The Modern Novel

Three list books

Firsts Magazine took three of the lists – the Random House 100 best novels of the century list, the Waterstone’s 100 greatest list and the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century – and combined them coming up with two separate lists – this one which is the books that appear in all three lists and a separate one of books appearing in two of the lists. Twenty-one made it in all three. Points were given for position in the list and the final listing was by ascending order of points. Note that there is only one woman and that all have been, at least for part of their lives, American or British citizens. One writer – Forster – has three entries and one – Orwell – two. None was born in the second half of the century and only four – Heller, Salinger, Vonnegut and Rushdie – were alive when the list was prepared.