1000 Novels Everyone Must Read

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

About this list

The Guardian, 997 Books

Selected by the Guardian’s Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. Originally published in thematic supplements – love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel – they appear here for the first time in a single list.

Who Voted?
There's not a lot of concrete information about the exact number of critics who voted. If we go by the critics mentioned on many of the summaries of the books, and how many editors at the guardian at the time, I think a safe assumption would be 40 people worked on this list. If anyone has any additional information please let me know.

This list was originally published in 2009 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1742 A Tale Of A Tub Jonathan Swift 1704 British English
2975 Penrod Booth Tarkington 1914 American English
3021 The Memoirs Of Barry Lyndon William Makepeace Thackeray 1844 British English
3019 Before Lunch Angela Thirkell 1939 British English
5356 Tropic Of Ruislip Leslie Thomas 1974 British English
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
5428 Venus On The Half Shell Philip José Farmer 1975 American English
1828 The Mysterious Stranger Mark Twain 1916 American English
2191 The Witches Of Eastwick John Updike 1984 American English
904 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
760 Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh 1928 British English
1427 Vile Bodies Evelyn Waugh 1930 British English
2452 Black Mischief Evelyn Waugh 1932 British English
435 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
800 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
2981 The Life And Loves Of A She Devil Fay Weldon 1983 British English
1483 Tono Bungay H. G. Wells 1909 British English
2454 Molesworth Geoffrey Willans, Ronald Searle 1953 British English
6737 The Wimbledon Poisoner Nigel Williams 1990 British English
1921 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
4308 Something Fresh P. G. Wodehouse 1915 British English
4308 Piccadilly Jim P. G. Wodehouse 1917 British English
1221 Thank You, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1934 British English
3037 Heavy Weather P. G. Wodehouse 1933 British English
556 The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse 1938 British English
2451 Joy in the Morning P. G. Wodehouse 1946 British English
587 The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren 1949 American English
1061 Fantômas Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre 1911 French French
790 The Mask of Dimitrios Eric Ambler 1939 British English
4308 Epitaph For A Spy Eric Ambler 1938 British English
4308 Journey Into Fear Eric Ambler 1940 British English
910 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
953 Trent's Last Case E. C. Bentley 1913 British English
948 The Poisoned Chocolates Case Anthony Berkeley 1929 British English
1512 The Beast Must Die Nicholas Blake 1938 British English
2091 Lady Audley's Secret M. E. Braddon 1862 British English
6471 The Neon Rain James Lee Burke 1987 American English
9611 The Tin Roof Blowdown James Lee Burke 2007 American English
344 The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan 1915 British English
1524 Greenmantle John Buchan 1916 British English
1640 The Asphalt Jungle W. R. Burnett 1949 American English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
1193 Double Indemnity James M. Cain 1943 American English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
457 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
161 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler 1953 American English
1639 No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase 1939 British English
831 Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers 1903 British English
191 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
801 The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie 1920 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
3021 The Murder At The Vicarage Agatha Christie 1930 British English
4308 The Secret Adversary Agatha Christie 1922 British English
139 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
393 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins 1868 British English
983 A Study In Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
2453 The Sign of Four Arthur Conan Doyle 1890 British English
961 The Manchurian Candidate Richard Condon 1959 American English
470 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
1856 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 1911 British English
3271 Postmortem Patricia Daniels Cornwell 1990 American English
1352 The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton 1969 American English
1531 Jurassic Park Michael Crichton 1990 American English
5090 Poetic Justice Amanda Cross 1970 American English
966 The Ipcress File Len Deighton 1962 British English
2400 Last Seen Wearing Colin Dexter 1976 British English
5322 The Remorseful Day Colin Dexter 1999 British English
3060 Ratking Michael Dibdin 1988 British English
7146 Dead Lagoon Michael Dibdin 1994 British English
6846 Dirty Tricks Michael Dibdin 1991 British English
6410 A Rich Full Death Michael Dibdin 1986 British English
5335 Vendetta Michael Dibdin 1990 British English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
2169 My Cousin Rachel Daphne du Maurier 1951 British English
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
1646 The Pledge Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1958 Swiss German
742 The Crime of Father Amaro Eça de Queirós 1875 Portuguese Portuguese
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
2515 L.A. Confidential James Ellroy 1990 American English
2291 The Big Nowhere James Ellroy 1988 American English
9611 A Quiet Belief In Angels R. J. Ellory 2007 British English
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
495 Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 British English
1690 Goldfinger Ian Fleming 1959 British English
4644 You Only Live Twice Ian Fleming 1964 British English
415 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
4308 A Gun For Sale Graham Greene 1936 British English
3020 The Ministry Of Fear Graham Greene 1943 British English
586 The Third Man Graham Greene 1949 British English
1801 A Time To Kill John Grisham 1989 American English
7048 The King Of Torts John Grisham 2003 American English
1334 Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton 1941 British English
698 The Glass Key Dashiell Hammett 1931 American English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
536 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 1929 American English
660 The Thin Man Dashiell Hammett 1934 American English
2638 Fatherland Robert Harris 1992 British English
5428 Black Sunday Thomas Harris 1975 American English
1001 Red Dragon Thomas Harris 1981 American English
2930 Tourist Season Carl Hiaasen 1986 American English
1503 The Friends Of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins 1970 American English
1240 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
5335 Bones And Silence Reginald Hill 1990 British English
2440 A Rage In Harlem Chester Himes 1957 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
976 Rogue Male Geoffrey Household 1939 British English
916 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
8699 Silence Of The Grave Arnaldur Indriðason 2003 Icelandic Icelandic
4308 Death At The President's Lodging Michael Innes 1936 British English
3124 Cover Her Face P. D. James 1962 British English
2908 A Taste For Death P. D. James 1986 British English