The Greatest 20th Century Novels

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

About this list

Waterstone, 23 Books

Waterstone’s 1999 poll of the greatest 20th century novels, according to British writers. This appeared to be the result of muddle in the way questions were put to and answered by the 47 authors, critics and media personalities who voted in the poll.

This list was originally published in 1997 and was added to this site almost 12 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
750 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
6905 The Van Roddy Doyle 1991 Irish English
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
73 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James 1881 American English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
223 A House for Mr. Biswas V. S. Naipaul 1961 Trinidadian English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English