C.K. Shorter List of Best 100 Novels

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Bookman February 1898, 100 Books

A list by Clement Shorter, a British journalist and literary critic. The Queenslander, April 4, 1898 described the list thus: "Mr. Clement K. Shorter, asked by 'The Bookman' to write out a list of 100 of the best novels in the English language, supplied the following list, naming only one book of each author, and giving the date of publication". Translated novels were included.

This list was originally published in 1898 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
13327 The Holy War John Bunyan 1682 British English
1230 The History Of Gil Blas Of Santillana Alain-René Lesage 1715 French French
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
1791 The Adventures Of Roderick Random Tobias Smollett 1748 British English
331 Clarissa Samuel Richardson 1748 British English
135 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
816 The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke 1759 British English
345 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole 1764 British English
351 The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 1766 British English
2268 The Old English Baron Clara Reeve 1777 British English
844 Evelina Fanny Burney 1778 British English
701 Vathek William Beckford 1786 British French
729 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe 1794 British English
756 The Adventures of Caleb Williams William Godwin 1794 British English
13327 The Wild Irish Girl Sydney Owenson 1806 Irish English
7007 Corinne Madame de Staël 1807 French French
13327 The Scottish Chiefs Jane Porter 1810 British English
13327 The Absentee Maria Edgeworth 1812 British English
12 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
1987 Headlong Hall Thomas Love Peacock 1816 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
13327 Marriage Susan Ferrier 1818 British English
13327 The Ayrshire Legatees John Galt 1821 Scottish English
13327 Valerius John Gibson Lockhart 1821 British English
720 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
6172 Kenilworth Sir Walter Scott 1821 British English
13327 Bracebridge Hall Washington Irving 1822 American English
13327 The Epicurean Thomas Moore 1827 American English
13327 The Adventures Of Hajji Baba Of Ispahan James Morier 1824 British English
272 The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni 1827 Italian Italian
13327 Lichtenstein Wilhelm Hauff 1826 German German
507 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper 1826 American English
13327 The Collegians Gerald Griffin 1829 Irish English
13327 The Life Of Mansie Wauch David Macbeth Moir 1824 British English
13327 Richelieu G. P. R. James 1829 British English
8690 Tom Cringle's Log Michael Scott 1829 British English
8883 Midshipman Easy Frederick Marryat 1836 British English
228 Father Goriot Honoré de Balzac 1835 French French
11520 Rory O'more Samuel Lover 1837 Irish English
13327 Jack Brag Theodore Edward Hook 1837 British English
13327 Fardorougha, The Miser William Carleton 1837 Irish English
11520 Valentine Vox Henry Cockton 1839 British English
11520 Old St Paul's William Harrison Ainsworth 1841 British English
11520 Ten Thousand A Year Samuel Warren 1839 British English
13327 Susan Hopley Catherine Crowe 1841 British English
9032 Charles O'malley Charles Lever 1841 Irish English
10603 Last Of The Barons Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1843 British English
9071 Consuelo George Sand 1842 French French
13327 Amy Herbert Elizabeth Missing Sewell 1844 British English
13327 The Adventures Of Mr. Ledbury And His Friend Jack Johnson Albert Smith 1844 British English
2355 Sybil Benjamin Disraeli 1845 British English
119 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
1429 The Wandering Jew Eugène Sue 1844 French French
13327 Emilia Wyndham Anne Marsh-Caldwell 1846 American English
11520 The Romance Of War James Grant 1846 Scottish English
104 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
28 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
13480 The Vale Of Cedars Grace Aguilar 1850 British English
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
9484 The Maiden And Married Life Of Mary Powell Anne Manning 1850 British English
73 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
11609 Frank Fairlegh Francis Edward Smedley 1850 British English
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
10753 The Wide, Wide World Elizabeth Wetherell 1850 American English
13480 Nathalie Julia Kavanagh 1850 British English
2905 Ruth Elizabeth Gaskell 1853 British English
6073 The Lamplighter Maria Susanna Cummins 1854 American English
13665 Doctor Antonio Giovanni Ruffini 1855 Italian English
9109 Westward Ho! Charles Kingsley 1855 British English
2659 Debit And Credit Gustav Freytag 1855 German German
2321 Tom Brown's School Days Thomas Hughes 1857 British English
676 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
11988 John Halifax, Gentleman Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1856 British English
11869 Ekkehard Joseph Victor von Scheffel 1855 German German
10182 Elsie Venner Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1861 American English
138 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
2279 The Cloister and the Hearth Charles Reade 1861 British English
13828 Ravenshoe Henry Kingsley 1861 British English
179 Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev 1862 Russian Russian
640 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
4404 Salammbô Gustave Flaubert 1862 French French
13882 Salem Chapel Margaret Oliphant 1863 British English
13871 The Channings Mrs. Henry Wood 1862 British English
13882 Chronicles Of The Schönberg Cotta Family Elizabeth Rundle Charles 1863 British English
540 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
13933 Barbara’s History Amelia B. Edwards 1864 British English
14310 Sweet Anne Page Mortimer Collins 1878 British English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
14114 Fromont Junior & Risler Senior Alphonse Daudet 1874 French French
14477 Marmorne Philip Gilbert Hamerton 1885 British English
14323 Black But Comely George Whyte-Melville 1879 British English
1055 The Master of Ballantrae Robert Louis Stevenson 1889 British English
14569 Reuben Sachs Amy Levy 1888 British English
979 News from Nowhere William Morris 1890 British English
13882 Lost And Saved Caroline Sheridan Norton 1863 British English