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
3157 The Castafiore Emerald Hergé 1963 Belgian French
272 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
3005 Scaramouche Rafael Sabatini 1921 Italian English
3021 Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini 1922 British English
2886 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
4308 The Hunters James Salter 1956 American English
297 Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott 1819 British English
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
508 Black Beauty Anna Sewell 1877 British English
1570 The Young Lions Irwin Shaw 1948 American English
879 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 1950 British English
1104 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
138 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal 1839 French French
2145 Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson 1999 American English
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
1243 Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
115 Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 1883 British English
1965 A Flag For Sunrise Robert Stone 1981 American English
803 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
12 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 1869 Russian Russian
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
815 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne 1872 French French
926 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne 1864 French French
4308 Williwaw Gore Vidal 1946 American English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
2372 Put Out More Flags Evelyn Waugh 1942 British English
2460 Men At Arms Evelyn Waugh 1952 British English
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
5428 The Machine Gunners Robert Westall 1975 British English
826 Voss Patrick White 1957 Australian English
1440 The Virginian Owen Wister 1902 American English
726 The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk 1951 American English
2813 La Débâcle Émile Zola 1892 French French
1798 Washington Square Henry James 1880 American English