible, plus a little poetry. Zane provides a master list with all 544 works collectively named by the 125 participants, and places them in order of the number of points they received (a first-place ranking from one of the 125 gets the work 10 points, a second-place ranking nine points, and so on). I haveve included all the works that received at least 10 points; therefore, all works that an author listed no. 1 are included. I could include all 544 titlesnothing in this project's guidelines demands otherwise; I might do so eventually. For now, you would have to read the book to see the works that received less than 10 points or to see which authors listed each of these works. A good article from Time magazine about the book is still online.
- Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877Russian
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de ParisFrench
- Leo Tolstoy
Voyna i Mir"
War and Peace
originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869Russian
- Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita
1955English
- Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1884English
- William Shakespeare
Hamlet
1602English
- F Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
1925English
- Marcel Proust
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
In Search of Lost Time; In Remembrance of Things Past
originally published in seven volumes, two of which originally published as two books each, 1913-27French
Stories
late Nineteenth-early Twentieth centuriesRussian
- George Eliot
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
originally published serially Dec. 1871-Dec. 1872English
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615Spanish
- Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
1851English
- Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
originally published serially Dec. 1860-Aug. 1861 in All the Year RoundEnglish
- James Joyce
Ulysses
published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922English
- Homer
Odýsseia
The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
- James Joyce
Dubliners
1914English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
Crime and Punishment
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- William Shakespeare
King Lear
1606English
- Jane Austen
Emma
originally anonymously published 1815English
- Gabriel García Márquez
Cien Anõs de Soledad
One Hundred Years of Solitude
1967Spanish
- William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury
1929English
- Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse
1927 English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brat'â Karamazovy
The Brothers Karamazov
originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- Dante
La Divina Commedia
The Divine Comedy
originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21Italian
Stories
Twentieth CenturyEnglish
- Laurence Sterne
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
originally published in nine volumes, 1759-67English
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813English
- Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850English
--
- The Bible
Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
- Vladimir Nabokov
Pale Fire
1962English
- William Faulkner
Absalom, Absalom!
1936English
- Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady
originally published serially Oct. 1880-Nov. 1881 in Macmillan's and Nov. 1880-Dec. 1881 in the Atlantic MonthlyEnglish
- Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
1960English
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478English
- Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood'sEnglish
- Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
published in part, Jul. 1923, as 'Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street', in the Dial; in its entirety, 1925English
- Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man
1952English
- Charles Dickens
Bleak House
originally published serially Mar. 1852-Sep. 1853English
- Franz Kafka
Der Prozess
The Trial
1925German
- Toni Morrison
Beloved
1987English
- Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, 1847English
- Albert Camus
L'Étranger
The Stranger
1942French
- John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath
1939English
- Robert Penn Warren
All the King's Men
1946English
- Ford Madox Ford
The Good Soldier
1915English
- J D Salinger
Catcher in the Rye
1951English
- Jane Austen
Persuasion
originally anonymously published 1817English
- William Shakespeare
Macbeth
ca. 1607English
- Aeschylus
Oresteia
The House of Atreus
458 B CGreek
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
1850English
- Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
1865English
- Stendhal
Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe Siècle
The Red and the Black
1830French
John Updike
- Rabbit, Run
1960English
- Rabbit Redux
1971English
- Rabbit Is Rich
1981English
- Rabbit at Rest
1990English
Stories
Twentieth CenturyRussian
- F Scott Fitzgerald
Tender Is the Night
originally published serially Jan.-Apr. 1934 in Scribner's MagazineEnglish
- James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
originally published serially Feb. 1914-Sep. 1915, in the EgoistEnglish
- Joseph Heller
Catch-22
1961English
- Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death
1969English
Stories
Twentieth CenturyEnglish
- John Milton
Paradise Lost
1667; revised 1674English
- Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Aeneid
First Century B CLatin
- Cormac McCarthy
Blood Merdian or The Evening Redness in the West
1985English
- Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892English
- Nikolai Gogol
Mërtvyâ Duši
Dead Souls
1842Russian
- Thomas Mann
Der Zauberberg
The Magic Mountain
1924German
Stories
Twentieth CenturyEnglish
- Mikhail Bulgakov
Mástyer i Margaríta
The Master and Margarita
published in part, 1966-67, in Moskva; in its entirety, 1973; revised 1989Russian
- Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend
originally published serially May 1864-Nov. 1865English
- William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying
1930English
The Hamlet
1940English
- Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises
1926English
- Homer
Iliad
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
- Giovanni Boccaccio
Il Decameron, Cognominato Prencipe Galeotto
ca. 1351-53Italian
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Besy
Demons; The Devils; The Possessed
1872Russian
- Christina Stead
The Man Who Loved Children
1940English
- Stendhal
Le Chartreuse de Parme
The Charterhouse of Parma
1839French
Stories
Twentieth CenturyEnglish
- Halldór Laxness
Sjálfstætt Fólk
Independent People
originally published in two volumes, 1934 and 1935Icelandic
--
- Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah
The Thousand and One Nights; The Arabian Nights
Ninth-Fifteenth centuriesArabic
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Zapaski iz Podpol'â
Notes From Underground
1864Russian
- Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God
1937English
- Stephen King
The Stand
1978English
- William Shakespeare
The Tempest
1611English
- Sherwood Anderson
Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life
1919; twenty-two stories, ten of which originally published in periodicals: 'The Book of the Grotesque', Feb. 1916 in Masses; 'Hands', Mar. 1916 in Masses; 'Paper Pills' (originally entitled 'The Philosopher'), Jun.-Jul. 1916 in the Little Review, ; 'The Strength of God', Aug. 1916 in Masses; 'Queer', Dec. 1916 in Seven Arts; 'The Untold Lie', Jan. 17 in Seven Arts; 'Mother', Mar. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Thinker', Sep. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Man of Ideas', Jun. 1918 in the Little Review; 'An Awakening', Dec. 1918 in the Little ReviewEnglish
- Lord Byron (George Gordon, Lord Byron)
Don Juan
originally published in six volumes: Jul. 1819; Aug. 1821; Jul. 1823; Aug. 1823; Dec. 1823; Mar. 1824English
- Daniel Defoe
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
originally anonymously published 1719English
- Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
1749English
- E M Forster
A Passage to India
1924English
- Samuel Richardson
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady
1748English
- Voltaire
Candide, ou L'Optimisme
1759French
Labyrinths
English translations of stories mostly originally published in Ficciones and El AlephSpanish
- Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye
1953English
Evan S Connell
- Mrs. Bridge
1959English
- Mr. Bridge
1969English
- Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the GraphicEnglish
Stories
early Twentieth CenturyGerman
- George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
1949English
- Jonathan Swift
Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships
Gulliver's Travels
1726; revised 1735English
- Rebecca West
The Fountain Overflows
1956English
- James Agee
A Death in the Family
1957English
- Italo Calvino
Le Città Invisibili
Invisible Cities
1972Italian
Poems
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
- E M Forster
Howards End
1910English
- Graham Greene
The Power and the Glory
1940English
Stories
late Twentieth CenturyEnglish
Anthony Powell
- A Question of Upbringing
1951English
- A Buyer's Market
1952English
- The Acceptance World
1955English
- At Lady Molly's
1957English
- Casanova's Chinese Restaurant
1960English
- The Kindly Ones
1962English
- The Valley of Bones
1964English
- The Soldier's Art
1966English
- The Military Philosophers
1968English
- Books Do Furnish a Room
1971English
- Temporary Kings
1973English
- Hearing Secret Harmonies
1975English
- Muriel Spark
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1961English
- Harriet Doerr
Stones for Ibarra
1984English
- Günter Grass
Die Blechtrommel
The Tin Drum
1959German
- William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
ca. 1591-97English
- 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
- Theodore Dreiser
Sister Carrie
1900English
'The Bear'
originally entitled 'Lion', published Dec. 1935 in Harper's; revised and retitled May 1942 for inclusion in the Saturday Evening Post; included in Go Down, Moses and Other Stories, 1942English
- Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls
1940English
- Denis Johnson
Jesus' Son
1992English
- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Il Gattopardo
The Leopard
1958Italian
- Katherine Anne Porter
Ship of Fools
1962English
Sophocles
- Antigone
ca. 441 B CGreek
- Oidipous epi Kolōnō
Oedipus at Colonus
401 B CGreek
- Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B CGreek
- John Steinbeck
East of Eden
1952English
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1886English
- George Eliot
Daniel Deronda
1876English
- Gabriel García Márquez
El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera
Love in the Time of Cholera
1985Spanish
- Shirley Hazzard
The Transit of Venus
1980English
- William Maxwell
So Long, See You Tomorrow
1979English
- Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon
1977English
- Émile Zola
Germinal
originally published serially Apr. 1884-Jan. 1885 in Gil BlasFrench
- John Fante
Ask the Dust
1939English
- Ford Madox Ford
Parade's End
originally published in four volumes: Some Do Not..., 1924; No More Parades, 1925; A Man Could Stand Up, 1926; Last Post, 1928English
- Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
1989English
- Henry James
The Ambassadors
originally published serially 1903 in the North American ReviewEnglish
Nine Stories
originally published 1948-53 in varied periodicals: the New Yorker, Harper's, and the Information World ReviewEnglish
- William Makepeace Thackeray
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848English
- Richard Wright
Native Son
1940English
Bhagavad Gita
part of the Mahabharata; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth CenturySanskrit
- Abe Kobo
Suna no Onna
The Woman in the Dunes
1962Japanese
- Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
1958English
- John Banville
The Untouchable
1997English
- Samuel Beckett
Mal Vu Mal Dit
Ill Seen Ill Said
1981French
The Book of Leviathan
selection of Leviathan comic stripsEnglish
- Millen Brand
The Outward Room
1937English
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Casa Guidi Windows
1851English
- Truman Capote
Answered Prayers
1986English
--
- The Golden Argosy: The Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language
1955; anthology of 39 stories, four of which (Stephen Vincent Benét's The Devil and Daniel Webster, Max Beerbohm's The Happy Hypocrite, Booth Tarkington's Monsier Beaucaire, and Henry Van Dyke's The Story of the Other Wise Man) count as monographical works
- Stephen Vincent Benét
The Devil and Daniel Webster
originally published 1936 in the Saturday Evening PostEnglish
- Henry Van Dyke
The Story of the Other Wise Man
1895English
- Booth Tarkington
Monsieur Beaucaire
1900English
- Max Beerbohm
The Happy Hypocrite
originally published Oct. 1896 in the Yellow BookEnglish
- Willa Cather
The Professor's House
1925English
- Kate Chopin
The Awakening
1899English
J M Coetzee
- Disgrace
1999English
- Waiting for the Barbarians
1980English
- Katherine Dunn
Geek Love
1989English
- Louise Eldrich
Love Medicine
1984English
- William Gaddis
J R
1975English
- Robert Graves
I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B C, Murdered and Deified A D 54
1934English
- Henry James
The Golden Bowl
1904English
- T E Lawrence
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
1922English
- C S Lewis
The Screwtape Letters
1942English
- Sándor Márai
A Gyertyák Csonkig Égnek
Embers
1942Hungarian
- Herman Melville
The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade
1857English
Harold Pinter
- The Birthday Party
1958English
- The Homecoming
1965English
- Mercè Rodoreda
La Plaça del Diamant
The Time of the Doves
1962Catalan
- William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
ca. 1606-08English
- Tanizaki Junichiro
Sasameyuki
The Makioka Sisters
published in part serially Jan.-Mar. 1943 in Chuo Koron; in its entirety in three volumes: 1946, 1947, and 1948Japanese
Émile Zola
- L'Assommoir
1877French
- Nana
originally published serially 1879-80 in La VoltaireFrench