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

This is one of the 743 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 about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
2130 Mythago Wood Robert Holdstock 1984 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
1398 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
293 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
398 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
2023 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
4199 The Arabian Nightmare Robert Irwin 1983 British English
1755 Books of Blood Clive Barker 1984 British English
1549 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
6807 Koko Peter Straub 1988 American English
6951 The Stress of Her Regard Tim Powers 1989 American English
6145 Use Of Weapons Iain Banks 1990 Scottish English
2728 Lost Souls Poppy Z. Brite 1992 American English
1220 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
675 Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees 1926 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
1830 The Swords Of Lankhmar Fritz Leiber 1968 American English
277 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
1970 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
1172 Little, Big John Crowley 1981 American English
2217 The Anubis Gates Tim Powers 1983 American English
8744 Rats And Gargoyles Mary Gentle 1990 British English
8190 Waking the Moon Elizabeth Hand, Elisabeth Hand 1994 American English
10113 Advances Anita Burgh 1998 British English
7638 A Better World Than This Marie Joseph 1982 British English
6898 The Chatelaine Claire Lorrimer 1978 British English
7181 Mango Walk Rhona Martin 1981 Jamaican English
8291 The Native Air Sarah Woodhouse 1987 British English
3006 The Game Of Kings Dorothy Dunnett 1961 British English
5624 Queens' Play Dorothy Dunnett 1964 British English
5749 The Disorderly Knights Dorothy Dunnett 1966 British English
6147 Pawn In Frankincense Dorothy Dunnett 1969 British English
6282 The Ringed Castle Dorothy Dunnett 1971 British English
6615 Checkmate Dorothy Dunnett 1975 British English
5301 The Town House Norah Lofts 1959 British English
5424 The House At Old Vine Norah Lofts 1961 British English
5473 The House At Sunset Norah Lofts 1962 British English
5301 The Unknown Ajax Georgette Heyer 1959 British English
6615 Csárdás Diane Pearson 1975 British English
1201 Nine Coaches Waiting Mary Stewart 1958 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
456 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
697 The Glass Key Dashiell Hammett 1931 American English
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
234 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
915 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
416 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
1737 A Fatal Inversion Barbara Vine 1987 British English
412 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
3133 The False Inspector Dew Peter Lovesey 1982 British English
2648 Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw 1976 Irish English
4415 The Voysey Inheritance Harley Granville Barker 1905 British English
4415 The Madras House Harley Granville Barker 1910 British English
6993 The Collected Plays Of Noel Coward Noel Coward 1979 British English
3176 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard 1966 British English
6368 Jumpers Tom Stoppard 1972 British English
2283 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
3530 The Birthday Party Harold Pinter 1958 British English
2886 The Caretaker Harold Pinter 1960 British English
6615 No Man's Land Harold Pinter 1975 British English
2485 Murder In The Cathedral T. S. Eliot 1935 British English
4554 The Lady's Not For Burning Christopher Fry 1948 British English
2734 Look Back In Anger John Osborne 1956 British English
99 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
4975 The Norman Conquests Alan Ayckbourn 1973 British English
4415 Trifles Susan Glaspell 1916 American English
4415 Desire Under The Elms Eugene O'Neill 1924 American English
1305 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
3073 Waiting For Lefty Clifford Odets 1935 American English
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
426 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
9664 Broken Glass Arthur Miller 1994 American English
4645 True West Sam Shepard 1980 American English
3912 Fences August Wilson 1985 American English
9150 Oleanna David Mamet 1992 American English