A Novel Choice
The best Irish novels as chosen by the James Joyce Centre and Irish Times readers’ poll
1. James Joyce: Ulysses (1922)
2. James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
3. John McGahern: Amongst Women (1990)
4. Flann O’Brien: At Swim Two Birds (1939)
5. Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Grey (1891)
6. Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
7. Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
8. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
9. John Banville: The Book of Evidence 1988
10. Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)
11. James Plunkett: Strumpet City (1969)
12. C. S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
13. Edna O’Brien: The Country Girls (1960)
14. Samuel Beckett: Molloy (1951)
15. Patrick Kavanagh: Tarry Flynn (1948)
16. Brian Moore: Judith Hearne (1955)
17. Elizabeth Bowen: The Last September (1929)
18. Laurence Sterne: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760)
19. Jennifer Johnston: How Many Miles to Babylon? (1974)
20. Kate O’Brien: The Land of Spices (1941)
21. Samuel Beckett: Murphy (1938)
22. John McGahern: The Barracks (1963)
23. Maria Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent (1800)
24. Roddy Doyle: The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (1996)
25. Seamus Deane: Reading in the Dark (1996)
26. William Trevor: Felicia’s Journey (1994)
27. Jennifer Johnston: The Captains and the Kings (1972)
28. William Trevor: Fools of Fortune (1983)
29. Molly Keane: Good Behaviour (1981)
30. Colm Toibin: The South (1990)
31. Sam Hanna: Bell December Bride (1950)
32. Somerville and Ross: The Real Charlotte (1894)
33. Brian Moore: The Emperor of Ice Cream (1965)
34. Eugene McCabe: Death and Nightingales (1992)
35. James Stephens: The Charwomen’s Daughter (1912)
36. Keith Ridgway: The Parts (2003)
37. J G Farrell: The Siege of Krishnapur (1973)
38. Aidan Higgins: Langrishe Go Down (1966)
39. Francis Stuart: Black List, Section H (1971)
40. Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
41. Christopher Nolan: The Banyan Tree (1999)
42. John Banville: Birchwood 1973
43. Joseph Sheridan: Le Fanu Uncle Silas (1864)
44. George Moore: A Drama in Muslin (1886)
45. George Moore: Esther Waters (1894)
46. Thomas Kilroy: The Big Chapel (1971)
47. William Carleton: The Black Prophet (1847)
48. Deirdre Madden: The Birds of the Innocent Wood (1988)
49. Hugo Hamilton: Surrogate City (1990)
50. Sean O’Reilly: Love and Sleep (2002)