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
235 The Ambassadors Henry James 1903 American English
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
3021 The Tortoise And The Hare Elizabeth Jenkins 1936 British English
3404 The Unfortunates B. S. Johnson 1969 British English
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
2582 Good Behaviour Molly Keane 1981 Irish English
745 Memed, My Hawk Yashar Kemal 1955 Turkish Turkish
154 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
1077 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
4308 Invitation To The Waltz Rosamond Lehmann 1932 British English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
2441 How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn 1939 British English
935 Martin Eden Jack London 1909 American English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
1309 The Member Of The Wedding Carson McCullers 1946 American English
2051 Palace Walk Naguib Mahfouz 1956 Egyptian Arabic
2071 The Assistant Bernard Malamud 1957 American English
90 Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 German German
4466 The Chateau William Maxwell 1961 American English
2446 The Rector's Daughter F. M. Mayor 1924 British English
1671 The Ordeal Of Richard Feverel George Meredith 1859 British English
3500 Family Matters Rohinton Mistry 2002 Canadian English
4518 Sour Sweet Timothy Mo 1982 British English
1774 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Brian Moore 1955 Irish English
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
260 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison 1977 American English
1766 Who Do You Think You Are? Alice Munro 1978 Canadian English
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
223 A House for Mr. Biswas V. S. Naipaul 1961 Trinidadian English
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
4999 Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness Kenzaburō Ōe 1969 Japanese Japanese
182 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
1944 My Name Is Asher Lev Chaim Potok 1972 American English
3041 The Good Companions J. B. Priestley 1929 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
5694 A Married Man Piers Paul Read 1979 British English
4308 Pointed Roofs Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
1036 The Fortunes Of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson 1917 Australian English
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
997 Julie, or the New Heloise Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1761 French French
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
4308 Alberta And Jacob Cora Sandel 1926 Norwegian Norwegian
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
2928 Unless Carol Shields 2002 Canadian English
3875 We Need To Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver 2003 American English
4308 The Three Sisters May Sinclair 1914 British English
665 The Family Moskat Isaac Bashevis Singer 1950 Polish Yiddish
1000 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
2467 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
193 East of Eden John Steinbeck 1952 American English
762 Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild 1936 British English
147 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
1230 The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington 1918 American English
1859 Angel Elizabeth Taylor 1957 British English
2459 Lark Rise To Candleford Flora Thompson 1945 British English
8075 The Blackwater Lightship Colm Toibin 1999 Irish English
1741 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 Sue Townsend 1982 British English
7944 Death In Summer William Trevor 1998 Irish English
179 Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev 1862 Russian Russian
4308 Peace In War Miguel de Unamuno 1897 Spanish Spanish
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
2340 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
2166 Morvern Callar Alan Warner 1995 Scottish English
1169 The History of Mr. Polly H. G. Wells 1910 British English
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
2454 Frost In May Antonia White 1933 British English
767 The Tree of Man Patrick White 1955 Australian English
89 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
8880 I'll Go To Bed At Noon Gerard Woodward 2004 British English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
1846 Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss 1812 Swiss German
302 The Lost Estate Henri Alain-Fournier 1913 French French
632 Dom Casmurro Machado de Assis 1899 Brazilian Portuguese
590 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
425 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 1811 British English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
520 Mansfield Park Jane Austen 1814 British English
83 Emma Jane Austen 1815 British English
192 Persuasion Jane Austen 1817 British English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
335 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Giorgio Bassani 1962 Italian Italian
4308 Love For Lydia H. E. Bates 1952 British English
4368 More Die Of Heartbreak Saul Bellow 1987 American English
1198 Lorna Doone R. D. Blackmore 1869 British English
569 The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen 1938 British, Irish English
967 The Heat of the Day Elizabeth Bowen 1949 British English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
649 Villette Charlotte Brontë 1853 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
3447 Look At Me Anita Brookner 1983 British English
1536 Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown 1973 American English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
1561 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey 1988 Australian English
1144 A Month In The Country J. L. Carr 1980 British English
160 My Antonia Willa Cather 1918 American English
1857 A Lost Lady Willa Cather 1923 American English
605 Claudine Colette 1900 French French
1235 Cheri Colette 1920 French French
1795 Victory Joseph Conrad 1915 British English
284 The Princess of Cleves Madame de La Fayette 1678 French French
4308 The Parasites Daphne du Maurier 1949 British English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
486 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English
468 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
1972 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English