Birdseed and Books

Steven Felicelli (fellow parenthetical afficionado, and look: writer, no blog!) posted this list on critical mass this morning, as an antidote to an Oprah-fied great books list. In other news, the Buder Branch library is becoming my Cheers.


TOP 100 NOVELS OF ALL TIME (book-length fiction - SS collections DQ, for the most part - Borges notable exception)

1. The Molloy Trilogy Samuel Beckett
2. To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
3. Ulysses James Joyce
4. Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
5. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
6. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
7. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
8. Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne
9. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
10. In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust
11. The Waves Virginia Woolf
12. V. Thomas Pynchon
13. The Recognitions William Gaddis
14. Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
15. The Possessed Fyodor Dostoyevsky
16. Moby Dick Herman Melville
17. Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges
18. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
19. The Fall Albert Camus
20. The New York Trilogy Paul Auster
21. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
22. Beloved Toni Morrison
23. Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov
24. Death in Venice Thomas Mann
25. Women in Love D.H. Lawrence
26. Blindness Jose Saramago
27. The Invention of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares
28. The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abe
29. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
30. American Pastoral Philip Roth
31. Correction Thomas Bernhard
32. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
33. Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol
34. The Trial Franz Kafka
35. Ada Vladimir Nabokov
36. Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann
37. Petersburg Andrei Bely
38. The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles
39. Bleak House Charles Dickens
40. Monsieur Teste Paul Valery
41. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Yukio Mishima
42. Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev
43. Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
44. The Sufferings of Young Werther Johann von Goethe
45. The Man without Qualities Robert Musil
46. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami
47. Middlemarch George Eliot
48. The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky
49. The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy
50. The Voyeur Alberto Moravia
51. The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell
52. Absalom, Absalom William Faulkner
53. Journey to the End of the Night Louis-Ferdinand Celine
54. Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino
55. Nothing Like the Sun Anthony Burgess
56. The Counterfeiters Andre Gide
57. Ethan Frome Edith Wharton
58. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
59. Turn of the Screw Henry James
60. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa
61. Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
62. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler Italo Calvino
63. Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar
64. The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
65. The Death of Virgil Hermann Broch
66. House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne
67. Hopscotch Julio Cortazar
68. The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa
69. The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal
70. Hunger Knut Hamsun
71. Frankenstein Mary Shelley
72. Zeno’s Conscience Italo Svevo
73. The Violent Bear it Away Flannery O’Connor
74. Too Loud a Solitude Bohumil Hrabal
75. Rat Man of Paris Paul West
76. The Great Gatsby F. Scot Fitzgerald
77. The Mustache Emmanuel Carrere
78. Men of Maize Miguel Asturias
79. The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie
80. Murphy Samuel Beckett
81. Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf
82. Ocean, Sea Alessandro Baricco
83. Christ on the Rue Jacob Severo Sarduy
84. Locus Solus Raymond Roussel
85. Pussy, King of the Pirates Kathy Acker
86. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
87. The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead
88. The Stream of Life Clarice Lispector
89. The English Patient Michael Ondaatje
90. This is not a Novel David Markson
91. Do You Hear Them? Nathalie Sarraute
92. How Late it was, How Late James Kelman
93. Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy
94. Mansfield Park Jane Austen
95. The Shipyard Juan Carlos Onetti
96. Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe
97. Thomas the Obscure Maurice Blanchot
98. The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq
99. Vertigo W.G. Sebald
100. The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus

HONORABLE MENTION (under consideration)
Locos: A Comedy of Gestures Felipe Alfau
Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter Cesar Aira
Blue Voyage Conrad Aiken
Epitaph for a Small Winner Machado de Assis
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
Persuasion Jane Austen
Awaiting Oblivion Maurice Blanchot
The Castle Franz Kafka
Amerika Franz Kafka
Cousin Bette Honore de Balzac
Pere Goriot Honore de Balzac
Seraphita Honore de Balzac
Snow White Donald Barthelme
Watt Samuel Beckett
Mercier and Camier Samuel Beckett
Dream of Fair to Middling Women Samuel Beckett
How it is Samuel Beckett
Herzog Saul Bellow
The Train was on Time Heinrich Boll
Last Evenings on Earth Roberto Bolano
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
The Master and Margharita Mikhail Bulgakov
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
A Change of Heart Michel Butor
The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
Erewhon Samuel Butler
The Non-existent Knight Italo Calvino
Mr. Palomar Italo Calvino
The Plague Albert Camus
The Stranger Albert Camus
The Fear of Losing Eurydice Julieta Campos
The Book of Promethea Helene Cixous
The Awakening Kate Chopin
Briar Rose Robert Coover
Disgrace J.M. Coetzee
The Lyre of Orpheus Robertson Davies
The Body Artist Don Delillo
White Noise Don Delillo
Dombey and Son Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Gould: A Novel in Three Novels Stephen Dixon
Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser
Foucault’s Pendulum Umberto Eco
The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
The Mill on the Floss George Eliot
Silas Marner George Eliot
A Fan’s Notes Fred Exley
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
Light in August William Faulkner
Point and Line Thalia Field
The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford
Tender is the Night F. Scot Fitzgerald
The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald
Salammbo Gustave Flaubert
I Served the King of England Bohumil Hrabal
A Passage to India E.M. Forster
Inez Carlos Fuentes
A Frolic of his Own William Gaddis
Carpenter’s Gothic William Gaddis
The Tunnel William Gass
The Immoralist Andre Gide
Pornografia Witold Gombrowicz
Under the Greenwood Tree Thomas Hardy
The Well-beloved Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D’urbevilles Thomas Hardy
Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
The Shunra and the Schmetterling Yoel Hoffman
The Blood Oranges John Hawkes
The Old Man & the Sea Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
Steppenwolfe Herman Hesse
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
Beasts of no Nation Uzodinma Iweala
The Ambassadors Henry James
The Golden Bowl Henry James
Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
The File on H. Ismail Kadare
The Old Man and the Wolves Julia Kristeva
Slowness Milan Kundera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
The Leopard Lampedusa
Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
Lady Chatterley’s Lover D.H. Lawrence
The Rainbow D.H. Lawrence
Babbit Sinclair Lewis
Hero of Our Time Lermontov
Ultramarine Malcolm Lowry
Lunar Caustic Malcolm Lowry
Palace Walk Naguib Mahfouz
Magic Mountain Thomas Mann
A Heart so White Javier Marias
Vanishing Point David Markson
Reader’s Block David Markson
Going Down David Markson
The Giant O’Brien Hilary Mantel
Of Love and Other Demons Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ava Carole Maso
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
The Moon and Sixpence Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage Somerset Maugham
Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
Sexus Henry Miller
Genoa: A Tale of Wonders Paul Metcalf
1934 Alberto Moravia
Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
Sula Toni Morrison
The Red and the Green Iris Murdoch
The Bell Iris Murdoch
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov
Bend Sinister Vladimir Nabokov
Invitation to a Beheading Vladimir Nabokov
Giraffe Marie Nimier
Nothing Grows by Moonlight Torborg Nedreaas
The Following Story Cees Nooteboom
At Swim, Two Birds Flan O’Brien
17 Kenzaburo Oe
1984 George Orwell
Cry the Beloved Country Alan Paton
A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia Viktor Pelevin
The Lives of Insects Viktor Pelevin
Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock
A Void Georges Perec
Life: A User's Manual Georges Perec
People of Paper Salvador Plascencia
Narrative of A. Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe
Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell
The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon
Against the Day Thomas Pynchon
Gravity’s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
Pierrot Mon Ami Raymond Queneau
The Echo Maker Richard Powers
Mumbo-Jumbo Ishmael Reed
Project for a Revolution in New York Alain Robbe-Grillet
Call it Sleep Henry Roth
Sabbath’s Theatre Philip Roth
Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel
The God of Small Things Arundthati Roy
The Ground Beneath her Feet Salman Rushdie
Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
The Tunnel Ernesto Sabato
Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
Nausea Jean Paul Sartre
Tale of the Unknown Island Jose Saramago
The Cave Jose Saramago
The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz
What Waiting Really Means June Akers Seese
A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
An Equal Music Vikram Seth
The Flanders Road Claude Simon
I’m Dying Laughing Christina Stead
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein
Event Philippe Sollers
Death Kit Susan Sontag
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
The Death of the Novel Ronald Sukenick
The Death of Vishnu Manil Suri
The Hoax Italo Svevo
Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift
Anihilation Piotr Szewc
Naomi Junichiro Tanizaki
The White Hotel D.M. Thomas
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
Friday Michel Tournier
The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope
The Warden Anthony Trollope
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
The Ice Shirt William Vollmann
Candide Voltaire
The Color Purple Alice Walker
The Day of the Locust Nathanael West
Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
Written on the Body Jeanette Winterson
Between the Acts Virginia Woolf
Orlando Virginia Woolf
Day and Night Virginia Woolf
Jacob’s Room Virginia Woolf
The Years Virginia Woolf
Native Son Richard Wright
Germinal Emile Zola
The Masterpiece Emile Zola