Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939

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Anthony Burges (Book), 99 Books

Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 — A Personal Choice is an essay by British writer Anthony Burgess, published by Allison & Busby in 1984. It covers a 44-year span between 1939 and 1983. Burgess was a prolific reader, in his early career reviewing more than 350 novels in just over two years for The Yorkshire Post. In the course of his career he wrote more than 30 novels

This list was originally published in 1984 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
14411 A Man Of The People Chinua Achebe 1966 Nigerian English
15593 Life In The West Brian Aldiss 1980 British English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
14411 The Anti Death League Kingsley Amis 1966 British English
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
3849 The Unlimited Dream Company J. G. Ballard 1979 British English
2304 Giles Goat-Boy John Barth 1966 American English
12220 The Victim Saul Bellow 1947 American English
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
967 The Heat of the Day Elizabeth Bowen 1949 British English
2964 The History Man Malcolm Bradbury 1975 British English
2312 Room At The Top John Braine 1957 British English
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
161 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler 1953 American English
14212 The Mighty And Their Fall Ivy Compton-Burnett 1961 British English
13986 Scenes From Provincial Life William Cooper 1950 British English
7795 The Rebel Angels Robertson Davies 1981 Canadian English
3388 Bomber Len Deighton 1970 British English
226 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
6176 The Mansion William Faulkner 1959 American English
1690 Goldfinger Ian Fleming 1959 British English
567 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
3241 Sweet Dreams Michael Frayn 1973 British English
13582 The Spire William Golding 1964 British English
13739 The Late Bourgeois World Nadine Gordimer 1966 South African English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
3629 Party Going Henry Green 1939 British English
187 The Power and the Glory Graham Greene 1940 British English
1107 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene 1948 British English
13583 Heartland Wilson Harris 1964 Guyanese English
14180 Facial Justice L. P. Hartley 1960 British English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
97 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940 American English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
2017 Riddley Walker Russell Hoban 1980 British English
14212 The Fox In The Attic Richard Hughes 1961 British English
10897 After Many A Summer Dies The Swan Aldous Huxley 1939 British English
12299 Ape And Essence Aldous Huxley 1948 British English
13523 Island Aldous Huxley 1962 British English
3585 A Single Man Christopher Isherwood 1964 British English
14335 An Error Of Judgement Pamela Hansford Johnson 1962 British English
14731 How To Save Your Own Life Erica Jong 1977 American English
257 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
14360 How Far Can You Go? David Lodge 1980 British English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
14093 The London Novels Colin MacInnes 1957 British English
413 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
8023 Ancient Evenings Norman Mailer 1983 American English
2071 The Assistant Bernard Malamud 1957 American English
15566 Dubin's Lives Bernard Malamud 1979 American English
9277 The Balkan Trilogy Olivia Manning 1960 British English
410 The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham 1944 British English
14011 The Groves Of Academe Mary McCarthy 1952 American English
14698 The Doctor's Wife Brian Moore 1976 British English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
2834 The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov 1930 Russian Russian
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
8900 Vendor Of Sweets R. K. Narayan 1967 Indian English
14698 Falstaff Robert Nye 1976 British English
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
362 Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor 1952 American English
14390 The Lockwood Concern John O'Hara 1965 American English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
14731 Farewell Companions James Plunkett 1977 Irish English
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
14458 The Image Men J. B. Priestley 1968 British English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
14458 Cocksure Mordecai Richler 1968 Canadian English
12310 Pavane Keith Roberts 1968 British English
241 Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth 1969 American English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
13933 The Body William Sansom 1949 British English
13986 The Disenchanted Budd Schulberg 1950 American English
2998 Staying On Paul Scott 1977 British English
13924 No Highway Nevil Shute 1948 British English
1006 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
13597 Strangers And Brothers C. P. Snow 1940 British English
956 The Girls of Slender Means Muriel Spark 1963 British English
13703 The Mandelbaum Gate Muriel Spark 1965 British English
803 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
13742 Darconville's Cat Alexander Theroux 1981 American English
7579 The Mosquito Coast Paul Theroux 1981 American English
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
13589 The Coup John Updike 1978 American English
5122 Creation Gore Vidal 1981 American English
13712 The Aerodrome Rex Warner 1941 British English
141 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945 British English
12104 Sword Of Honour Evelyn Waugh 1965 British English
286 The Once and Future King T. H. White 1958 British English
5512 Riders In The Chariot Patrick White 1961 Australian English
14001 A Chronicle Of Ancient Sunlight Henry Williamson 1951 British English
3018 The Old Men At The Zoo Angus Wilson 1961 British English
14377 Late Call Angus Wilson 1964 British English
726 The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk 1951 American English