The Modern Library: The Two Hundred Best Novels in English Since 1950

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

About this list

The Modern Library (Book), 209 Books

The authors have chosen the 200 books since 1950 that they consider to be the best. It includes some familiar names and some surprises. Witty and controversial, their aim is to encourage reading.

The Authors
- Dame Carmen Thérèse Callil, DBE, FRSL was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom. She founded Virago Press in 1973 and received the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature in 2017
- Colm Tóibín FRSL is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, The South, was published in 1990. The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

This list was originally published in 2011 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
15910 A Murder Is Announced Agatha Christie 1950 British English
6279 Nothing Henry Green 1950 British English
14898 Power Without Glory Frank Hardy 1950 Australian English
15910 The Grand Sophy Georgette Heyer 1950 British English
10151 December Bride Sam Hanna Bell 1951 British English
2170 My Cousin Rachel Daphne du Maurier 1951 British English
15910 The West Pier Patrick Hamilton 1952 British English
1458 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Carson McCullers 1951 American English
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
10609 The Natural Bernard Malamud 1952 American English
15910 The Financial Expert R. K. Narayan 1952 Indian English
362 Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor 1952 American English
193 East of Eden John Steinbeck 1952 American English
2461 Men At Arms Evelyn Waugh 1952 British English
15910 Officers And Gentlemen Evelyn Waugh 1955 British English
15910 Unconditional Surrender Evelyn Waugh 1961 British English
15910 Private Life Of An Indian Prince Mulk Raj Anand 1953 Indian English
353 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin 1953 American English
280 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
161 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler 1953 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
3022 The Echoing Grove Rosamond Lehmann 1953 British English
859 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
3022 The Tortoise And The Hare Elizabeth Jenkins 1936 British English
15910 The Flint Anchor Sylvia Townsend Warner 1954 British English
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
326 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
13508 Train To Pakistan Khushwant Singh 1956 Indian English
6274 Owls Do Cry Janet Frame 1957 New Zealand English
41 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
1859 Angel Elizabeth Taylor 1957 British English
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
5170 Anecdotes of Destiny Isak Dinesen 1958 Danish Danish
15910 From The Terrace John O'Hara 1958 American English
1006 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
15910 A Heritage And Its History Ivy Compton-Burnett 1959 British English
1885 Little Disturbances Grace Paley 1959 American English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
9277 The Balkan Trilogy Olivia Manning 1960 British English
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
686 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
784 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
14873 Jeeves In The Offing P. G. Wodehouse 1960 British English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
223 A House for Mr. Biswas V. S. Naipaul 1961 Trinidadian English
169 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 1961 British, Scottish English
5512 Riders In The Chariot Patrick White 1961 Australian English
16547 That's How It Was Maureen Duffy 1962 British English
8791 The Reivers William Faulkner 1962 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
2062 Girl With Green Eyes Edna O'Brien 1962 Irish English
2314 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
16800 The Little Girls Elizabeth Bowen 1964 Irish English
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
772 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
13583 Heartland Wilson Harris 1964 Guyanese English
901 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby 1964 American English
17152 Memoirs Of A Peon Frank Sargeson 1965 New Zealand Unknown
17152 Interpreters Wole Soyinka 1965 Nigerian English
442 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
17152 A Jest Of God Margaret Laurence 1966 Canadian English
158 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys 1966 British English
2268 The Jewel In The Crown Paul Scott 1966 British English
17152 Cotters' England Christina Stead 1966 Australian English
1541 The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron 1967 American English
2267 A Grain Of Wheat Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1967 Kenyan English
5420 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H. Gass 1968 American English
17152 The Nice And The Good Iris Murdoch 1968 British English
3404 The Unfortunates B. S. Johnson 1969 British English
17152 Happiness And Other Stories Mary Lavin 1969 Irish English
242 The Godfather Mario Puzo 1969 American English
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
921 Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian 1969 British English
415 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
5389 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
11177 Black List, Section H Francis Stuart 1971 Irish English
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
4872 Heat and Dust Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1975 Indian English
1754 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
3624 The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood Alistair MacLeod 1976 Canadian English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
14667 Saville David Storey 1976 British English
14985 Injury Time Beryl Bainbridge 1977 British English
4525 Falconer John Cheever 1977 American English
17152 A Book Of Common Prayer Joan Didion 1977 American English
17152 The Ice Age Margaret Drabble 1977 British English
9241 Tirra Lirra By The River Jessica Anderson 1978 Australian English
2398 Plumb Maurice Gee 1978 New Zealand English
14985 The Human Factor Graham Greene 1978 British English
17152 The Murderer Roy Heath 1978 Guyanese English
1578 The Cement Garden Ian McEwan 1978 British English
14232 The Year of the French Thomas Flanagan 1979 American English
14985 From The Fifteenth District Mavis Gallant 1979 Canadian English
938 Burger's Daughter Nadine Gordimer 1979 South African English
2653 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2731 The Executioner's Song Norman Mailer 1979 American English
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1096 The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard 1980 Australian English
2017 Riddley Walker Russell Hoban 1980 British English
17152 Lamb Bernard MacLaverty 1980 Irish English
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English