The 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Folha de São Paulo, 98 Books

Folha de São Paulo, also known as simply Folha, is a Brazilian daily newspaper founded in 1921 under the name Folha da Noite and published in São Paulo by the Folha da Manhã company. Folha got ten critics and writers to choose the one hundred best novels published since 1900.

This list was originally published in 1999 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
20 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
134 Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann 1947 German German
271 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
25 The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann 1924 German German
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
258 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
230 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
324 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
51 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
235 The Ambassadors Henry James 1903 American English
147 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
1831 Paradiso José Lezama Lima 1966 Cuban Spanish
56 The Leopard Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa 1958 Italian Italian
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
244 Nausea Jean Paul Sartre 1938 French French
227 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
212 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
269 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
262 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
136 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
77 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
123 Pedro Páramo Juan Rulfo 1955 Mexican Spanish
48 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
172 Man's Fate Andre Malraux 1933 French French
89 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
5013 The City And The Mountains Eça de Queirós 1901 Portuguese Portuguese
1697 That Awful Mess On Via Merulana Carlo Emilio Gadda 1957 Italian Italian
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
62 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
3547 The Cloven Viscount Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
990 Macunaíma Mario de Andrade 1928 Brazilian Portuguese
299 The Lost Estate Henri Alain-Fournier 1913 French French
1074 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
197 Lady Chatterley's Lover D. H. Lawrence 1928 British English
1212 Explosion In A Cathedral Alejo Carpentier 1962 Cuban Spanish
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
564 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
1819 Fontamara Ignazio Silone 1933 Italian Italian
182 Light in August William Faulkner 1932 American English
281 Nostromo Joseph Conrad 1904 British English
274 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
444 Joseph and His Brothers Thomas Mann 1933 German German
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
3254 The 42nd Parallel John Dos Passos 1930 American English
122 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
242 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
260 Wings of the Dove Henry James 1902 American English
302 The Confusions of Young Törless Robert Musil 1906 Austrian German
836 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
691 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
645 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
108 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
154 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
1185 Jean Christophe Romain Rolland 1904 French French
239 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
321 We Yevgeny Zamyatin 1924 Russian Russian
545 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
498 The Immoralist André Gide 1902 French French
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
1259 The President Miguel Angel Asturias 1946 Guatemalan Spanish
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
396 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
2050 Satan In Goray Isaac Bashevis Singer 1935 Polish Yiddish
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
1086 The Dwarf Par Lagerkvist 1944 Swedish Swedish
374 The Golden Bowl Henry James 1904 American English
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
1280 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
2376 Don Segundo Sombra Ricardo Güiraldes 1926 Argentinian Spanish
1286 The Invention Of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares 1940 Argentinian Spanish
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
71 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
307 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
2000 Baltasar and Blimunda José Saramago 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
5238 Jews Without Money Michael Gold 1930 American English
2700 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese