Five Greatest Novels of All Time

Randy Kadish · Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:31 am

I'm curious: What do you think are the five greatest novels of all time. Here's my list.

1. Don Quixote
2. The Brothers Karamazov
3. Crime and Punishment
4. War And Peace
5. Madame Bovary

Randy Kadish

irishrosem · Tue Jan 01, 2008 11:28 am

I'm going to assume you're asking what our personal favorites are. Otherwise, I could probably argue for five titles that are considered the greats of Western lit, but they wouldn't necessarily be what I consider the greatest.

Anyway, my favorites are always in flux. But I'll name five that usually sit around my top ten titles.

1. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
2. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
3. The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton always alternate as my Wharton favorite. But today I'd give it to House of Mirth.
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
5 Middlemarch, George Eliot. This one very rarely pokes its head among my favorites, but I recently reread it, and really enjoyed it.

Geez, I'm such a girl. Look at those authors: four females and a gay male.

So, in the interest of adding a bit of diversity, something by Cormac McCarthy will probably ascend to my top ten list shortly. I just haven't read the bulk of his work yet. The first of his books that I read, Blood Meridian, remains my favorite.

As for your list, I could see both Crime and Punishment and War and Peace making a general top five list. (Possibly also Madame Bovary.) But, for me, the Ruskies have always been too verbose for my taste. I'm also always hesitant when reading foreign authors; I get the distinct feeling that so much is lost in the translation. But my still-favorite translated work, Les Miserables, is a remnant from my childhood readings.

MadArchitect · Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:03 am

My personal favorites (also with the qualification that this is subject to change on a moment's notice) are:

1. The Bell, by Iris Murdoch;
2. The Bridge at San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder;
3. The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy;
4. On the Marble Cliffs, by Ernst Junger; and
5. The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz

Pretty much all of which are on (permanent?) loan to other people. If I ever want to read them again (and I almost certainly will), I'll have to go out and buy new copies.

Constance963 · Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:06 pm

It's hard to choose, but mine would probably be:

1. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

2. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (I have to agree - I loved this book and it's another that's due for a re-read

)

4. The Plague by Albert Camus

5. and even though I'm not quite done reading it yet...Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It is just an amazing novel.

irishrosem · Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:36 pm

Oh yes, The Bell. Nix Middlemarch. Sorry Eliot, it was a short-lived romance, but it was fun while it lasted.

Mad, I didn't know you were a Murdoch fan, or are you just a fan of The Bell?

MadArchitect · Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:52 pm

I'm a huge fan of The Bell. So much so, in fact, that I've been hesitant to read any of her other novels. I'll find myself in bookstores, kneeling before them (is it sheer coincidence that her books always seem to be at the bottom of the shelf?), reading first pages and scrutinizing dust jacket blurbs. I've tried to read a little of her philosophy as well, but I think I prefer this particular writer as a novelist. If you have any recommendations, let me know, and I'll put them on my short list of things to read.

irishrosem · Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:25 pm

Well, no, not after the way you presented that. I won't be responsible for ruining your love of an author by recommending a book that might not meet up with your expectation for her. I've never read any of Murdoch's philosophy...*blush* didn't even know it existed. And, yes, Murdoch is on the second to bottom shelf in my bookstore.

annaisabella · Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:18 pm

Well Randy, it's kinda difficult to choose among so many great books i've read so far, but here you go:
1. Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)
2. The name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
3. The Unbearable lightness of being (Milan kundera)
4. Narcissus and Goldmund (Herman Hesse)
5. Niebla or Nivola (Miguel de Unamuno)

And i couldn't agree more with Mad that the above list may change from time to time, although the first two books will definitely remain in the list. By the way, i read Crime and Punishment at the sound of the Piano Concertos of Mozart, and that might also be the reason why i placed this book at the top of my list: i was totally absorbed in the plot!

irishrosem · Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:47 am

Annaissabella, I picked up the Unbearable Lightness of Being yesterday. You know, I started something here about it, but I'm going to transfer it to an Additional Fiction Discussion thread. I know Mad has read it too, as he was the one who recommended it to me. Hopefully the three of us, and whoever else might have read it, can work up a healthy discussion on the book.

BTW, Mad, I forgot you left this hanging here. I'm surprised. The truth is I'm sure I didn't love The Bell the same way you did. There are moments that are gorgeous, there are moments that are raucously funny (particularly the scene when Noel shows up at the retreat), but there are also moments that drug for me. I think too we probably approach the work differently. I like Murdoch for her subtle commentary on gender issues

George Ricker · Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:09 pm

Here is my list of five favorite novels of all time, at this time. The list may change, depending upon my mood, from month to month, week to week, or even day to day. I don't suggest these are the five best ever, just that they are the five I consider to be my personal favorites. All are by English or American authors. That's because I'm reluctant to list works that I can only read in translation.

1. Daniel Martin by John Fowles
2. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
5. Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins

George

djsgaelic1972 · Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:45 pm

I have so many.

But my top five are:
Ian McEwan--any of his work
Colum McCann-- Everything in This Country Must got me hooked
Seamus Heaney-Beowulf translation and his poetry
Chinua Achebe--Things Fall Apart
Joyce Carol Oates--her short stories are amazing

Constance963 · Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:52 am


	djsgaelic1972 wrote: I have so many. But my top five are: Ian McEwan--any of his work Colum McCann-- Everything in This Country Must got me hooked Seamus Heaney-Beowulf translation and his poetry Chinua Achebe--Things Fall Apart Joyce Carol Oates--her short stories are amazing

I remember reading "Things Fall Apart" in college. That was an interesting book.

WildCityWoman · Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:01 pm

Oh, there's too many good books, eh?

Yes, I agree - Snow Falling on Cedars - a wonderful story, and good movie too.

Yes, I too like the Mayor of Casterbridge (sorry if I didn't spell that right).

I truly love Pride and Prejudice - I've read it in print, heard it on audio, seen the movie and no matter what form I take it, I crack up laughing.

The humour in that story is grand.

Albert Camus . . . yeah - I really ought to take in some of his. I read one (where his character arranges his mother's funeral) and really enjoyed it.

ralphinlaos · Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:43 pm

Gee, I was wondering where Pride and Prejudice was, until WildCityWoman finally brought it up. And nobody for Gone With the Wind or The Mill on the Floss or Ethan Frome or Great Expectations? Moby Dick? The Old Man and the Sea? Washington Square? No takers?

Anyway, here's five of my fvorite novels of all time. Not necessarily literary classics, just five I enjoyed most:

The Sand Pebbles by Richard McKenna (the hero was ME!!! Excellent movie too, well worth looking for - starring Steve McQueen and the amazing Mako).
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (forty years later, still makes me laugh).
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (I dare you to read this on a cold winters night all alone in your bed).
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (another book I never wanted to end - and she wrote some other good ones, too - Tim, The Ladies of Missilonghi, An Indecent Obsession, and her Rome series).
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (oh, my, what a joy to discover by accident one day - and what a wonderful character is Atticus Finch. A true American classic).

Shall we have a go at non-fiction?

Ralph

Ophelia · Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:02 pm

You're right Ralph: Gone With the Wind.

I read this one summer when I was 14-- in French, non-stop. A friend of mine was going to England, so I asked her to buy it in English for me, which she did.
I immediately read it again, non-stop.

That was some book!

On the other hand, many years later an English colleague of mine told me that she had tried to find something in it for her classes, and there was nothing.
I tried, and indeed it was pretty useless, and usually there isn't that much I can't turn into an English lesson if I set my mind to it.

But still, it had been nice dreaming about Rhett Butler and Clark Gable...

And shall I tell you an awful story?

Also many years later, I read something Clark Gable had said about making the film.
When asked to look suitably inspired on film about his love for Scarlett, he had remembered that he had often been hungry when he was young, so to express longing he would think of a steak!
Really, if he had to think of food when it came to Scarlett, but only had thought of a vegetarian meal... but no, of course, a steak!!
How could any of his female fans still dream after that?

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