Tuesday, August 16, 2016

What Are The Top 100 books?



Nearly 20 years ago (1997) W. John Campbell, Ph.D., a writer and critic, penned The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics.  Though the book is evidence that anyone can-and seemingly does-issue lists of all kinds it offers plot summaries and an analysis of themes, characters, and ideas presented for each book.  It also lists background insights on the books’ authors and puts into context the times they wrote during.

The book, not authoritative by any means, covers novels, plays and epic poems.  Non-fiction is absent from the list.

You judge if these books would fill your list of the top 100:

Aeneid Virgil
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Marie Remarque
All the King’s Men Robert Penn Warren
Animal Farm George Orwell
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
As You Like It William Shakespeare
The Awakening Kate Chopin
Beowulf Anonymous
Billy Budd Herman Melville
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
The Call of the Wild Jack London
Candide Voltaire
The Caterbury Tales Geoffrey Chuacer
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
The Color Purple Alice Walker
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Crucible Arthur Miller
Daisy Miller Henry James
David Copperfield Charles Dickens
Death of a Salesman Arthur miller
Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank
The Divine Comedy:  Inferno Dante
Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe
A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Ethan Frome Edith Wharton
Euthyphro Apology, Crito, Phaedo Plato
A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
Faust, Parts 1 and 2 J. W. von Goethe
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams
The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift
Hamlet William Shakespeare
Hard Times Charles Dickens
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
Henry IV Part 1 William Shakespeare
House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday
The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne
Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou
Iliad Homer
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
Julius Caesar William Shakespeare
The Jungle Upton Sinclair
King Lear William Shakespeare
Light in August William Faulkner
Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
The Lord of the Flies William Golding
The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
Macbeth William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy
The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare
Moby-Dick Herman Melville
Native Son Richard Wright
1984 George Orwell
Odyssey Homer
The Oedipus Trilogy Sophocles
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey
Othello William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost John Milton
The Pearl John Steinbeck
The Plague Albert Camus
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli
The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane
Republic Plato
The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
Richard III William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Separate Peace John Knowles
Silas Marner George Eliot
Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse
The Stranger Albert Camus
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare
The Tempest William Shakespeare
Tess of the D’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
Treasure Island Robert Lewis Stevenson
Twelfth Night William Shakespeare
Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett
Walden Henry David Thoreau

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2016.

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