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The 50 Greatest Novels Ever cover
Critics' list

The 50 Greatest Novels Ever

A critic and literary historian for nearly a quarter of a century at Texas A&M and Ohio State universities, I am the author of The Elephants Teach and ex-fiction critic for Commentary. I have also written for Jewish Ideas Daily, the New York Times Book Review, the Weekly Standard, Philosophy and Literature, the Sewanee Review, First Things, the Daily Beast, the Barnes & Noble Review, the Journal of the History of Ideas, American Literary History, and other journals.

  1. 1Cover of Ulysses

    Ulysses

    James Joyce · 1920 · 39 lists

  2. 2Cover of The Great Gatsby
  3. 3Cover of In Search of Lost Time
  4. 4Cover of Midnight’s Children
  5. 5Cover of One Hundred Years of Solitude
  6. 6Cover of The Trial

    The Trial

    Franz Kafka · 1925 · 21 lists

  7. 7Cover of A Suitable Boy

    A Suitable Boy

    Vikram Seth · 1993 · 5 lists

  8. 8Cover of A Handful of Dust
  9. 9Cover of To The Lighthouse
  10. 10Cover of The Catcher in the Rye
  11. 11Cover of Lucky Jim

    Lucky Jim

    Kingsley Amis · 1953 · 6 lists

  12. 12Cover of Money

    Money

    Martin Amis · 1880 · 9 lists

  13. 13Cover of Earthly Powers
  14. 14Cover of Heart of Darkness

    Heart of Darkness

    Joseph Conrad · 1899 · 29 lists

  15. 15Cover of The Van

    The Van

    Roddy Doyle · 1991 · 1 list

  16. 16Cover of The End of the Affair
  17. 17Cover of Catch-22

    Catch-22

    Joseph Heller · 1961 · 29 lists

  18. 18Cover of The Portrait of a Lady
  19. 19Cover of Sons and Lovers

    Sons and Lovers

    D.H. Lawrence · 1913 · 11 lists

  20. 20Cover of Lolita

    Lolita

    Vladimir Nabokov · 1955 · 38 lists

  21. 21Cover of A House for Mr Biswas
  22. 22Cover of Nineteen Eighty-Four
  23. 23Cover of A Dance to the Music of Time