The Great American Novels

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

About this list

The Atlantic, 136 Books

This list is an exploration of the 'Great American Novel' concept, aiming to define a new American literary canon by identifying significant novels published in the United States over the past 100 years. The selection criteria focused on literary works that offer intriguing insights and are written with distinctive, artful prose. Curated by The Atlantic, the list involved contributions from a diverse group of experts, including scholars, critics, and novelists. The methodology emphasized comprehensiveness, rigor, and open-mindedness, leading to a final selection of 136 novels. These novels were chosen not only for their enduring impact but also to highlight the unexpected and overlooked, reflecting the evolving American literary landscape amid contemporary challenges such as censorship and anti-intellectualism.

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
912 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
437 Passing Nella Larsen 1929 American English
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
1878 East Goes West Younghill Kang 1937 American English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
1937 Ask The Dust John Fante 1939 American English
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
347 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
1678 A Time To Be Born Dawn Powell 1942 American English
149 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren 1946 American English
1119 The Street Ann Petry 1946 American English
1184 In A Lonely Place Dorothy B. Hughes 1947 American English
2675 The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford 1947 American English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
150 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 1953 American English
1262 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
280 The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow 1953 American English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
1294 Peyton Place Grace Metalious 1956 American English
2676 Deep Water Patricia Highsmith 1957 American English
6340 No No Boy John Okada 2024 American English
41 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
293 A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle 1962 American English
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
154 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
1899 The Zebra Striped Hearse Ross Macdonald 1962 American English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
772 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
717 A Sport and a Pastime James Salter 1967 American English
977 Couples John Updike 1968 American English
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
3552 Divorcing Susan Taubes 1969 American English
241 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
1760 Desperate Characters Paula Fox 1970 American English
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
3552 Log Of The S.S. The Mrs Unguentine Stanley Crawford 1972 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
3552 The Revolt Of The Cockroach People Oscar Zeta Acosta 1973 American English
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
1894 Winter In The Blood James Welch 1974 American English
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
1002 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
260 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison 1977 American English
2830 A Contract With God Will Eisner 1978 American English
2288 Dancer From The Dance Andrew Holleran 1978 American English
274 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
2858 The Dog Of The South Charles Portis 1979 American English
331 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 1980 American English
2351 The Salt Eaters Toni Cade Bambara 1980 American English
1173 Little, Big John Crowley 1981 American English
4151 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
2303 Machine Dreams Jayne Anne Phillips 1984 American English
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
2347 A Summons to Memphis Peter Taylor 1986 American English
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
2584 Dawn Octavia E. Butler 1987 American English
1938 Geek Love Katherine Dunn 1989 American English
2634 Tripmaster Monkey Maxine Hong Kingston 1989 American English
3096 Dogeaters Jessica Hagedorn 1990 American English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
3437 So Far From God Ana Castillo 1993 American English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
3473 Native Speaker Chang-rae Lee 1995 American English
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
5269 Under The Feet Of Jesus Helena María Viramontes 1995 American English
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
5406 I Love Dick Chris Kraus 1997 American English
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
2429 The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead 1999 American English
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
3179 The Quick And The Dead Joy Williams 2000 American English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
5729 I, The Divine Rabih Alameddine 2001 Lebanese English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
3070 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
5820 Perma Red Debra Magpie Earling 2002 American English
5820 The Russian Debutante’s Handbook Gary Shteyngart 2002 American English
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
6755 I Hotel Karen Tei Yamashita 2010 American English
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
2069 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 American English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
7102 Nevada Imogen Binnie 2013 American English
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English