W. Somerset Maugham’s Ten Greatest Novels of All Time

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Great Novelists and Their Novels, 10 Books

Maugham's studies of the lives and masterpieces of ten great novelists are outstanding examples of literary criticism at its finest. Afforded here are some of the formulae of greatness in the genre, as well as the flaws and heresies which enfeeble it. Written by a master of fiction, "Ten Novels and Their Authors" is a unique and invaluable guide.

This list was originally published in 1954 and was added to this site almost 12 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
134 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
42 The Red and the Black Stendhal 1830 French French
228 Father Goriot Honoré de Balzac 1835 French French
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
18 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky 1880 Russian Russian
12 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 1869 Russian Russian