No surprise here. Sometimes I feel they are uncapable to see the beauty around them, by being too focused on themselves. That's a shame. As someone who reads in 4 different languages (English is not my native language), this is upsetting but def not surprising
@@criss8836 Right, had the paper emphasized "the 50 best English/anglo books of the past 100 years", then we wouldn't take issue with their intentionally narrowed focus, but they're purporting to present only English-language works as the best anywhere for that time period, which is incredibly myopic. I also don't like how best books are automatically assumed to be best novels, omitting the wide range of writing outside of extended narrative fiction from consideration.
As a Virginia Woolf fan, I didn't mind seeing both Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse on the list, though I was surprised that not a single work by Faulkner made the list--seems like a major oversight. Agree w/ you regarding Never Let Me Go, but I did love The Remains of The Day. Thanks for your always thoughtful and insightful commentary.
I would definitely be into a Rushdie readalong. He's been on my list to get to for so long and in light of recent events it feels even more important than ever to get to his works sooner than later! I always enjoy hearing what books different groups deem the most important to read. No one list will ever satisfy everyone so I just take them as a fun chance to see how many I've read and if there are any I think I should add to my list. Many on this list are already on my shelves!
I would be up for a Rushdie readalong. I've read ten. I am not very read from the 60-90s. But it is interesting that there's several authors on here where I have read a fair amount of their work but not the one nominated. I wonder how much contemporary fiction was nominated but didn't have as widespread vote. It gets hard to choose between still working authors but also it is sad to see a century list that neglects fifteen years of it. If I made the list I would include some Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Isabel Allende, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Nella Larsen.
Thanks for providing the list for us. I’m 26/40. You would love Elizabeth Bowen. I live in north Co. Cork Ireland and live 5 minutes from the site of her family home. She and her husband are buried in the cemetery on the grounds so you could consider her an Irish writer. I’ve never read Midnight’s Children and would be happy to join a readalong.
Great video, Eric! Really enjoy your list discussions. Of the 40, I have read only 8 of the books, although I have copies of 15 of the unread ones. A good reading list. I would be interested in a readalong of Midnight’s Children. Like you I started it a few times. For me, it just wasn’t the right time or I didn’t really commit to it. Thanks for sharing your reading!
Thanks for your thoughts on the 40 Times books selected. I also thought it strange that some authors have 2 books on the list. It would have been better to include more authors on the list who are deserving of attention. From the list I have read only read 23!!
Oh, what a pleasure it is to happenstance upon your channel.I agree with you and thelist, I hope more's added. I've read many but not all, I'm not giving up on reading the rest until I can no longer see and take my last breath. You have a new admirer ofbooks subscriber and the I thank-you for sharing. 🇨🇦+️
I loved watching you go through the list and expand upon these. There are too many I haven’t read yet but it just gives me something to look forward to, I guess.
You did a great job with these, thanks. I wouldn't argue against any of these, but I would add Light in August, a book I enjoyed quite a lot. I agree with your doubts about The Great Gatsby and I personally don't think highly of the Salinger. I am a fan of Updike, Bellow, and Roth and have trouble with a list that leaves them off. Remains of the Day is a favorite, Blood Meridian is fantastic.
I had a teacher in Highschool that thought every Hemingway book was cannon and made us read all of them throughout the sophomore-senior years. (I went to a small school and had the same English teacher all through high school) I've read 27 on the list 😳 I am quite surprised by that! I wrote down the ones I haven't read that sounded interesting! Thank you for bringing the list to our attention!
🌹Oh, what a pleasure it is to happenstance upon your channel.👍🏻I agree with you and the📚list, I hope more's added. I've read many but not all, I'm not giving up on reading the rest until I can no longer see and take my last breath. 👍🏻You have a new admirer of📚books subscriber and the I thank-you for sharing. 🇨🇦+✌🏻📚♥️✨🌎💫
The Sun Also Rises was my real introduction to Hemingway. It's probably my favorite though it may share that spot with Garden of Eden. When you do read TSAR, think of it as a military deployment and return. As a military member, when I read it in a Modern Lit course, it really resonated with me because of my experiences. It's really incredible.
This list significantly aligns with my 2009 school reading list chosen by my English department so they are pretty universal choices . And shows that the books that would be considered greats were identified pretty quickly . Half a yellow son , Gileaf atonement were relatively new then as well . Interesting how this last decade is much more murky ad to what will be canonical
Have to admit that this list has some of my favourite books of all time - Wolf Hall, Nights at the Circus, Never Let Me Go, To The Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway and the amazing Wide Sargaso Sea. Amazing. Have read 19 of them
Great video. Your insights and anecdotes were fantastic. I assume this list is novels written in English not including translated fiction. I've read half, which I'm amazed at. I had to skip your bit on Never Let Me Go as I'm reading it now and didn't want any spoilers.
I've read 12 of the 40 books. And have several more of them on my shelf. You really need to read Gatsby now. I enjoyed it so much more at 40 than I did at 20.
Thanks for the recap. I feel the same way about The Great Gatsby, Olive Kitteridge is one of my all-time favorite characters, and I too have read many of Ishiguro's novels, but not The Remains of the Day. I must move that to the top of my TBR.
Ooh great list! Like you, I’ve read quite a chunk of these & many of them are on my all time favourite list. Loved your story about Doris Lessing! - sounds very characteristic of her. There’s a great video of her being doorstepped by news reporters telling her she’d won the Nobel Prize 😊
I've read some of those. As it happens I just listened to To the Lighthouse, which I hadn't picked up in years. Possibly it lacks conflict and plot sufficient to pique a reader's interest, which is unfortunate because it's one of the few novels where a powerful ending actually compensates for a dearth of story. It's quite short and well-worth finishing. However, if does ask for an open mind and a little bit of critical attention, but as I just wrote, it's worth it.
I love these kinds of lists, so interesting how different each of them are - I did terribly on this one, only read 6/40! Would definitely be interested in a readalong, I haven't read any Rushdie at all. Your plane story reminds me of when I let a colleague borrow a book and they gave it back completely water damaged, no apology either. It took me weeks to get over it haha :)
These best of lists are always thought provoking, and never, ever is there agreement. But of the ones I haven't read, there are five that I'll seek out, and that's the benefit of these things. My favourite book is one that I've read three times, and I only know two other people who have read it. So you can never account for personal taste but exchanging lists and ideas is a good thing. All the best
That Doris Lessing incident would have scarred me for life! 😂 I’ve only read a few of these books, although I have a group of them waiting to be read. I have added a couple of books to my list based on these 40, but it’s not really that inspiring a list for me. 🤷♀️
@@HoldenNY22 I think it's okay to be receptive to meeting one's heroes, but to always remember they are fallible human beings just like the rest of us. Ms. Lessing might have been having a bad day or bad moment on that occasion, but I'm glad our host can laugh at the memory of his encounter with this formidable personality.
I think Lessing's point was that she felt asking for signatures is trivial, rather than speaking about the writing. If you haven't seen it, I recommend looking at this video: m.ruclips.net/video/vuBODHFBZ8k/видео.html
Is there a list of translated fiction as well? I am missing the amazing classic of writers such as Flaubert, Dostojewski, Mann, Zweig, Hamsun, Marai, Frisch,....
I’ve read five of forty. As a fan of Graham Greene may I suggest start with his short stories as with his novels they deal with a wide range of styles. I would recommend May We Borrow Your Husband, The Overnight Bag orThe Basement Room. I think you enjoy starting to read Mr Greene
I used to enjoy reading Graham Greene - the Third Man comes to mind immediately - and frankly I'm not surprised he fails to make this particular list (IMO)
I've only 17 of these books but 8 books by the authors whose books were not mentioned on the list. Lists are lists and NOT mentioning To Kill a Mockingbird and many others is just one example of why lists are JUST lists. But all in all, I still enjoyed the video as I like Eric's love and enthusiasm for reading.
Thank you so much for covering the list… some of it shocked and irritated me, but I was thrilled to see Beloved, Gilead, and The Color Purple. (You might want to add spoiler alerts for Beloved and a few others.) On the other hand, why on Earth did they include Wide Sargasso Sea? It failed on so many levels for me, I threw it across the room two chapters in. Overall, I am so pleased with your content… you’ve definitely inspired me to read a few of these books. Thank you !
Maybe not so interesting today full fo feminst retelling a but wide Sargasso Sea is pretty revolutionary and influential for critically re-examining a classic such as Jane eyre in post colonial feminist Lense
I really enjoy when you engage with these lists. You are knowledgeable and so well read and also have such an openness for literature outside the norm. Great stuff. I was surprised with how many I had actually read coming in at 16.5 (half of Lolita) out of the 40, with Blood Meridian prob my next TBR. Personal favourite from this list is ‘Remains of the Day’ Thanks.
I hope Blood Meridian won't be your first Cormac McCarthy. If it is, I highly recommend reading No Country for Old Men and/or The Road. I read both Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horse before I read The Road, and I couldn't see the appeal. After The Road, I finally got his style and then No Country for Old Men cemented it in my mind. I then reread Blood Meridian and found a whole new appreciation of McCarthy.
@@thetheatrezoo3603 thanks for the advice. I have read a couple of McCarthy novels recently in ‘The Road’ and ‘All the Pretty Horses’ and have enjoyed both immensely. I wouldn’t mind finishing the ‘Border Trilogy before jumping in but I have the copy of BM ready to go. My understanding is that Blood Meridien is both dense literally (akin to a ‘Moby Dick’) but moreso, thematically. Hopefully I will appreciate it.
@@jonathonglover6488 BM is really good, I just needed to understand his style better. When I reread All the Pretty Horses and BM, I preferred BM. Though, The Road made me appreciate CM, I think my favorite might be No Country for Old Men. I look forward to his upcoming books.
I've read 21 of those books. I hereby give you a friendly command to read A House for Mr. Biswas, Blood Meridian, The Sun Also Rises, and The Remains of the Day. I loved all four.
You’re a better person than me clearly. If Doris Lessing had spoken to me like that I would have thrown the book at her and told her to keep it. I can’t abide rudeness like that and I don’t care if she is a decent writer.
@@barrymoore4470 I don’t give a 💩. You don’t speak to people like that and especially not people who buy your books! She was having a bad day is a piss poor excuse used to excuse people’s vulgar behaviour.
@@barrymoore4470 I don’t give a 💩. You don’t speak to people like that and especially not people who buy your books! She was having a bad day is a piss poor excuse used to excuse people’s vulgar behaviour.
Ditto "Midnight's Children" readalong. Amazed to see "Nights At The Circus" here! I first fell in love with "The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman." I think there's an argument it's a more...interesting novel, in its ambition & scope. But over the years, I've come to love "Nights At The Circus" a bit more. Woolf used to be one of my very favorite novelists, but in the last 7 yrs I've almost come to prefer her essays. Reread "Mrs. Dalloway" recently ("To The Lighthouse" used to be my favorite) & do find something is more "wild"...But...I also recently awoke as a real heretic: I might actually like "The Years" a bit more than either! Who knows: I've been reading Woolf for 15 yrs & maybe in another 15, I'll feel totally different.
A very interesting list! I wonder how many readers were polled to come up with this particular list? Question for you Karl: where do you buy the gorgeous editions of those books you hold up? They are unlike any I’ve seen in regular bookstores.Do you buy direct from publishers?
I’ve read 22 of the 40. I do have suggestions of other books that should be on this list though - including One Hundred Years of Solitude, Human Acts and Brief History of Seven Killings (had to include a Jamaican 🇯🇲 book)
Have read 14/40, many in college and high school. Glad to hear that you couldn’t get into Gilead either, and that you think it’s ok to give up on a book. My book club recently had this discussion, and about a third thought they needed to slog on through. Some of these, like McCarthy, I just don’t have the stomach for. Tom Wolfe - really? I would substitute Stoner or Augustus by John Williams, or Richard Yates if you had to give the slot to an American male. And you definitely need to reread Gatsby.
Please read and review Midnight's Children. I would love to know what you think about it. Rushdie is insane good and also very funny. I read MC and Haroun but never The Satanic Verses, which is what I am currently reading finally. Long live Sir Rushdie.
I will just recommend you two authors with the books I loved, to try them if you didn't... Isaac Bashevis Singer - "The Slave" and Erich Maria Remarque: "All Quiet on the Western Front". I promise you will really love them. Sometimes those lists make me wonder do we all live on the same planet... I loved some from this list but, 40 Best Books of the Century 🤨, there is so many great authors and books that no one is even talking about.
@@carmensirbu8585 No, I haven't, but I read "In my father's court" long time ago and wanted to reread it, but couldn't find it, that's how I put my hands on "The Slave" and loved it. I loved the story, but it's about his writing too, so I hope you will like it. I bought 3 more books and I have another one by him, and the two that I've read were different, meaning I want to read anything I can find by him. So if you read it, I'm interested to know if you liked it :).
I was shocked to learn that you haven't read any of V S Naipaul's novels. He is considered the greatest stylist of English Prose of the last hundred years! Read his A Bend in the River or A House for Mr. Biswas and you will immediately sense what a truly great writer is capable of writing, so unlike the best selling American writers. He is often compared to Joseph Conrad, another writer known as a great stylist of English Prose. You will not find even a single ungrammatical sentence in any of his novels or non-fiction books, says The Times of London. That's great praise indeed coming from British critics. Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania
The God of Small Things is my favourite book of all time and it was gifted to me by my partner and soulmate, so it is very dear to my heart. I'm surprised Joyce Carol Oates wasn't on this list. I found her this year for the first time in The Falls and she's now one of my favourite authors. I'm reading Blonde now. Have you read The Falls. It was glorious to say the least. I'm so happy I've found a Book tuber who likes all the same books and kind of books that I do. Thank you for all the recommendations. They inspire me as I write (working on the second draft of my first novel).
I've read 14. Again, no Australians on the list, sigh. I guess JM Coetzee has lived in Australia for about 20 years but Disgrace is one of his famous South African novels. The only novel I hadn't heard of was "Never Mind" but I have watched Benedict Cumberbatch play Patrick in the miniseries, it was very good.
@@luisamota7160 That's quite a lot of novels to choose from and it really depends on your taste, where to start. A recent book which would give you an idea might be, The Books That Made us by Carl Reinecke (2021). Last year, there was a TV series on some important Australian novels and the book goes into more depth. Early classics can be quite classist and racist but for a modern classic in an Australian gothic style, Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967) is a good one. A few that hold a special place in my heart, I read them in my teens, are My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (1901), The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (1910) and The Harp in the South by Ruth Park (1948). An important novel of recent times is The Yield by Tara June Winch. Some Australian authors that have a great body of work are Richard Flanagan, Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Peter Carey and Patrick White (Nobel prize winner- can be challenging to read), David Malouf, Thomas Keneally and Helen Garner (she writes quite a bit of Non-fiction too). We have some really important indigenous writers Alexis Wright (Carpentaria - it's a huge book) and Kim Scott are exceptional but can be difficult to read, have to really deep dive into their writing and their work sometimes works on a number of different levels. Some of my favourite Australian writers are Heather Rose Inga Simpson, Gail Jones and Joan London, they have novels in a number of different genres, they don't really have a type of novel they write. They write some literary fiction and some that's literary/genre fiction. I'd also recommend looking at The Miles Franklin Award (for books that have an Australian theme, it's Australia's most prestigious literary award) and The Stella Award (for Australian women writers). The Prime Minister's Literary award and the State Premiers Literary Awards are also great places to find some gems. Most of the writers I've mentioned have multiple books that have won these awards.
Thanks for your video and comments. It's gonna be helpful in picking out new books to read. I'm a little confused as you talk of 40 books, but the article on the website is titled "The 50 best books of the past 100 years". As I'm not a subscriber, I don't have more details.
Great, hope you find some new favourite reads. I think the critics and writers picked out 40 books which were shown in the article of the paper I bought but then they opened it up to the public to suggest 10 more to make 50. I just bought the physical paper so I don’t have access to the online content so I don’t know what the 10 extra are either. A confusing way to go about it but more democratic I guess.
I’ve only read nine books on the list, although there are a number I’ve been wanting to read, in particular the Bowen. I also didn’t get on with The Great Gatsby, and I read it three times!
I have the Edward St. Aubyn books in an omnibus, also have A Suitable Boy, haven't picked up either one of them. Years ago for my book club, I read one Hemingway and his writing is not for me. These are good selections, some of which I've read and liked and some I DNF'd like The Great Gatsby and Gilead. There's so many great books and not enough time.
Honestly, I am surprised Olive Kitteridge and Gilead are on this list? Lol. I DNF'd Gilead and read Olive for booktube prize (Olive Again was the book I needed to read, but I wanted to read the first one too) and was really not very impressed. Also The Catcher in the Rye, not a fan at all. And The Handmaid' Tale, lol, I did not love that one eitherrrr...I don't know what it was about it. I think I had read The Blind Assassin and fell in LOVE with her writing, and then read that and was let down. There are a few in here that I absolutely love though, Never Let Me Go, Giovanni's Room, Things Fall Apart. I wonder what the criticisms of that book are, in my opinion it has the most incredible last sentence (paragraph?) of anything I have ever read. Oh...and Lolita. I love Nabokov, he is one of my favorite authors. So good. I need to read more of his things!! AND The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie! Oh I am pleased The Great Gatsby is number one :) That book broke my heart. I do find it funny that some of these books I really really disliked and some I absolutely loved. I guess that's how it goes though!!
I've read 25/40. 10 are on the TBR list. I think 6 of these might make my own list. Two on the list I didn't love: the blue flower, bonfire of the vanities. It's interesting what books by authors made the list and tend to make these kinds of list, and which ones I love more. On that note, books by authors on here I prefer to the ones they selected: DH Lawrence: Women in Love, The Rainbow Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon Margaret Atwood: Cat's eye Salman Rushdie: Shalimar the clown (though I admit Midnight's children might be the "better" book)
'Women in Love' and 'The Rainbow' are universally regarded as superior as literature to 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', but they fall outside the scope of the 'Times' survey, having been written and published before 1922.
I thought this was English language fiction only, until all of a sudden Nabokov shows up almost at the end... Much too UK/US centric, but perhaps that's not all that surprising...
@@qinlkpah Except the 'Times' was not promoting the list as the best novels written in English--they are presenting these as the best books (not merely novels) written anywhere over the last century. Which is short-sighted on at least two counts (literature is more than just novels, and great literature extends beyond English-language works).
J. M. Coetzee represents the southern hemisphere, and Doris Lessing could arguably count also. But you're right in that there is no sign here of Patrick White, Joan Lindsay, Janet Frame, and many outstanding Spanish-language authors of the past century, including Jorge Luis Borges, Antonio Di Benedetto, and Isabel Allende, and, in Portuguese, probably Brazil's most esteemed twentieth-century writer, Clarice Lispector.
Pleased to see I scored 23! I was surprised there was nothing by Faulkner (especially given the century since Ulysses context). Would have loved to see Riddley Walker on this - and maybe even Ducks Newburyport!! And there are two books by Ishiguro that I much prefer to the listed ones - Artist of the Floating World and the Unconsoled.
OK, I've read all of them except the St. Aubyn and my favorite is not on the list. That would be Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate. This was written in 1959, published in the original Russian in 1980, sixteen years after the author died, and finally published in English in 2012.
I would answer no to your question, as there is no substitute for an author's precise style even in the most attentive film adaptation of a literary work. Style to me is the most important element in assessing a work's literary merit.
Thank you for this video. I am currently reading “I used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys” by Miranda Seymour.I picked up the book based on the blurb on the back cover by Heather Clark. I adored her biography of Sylvia Plath. I am thinking of reading Rhys’ novel “After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie.”
She pubIshed 4 short noveIs in the earIy part of the Iast century and feII into obscurity (or was never Iifted out of it) untiI she pubIished a book in the 1960s caIIed Wide Sargasso Sea, which was a take off on Jane Eyre. I Iike the desperate reaIism in her earIy noveIs. I'm curious, why wouId you read a biography about an author whose work you've never read? I've never heard of anyone doing that. One becomes curious about the author because you've connected in some way with his or her work.
@@JeffRebornNow I read an article in The New Yorker Magazine: “The Many Confrontations of Jean Rhys” which piqued my interest. I do not hold any hard and fast rules regarding my reading selections.I had only read “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath and picked up “Red Comet”, which I highly recommend. Also,intend to pick up a biography of Patricia Highsmith after reading “The Talented Mr.Ripley.” Thanks for commenting.
I’m kinda stuck in the 19th century: George Eliot’s Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, most of Jane Austen but Mansfield Park and Persuasion in particular, Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd and Tess of the d’Urbervilles. In this list, Animal Farm should have been in the top 10. Books on the list that I’ve read: The Great Gatsby, The Bell Jar, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Things Fall Apart, The Remains of the Day, Lord of the Flies, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Sun Also Rises, The Handmaid’s Tale, Lolita, Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando = 30%. Books on the list that I’ve liked: Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Orlando = 7.5%. I actually prefer classic speculative fiction, memoir, biography, history, and science as opposed to literary fiction. ETA: Virginia Woolf has 3 books on the list, for 7.5% - WHY?
I've read some of those, and while Sylvia Plath is my favorite poet (I've memorized several), her novel, The Bell Jar, maybe isn't a great classic. However, you may want to do a quick study comparing it to Allen Ginsburg's Howl.
@@jamesduggan7200 Here you are: hollis517.blogspot.com/2010/05/renascence-all-i-could-see-from-where-i.html. Edna’s Renascence and This should be Simple are the two I love best. May’s entries show my very favorite poems. (Shelley’s Ozymandias is the very best sonnet ever written, imo.) If you click on April, you’ll see my paper, The Terminator and the Intention of Technology, written in 1994. I consider it prescient.
The 'Times' editorial board should emphasize that this is a list of English novels (or novels composed in English, if one prefers), which is by no means representative of the full spectrum of eminent extended narrative prose over the last century. And I have qualms about the usual conflation, made by that publication among others, of best books meaning best novels--volumes of poetry, essays, short stories, and nonfiction books including history, science, and criticism are all as vital as narrative fiction in advancing literary art. Having noted these demurrals, I am surprised that William Faulkner is not represented on the list--'The Sound and the Fury', 'As I Lay Dying', or 'Light in August' would seem to me to be essential inclusions in a best-of list for English novels (or English-language novels) of 1922-2022. I would also personally add 'Two Serious Ladies' by Jane Bowles, 'Titus Groan' by Mervyn Peake, 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess, '334' by Thomas M. Disch, and 'Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament' by John Crowley, while 'Sophie's Choice' by William Styron would also probably be a worthy inclusion. Of the books of the list actually printed here that I have read or sampled, I would cite 'Lolita' and 'Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West' as prime stylistic masterpieces, beautiful language being key to my mind for great literature, and 'Housekeeping' also has many felicities of lyrical expression. 'Never Let Me Go' strikes me as overrated, the story and its revelations needlessly drawn out, though the subject is certainly stimulating and compelling. Hemingway's clipped, terse style has become cliched and dated, with many scholars now arguing that it works best in the short-story format (many of his short stories regarded as masterworks of the form) than in the longer scope of the novel (of which 'The Sun Also Rises' remains perhaps his most esteemed effort).
You mention a few notables, in particular Sophie's Choice, which is a spectacular novel. Clockwork, too, overwhelmingly deserves continued notice, though I find it difficult to praise Lolita, as bewitching as it is. And of course, everyone should read The Sun Also Rises, but that's life.
Like you I have read 30 of the books on this list (although not exactly the same ones ). I appreciate your comments about each but I was surprised you had not read any V. S. Naipaul. You are missing out on one of the truly great authors of the twentieth century.
The golden notebook Nights at the circus Half of a yellow sun Lolita Beloved The prime of miss jean brodie Midnights children good morning midnight The great gatspy
I suscribe to Apple News+ and was able to access the article. I’ve read 28 of the 40 and mostly I agree with the entries. I can’t complain though because my number one novel syncs up with their choice. I finished my annual rereading of The Great Gatsby two days ago and again marveled at the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Jake Gyllenhaal narrated Gatsby somewhat recently for Audible and did a fine job. I would have subbed in Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea and Julian Barnes’ The Sense of An Ending for a couple of the weaker entries.
I read the old man and the sea, it bored me stiff and made me swear not to read anything else by him. Haven´t read many of the books on the list, but have started in Wolf Hall. Have read Atonement, the Remains of the day, Things fall apart. Do want to read the color of purple.
I would definitely like to join a Midnight's Children Readathon. It's a book I have often wanted to try but am nervous about tackling alone as Rushdie is a master of Magical Realism and I am only just starting to seriously get into that a gere,I worry I,d get a bit lost on my own
I've read 27 of them. The list conatins several of my all time favorites like Mrs Dalloway, The Remains of the Day, The Great Gatsby, Atonement and of course The Color Purple ..... and one book, which I deeply dislike a great deal: yes it's the Handmaid's Tale. I don't get the hype about this book
Someone pointed out the other day that The Great Gatsby and Mrs. Dalloway are basically the same story tho of course their endings are about as different as can be.
@@jamesduggan7200 It's interesting that Michael Cunningham's 1998 novel 'The Hours', inspired by and riffing on 'Mrs Dalloway', did not make the list here.
I've read 20, 11 on my reading list (a few more after this video) Not too bad I think as I'm Swedish and only about one third of what I read is originally written in English.
Thank you so much. This was a super interesting video. A Rushdie read along would be fun. I too have read and the Great Gatsby twice hoping but failing to like it. The movies and culture that the book gave birth to and great. This is one where the films are better than the book, at least for me. Lolita is one of my favorites. Nabokov (stress on the second syllable Nab-oh-kav) claimed that he was in dialog with Dostoevsky’s Stavrogin’s confession from the Possessed, unpublished back then.
I have read so many books by Nabokov and admire him so much. It took rather a long time (in England) for him to be regarded as a genius and not a pornographer.
@@alidabaxter5849 Genius and pornographer need not be mutually exclusive categories. I agree, though, that Nabokov was not purveying pornography through his writing, which is indeed illustrative of his genius.
Definitely a strange list. I've only read 17 on it, but I have read Midnight's Children twice. Why isn't Ulysses there? I expected it to be number one. Quite odd to have two Ishiguro novels, and also two by Robinson and Woolf. As fine a book as Miss Jean Brodie is - a best of the century pick?
I was under the impression that the list was supposed to represent the best since 'Ulysses', so its absence could be explained that way. It is rather curious that the single most revolutionary novel published since 'Ulysses', 'Finnegans Wake', also by Joyce, did not make the list.
I still love _The Catcher in the Rye_ and Holden Caulfield, but I know I'm in the minority. I think I'm stuck in that adolescent disaffected youth stage for life. 😅 There are quite a few I've read, but so many on this list I haven't read and sound really good. _Ripley_ is excellent. I bet you'd love it. _Wolf Hall._ 💚 _Gilead._ 💚
No Steinbeck, Hemmingway, Vargas Llosa, Alice Munro, Willa Cather, Paul Auster, William Trevor, John Dos Passos, Kafka, Daphne Du Maurer to name but a few.
I’m in complete disbelief The Great Gatsby would top this list but clearly I’m no authority.. I’ve only read 3 books on this list but Gatsby is one of them and I will never understand the hype behind it. 🤷🏻♀️
Well, first of all there's Nick, who probably is in love with Jay, and is therefore shattered when Fitzgerald forecloses any chance of a relationship between them. And then there's Jordan Baker, who likes to cheat. She doesn't need to cheat, she doesn't feel guilty about cheating, she just likes it. Also, there Daisy, who unexpectedly finds herself in a happy ending. As for Jay, as Rodney Dangerfield tersely explained: He's great.
A pretty solid list with no really questionable entries, though for a list inspired by the anniversary of Ulysses it seems a tad stodgy. I've only read 7, but I own most.
Following on your comment about several cases of authors w/more than one book on the list, it’s pretty disappointing that no experimental novelists are here, such as DeLillo, Barth, Doctorow, Pynchon or more recently George Saunders. These writers have helped define the recent decades, pushing the form like Joyce-which makes their absence even odder when you consider that it’s the ULYSSES centenary that inspired this. You could also include Henry Green, Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, John Updike. Wait-no Faulkner?!? Charles Portis! Joyce Carol Oates! C’mon…the more you think about this list…but GATSBY is a worthy #1. And you should return to NEVER LET ME GO. It’s pretty devastating…
Yes! That’s so true. So many writers that have pushed the form of fiction more than some of the books included. I’d definitely include Lincoln in the Bardo. And yeah, I know I’m the outsider when it comes to Gatsby and Never Let Me Go. I’ll return to them one day and slap my face realising how wrong I was.
I know that Harry Potter will never appear on a list like this, that there is a gulf between intellectual merit and commercial success, but if your book series inspired a generation of people to start reading novels for leisure, don’t you think the intelligentsia should find a way to get your book on their list?
After listening to this I was struck by the common themes of Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie and The Remains of the Day. Both capture what I think of the stiff upper lip of Brits and how that affects their lives and their relationship with fascist themes. I loved both these very much and have read ROTD twice. This one I think of as a perfect novel. I was enthralled with Wolf Hall and the other two. They are as close as I get to understanding those times.
I went to see Doris Lessing just before her death (a year or two @ the Phil Free Library- she was incredibly rude and impatient and refused to sigh any books but her new one. She also read from her book with a monotone, impatient voice. It was very disappointing because The Golden Notebook is one of my favorite books.
We love that you love lists and you do such a great job describing each book in such an economical way!.
Thank you! 😊📚
Very Anglo-centric list, if I may say so. World literature is so rich, I just cannot imagine a list without Marquez, Proust, Kafka, Handke...
True!
No surprise here.
Sometimes I feel they are uncapable to see the beauty around them, by being too focused on themselves.
That's a shame.
As someone who reads in 4 different languages (English is not my native language), this is upsetting but def not surprising
It’s an English paper talking about English books - it’s not pretending to be international in scope
@@hedgiecc it's an English paper ranking "The 50 best books of the past 100 years".
Not
"The 50 best English/anglo books of the past 100 years"
@@criss8836
Right, had the paper emphasized "the 50 best English/anglo books of the past 100 years", then we wouldn't take issue with their intentionally narrowed focus, but they're purporting to present only English-language works as the best anywhere for that time period, which is incredibly myopic. I also don't like how best books are automatically assumed to be best novels, omitting the wide range of writing outside of extended narrative fiction from consideration.
As a Virginia Woolf fan, I didn't mind seeing both Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse on the list, though I was surprised that not a single work by Faulkner made the list--seems like a major oversight. Agree w/ you regarding Never Let Me Go, but I did love The Remains of The Day. Thanks for your always thoughtful and insightful commentary.
I would definitely be into a Rushdie readalong. He's been on my list to get to for so long and in light of recent events it feels even more important than ever to get to his works sooner than later!
I always enjoy hearing what books different groups deem the most important to read. No one list will ever satisfy everyone so I just take them as a fun chance to see how many I've read and if there are any I think I should add to my list. Many on this list are already on my shelves!
I would be up for a Rushdie readalong.
I've read ten. I am not very read from the 60-90s. But it is interesting that there's several authors on here where I have read a fair amount of their work but not the one nominated. I wonder how much contemporary fiction was nominated but didn't have as widespread vote. It gets hard to choose between still working authors but also it is sad to see a century list that neglects fifteen years of it.
If I made the list I would include some Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Isabel Allende, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Nella Larsen.
Thanks for providing the list for us. I’m 26/40. You would love Elizabeth Bowen. I live in north Co. Cork Ireland and live 5 minutes from the site of her family home. She and her husband are buried in the cemetery on the grounds so you could consider her an Irish writer. I’ve never read Midnight’s Children and would be happy to join a readalong.
That's great! I'm sure I'll love her writing. I'll let you know if I set a read along plan.
Great video, Eric! Really enjoy your list discussions. Of the 40, I have read only 8 of the books, although I have copies of 15 of the unread ones. A good reading list. I would be interested in a readalong of Midnight’s Children. Like you I started it a few times. For me, it just wasn’t the right time or I didn’t really commit to it. Thanks for sharing your reading!
Thanks for your thoughts on the 40 Times books selected. I also thought it strange that some authors have 2 books on the list. It would have been better to include more authors on the list who are deserving of attention. From the list I have read only read 23!!
Oh, what a pleasure it is to happenstance upon your channel.I agree with you and thelist, I hope more's added. I've read many but not all, I'm not giving up on reading the rest until I can no longer see and take my last breath.
You have a new admirer ofbooks subscriber and the I thank-you for sharing.
🇨🇦+️
Thank you! It's lovely to meet you. 📚
I loved watching you go through the list and expand upon these. There are too many I haven’t read yet but it just gives me something to look forward to, I guess.
You did a great job with these, thanks. I wouldn't argue against any of these, but I would add Light in August, a book I enjoyed quite a lot. I agree with your doubts about The Great Gatsby and I personally don't think highly of the Salinger. I am a fan of Updike, Bellow, and Roth and have trouble with a list that leaves them off. Remains of the Day is a favorite, Blood Meridian is fantastic.
I had a teacher in Highschool that thought every Hemingway book was cannon and made us read all of them throughout the sophomore-senior years. (I went to a small school and had the same English teacher all through high school)
I've read 27 on the list 😳 I am quite surprised by that! I wrote down the ones I haven't read that sounded interesting!
Thank you for bringing the list to our attention!
Some of the Americans: Hemmingway, Steinbeck, Lewis, et al, are difficult to separate from the politics they embraced.
🌹Oh, what a pleasure it is to happenstance upon your channel.👍🏻I agree with you and the📚list, I hope more's added. I've read many but not all, I'm not giving up on reading the rest until I can no longer see and take my last breath.
👍🏻You have a new admirer of📚books subscriber and the I thank-you for sharing.
🇨🇦+✌🏻📚♥️✨🌎💫
Thanks so much! That’s kind of you to say. 😊📚
The Sun Also Rises was my real introduction to Hemingway. It's probably my favorite though it may share that spot with Garden of Eden. When you do read TSAR, think of it as a military deployment and return. As a military member, when I read it in a Modern Lit course, it really resonated with me because of my experiences. It's really incredible.
This list significantly aligns with my 2009 school reading list chosen by my English department so they are pretty universal choices . And shows that the books that would be considered greats were identified pretty quickly . Half a yellow son , Gileaf atonement were relatively new then as well . Interesting how this last decade is much more murky ad to what will be canonical
Have to admit that this list has some of my favourite books of all time - Wolf Hall, Nights at the Circus, Never Let Me Go, To The Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway and the amazing Wide Sargaso Sea. Amazing. Have read 19 of them
Great video. Your insights and anecdotes were fantastic. I assume this list is novels written in English not including translated fiction. I've read half, which I'm amazed at. I had to skip your bit on Never Let Me Go as I'm reading it now and didn't want any spoilers.
I've read 12 of the 40 books. And have several more of them on my shelf. You really need to read Gatsby now. I enjoyed it so much more at 40 than I did at 20.
Wonderful video! And I agree about The Great Gatsby. But it's been many years since I've tried reading it so maybe I'll give it another shot. :)
Thank you! 📚 Yeah, I really ought to reread Gatsby.
Thank you so so much!!! Loved this video and my next one year TBR is set.
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Thanks for the recap. I feel the same way about The Great Gatsby, Olive Kitteridge is one of my all-time favorite characters, and I too have read many of Ishiguro's novels, but not The Remains of the Day. I must move that to the top of my TBR.
Thank you so much Eric for this travel through time !
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Ooh great list! Like you, I’ve read quite a chunk of these & many of them are on my all time favourite list. Loved your story about Doris Lessing! - sounds very characteristic of her. There’s a great video of her being doorstepped by news reporters telling her she’d won the Nobel Prize 😊
Yes! I love that video of her.
I've read some of those. As it happens I just listened to To the Lighthouse, which I hadn't picked up in years. Possibly it lacks conflict and plot sufficient to pique a reader's interest, which is unfortunate because it's one of the few novels where a powerful ending actually compensates for a dearth of story. It's quite short and well-worth finishing. However, if does ask for an open mind and a little bit of critical attention, but as I just wrote, it's worth it.
I’ve read 36 of those books and loved them all.
I love these kinds of lists, so interesting how different each of them are - I did terribly on this one, only read 6/40! Would definitely be interested in a readalong, I haven't read any Rushdie at all.
Your plane story reminds me of when I let a colleague borrow a book and they gave it back completely water damaged, no apology either. It took me weeks to get over it haha :)
The Enchantress of Florence is especially good, and a good one to start with, imo.
Have read 32/40 - some a long time ago!
Great list! Have been working my way through many of these over the last year. Still many to go!!
These best of lists are always thought provoking, and never, ever is there agreement. But of the ones I haven't read, there are five that I'll seek out, and that's the benefit of these things. My favourite book is one that I've read three times, and I only know two other people who have read it. So you can never account for personal taste but exchanging lists and ideas is a good thing. All the best
That Doris Lessing incident would have scarred me for life! 😂
I’ve only read a few of these books, although I have a group of them waiting to be read. I have added a couple of books to my list based on these 40, but it’s not really that inspiring a list for me. 🤷♀️
She was quite intimidating. And it’s certainly not a revolutionary list of suggestions though some are books I really ought to get to.
What is the old saying- Never Meet your Heroes. They may dissapoint you.
@@EricKarlAnderson it's embarrassing for her to act in this manner. She left you without nice memories :((
@@HoldenNY22
I think it's okay to be receptive to meeting one's heroes, but to always remember they are fallible human beings just like the rest of us. Ms. Lessing might have been having a bad day or bad moment on that occasion, but I'm glad our host can laugh at the memory of his encounter with this formidable personality.
I think Lessing's point was that she felt asking for signatures is trivial, rather than speaking about the writing. If you haven't seen it, I recommend looking at this video:
m.ruclips.net/video/vuBODHFBZ8k/видео.html
what kind of list can it be without Marquez, llosa, calvino or Juan Rulfo?
Or Cabrera Infante
Is there a list of translated fiction as well? I am missing the amazing classic of writers such as Flaubert, Dostojewski, Mann, Zweig, Hamsun, Marai, Frisch,....
I’ve read five of forty. As a fan of Graham Greene may I suggest start with his short stories as with his novels they deal with a wide range of styles. I would recommend May We Borrow Your Husband, The Overnight Bag orThe Basement Room. I think you enjoy starting to read Mr Greene
I used to enjoy reading Graham Greene - the Third Man comes to mind immediately - and frankly I'm not surprised he fails to make this particular list (IMO)
I've only 17 of these books but 8 books by the authors whose books were not mentioned on the list. Lists are lists and NOT mentioning To Kill a Mockingbird and many others is just one example of why lists are JUST lists. But all in all, I still enjoyed the video as I like Eric's love and enthusiasm for reading.
Thank you so much for covering the list… some of it shocked and irritated me, but I was thrilled to see Beloved, Gilead, and The Color Purple. (You might want to add spoiler alerts for Beloved and a few others.) On the other hand, why on Earth did they include Wide Sargasso Sea? It failed on so many levels for me, I threw it across the room two chapters in. Overall, I am so pleased with your content… you’ve definitely inspired me to read a few of these books. Thank you !
Maybe not so interesting today full fo feminst retelling a but wide Sargasso Sea is pretty revolutionary and influential for critically re-examining a classic such as Jane eyre in post colonial feminist Lense
I really enjoy when you engage with these lists. You are knowledgeable and so well read and also have such an openness for literature outside the norm. Great stuff.
I was surprised with how many I had actually read coming in at 16.5 (half of Lolita) out of the 40, with Blood Meridian prob my next TBR.
Personal favourite from this list is ‘Remains of the Day’
Thanks.
Thanks! I hope to read Blood Meridian soon too.
I hope Blood Meridian won't be your first Cormac McCarthy. If it is, I highly recommend reading No Country for Old Men and/or The Road. I read both Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horse before I read The Road, and I couldn't see the appeal. After The Road, I finally got his style and then No Country for Old Men cemented it in my mind. I then reread Blood Meridian and found a whole new appreciation of McCarthy.
@@thetheatrezoo3603 thanks for the advice.
I have read a couple of McCarthy novels recently in ‘The Road’ and ‘All the Pretty Horses’ and have enjoyed both immensely. I wouldn’t mind finishing the ‘Border Trilogy before jumping in but I have the copy of BM ready to go.
My understanding is that Blood Meridien is both dense literally (akin to a ‘Moby Dick’) but moreso, thematically. Hopefully I will appreciate it.
@@jonathonglover6488 BM is really good, I just needed to understand his style better. When I reread All the Pretty Horses and BM, I preferred BM. Though, The Road made me appreciate CM, I think my favorite might be No Country for Old Men. I look forward to his upcoming books.
These lists are always so... interesting haha. Some inclusions I'm happy to see here. Other odd exclusions.
I've read 21 of those books. I hereby give you a friendly command to read A House for Mr. Biswas, Blood Meridian, The Sun Also Rises, and The Remains of the Day. I loved all four.
You’re a better person than me clearly. If Doris Lessing had spoken to me like that I would have thrown the book at her and told her to keep it. I can’t abide rudeness like that and I don’t care if she is a decent writer.
Maybe she was having a bad day or just a bad moment on that occasion. We all have our failings from time to time, even the great artists among us.
@@barrymoore4470 I don’t give a 💩. You don’t speak to people like that and especially not people who buy your books! She was having a bad day is a piss poor excuse used to excuse people’s vulgar behaviour.
@@barrymoore4470 I don’t give a 💩. You don’t speak to people like that and especially not people who buy your books! She was having a bad day is a piss poor excuse used to excuse people’s vulgar behaviour.
Ditto "Midnight's Children" readalong. Amazed to see "Nights At The Circus" here! I first fell in love with "The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman." I think there's an argument it's a more...interesting novel, in its ambition & scope. But over the years, I've come to love "Nights At The Circus" a bit more.
Woolf used to be one of my very favorite novelists, but in the last 7 yrs I've almost come to prefer her essays. Reread "Mrs. Dalloway" recently ("To The Lighthouse" used to be my favorite) & do find something is more "wild"...But...I also recently awoke as a real heretic: I might actually like "The Years" a bit more than either! Who knows: I've been reading Woolf for 15 yrs & maybe in another 15, I'll feel totally different.
Rushdie!!!
A very interesting list! I wonder how many readers were polled to come up with this particular list?
Question for you Karl: where do you buy the gorgeous editions of those books you hold up? They are unlike any I’ve seen in regular bookstores.Do you buy direct from publishers?
Sorry - Eric.
Thanks! Some of them are UK first editions and others are proof copies publishers send me in advance of publication.
I’ve read 22 of the 40. I do have suggestions of other books that should be on this list though - including One Hundred Years of Solitude, Human Acts and Brief History of Seven Killings (had to include a Jamaican 🇯🇲 book)
Great! 😊📚 Yes, definitely A Brief History of Seven Killings!
Yes to a read of midnight’s children. It’s been in my list a long time.
Thanks for this. Have you read Ulyssess ?
I’ve read sections but not the entire book through. Love the NightTown section and Molly Bloom’s section obviously.
Have read 14/40, many in college and high school. Glad to hear that you couldn’t get into Gilead either, and that you think it’s ok to give up on a book. My book club recently had this discussion, and about a third thought they needed to slog on through. Some of these, like McCarthy, I just don’t have the stomach for. Tom Wolfe - really? I would substitute Stoner or Augustus by John Williams, or Richard Yates if you had to give the slot to an American male. And you definitely need to reread Gatsby.
Yeah, I remember reading and enjoying Tom Wolfe but I can't recall any other list putting Bonfire so high up.
I loved the Golden Notebook in my 20s but re read it in my early 60s and was so disappointed, it just didn`t stand the test of time for me.
Please read and review Midnight's Children. I would love to know what you think about it. Rushdie is insane good and also very funny. I read MC and Haroun but never The Satanic Verses, which is what I am currently reading finally. Long live Sir Rushdie.
I've read 13 books on this list. I agree with you about Layla. It's such a beautiful book. I've read it 3 times.
I will just recommend you two authors with the books I loved, to try them if you didn't... Isaac Bashevis Singer - "The Slave" and Erich Maria Remarque: "All Quiet on the Western Front". I promise you will really love them. Sometimes those lists make me wonder do we all live on the same planet... I loved some from this list but, 40 Best Books of the Century 🤨, there is so many great authors and books that no one is even talking about.
I just bought "The Moskat family" written by Isaac Bashevis-Singer, have you read it?
@@carmensirbu8585 No, I haven't, but I read "In my father's court" long time ago and wanted to reread it, but couldn't find it, that's how I put my hands on "The Slave" and loved it. I loved the story, but it's about his writing too, so I hope you will like it. I bought 3 more books and I have another one by him, and the two that I've read were different, meaning I want to read anything I can find by him. So if you read it, I'm interested to know if you liked it :).
I was shocked to learn that you haven't read any of V S Naipaul's novels. He is considered the greatest stylist of English Prose of the last hundred years! Read his A Bend in the River or A House for Mr. Biswas and you will immediately sense what a truly great writer is capable of writing, so unlike the best selling American writers. He is often compared to Joseph Conrad, another writer known as a great stylist of English Prose. You will not find even a single ungrammatical sentence in any of his novels or non-fiction books, says The Times of London. That's great praise indeed coming from British critics.
Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania
The God of Small Things is my favourite book of all time and it was gifted to me by my partner and soulmate, so it is very dear to my heart. I'm surprised Joyce Carol Oates wasn't on this list. I found her this year for the first time in The Falls and she's now one of my favourite authors. I'm reading Blonde now. Have you read The Falls. It was glorious to say the least. I'm so happy I've found a Book tuber who likes all the same books and kind of books that I do. Thank you for all the recommendations. They inspire me as I write (working on the second draft of my first novel).
The God of Small Things....I have read. Very interesting and surprising.
I've read 14. Again, no Australians on the list, sigh. I guess JM Coetzee has lived in Australia for about 20 years but Disgrace is one of his famous South African novels. The only novel I hadn't heard of was "Never Mind" but I have watched Benedict Cumberbatch play Patrick in the miniseries, it was very good.
Hello! Could you recommend some Australian novels? What are the greatest Australian classics, in your opinion? That would be very helpful! 🦋
@@luisamota7160 That's quite a lot of novels to choose from and it really depends on your taste, where to start. A recent book which would give you an idea might be, The Books That Made us by Carl Reinecke (2021). Last year, there was a TV series on some important Australian novels and the book goes into more depth.
Early classics can be quite classist and racist but for a modern classic in an Australian gothic style, Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967) is a good one. A few that hold a special place in my heart, I read them in my teens, are My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (1901), The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (1910) and The Harp in the South by Ruth Park (1948).
An important novel of recent times is The Yield by Tara June Winch.
Some Australian authors that have a great body of work are Richard Flanagan, Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Peter Carey and Patrick White (Nobel prize winner- can be challenging to read), David Malouf, Thomas Keneally and Helen Garner (she writes quite a bit of Non-fiction too). We have some really important indigenous writers Alexis Wright (Carpentaria - it's a huge book) and Kim Scott are exceptional but can be difficult to read, have to really deep dive into their writing and their work sometimes works on a number of different levels. Some of my favourite Australian writers are Heather Rose Inga Simpson, Gail Jones and Joan London, they have novels in a number of different genres, they don't really have a type of novel they write. They write some literary fiction and some that's literary/genre fiction.
I'd also recommend looking at The Miles Franklin Award (for books that have an Australian theme, it's Australia's most prestigious literary award) and The Stella Award (for Australian women writers). The Prime Minister's Literary award and the State Premiers Literary Awards are also great places to find some gems. Most of the writers I've mentioned have multiple books that have won these awards.
Definitely up for a readalong!
Thanks for your video and comments. It's gonna be helpful in picking out new books to read. I'm a little confused as you talk of 40 books, but the article on the website is titled "The 50 best books of the past 100 years". As I'm not a subscriber, I don't have more details.
Great, hope you find some new favourite reads. I think the critics and writers picked out 40 books which were shown in the article of the paper I bought but then they opened it up to the public to suggest 10 more to make 50. I just bought the physical paper so I don’t have access to the online content so I don’t know what the 10 extra are either. A confusing way to go about it but more democratic I guess.
No Borges, Cortázar, Bolaño, Vargas Llosa, or García Márquez? Right, "best books of the last century" alright lol. Nice little list otherwise.
I know! No One Hundred Years of Solitude! I expected to see it in the top ten.
I’ve only read nine books on the list, although there are a number I’ve been wanting to read, in particular the Bowen. I also didn’t get on with The Great Gatsby, and I read it three times!
I have the Edward St. Aubyn books in an omnibus, also have A Suitable Boy, haven't picked up either one of them. Years ago for my book club, I read one Hemingway and his writing is not for me. These are good selections, some of which I've read and liked and some I DNF'd like The Great Gatsby and Gilead. There's so many great books and not enough time.
Honestly, I am surprised Olive Kitteridge and Gilead are on this list? Lol. I DNF'd Gilead and read Olive for booktube prize (Olive Again was the book I needed to read, but I wanted to read the first one too) and was really not very impressed. Also The Catcher in the Rye, not a fan at all. And The Handmaid' Tale, lol, I did not love that one eitherrrr...I don't know what it was about it. I think I had read The Blind Assassin and fell in LOVE with her writing, and then read that and was let down.
There are a few in here that I absolutely love though, Never Let Me Go, Giovanni's Room, Things Fall Apart. I wonder what the criticisms of that book are, in my opinion it has the most incredible last sentence (paragraph?) of anything I have ever read. Oh...and Lolita. I love Nabokov, he is one of my favorite authors. So good. I need to read more of his things!! AND The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie! Oh I am pleased The Great Gatsby is number one :) That book broke my heart.
I do find it funny that some of these books I really really disliked and some I absolutely loved. I guess that's how it goes though!!
I've read 25/40. 10 are on the TBR list.
I think 6 of these might make my own list. Two on the list I didn't love: the blue flower, bonfire of the vanities.
It's interesting what books by authors made the list and tend to make these kinds of list, and which ones I love more. On that note, books by authors on here I prefer to the ones they selected:
DH Lawrence: Women in Love, The Rainbow
Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon
Margaret Atwood: Cat's eye
Salman Rushdie: Shalimar the clown (though I admit Midnight's children might be the "better" book)
'Women in Love' and 'The Rainbow' are universally regarded as superior as literature to 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', but they fall outside the scope of the 'Times' survey, having been written and published before 1922.
I thought this was English language fiction only, until all of a sudden Nabokov shows up almost at the end... Much too UK/US centric, but perhaps that's not all that surprising...
Nabokov wrote Lolita in English
@@hedgiecc good point! And that then probably solves the question: these are the best novels written in English
@@qinlkpah
Except the 'Times' was not promoting the list as the best novels written in English--they are presenting these as the best books (not merely novels) written anywhere over the last century. Which is short-sighted on at least two counts (literature is more than just novels, and great literature extends beyond English-language works).
I'm astonished by the amount of books from the southern hemisphere. It's like we don't even exist...
J. M. Coetzee represents the southern hemisphere, and Doris Lessing could arguably count also. But you're right in that there is no sign here of Patrick White, Joan Lindsay, Janet Frame, and many outstanding Spanish-language authors of the past century, including Jorge Luis Borges, Antonio Di Benedetto, and Isabel Allende, and, in Portuguese, probably Brazil's most esteemed twentieth-century writer, Clarice Lispector.
Pleased to see I scored 23! I was surprised there was nothing by Faulkner (especially given the century since Ulysses context). Would have loved to see Riddley Walker on this - and maybe even Ducks Newburyport!! And there are two books by Ishiguro that I much prefer to the listed ones - Artist of the Floating World and the Unconsoled.
OK, I've read all of them except the St. Aubyn and my favorite is not on the list. That would be Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate. This was written in 1959, published in the original Russian in 1980, sixteen years after the author died, and finally published in English in 2012.
Seems I missed the part about originally written in English. No wonder it seems a little arthritic.
What a treat…much appreciated
I’ve only read 12 on your list. Does seeing a film adaptation count as reading the book?
I would answer no to your question, as there is no substitute for an author's precise style even in the most attentive film adaptation of a literary work. Style to me is the most important element in assessing a work's literary merit.
Thank you for this video. I am currently reading “I used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys” by Miranda Seymour.I picked up the book based on the blurb on the back cover by Heather Clark. I adored her biography of Sylvia Plath. I am thinking of reading Rhys’ novel “After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie.”
I hadn't heard about Seymour's new bio. Thanks for the tip! I think After Leaving Mr Mackenzie is the only one of her books I haven't read.
She pubIshed 4 short noveIs in the earIy part of the Iast century and feII into obscurity (or was never Iifted out of it) untiI she pubIished a book in the 1960s caIIed Wide Sargasso Sea, which was a take off on Jane Eyre. I Iike the desperate reaIism in her earIy noveIs. I'm curious, why wouId you read a biography about an author whose work you've never read? I've never heard of anyone doing that. One becomes curious about the author because you've connected in some way with his or her work.
@@JeffRebornNow I read an article in The New Yorker Magazine: “The Many Confrontations of Jean Rhys” which piqued my interest. I do not hold any hard and fast rules regarding my reading selections.I had only read “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath and picked up “Red Comet”, which I highly recommend. Also,intend to pick up a biography of Patricia Highsmith after reading “The Talented Mr.Ripley.” Thanks for commenting.
I’m kinda stuck in the 19th century: George Eliot’s Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, most of Jane Austen but Mansfield Park and Persuasion in particular, Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd and Tess of the d’Urbervilles. In this list, Animal Farm should have been in the top 10. Books on the list that I’ve read: The Great Gatsby, The Bell Jar, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Things Fall Apart, The Remains of the Day, Lord of the Flies, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Sun Also Rises, The Handmaid’s Tale, Lolita, Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando = 30%. Books on the list that I’ve liked: Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Orlando = 7.5%.
I actually prefer classic speculative fiction, memoir, biography, history, and science as opposed to literary fiction.
ETA: Virginia Woolf has 3 books on the list, for 7.5% - WHY?
I've read some of those, and while Sylvia Plath is my favorite poet (I've memorized several), her novel, The Bell Jar, maybe isn't a great classic. However, you may want to do a quick study comparing it to Allen Ginsburg's Howl.
@@jamesduggan7200 Have you read any of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poetry? She’s my fave.
@@Hollis_has_questions No, not really. Sorry, only whatever was offered in college so many years ago, and I don't remember any at all.
@@jamesduggan7200 Here you are: hollis517.blogspot.com/2010/05/renascence-all-i-could-see-from-where-i.html. Edna’s Renascence and This should be Simple are the two I love best. May’s entries show my very favorite poems. (Shelley’s Ozymandias is the very best sonnet ever written, imo.) If you click on April, you’ll see my paper, The Terminator and the Intention of Technology, written in 1994. I consider it prescient.
Always enjoy yr list videos. I'm 26/40 for this list. Half a Yellow Sun and Wide Sargasso Sea top my list of the unread ones I want to read.
Thank you! Hope you enjoy those two! 📚
The 'Times' editorial board should emphasize that this is a list of English novels (or novels composed in English, if one prefers), which is by no means representative of the full spectrum of eminent extended narrative prose over the last century. And I have qualms about the usual conflation, made by that publication among others, of best books meaning best novels--volumes of poetry, essays, short stories, and nonfiction books including history, science, and criticism are all as vital as narrative fiction in advancing literary art.
Having noted these demurrals, I am surprised that William Faulkner is not represented on the list--'The Sound and the Fury', 'As I Lay Dying', or 'Light in August' would seem to me to be essential inclusions in a best-of list for English novels (or English-language novels) of 1922-2022. I would also personally add 'Two Serious Ladies' by Jane Bowles, 'Titus Groan' by Mervyn Peake, 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess, '334' by Thomas M. Disch, and 'Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament' by John Crowley, while 'Sophie's Choice' by William Styron would also probably be a worthy inclusion.
Of the books of the list actually printed here that I have read or sampled, I would cite 'Lolita' and 'Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West' as prime stylistic masterpieces, beautiful language being key to my mind for great literature, and 'Housekeeping' also has many felicities of lyrical expression. 'Never Let Me Go' strikes me as overrated, the story and its revelations needlessly drawn out, though the subject is certainly stimulating and compelling. Hemingway's clipped, terse style has become cliched and dated, with many scholars now arguing that it works best in the short-story format (many of his short stories regarded as masterworks of the form) than in the longer scope of the novel (of which 'The Sun Also Rises' remains perhaps his most esteemed effort).
You mention a few notables, in particular Sophie's Choice, which is a spectacular novel. Clockwork, too, overwhelmingly deserves continued notice, though I find it difficult to praise Lolita, as bewitching as it is. And of course, everyone should read The Sun Also Rises, but that's life.
Like you I have read 30 of the books on this list (although not exactly the same ones ). I appreciate your comments about each but I was surprised you had not read any V. S. Naipaul. You are missing out on one of the truly great authors of the twentieth century.
The golden notebook
Nights at the circus
Half of a yellow sun
Lolita
Beloved
The prime of miss jean brodie
Midnights children
good morning midnight
The great gatspy
I suscribe to Apple News+ and was able to access the article. I’ve read 28 of the 40 and mostly I agree with the entries. I can’t complain though because my number one novel syncs up with their choice. I finished my annual rereading of The Great Gatsby two days ago and again marveled at the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Jake Gyllenhaal narrated Gatsby somewhat recently for Audible and did a fine job. I would have subbed in Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea and Julian Barnes’ The Sense of An Ending for a couple of the weaker entries.
Oh yes! I totally agree about adding Murdoch and Barnes’ novels.
Would love to read the midnight children as a readathon. 😊 As is on my Tbr x
Thanks for your content. Try ‘Seek the Singing Fish’ debut novel by Roma Wells. One of the best I’ve read. Hope you enjoy too. Small indie publisher.
Definitely keen for a Rushdie buddy read.
I read the old man and the sea, it bored me stiff and made me swear not to read anything else by him. Haven´t read many of the books on the list, but have started in Wolf Hall. Have read Atonement, the Remains of the day, Things fall apart. Do want to read the color of purple.
I would definitely like to join a Midnight's Children Readathon. It's a book I have often wanted to try but am nervous about tackling alone as Rushdie is a master of Magical Realism and I am only just starting to seriously get into that a gere,I worry I,d get a bit lost on my own
I've read 27 of them. The list conatins several of my all time favorites like Mrs Dalloway, The Remains of the Day, The Great Gatsby, Atonement and of course The Color Purple ..... and one book, which I deeply dislike a great deal: yes it's the Handmaid's Tale. I don't get the hype about this book
Someone pointed out the other day that The Great Gatsby and Mrs. Dalloway are basically the same story tho of course their endings are about as different as can be.
@@jamesduggan7200 hmmm.. interesting... I didn't notice
@@jamesduggan7200
It's interesting that Michael Cunningham's 1998 novel 'The Hours', inspired by and riffing on 'Mrs Dalloway', did not make the list here.
@@barrymoore4470 well, 50 is kind of a small list, and tbh many of my personal favorites, like Vonnegut and Updike, were cut.
I've read 20, 11 on my reading list (a few more after this video) Not too bad I think as I'm Swedish and only about one third of what I read is originally written in English.
Thank you so much. This was a super interesting video. A Rushdie read along would be fun. I too have read and the Great Gatsby twice hoping but failing to like it. The movies and culture that the book gave birth to and great. This is one where the films are better than the book, at least for me. Lolita is one of my favorites. Nabokov (stress on the second syllable Nab-oh-kav) claimed that he was in dialog with Dostoevsky’s Stavrogin’s confession from the Possessed, unpublished back then.
I have read so many books by Nabokov and admire him so much. It took rather a long time (in England) for him to be regarded as a genius and not a pornographer.
@@alidabaxter5849
Genius and pornographer need not be mutually exclusive categories. I agree, though, that Nabokov was not purveying pornography through his writing, which is indeed illustrative of his genius.
Yes to a Rushdie readalong.
Interesting. Thanks! ❤
Definitely a strange list. I've only read 17 on it, but I have read Midnight's Children twice. Why isn't Ulysses there? I expected it to be number one. Quite odd to have two Ishiguro novels, and also two by Robinson and Woolf. As fine a book as Miss Jean Brodie is - a best of the century pick?
Yes
I was under the impression that the list was supposed to represent the best since 'Ulysses', so its absence could be explained that way. It is rather curious that the single most revolutionary novel published since 'Ulysses', 'Finnegans Wake', also by Joyce, did not make the list.
Elizabeth Bowen is an Irish author - Anglo-Irish - but Irish nonetheless.
I still love _The Catcher in the Rye_ and Holden Caulfield, but I know I'm in the minority. I think I'm stuck in that adolescent disaffected youth stage for life. 😅 There are quite a few I've read, but so many on this list I haven't read and sound really good. _Ripley_ is excellent. I bet you'd love it. _Wolf Hall._ 💚 _Gilead._ 💚
That’s totally understandable! 😄
Hands up for a readalong of Rushdie's Midnight's Children
No Steinbeck, Hemmingway, Vargas Llosa, Alice Munro, Willa Cather, Paul Auster, William Trevor, John Dos Passos, Kafka, Daphne Du Maurer to name but a few.
Sign me up for the Rushdie read along. Please give a good timeline/pages in advance if you do it!
I’m in complete disbelief The Great Gatsby would top this list but clearly I’m no authority.. I’ve only read 3 books on this list but Gatsby is one of them and I will never understand the hype behind it. 🤷🏻♀️
Well, first of all there's Nick, who probably is in love with Jay, and is therefore shattered when Fitzgerald forecloses any chance of a relationship between them. And then there's Jordan Baker, who likes to cheat. She doesn't need to cheat, she doesn't feel guilty about cheating, she just likes it. Also, there Daisy, who unexpectedly finds herself in a happy ending. As for Jay, as Rodney Dangerfield tersely explained: He's great.
It is neither the best nor the most important book of the last 100 years. I was shocked to see it at the top.
I don't get the hype either. I was underwhelmed by it.
A pretty solid list with no really questionable entries, though for a list inspired by the anniversary of Ulysses it seems a tad stodgy. I've only read 7, but I own most.
Probably the most revolutionary novel published after 'Ulysses', 'Finnegans Wake', also by Joyce, did not make the list.
Following on your comment about several cases of authors w/more than one book on the list, it’s pretty disappointing that no experimental novelists are here, such as DeLillo, Barth, Doctorow, Pynchon or more recently George Saunders. These writers have helped define the recent decades, pushing the form like Joyce-which makes their absence even odder when you consider that it’s the ULYSSES centenary that inspired this. You could also include Henry Green, Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, John Updike. Wait-no Faulkner?!? Charles Portis! Joyce Carol Oates! C’mon…the more you think about this list…but GATSBY is a worthy #1. And you should return to NEVER LET ME GO. It’s pretty devastating…
Yes! That’s so true. So many writers that have pushed the form of fiction more than some of the books included. I’d definitely include Lincoln in the Bardo. And yeah, I know I’m the outsider when it comes to Gatsby and Never Let Me Go. I’ll return to them one day and slap my face realising how wrong I was.
@@EricKarlAnderson yeah, I think we all have books like that: “How could I not have loved this the first time?”
What, no Evelyn Waugh or Lucky Jim?
Thank you
THE BEST BOOKS ARE THOSE THAT BRINGS YOU FEELINGS THAT TOUCH YOUR SOUL. THE BEST ARE THOSE THAT IMPACT YOUR HEART AND REBORN YOUR BRAIN.
I know that Harry Potter will never appear on a list like this, that there is a gulf between intellectual merit and commercial success, but if your book series inspired a generation of people to start reading novels for leisure, don’t you think the intelligentsia should find a way to get your book on their list?
Yes, yes it absolutely should.
After listening to this I was struck by the common themes of Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie and The Remains of the Day. Both capture what I think of the stiff upper lip of Brits and how that affects their lives and their relationship with fascist themes. I loved both these very much and have read ROTD twice. This one I think of as a perfect novel. I was enthralled with Wolf Hall and the other two. They are as close as I get to understanding those times.
Was Ulysses excluded or did it simply not make the list ?
I went to see Doris Lessing just before her death (a year or two @ the Phil Free Library- she was incredibly rude and impatient and refused to sigh any books but her new one. She also read from her book with a monotone, impatient voice. It was very disappointing because The Golden Notebook is one of my favorite books.
Ive read 27, and the other 13 are on my list....