Modern Library 100 Best Novels The Readers List
In 1998 Modern Library published its Editors list of the best novels written in english in the 20th century. Afterwards they held an online poll so that readers could vote for their own. The result is an eclectic mix, partly influenced by the online population of 1998 and concerted efforts to rally votes. This results in Scientologist Hubbard having 3 books in the list, and Ayn Rand having 4. The original list has been removed from Modern Library's website.
- 1
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee · 1960 · 33 lists
- 2
Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell · 1948 · 36 lists
- 3
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley · 1932 · 17 lists
- 4
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury · 1953 · 9 lists
- 5
Animal Farm
George Orwell · 1945 · 15 lists
- 6
Lord of the Flies
William Golding · 1954 · 14 lists
- 7
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925 · 1 list
- 8
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck · 1939 · 32 lists
- 9
Light in August
William Faulkner · 1931 · 9 lists
- 10
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger · 1951 · 32 lists
- 11
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov · 1955 · 38 lists
- 12
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh · 1945 · 10 lists
- 13
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison · 1952 · 29 lists
- 14
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner · 1929 · 26 lists
- 15
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway · 1929 · 9 lists
- 16
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner · 1936 · 16 lists
- 17
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway · 1926 · 22 lists
- 18
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 1961 · 29 lists
- 19
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess · 1962 · 17 lists
- 20
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers · 1940 · 11 lists
- 21
On the Road
Jack Kerouac · 1957 · 24 lists
- 22
Ulysses
James Joyce · 1920 · 39 lists
- 23
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut · 1969 · 19 lists
- 24
I, Claudius
Robert Graves · 1934 · 8 lists
- 25
Of Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham · 1915 · 7 lists
- 26
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce · 1916 · 15 lists
- 27
Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry · 1947 · 15 lists
- 28
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad · 1899 · 29 lists
- 29
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954 · 23 lists
- 30
My Ántonia
Willa Cather · 1918 · 13 lists
- 31
Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell · 1936 · 22 lists
- 32
Wise Blood
Flannery O'Connor · 1952 · 5 lists
- 33
A Prayer for Owen Meany
John Irving · 1989 · 7 lists
- 34
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner · 1915 · 18 lists
- 35
Beloved
Toni Morrison · 1987 · 31 lists
- 36
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams · 1979 · 13 lists
- 37
Ender’s Game
Orson Scott Card · 1985 · 6 lists
- 38
Dune
Frank Herbert · 1965 · 14 lists
- 39
The World According to Garp
John Irving · 1979 · 12 lists
- 40
On the Beach
Nevil Shute · 1957 · 1 list
- 41
To The Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf · 1927 · 25 lists
- 42
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy · 1985 · 14 lists
- 43
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Ken Kesey · 1962 · 13 lists
- 44
Arrowsmith
Sinclair Lewis · 1925 · 3 lists
- 45
The Call of the Wild
Jack London · 1903 · 13 lists
- 46
Shane
Jack Schaefer · 1920 · 1 list
- 47
Watership Down
Richard Adams · 1972 · 9 lists
- 48
A Town Like Alice
Nevil Shute · 1950 · 3 lists
- 49
The Moviegoer
Walker Percy · 1961 · 8 lists
- 50
The Magus
John Fowles · 1965 · 4 lists
- 51
The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles · 1948 · 6 lists
- 52
Naked Lunch
William Burroughs · 1959 · 8 lists
- 53
The Stand
Stephen King · 1978 · 10 lists
- 54
It
Stephen King · 1905 · 6 lists
- 55
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Robert A. Heinlein · 1965 · 2 lists
- 56
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
John Fowles · 1969 · 5 lists
- 57
The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie · 1988 · 7 lists
- 58
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien · 1939 · 7 lists
- 59
Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein · 1961 · 7 lists
- 60
Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand · 1936 · 9 lists
- 61
Fifth Business
Robertson Davies · 1970 · 2 lists
- 62
The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand · 1943 · 6 lists
- 63
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
L. Ron Hubbard · 2000 · 1 list
- 64
- 65
We the Living
Ayn Rand · 1962 · 1 list
- 66
The Invaders Plan
L. Ron Hubbard · 1985 · 1 list
- 67
Fear
L. Ron Hubbard · 1914 · 1 list
- 68
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon · 1973 · 12 lists
- 69
Trustee from the Toolroom
Nevil Shute · 1960 · 1 list
- 70
The Worm Ouroboros
E.R. Eddison · 1900 · 1 list
- 71
Moonheart
Charles de Lint · 1984 · 1 list
- 72
Someplace to Be Flying
Charles de Lint · 1998 · 1 list
- 73
Yarrow
Charles de Lint · 1986 · 1 list
- 74
One Lonely Night
Mickey Spillane · 1951 · 1 list
- 75
Memory and Dream
Charles de Lint · 1994 · 1 list
- 76
Trader
Charles de Lint · 1990 · 1 list
- 77
Greenmantle
Charles de Lint · 1742 · 1 list
- 78
The Little Country
Charles de Lint · 1991 · 1 list
- 79
The Recognitions
William Gaddis · 1955 · 6 lists
- 80
Starship Troopers
Robert A. Heinlein · 1959 · 2 lists
- 81
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Ray Bradbury · 1962 · 1 list
- 82
Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller · 1934 · 12 lists
- 83
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert M. Pirsig · 1974 · 0 lists
- 84
The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood · 1985 · 23 lists
- 85
The Wood Wife
Terri Windling · 2021 · 1 list
- 86
At the Mountains of Madness
H.P. Lovecraft · 1968 · 2 lists
- 87
The Door Into Summer
Robert A. Heinlein · 1957 · 2 lists
- 88
Guilty Pleasures
Laurell K. Hamilton · 1993 · 1 list
- 89
The Hunt for Red October
Tom Clancy · 1984 · 5 lists
- 90
- 91
The Puppet Masters
Robert A. Heinlein · 1951 · 2 lists
- 92
V.
Thomas Pynchon · 1600 · 5 lists
- 93
Double Star
Robert A. Heinlein · 1956 · 2 lists
- 94
Citizen of the Galaxy
Robert A. Heinlein · 1957 · 1 list
- 95
Sometimes a Great Notion
Ken Kesey · 1964 · 4 lists
- 96
Mulengro
Charles de Lint · 1985 · 1 list
- 97
Suttree
Cormac McCarthy · 1979 · 3 lists
- 98
Mythago Wood
Robert Holdstock · 1984 · 2 lists
- 99
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach · 1977 · 1 list
- 100
The Cunning Man
Robertson Davies · 1994 · 2 lists