All-TIME Best 100 English-Language Novels -- BOOK LIST

ALL-TIME BEST 100 ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NOVELS

In 2005, TIME Magazine critics Richard Lacayo and Lev Grossman picked the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923, the year TIME began publishing. Lacayo offers a thorough explanation of their process on the magazine's website, along with descriptions of each book.

As Lacayo said in his article, "Lists like this one have two purposes. One is to instruct. The other of course is to enrage." Everyone can argue about books they think should have made this list and others that should have been left off. 

Personally, I'd prefer seeing Mary McCarthy, Barbara Pym, and Penelope Lively on this list and jettison Pynchon, Kosinski, and DeLillo. I've read 88 of the 100 books on this list so far, but I may never finish all 100. I know I'm never going to read Infinite Jest, for example. And I will probably never read Gravity's Rainbow. 

How about you? What are your thoughts?

Here is the complete list in alphabetical order, with notes if I've read it, it's on my TBR shelf, or if it is available as an audiobook from my library. 

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (reviewed here) FINISHED

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (reviewed here) FINISHED

American Pastoral by Philip Roth FINISHED

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser FINISHED

Animal Farm by George Orwell FINISHED

Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara FINISHED

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume FINISHED

The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (reviewed here) FINISHED

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien TBR SHELF

Atonement by Ian McEwan FINISHED

Beloved by Toni Morrison FINISHED

The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood TBR SHELF

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler FINISHED

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood FINISHED

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy FINISHED

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder FINISHED

Call It Sleep by Henry Roth FINISHED

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller FINISHED

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger FINISHED

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess FINISHED

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron FINISHED

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen FINISHED

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon FINISHED

A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (discussed here) FINISHED

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West FINISHED

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather FINISHED

A Death in the Family by James Agee FINISHED

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen FINISHED

Deliverance by James Dickey FINISHED

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone FINISHED

Falconer by John Cheever TBR SHELF

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles FINISHED

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing FINISHED

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin FINISHED

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell FINISHED

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck FINISHED

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon ON OVERDRIVE

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald FINISHED

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers FINISHED

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene FINISHED

Herzog by Saul Bellow FINISHED

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson FINISHED

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul FINISHED

I, Claudius by Robert Graves FINISHED

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace ON OVERDRIVE (but 56 hours!)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison FINISHED

Light in August by William Faulkner FINISHED

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis FINISHED

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov FINISHED

Lord of the Flies by William Golding FINISHED

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien FINISHED

Loving by Henry Green FINISHED

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis FINISHED

The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead ON OVERDRIVE

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (reviewed here) FINISHED

Money by Martin Amis (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy FINISHED

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf FINISHED

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs FINISHED

Native Son by Richard Wright FINISHED

Neuromancer by William Gibson ON OVERDRIVE

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro FINISHED

1984 by George Orwell FINISHED

On the Road by Jack Kerouac FINISHED

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey FINISHED

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski (I finished as much as I could stand) FINISHED

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov FINISHED

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster FINISHED

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (reviewed here) FINISHED

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth FINISHED

Possession by A.S. Byatt FINISHED

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene FINISHED

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark FINISHED

Rabbit, Run by John Updike FINISHED

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow FINISHED

The Recognitions by William Gaddis

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett FINISHED

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates FINISHED

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles FINISHED

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (reviewed here) FINISHED

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson TBR SHELF

The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth TBR SHELF

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford FINISHED

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre FINISHED

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway FINISHED

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston FINISHED

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe FINISHED

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee FINISHED

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf FINISHED

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller FINISHED

Ubik by Philip K. Dick ON OVERDRIVE

Under the Net by Iris Murdoch FINISHED

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry FINISHED

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White Noise by Don DeLillo ON OVERDRIVE

White Teeth by Zadie Smith FINISHED

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (reviewed here) FINISHED

NOTES

Updated October 26, 2023. This is a repost of the list I first posted back in 2009. The links needed refreshing. 

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction -- LIST

 

THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE

The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction is one of the oldest and most prestigious book prizes. It has been awarded since 1919 for literature written in the English language. The award is based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The winner is chosen by two academic scholars in the English Department, with the assistance of PhD students.

I am not going to keep updating the winners after 2020. My enthusiasm for prize-winners is waning with the 2020s. I plan to focus my efforts on reading the winners up to 2020 then declare victory and move on to other bookish projects.

So far, I have read only 23 of the winners. The prize may offer literary prestige and £10,000, but it doesn't guarantee popular success or that your book will stay in print! Some of these are hard to find. Here is the list, with notes about whether I've read a book, if it is on my TBR shelf, or if it available as an audiobook from my library:

2020 Lote by Shola von Reinhold

2019 Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann ON OVERDRIVE

2018 Crudo by Olivia Lang

2017 Attrib. and Other Stories by Eley Williams

2016 The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride FINISHED

2015 You Don’t Have to Live Like This by Benjamin Markovits 

2014 In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman ON OVERDRIVE

2013 Harvest by Jim Crace ON OVERDRIVE

2012 The Deadman's Pedal by Alan Warner
 
2010 The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli ON OVERDRIVE

2009 The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt ON OVERDRIVE

2008 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here) FINISHED

2007 Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben

2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2005 Saturday by Ian McEwan FINISHED

2004 GB84 by David Peace

2003 Personality by Andrew O'Hagan

2002 The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen FINISHED

2001 Something Like a House by Sid Smith

2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith FINISHED

1999 Renegade or Halo2 by Timothy Mo

1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge TBR SHELF

1997 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller TBR SHELF

1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift (FINISHED) and Justine by Alice Thompson

1995 The Prestige by Christopher Priest (reviewed here) FINISHED

1994 The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst TBR SHELF

1993 Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips

1992 Sacred Country by Rose Tremain

1991 Downriver by Iain Sinclair

1990 Brazzeville Beach by William Boyd (reviewed here) FINISHED

1989 A Disaffection by James Kelman

1988 A Season in the West by Piers Paul Read

1987 The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories by George Mackay Brown

1986 Persephone by Jenny Joseph

1985 Winter Garden by Robert Edric

1984 Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter TBR SHELF BOTH

1983 Allegro Postillions by Jonathan Keates

1982 On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin TBR SHELF

1981 Midnight's Children (reviewed here) and The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux FINISHED BOTH

1980 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee

1979 Darkness Visible by William Golding TBR SHELF

1978 Plumb by Maurice Gee

1977 The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carre TBR SHELF

1976 Doctor Copernicus by John Banville TBR SHELF

1975 The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore

1974 Monsieur, or The Prince Of Darkness by Lawrence Durrell TBR SHELF

1973 The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch TBR SHELF

1972 G by John Berger (reviewed here) FINISHED

1971 A Guest of Honour by Nadine Gordimer

1970 The Bird of Paradise by Lily Powell

1969 Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen TBR SHELF

1968 The Gasteropod by Maggie Ross

1967 Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble TBR SHELF

1966 Such by Christine Brooke-Rose and Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins TBR SHELF

1965 The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here) FINISHED

1964 The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy FINISHED

1963 A Slanting Light by Gerda Charles

1962 Act of Destruction by Ronald Hardy

1961 The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson TBR SHELF

1960 Imperial Caesar by Rex Warner

1959 The Devil's Advocate by Morris West TBR SHELF

1958 The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot by Angus Wilson

1957 At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell FINISHED

1956 The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macauley FINISHED

1955 Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett

1954 The New Men FINISHED and The Masters FINISHED by C. P. Snow 

1953 Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy

1952 Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

1951 Father Goose by W. C. Chapman-Mortimer

1950 Along the Valley by Robert Henriquez

1949 The Far Cry by Emma Smith

1948 The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene FINISHED

1947 Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley TBR SHELF

1946 Poor Man's Tapestry by G. Oliver Onions

1945 Travellers by L. A. G. Strong

1944 Young Tom by Forrest Reid

1943 Tales From Bective Bridge by Mary Lavin

1942 Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en (translation by Arthur Whaley)

1941 A House of Children by Joyce Cary

1940 The Voyage by Charles Morgan

1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley FINISHED

1938 A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

1937 Highland River by Neil M. Gunn

1936 South Riding by Winifred Holtby TBR SHELF

1935 The Root and the Flower by L. H. Myers

1934 I, Claudius (FINISHED) and Claudius the God by Robert Graves ON OVERDRIVE

1933 England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell TBR SHELF

1932 Boomerang by Helen Simpson

1931 Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien TBR SHELF

1930 Miss Mole by E. H. Young TBR SHELF

1929 The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley

1928 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon TBR SHELF

1927 Portrait of Clare by Francis Brett Young

1926 Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall

1925 The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty

1924 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster FINISHED

1923 Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett TBR SHELF

1922 Lady Into Fox by David Garnett FINISHED

1921 Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare

1920 The Lost Girl by D. H. Lawrence

1919 The Secret City by Hugh Walpole TBR SHELF

NOTES

This list is so long, and there are so many books on it that look good to me, that I plan to confine myself to completing the 20th Century winners only. I'll cut myself some slack and not try to keep up with the list into the 21st Century. I think I will adopt the same plan for several of the lists I'm working on. My heart is with mid-20th Century fiction so I'll stick with that. I get enough contemporary fiction as it is without keeping up with all the prize winners. 

Updated July 3, 2025. This is a redo of the list I originally posted in 2009. 

Book Beginning: From a View to a Death by Anthony Powell

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

They drove uncertainly along the avenue that led to the house, through the bars of light that fell between the tree trunks and made shadows of the lime-trees strike obliquely across the gravel. The nave-blue car was built high off the ground and the name on its bonnet recalled a bankrupt, forgotten firm of motor-makers.

-- From a View to a Death by Anthony Powell.

Good thing I don’t read with a highlighter because I’d be tempted to mark up every page, this book is so funny. Droll is a better word. I actually snorted on the plane the other day when something caught me so by surprise.

I’m a huge Anthony Powell fan, as his opus Dance to the Music of Time is my “desert island” book. Kind of a cheat, I know, since it is really 12 books.

The title for this book comes from a song and is a fox hunting reference. Princess Margaret said the same line in an episode of The Crown in season two, "From a view to a death in the morning."

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Book Dragon's Lair is hosting in October.  Please stop by this friendly blog to find reviews and recommendations for your next fantasy novel, cozy mystery, romantic suspense, or who knows . . . .

One of the best things about living in Portland is Powell's Books and I am particularly lucky in that my office is a short 15 minute walk away.  On a lunchtime walk the other day, I did a quick swing through the famous City of Books and found a few, no surprise.



Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien.  This won the James Tait Black Prize back in 1931.  I'm working my way through this list, so was excited to find a reprint.



Venusberg and Agents & Patients.  Anthony Powell (no relation to Powell's City of Books) is a favorite author of mine. I already have a copy of Venusberg, but loved the cover on this duel edition (the first American edition of both).



Faces in My Time, Vol. III of the memoirs of Anthony Powell.  I have the first two volumes and have been looking for these last two.



The Strangers Are All Gone, Vo. IV of the memoirs of Anthony Powell. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

MariReads is hosting in May. Please visit her wonderful blog, where even the banner picture will inspire you to read a good book.

I hit a couple of library sale shelves when I was out and about last week, snagging an Anthony Powell I've been searching for, filling in some of my books lists, and finding some new mysteries to try:

Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell. His Dance to the Music of Time is my favorite "book" if you can call a 12-volume series one book. I've been looking for this non-Dance book for quite a while.




Death of an Expert Witness by P. D. James (the 6th Adam Dalgliesh mystery; mine has a different cover than the one below).



Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James (the 11th Adam Dalgliesh mystery).



Hangman's Holiday (1933) by Dorothy L. Sayers (published in 1933; short stories, 4 with Lord Peter Wimsey).



Rough Country by John Sandford (a new one for me; I know nothing about it or the author).



Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason (another new one for me; part of a series set in Reykjavik, Iceland).

Mailbox Monday and GIVEAWAY

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! I also have a new GIVEAWAY this week and three winners of last week's giveaway.  Keep reading through the post to find all the goodies.

MAILBOX MONDAY

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. (Library books don’t count, but eBooks & audiobooks do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists!

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here). I am very pleased to host this month.

Please leave the link to your Mailbox Monday post with Mr. Linky. If you do not have a blog, leave your mailbox list in a comment.

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Last week I had three copies to give away of Emotional Currency: A Woman's Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship with Moneyby Kate Levinson, PhD.  The full title gives a pretty good description.  It sounds like a book all women should read.



THE BOOK: Emotional Currency gives women the tools to understand – and challenge – their psychological relationship with money so they can make smarter decisions about their current and future financial responsibilities.

Here’s the book every woman (and most men) need: a clear, thoughtful, and beautifully-written guide for how to cope with the myriad of emotions caused by money. Kate Levinson – practicing therapist and businesswoman –shows how money is both mercilessly public and intimately personal – stirring up our deepest feelings about dependence and independence, status, attractiveness, and terrifying confusion between net worth and self worth. Women in today’s economy are especially vulnerable because of gender biases in the workplace, patterns of parenting and upbringing that assume women do not “handle” financial matters well, and social norms that still disapprove of money-wise women. This book is a wise and important antidote.

Robert B. Reich
Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy
Goldman School of Public Policy
University of California, Berkeley

THE WINNERS: Based on random.org's choices, the winners are:

• J.G. at Hotchpot Cafe
• LKT at The Infusion
• Carol at Carol's Notebook

Thank you to all who participated and congratulations to the winners!  I will contact you shortly.

THIS WEEK'S GIVAWAY

Again thanks to book publicist extraordinaire, Mary Bisbee-Beek, I have three copies of JOYRIDE: Pedaling Toward A Healthier Planet By Mia Birk with Joe "Metal Cowboy" Kurmaskie (published by Cadence Press). These are finished books, not ARCS.

Mia Birk lives in Portland and is available for speaking engagements in the area.  She is also available for blog interviews.  If anyone is interested, please contact Mary Bisbee-Beek via her LinkedIn profile, or leave your email in a comment and Mary will contact you.




THE BOOK: This is the inspiring story of pioneering transportation leader Mia Birk's 20-year crusade to integrate bicycling into daily life. With a table scrap of funding, Mia led a revolution that grew Portland, Oregon into the #1 American cycling city. Mia then hit the road, helping make communities across the nation -- even her hometown of Dallas, Texas -- more human, healthy, safe, and livable. While many books today extol the pain of our world's problems, Mia's funny, touching Joyride is the antidote, offering hope to any and everyone interested in changing our world, one pedal stroke at a time.


THE RULES: The contest is open until Sunday, January 30, 2011. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. (Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable.) Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Stumble this blog, digg it, technorati fave it, or link it on facebook. Leave a separate comment. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Sunday, January 30, 2011. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Mailbox Monday post for January 31, 2011.

MY MAILBOX

My New Year's reading resolution was to tackle my Guilt List and to stop adding to it.  Luckily, I keep a separate list for LibraryThing Early Reviewer books, so this one doesn't count. Really.



Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes by Ed Butts.  This is a short book with 10 stories of Great Lakes adventures.  I asked for it because it would tickle my husband's reading fancy, but I am going to tear through it myself.

I also hit the jackpot at Powell's the other day.  I always check the Anthony Powell shelf when I am there (no relation, and the book store name rhymes with "towel," while the author's name sounds more like "pole"), looking for books other than A Dance to the Music of Time.  The Dance books are always there, but it is hard to find his others.  I got lucky.



From a View to a Death, his third novel, first published in 1933, before he started Dance.



What's Become of Waring, his fifth novel, first published in 1939, also before he started Dance.

To Keep the Ball Rolling: Infants of the Spring and To Keep the Ball Rolling: Messengers of Day, the first two volumes of his four-volume memoirs, published in1976 and 1978. They have plain gray covers with no dustjackets.



The Fisher King, a novel first published in 1986, after he completed Dance.

Hopping

The Blue Bookcase has started a "Literary Blog Hop" for blogs "that primarily feature reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion." Today is the very first LBH.

I'm in!

The first of the weekly "prompts" is: Please highlight one of your favorite books and why you would consider it "literary."

That's the kind of subject that makes my head spin.  The answer that comes immediately to mind is "Such and such book is 'literary' because I read it and I only read 'literary' books."  But that tautology begs the question.

The gals at The Blue Bookcase offer some guidance:

Literature has many definitions, but for our purposes your blog qualifies as "literary" if it focuses primarily on texts with aesthetic merit. In other words, texts that show quality not only in narrative but also in the effect of their language and structure. If your blog focuses primarily on YA, fantasy, romance, paranormal romance, or chick lit, you may prefer to join the blog hop at Crazy-for-Books that is open to book blogs of all genres. (Note: if your blog does not fit the above qualifications it may be removed from the Linky list. . . .)

My take away, for purposes of this hop at least, is that "literary" means well-written and non-genre. It looks like some mysteries or espionage could sneak in, but no teen-age vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, shoe shoppers, or bodice rippers. But I had better get it right or I could be booted from the list.

The problem is that this brings me back to my original answer. I don't think I need to make a case that the prize winners and "must read" books from my lists (see right-side column) are "literary."   So I will fall back on my usual pitch for why Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time is my favorite novel ever.

Hands down, my favorite "book" on the Modern Library's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list was A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.  Although commonly listed as one work, Dance is actually 12 novels, originally published separately but commonly published in four volumes of three novels each, called "The 1st Movement," "The 2nd Movement," etc.

Dance follows a group of characters in England from 1914 through WWII and up to 1971. The plots of the individual novels are less important than the entwining of these characters as they move in and out of each others lives over the years.

It definitely meets TBB's criteria of aesthetic merit, with beautiful language and a cohesive structure in addition to an absorbing story.

Review of the Day: Venusberg

Anthony Powell is best known for his 12-volume novel, A Dance to the Music of Time, which follows a loose group of acquaintances from school days on the eve of WWI, through service in WWII and subsequent careers. The plots of the individual novels are less important than the entwining of these characters as they move in and out of each other’s lives over the years.

The shape and ideas of Dance, and Powell’s dry humor, are visible in his earlier novel Venusberg. Although the plot is different – a young journalist is sent to cover the political unrest in a newly-minted Balkan state – the book similarly depends more on characters than action. Lushington’s circle includes an old school chum who stole his lover, a penniless Russian count, the seductive wife of an eminent professor, a fake count selling beauty products, a grandiose and loquacious valet, and a dozen others swirling around the diplomatic and political scene in the new capital.

Powell is content in Venusberg to observe the antics and misfortunes of this crowd of characters, while in Dance he shows more sympathy in fully developing each storyline. Still, his descriptions can by pithy masterpieces, summing up whole lifetimes in a few, deft sentences, such as his description of Lucy, Lushington’s former love:

Not long after the [divorce] decree was made absolute it became apparent that she was more than remarkably good-looking. She showed signs of becoming a film star. But she was a girl who felt that life should be full of meaning and she broke with her second husband, a film producer, because he adapted one of the minor classics too freely.

The story arc in Venusberg is none too steep – the plot is bracketed by Lushington’s arrival in and departure from the Baltic capital and pretty much confined to a series of comic scenes and character sketches. It is a book probably most appreciated by Powell fans, but could serve as a quick introduction to this great author.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this or any other Anthony Powell book listed here, please leave a comment with a link to your review post and I will add it.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Venusberg

"Lushington collected the pieces of typewritten foolscap and shook them together so that the edges were level."

-- Venusberg by Anthony Powell.

I have been tearing through books here the past week. I'm on a reading roll.

Anthony Powell is a favorite author of mine. His magnum opus, A Dance to the Music of Time, is my "desert island" book and one I look forward to re- and re-reading.

Venusberg is an earlier novel, first published in 1932, almost two decades before the first volume of Dance.  It is the story of a British journalist sent to cover the unstable situation in an unnamed Baltic state.

My copy is a particularly cool little paperback edition put out by Green Integer Books. It is 4.25" wide by 6" tall -- an interesting, compact size. 

Author of the Day: Anthony Powell

English author Anthony Powell (pronounced like "toll" not "towel") was born in 1905. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford where he met several other young writers, including Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Prior to World War II he worked in publishing and as a film-script writer, before becoming a full-time novelist and literary critic.

Powell is best known for his twelve-volume novel, A Dance to the Music of Time, most commonly available in a four-volume set with three novels in each. Dance is at the top of my "Top 10" favorite books list and what always name as my "desert island" book, although that may be cheating, since it is really 12 books.

Powell wrote a number of other novels and a biography of the seventeenth-century diarist John Aubrey. He was also a prolific literary critic and book reviewer for a number of periodicals including the Daily Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, Punch and the Spectator. He published four volumes of memoirs, three volumes of diaries, and two volumes of his selected literary criticism.

Powell was married to the author Lady Violet Pakenham. He died in 2000 at his home in Somerset.

His books are listed below in order of publication. Those I have read, including all of Dance, are in red. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue. I hope to read them all some day, although several are hard to find.

Afternoon Men

Venusberg (reviewed here)

From a View to a Death

Agents and Patients
What's Become of Waring

John Aubrey and His Friends

A Question of Upbringing (Dance to the Music of Time, Vol. 1)

A Buyer's Market (Dance, Vol. 2)

The Acceptance World (Dance, Vol. 3)

At Lady Molly's (Dance, Vol. 4)

Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (Dance, Vol. 5)

The Kindly Ones (Dance, Vol. 6)

John Aubrey and His Friends a New and Revised Edition

The Valley of Bones (Dance, Vol. 7)

The Soldier's Art (Dance, Vol. 8)

The Military Philosophers (Dance, Vol. 9)

Books Do Furnish a Room (Dance, Vol. 10)

Two Plays By Anthony Powell: The Garden God & The Rest I'll Whistle

Temporary Kings (Dance, Vol. 11)

Hearing Secret Harmonies (Dance, Vol. 12)

To Keep the Ball Rolling: Infants of the Spring (Memoirs, Vol. 1)

To Keep the Ball Rolling: Messengers of Day (Memoirs, Vol. 2)

To Keep the Ball Rolling: Faces In My Time (Memoirs, Vol. 3)

To Keep the Ball Rolling: The Strangers All Are Gone (Memoirs, Vol. 4)

O, How the Wheel Becomes It!

The Fisher King

Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writings on Writers

Under Review: Further Writings on Writers, 1946-1990

Journals, 1982-1986

Journals, 1987-1989

Journals 1990-1992

Writer's Notebook

OTHERS READING POWELL'S BOOKS

Books Do Furnish a Room (where you will find many Powell posts)

(If you would like your Powell-related blog posts listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTES

Last updated December 29, 2018.

Modern Library's Top 100 List: Favorites

Hands down, my favorite "book" on the Modern Library's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list was A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.  Although commonly listed as one work, Dance is actually 12 novels, originally published separately but commonly published in four volumes of three novels each, called "The 1st Movement," "The 2nd Movement," etc.

Dance follows a group of characters in England from 1914 through WWII and up to 1971. The plots of the individual novels are less important than the entwining of these characters as they move in and out of each others lives over the years.

It is definitely on my Desert Island list (10 books I'd want with me if stranded on a desert island) -- especially if I can count it as one book, like the Modern Library did.

Here is a list of the 12 books of Dance to the Music of Time, in publication order.