Best Books (Fiction, Prose) : Experts Choose Their Favourites

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

About this list

The Book "Best Books", 197 Books

This list of books is from the book titled "Best Books: Experts Choose Their Favourites". This is a very small set of the books that are listed in the book. This is only the Fiction, non-fiction prose, drama, and genre fiction. The experts in these categories who made up the lists are: Brenda Richardson, Chris Murray, Roz Kaveney, Anthony Thwaite, Claire Tomalin, Malcolm Bardbury, Oliver Harris, Ian F A Bell, Kadiatu Kanneh, Brian Aldiss, Marina Oliver, Colin Dexter, Derek Parker, and T. J. Lustig.

This list was originally published in 1996 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
2142 Mythago Wood Robert Holdstock 1984 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
1399 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
294 The Time Machine H. G. Wells 1895 British English
615 Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary M. R. James 1904 British English
579 The Outsider And Others H. P. Lovecraft 1939 American English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
2029 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
4205 The Arabian Nightmare Robert Irwin 1983 British English
1757 Books of Blood Clive Barker 1984 British English
1551 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
6818 Koko Peter Straub 1988 American English
6962 The Stress of Her Regard Tim Powers 1989 American English
6156 Use Of Weapons Iain Banks 1990 Scottish English
2732 Lost Souls Poppy Z. Brite 1992 American English
1223 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
677 Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees 1926 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
1831 The Swords Of Lankhmar Fritz Leiber 1968 American English
278 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
1975 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
1173 Little, Big John Crowley 1981 American English
2229 The Anubis Gates Tim Powers 1983 American English
8763 Rats And Gargoyles Mary Gentle 1990 British English
8206 Waking the Moon Elizabeth Hand, Elisabeth Hand 1994 American English
10135 Advances Anita Burgh 1998 British English
7655 A Better World Than This Marie Joseph 1982 British English
6909 The Chatelaine Claire Lorrimer 1978 British English
7197 Mango Walk Rhona Martin 1981 Jamaican English
8308 The Native Air Sarah Woodhouse 1987 British English
3013 The Game Of Kings Dorothy Dunnett 1961 British English
5633 Queens' Play Dorothy Dunnett 1964 British English
5761 The Disorderly Knights Dorothy Dunnett 1966 British English
6158 Pawn In Frankincense Dorothy Dunnett 1969 British English
6294 The Ringed Castle Dorothy Dunnett 1971 British English
6629 Checkmate Dorothy Dunnett 1975 British English
5311 The Town House Norah Lofts 1959 British English
5434 The House At Old Vine Norah Lofts 1961 British English
5483 The House At Sunset Norah Lofts 1962 British English
5311 The Unknown Ajax Georgette Heyer 1959 British English
6629 Csárdás Diane Pearson 1975 British English
1203 Nine Coaches Waiting Mary Stewart 1958 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
457 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
698 The Glass Key Dashiell Hammett 1931 American English
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
916 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
419 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
1739 A Fatal Inversion Barbara Vine 1987 British English
415 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
3137 The False Inspector Dew Peter Lovesey 1982 British English
2628 Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw 1976 Irish English
4421 The Voysey Inheritance Harley Granville Barker 1905 British English
4421 The Madras House Harley Granville Barker 1910 British English
7004 The Collected Plays Of Noel Coward Noel Coward 1979 British English
3181 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard 1966 British English
6380 Jumpers Tom Stoppard 1972 British English
2291 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
3533 The Birthday Party Harold Pinter 1958 British English
2892 The Caretaker Harold Pinter 1960 British English
6629 No Man's Land Harold Pinter 1975 British English
2491 Murder In The Cathedral T. S. Eliot 1935 British English
4561 The Lady's Not For Burning Christopher Fry 1948 British English
2738 Look Back In Anger John Osborne 1956 British English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
4987 The Norman Conquests Alan Ayckbourn 1973 British English
4421 Trifles Susan Glaspell 1916 American English
4421 Desire Under The Elms Eugene O'Neill 1924 American English
1306 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
3080 Waiting For Lefty Clifford Odets 1935 American English
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
9686 Broken Glass Arthur Miller 1994 American English
4654 True West Sam Shepard 1980 American English
3918 Fences August Wilson 1985 American English
9171 Oleanna David Mamet 1992 American English