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Best Fiction of the 20th Century

-Carlos-

-Carlos-

New Member
From the list of the best fiction of the 20th century, list those books you own and read. Mark the books read with the (R) indicator.

Here is my list:

  • The Great Gatsby
  • 1984
  • Catch 22 (R)
  • The Grapes of Wrath
  • Lolita
  • Animal Farm
  • Lord of the Flies (R)
  • Slaughterhouse Five
  • Brave New World (R)
  • Invisible Man
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Beloved
  • On the Road
  • The Age of Innocence
  • A Farewell to Arms
  • The Old Man and the Sea (R)
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Good Earth
  • The World According to Garp
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • Fahrenheit 451
  • The Handmaid's Tale
  • Tender is the Night
  • Of Mice and Men (R)
  • All the King's Men
  • The Jungle
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
  • The Fountainhead
  • A Room With a View
  • A Confederacy of Dunces (R)
  • Angle of Repose
  • Rabbit, Run
  • The Shipping News
  • Watership Down (R)
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany
  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
  • Main Street
  • The Remains of the Day (R)
  • East of Eden (R)
  • The Stand
  • The Adventures of Augie March
  • The Bell Jar (R)
  • A Thousand Acres
  • The Beautiful and Damned
  • Breathing Lessons (R)
  • The Accidental Tourist
  • The Pearl
 
I would have to say my list would go like this:

1. Lord of the Flies
2. To KIll a Mockingbird
3. The Hobbit
4. The Stand
5. 1984
 
from the list, I have read: * indicates book that would make it on my 'best' list

Great Gatsby
1984
Catch 22
Grapes of Wrath
Animal Farm
Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye
Slaughterhouse Five*
Brave new world
On the Road
My Antonia
Clockwork Orange
Call of the Wild
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
As I lay Dying
Of Mice and Men
The Jungle
Fountainhead
Confederacy of Dunces
Rabbit Run
Atlas Shrugged
Portnoy's Complaint*
Naked Lunch
White Noise*
The Moviegoer
Sheltering Sky
Johnny Got His Gun*
The Pearl
 
*Catcher in the Rye (not on original list)
The Great Gatsby
1984 (we'll meet in a place where there is no darkness)
Catch 22
The Grapes of Wrath (to be read)
Animal Farm
Slaughterhouse Five (so it goes...)
Brave New World
To Kill a Mockingbird
On the Road (currently reading)
A Farewell to Arms (HATED with a deep burning passion)
A Clockwork Orange
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (probably my favorite book of all time)
Fahrenheit 451
Tender is the Night
Of Mice and Men
A Confederacy of Dunces
Main Street (haven't read this but I recommend "It Can't Happen Here" by the same author Sinclair Lewis. great story about totalitarian regime coming to America. written right before WWII)
East of Eden (to be read)
The Stand (to be read)
The Beautiful and Damned
* Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald: short story rather than a book but, in my opinion, the best thing Fitzgerald ever wrote.
 
I have read:

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

Lolita, Vladimir Nabakov

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

My Antonia, Willa Cather

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

Lady Chatterly's Lover, D. H. Lawrence

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

A Separate Peace, John Knowles

Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, Judy Blume
 
It's a good list. I have read:

[*]The Great Gatsby
[*]1984
[*]The Grapes of Wrath
[*]Animal Farm
[*]Brave New World (R)
[*]Invisible Man
[*]To Kill a Mockingbird
[*]Beloved
[*]The Age of Innocence
[*]A Farewell to Arms
[*]The Good Earth
[*]The World According to Garp
[*]Fahrenheit 451
[*]The Handmaid's Tale
[*]All the King's Men
[*]The Jungle
[*]A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
[*]A Room With a View
[*]Angle of Repose
[*]Rabbit, Run
[*]Main Street
[*]The Remains of the Day (R)
[*]The Adventures of Augie March
[*]The Bell Jar (R)
[*]A Thousand Acres
[*]Breathing Lessons (R)
[*]The Accidental Tourist
 
[/COLOR]
Here is my list:


  • [*]The Great Gatsby
    [*]1984
  • Catch 22 (R)
    [*]The Grapes of Wrath
    [*]Lolita
    [*]Animal Farm
    [*]Lord of the Flies (R)
    [*]Slaughterhouse Five
    [*]Brave New World (R)
  • Invisible Man
    [*]To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Beloved
  • On the Road
  • The Age of Innocence
  • A Farewell to Arms
    [*]The Old Man and the Sea (R)
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Good Earth
  • The World According to Garp
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    [*]Fahrenheit 451
  • The Handmaid's Tale
  • Tender is the Night
  • Of Mice and Men (R)
  • All the King's Men
  • The Jungle
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
    [*]The Fountainhead
  • A Room With a View
    [*]A Confederacy of Dunces (R)
  • Angle of Repose
  • Rabbit, Run
  • The Shipping News
  • Watership Down (R)
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany
  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
  • Main Street
  • The Remains of the Day (R)
  • East of Eden (R)
  • The Stand
  • The Adventures of Augie March
  • The Bell Jar (R)
  • A Thousand Acres
  • The Beautiful and Damned
  • Breathing Lessons (R)
  • The Accidental Tourist
  • The Pearl
[/QUOTE]


Wow, quite a list. I would add Atlas Shrugged, along with The Fountainhead. I'm quite shocked The Jungle or any one of Theodore Dreiser's books didn't make it.
 
The ones I've cognitively ingested are below:

1. Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
2. 1984, Orwell
3. Animal Farm, Orwell
4. Catcher In The Rye, Salinger
5. Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut
6. Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
7. The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
8. The World According to Garp, Irving
9. Winnie the Pooh, Milne
10. Satanic Verses, Rushdie
11. Dune, Herbert
12. Hound Of The Baskervilles, Doyle
13. Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Adams
14. Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut
15. Midnight's Children, Rushdie
16. The Sheltering Sky, Bowles
17. Things Fall Apart, Achebe

17 out of 223? I'd better quit my job and start reading...
 
Interesting Aqua - you rate Gatsby but haven’t read it! Get out there right now and buy it!

From the list, books that blew me away:

Gatsby
Lolita - but this is probably the one book I hesitate before recommending
Animal Farm
To Kill a Mockingbird
Rebecca - excellent, but not Du Maurier’s best (IMO) - I think both My Cousin Rachel & Scapegoat are better
Of Mice and Men
Heart of Darkness
I Claudius - but how much is down to Derek Jacobi :)
Watership Down
Dune - yes it is somewhat misogynistic, but it has a good plot and pacing and I think is well written
Wind in the Willows - not a great book - but my favourite lines
The Old Wives’s tale - but again not the best Bennett
The Big Sleep - In my all time top three: Great plot, characters, style and my favourite genre.
The Agony & The Ecstasy

So-So - Books that didn’t really move me

1984
Call of the wild
Invisible Man - but this one gets points for being innovative. Having said that I preferred War of the Worlds
The Godfather
Maltese Falcon
HHGTTG
Kim
Catch 22
Lion, Witch & Wardrobe
Hobbit
Handmaid’s Tale
Slaughterhouse 5
Brave new World
Lord of the Rings

Hmm - I must have missed the point as I don’t rate them

World according to Garp - Just didn’t like this, but I was young when I read it
Lord of Flies - I am always curious about this book - I love “The inheritors’, but this one always leaves me cold. What do fans get from this?
Cat’s Cradle
 
AquaBlue said:
From the list of the best fiction of the 20th century, list those books you own and read. Mark the books read with the (R) indicator.

Here is my list:

  • 1984
  • Catch 22
  • Animal Farm
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Slaughterhouse Five
  • Brave New World
  • Invisible Man
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • A Confederacy of Dunces
Click to expand...

Started off strong, finished weak.
 
A little clarification: the link is not to a list of "the best fiction of the 20th century", but to "The Best English-Language Fiction of the Twentieth Century".

And unless Aquablue is suggesting that there's not one good piece of fiction that's been written in any language other than English between 1900 and 2000, then I would suggest that even Aquablue doesn't really think that it's a list of "the best fiction of the 20th century".
 
We noticed it's a list of best english-language fiction, no body cared, It's a fun little exercise. There are thousands of 'best' lists out there. The point of this thread is: here's a list of books - which ones have you read - which of these books would be put on your personal 'best' list. Play the game or get off the thread. you can go feel superior elsewhere.
 
jizzz!
your here 3 days and you want to kick me out already!
let's say i did not notice because i did link.My fault entirely!
 
No, I want to kick people off who want to argue about the list rather than just play the game. Every thread is full of people's overinflated ego's arguing and then the origional point of the thread is forgotten.

And yes, I see the irony in my adding to the problem. Over.
 
I've read the following:


• 1984
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Lord of the Flies
• The Old Man and the Sea
• Fahrenheit 451
 
I've read the following:

Nineteen Eighty Four-Orwell, George
Grapes of Wrath, The-Steinbeck, John
Animal Farm-Orwell, George
Lord of the Flies-Golding, William
Catcher in the Rye, The-Salinger, J. D.
To Kill a Mockingbird-Lee, Harper
Charlotte's Web-White, E. B.
Hobbit, The-Tolkien, J. R. R.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-Kesey, Ken
Handmaid's Tale, The-Atwood, Margaret
Of Mice and Men-Steinbeck, John
Fountainhead, The-Rand, Ayn
Room With a View, A-Forster, E. M.
Watership Down-Adams, Richard
Roots-Haley, Alex
Kane and Abel-Archer, Jeffrey
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The-Lewis, C. S.
Bonfire of the Vanities-Wolfe, Tom
Separate Peace, A-Knowles, John
Wind in the Willows, The-Graham, Kenneth
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The-Adams, Douglas
Stand, The-King, Stephen
Bell Jar, The-Plath, Sylvia
Prince of Tides, The-Conroy, Pat
Are You There God, It's Me Margaret-Blume, Judy
Godfather, The-Puzo, Mario
 
I've read:
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (did not like it)
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell (did not like it)
Lord of the Rings - J. R. R.Tolkien(liked it a bit)
Hobbit- J. R. R. Tolkien(liked it)
Winnie the Pooh -A. A. Milne(loved it)
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D. H. Lawrence(did not like it)
Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum(liked it)
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C.Clarke(liked it)
Dune - Frank Herbert(liked it)
Orlando - Virginia Woolf(did not understand)
Arthur Conan Doyle -Hound of the Baskervilles(liked it)
Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham(loved it)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -Douglas Adams(loved it)
Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs(liked it)
French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles(did not like it)
 
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