A Hundred Novels to Change Your Life

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

About this list

The Daily Mail, 95 Books

The Daily Mail's response to the BBC's list of 100 novels that 'shaped our world' is sharply critical, pointing out significant omissions and questioning the selection's focus on political correctness over literary merit. The critique highlights the absence of literary giants such as Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, and Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses," suggesting the list leans towards appealing to younger audiences at the expense of timeless classics. It also criticizes the BBC's thematic categories, like 'Identity' and 'Politics, Power and Protest,' for potentially diluting the complex essence of literature.

The article calls out specific inclusions and exclusions as misjudgments, arguing for a list that better represents enduring works that have truly impacted generations of readers. In an alternative approach, the Daily Mail invites its writers to share their personal, impactful reads, emphasizing the subjective nature of literary value and the lasting significance of books that resonate on a deeply personal level. This serves as a reminder of the power of literature to influence individually and collectively, beyond contemporary trends.

who voted?
The article lists 10 experts who voted

This list was originally published in 2019 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
2660 The Women's Room Marilyn French 1977 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
105 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
216 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 1843 British English
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
11404 A God in Ruins Kate Atkinson 2015 British English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
5226 A Place Of Execution Val McDermid 1999 British English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
380 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
14022 Becoming Unbecoming Una 2015 British English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
10241 Billy Bunter Butts In Frank Richards 1950 British English
186 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
480 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
265 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton 1948 South African English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
674 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 1874 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
38 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 1860 British English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
8726 In Praise Of Older Women Stephen Vizinczey 1965 Canadian English
10241 King Arthur And His Knights Of The Round Table Roger Lancelyn Green 1953 British English
300 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
10241 Moonfleet J. Meade Faulkner 1898 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
2170 My Cousin Rachel Daphne du Maurier 1951 British English
9272 Naples 44 Norman Lewis 1978 British English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
10241 Nine Unlikely Tales E. Nesbit 1901 British English
10241 Oliver Cromwell L. du Garde Peach 1963 British English
241 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
10971 Pornography Andrea Dworkin 1981 American English
10241 Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog Dylan Thomas 1940 British English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
1536 Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown 1973 American English
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
11205 Slaves Of New York Tama Janowitz 1986 American English
3084 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome 1930 British English
168 Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald 1934 American English
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
1202 The Country Girls Edna O'Brien 1960 Irish English
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
12402 The Future Homemakers Of America Laurie Graham 2001 British English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
1107 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene 1948 British English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
11517 The Intellectuals And The Masses John Carey 1992 British English
2476 The Last Battle C. S. Lewis 1956 British English
2982 The Life And Loves Of A She Devil Fay Weldon 1983 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
10241 The Man Who Would Be King Rudyard Kipling 1888 British English
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
358 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1886 British English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
390 The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1908 British English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1618 The Pursuit Of Love Nancy Mitford 1945 British English
739 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy 1878 British English
10241 The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone Tennessee Williams 1950 American English
814 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 1911 British English
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
62 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
294 The Time Machine H. G. Wells 1895 British English
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
703 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1875 British English
10241 The Young Visiters Daisy Ashford 1919 British English
3231 This Bridge Called My Back Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa 1981 American English
782 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
115 Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 1883 British English
6579 Venice Jan Morris 1960 British English
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
10241 We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea Arthur Ransome 1937 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
1693 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
568 The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir 1954 French French