About this list

The Guardian, 489 Books

The Guardian’s 2026 list of the 100 best novels of all time ranks novels published in English, including works originally written in other languages and later translated. The list was compiled from ranked top-10 ballots submitted by 172 authors, critics, and academics from around the world, with titles scored by both number of votes and placement on individual ballots. George Eliot’s Middlemarch took the top spot, followed by Toni Morrison’s Beloved, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. The Guardian notes that this new list is broader than its earlier versions, with more women writers represented and a mix of canonical classics, modernist landmarks, contemporary fiction, and major works in translation.

These are the books that were voted for in the Guardian's new "100 Best Novels of All Time" list, but ultimately did not make the cut. These are the runners-up.

(Full list compiled here: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1tbfaz6/comment/oliid0l/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

This list was originally published in 2026 and was added to this site about 1 month ago.