The 100 Greatest British Novels

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

About this list

BBC, 104 Books

This list, titled "The 100 Greatest British Novels," aims to provide an outsider's perspective on the best British literature by exclusively polling 82 book critics from outside the UK, curated by BBC Culture contributor Jane Ciabattari. The selection criteria focused on novels only, excluding nonfiction, plays, poems, and short story collections, and required the authors to be British. Each critic submitted a ranked list of 10 novels, with their top choice receiving 10 points, which were then totaled to determine the final ranking. The listing reflects a global perspective, drawing on critics from diverse regions including the United States, Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, India, and the Middle East, comprising both literary scholars and active book reviewers from reputable publications. In total, 228 novels were nominated, from which the top 100 were selected based on the points system.

This list was originally published in 2015 and was added to this site over 9 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
38 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 1860 British English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
121 Bleak House Charles Dickens 1852 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
105 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
332 Clarissa Samuel Richardson 1748 British English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
252 The Waves Virginia Woolf 1931 British English
197 Howards End E. M. Forster 1910 British English
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
83 Emma Jane Austen 1815 British English
192 Persuasion Jane Austen 1817 British English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
134 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
649 Villette Charlotte Brontë 1853 British English
4114 Brick Lane Monica Ali 2003 British English
351 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
289 A Room With a View E. M. Forster 1908 British English
136 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 1908 British English
266 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
4299 Remainder Tom McCarthy 2005 British English
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
760 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
995 Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1846 British English
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
1095 The Swimming-Pool Library Alan Hollinghurst 1988 British English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
6698 The Little Stranger Sarah Waters 2009 British English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
117 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1891 British English
606 New Grub Street George Gissing 1891 British English
158 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys 1966 British English
1751 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
382 Parade's End Ford Madox Ford 1924 British English
734 Loving Henry Green 1945 British English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
169 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 1961 British, Scottish English
703 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
425 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 1811 British English
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
283 Nostromo Joseph Conrad 1904 British English
468 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
2523 Old Filth Jane Gardam 2004 British English
1107 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene 1948 British English
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
358 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1886 British English
227 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
2485 Small Island Andrea Levy 2004 British English
292 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham 1915 British English
223 A House for Mr. Biswas V. S. Naipaul 1961 Trinidadian English
399 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
691 Excellent Women Barbara Pym 1952 British English
2268 The Jewel In The Crown Paul Scott 1966 British English
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
2849 Bad News Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
2948 Some Hope Edward St Aubyn 1994 British English
3134 Mother's Milk Edward St Aubyn 2005 British English
5279 At Last Edward St Aubyn 2011 British English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
435 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
849 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
390 The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1908 British English
569 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen 1938 British, Irish English
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
139 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
246 The Forsyte Saga John Galsworthy 1906 British English
480 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
258 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
2083 The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris May Lessing 1974 British English
234 The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis 1950 British English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
3889 There But For The Ali Smith 2011 British English
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English