Edmonton's Top 100

This is one of the 743 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 about 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
2833 The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence 1964 Canadian English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
1902 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
1569 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
651 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
229 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
1191 The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski 1965 Polish English
530 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
557 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
748 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
89 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
42 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
63 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
50 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
452 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
15734 Who Has Seen The Wind W. O. Mitchell 1947 Canadian English
136 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
379 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C. S. Lewis 1950 British English
7125 The Kitchen God's Wife Amy Tan 1991 American English
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
287 The Once and Future King T. H. White 1958 British English
731 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
92 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 1920 American English
51 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 British English
737 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
295 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham 1915 British English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
225 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
1770 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Brian Moore 1955 Irish English
264 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
802 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
2995 Monsignor Quixote Graham Greene 1982 British English
17010 Evening Class Maeve Binchy 1996 Irish English
143 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
690 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
1634 The Collector John Fowles 1963 British English
107 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
3043 Centennial James A. Michener 1974 American English
2148 The Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel 1980 American English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
197 Lady Chatterley's Lover D. H. Lawrence 1928 British English
160 My Antonia Willa Cather 1918 American English
1695 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
14901 The Robber Bride Margaret Atwood 1993 Canadian English
408 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
1932 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
14901 The Englishman's Boy Guy Vanderhaeghe 1996 Canadian English
141 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945 British English
987 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
2601 The Wars Timothy Findley 1977 Canadian English
14901 Wolf Willow Wallace Stegner 1962 American English
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
1635 The Sportswriter Richard Ford 1986 American English
5379 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
17010 Swann Carol Shields 1987 Canadian English
837 The Book of Daniel E. L. Doctorow 1971 American English
1083 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
17010 King Leary Paul Quarrington 1987 Canadian English
2914 Barometer Rising Hugh MacLennan 1941 Canadian English
2069 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
439 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 1943 American English
257 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
4280 In The Skin Of A Lion Michael Ondaatje 1987 Canadian English
1321 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
4625 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Roddy Doyle 1993 Irish English
153 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
255 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
71 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
2482 The Golden Compass Philip Pullman 1995 British English
7980 We The Living Ayn Rand 1936 American English
164 Winnie the Pooh A. A. Milne 1926 British English
2439 How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn 1939 British English
7692 On The Beach Nevil Shute 1957 Australian English