Edmonton's Top 100

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

About this list

Edmonton Journal, 100 Books

From the article:
It is often said that to know a person, you simply need to look at his or her bookshelf. With that in mind, it is difficult to discern what exactly this survey of 100 English-language novels of the 20th century says about Edmonton readers. That we have a certain aversion toward totalitarianism and the rule of Big Brother? That we appreciate fairness and abhor prejudice, especially when it is revealed through the eyes of a child? That we have all been emigrants in our trip west, or that politics and poverty have formed much of our character? Or simply that we appreciate good stories well told?

This list was originally published in 1998 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
2839 The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence 1964 Canadian English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
250 Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery 1908 Canadian English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
224 Watership Down Richard Adams 1972 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
1181 The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski 1965 Polish English
524 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 1989 American English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
41 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
62 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
146 The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien 1937 British English
453 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
15857 Who Has Seen The Wind W. O. Mitchell 1947 Canadian English
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
381 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C. S. Lewis 1950 British English
7139 The Kitchen God's Wife Amy Tan 1991 American English
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
286 The Once and Future King T. H. White 1958 British English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
92 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 1920 American English
50 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 British English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
97 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940 American English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
292 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham 1915 British English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
227 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
1774 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Brian Moore 1955 Irish English
265 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton 1948 South African English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
803 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
3002 Monsignor Quixote Graham Greene 1982 British English
17152 Evening Class Maeve Binchy 1996 Irish English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
633 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
1636 The Collector John Fowles 1963 British English
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
3051 Centennial James A. Michener 1974 American English
2158 The Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel 1980 American English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
196 Lady Chatterley's Lover D. H. Lawrence 1928 British English
160 My Antonia Willa Cather 1918 American English
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
14985 The Robber Bride Margaret Atwood 1993 Canadian English
407 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
1935 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
14985 The Englishman's Boy Guy Vanderhaeghe 1996 Canadian English
141 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945 British English
988 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
2604 The Wars Timothy Findley 1977 Canadian English
14985 Wolf Willow Wallace Stegner 1962 American English
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
1637 The Sportswriter Richard Ford 1986 American English
5389 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
17152 Swann Carol Shields 1987 Canadian English
838 The Book of Daniel E. L. Doctorow 1971 American English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
17152 King Leary Paul Quarrington 1987 Canadian English
2920 Barometer Rising Hugh MacLennan 1941 Canadian English
2074 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
434 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 1943 American English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
4286 In The Skin Of A Lion Michael Ondaatje 1987 Canadian English
1323 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
4633 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Roddy Doyle 1993 Irish English
154 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
2487 The Golden Compass Philip Pullman 1995 British English
7995 We The Living Ayn Rand 1936 American English
165 Winnie the Pooh A. A. Milne 1926 British English
2442 How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn 1939 British English
7707 On The Beach Nevil Shute 1957 Australian English