Greatest British Novels Ever

What does the rest of the world see as the greatest British novels? In search of a collective critical assessment, BBC Culture contributor Jane Ciabattari polled 82 book critics, from Australia to Zimbabwe – but none from the UK. This list includes no nonfiction, no plays, no narrative or epic poems (no Paradise Lost or Beowulf), no short story collections (no Morte D’Arthur) – novels only, by British authors (which means no James Joyce).

The British novel has influenced the form around the world for centuries, so we felt it was important to get a global perspective. The critics we polled live and work all over the world, from the United States and continental Europe to Australia, Africa, Asia, India and the Middle East.

 

Some of the critics we invited to participate are regular book reviewers or editors at newspapers, magazines or literary blogs – Lev Grossman (Time), Mary Ann Gwinn (Seattle Times), Ainehi Edoro (Brittle Paper), Mark Medley (Toronto Globe and Mail), Fintan O’Toole (The Irish Times), Stephen Romei and Geordie Williamson (The Australian), Sam Sacks  (The Wall Street Journal) and Claiborne Smith (Kirkus Reviews).

 Others are literary scholars, including Terry Castle, Morris Dickstein, Michael Gorra, Carsten Jensen, Amitava Kumar, Rohan Maitzen, Geoffrey O’Brien, Nilanjana Roy and Benjamin Taylor. Each who participated submitted a list of 10 British novels, with their pick for the greatest novel receiving 10 points. The points were added up to produce the final list.

The critics named 228 novels in all. These are the top 50;

50. A Passage to India (EM Forster, 1924)
    49. Possession (AS Byatt, 1990)
    48. Lucky Jim (Kingsley Amis, 1954)
    47. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne, 1759)
    46. Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie, 1981)
    45. The Little Stranger  (Sarah Waters, 2009)
    44. Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel, 2009)
    43. The Swimming Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst, 1988)
    42. Brighton Rock (Graham Greene, 1938)
    41. Dombey and Son (Charles Dickens, 1848)
    40. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865)
    39.  The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes, 2011)
    38. The Passion (Jeanette Winterson, 1987)
    37. Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh, 1928)
    36. A Dance to the Music of Time (Anthony Powell, 1951-1975)
    35. Remainder (Tom McCarthy, 2005)
    34. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005)
    33. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908)
    32. A Room with a View (EM Forster, 1908)
    31. The End of the Affair (Graham Greene, 1951)
    30. Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe, 1722)
    29. Brick Lane (Monica Ali, 2003)
    28. Villette (Charlotte Brontë, 1853)
    27. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719)
    26. The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien, 1954)
    25. White Teeth (Zadie Smith, 2000)
    24. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing, 1962)
    23. Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895)
    22. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Henry Fielding, 1749)
    21. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1899)
    20. Persuasion (Jane Austen, 1817)
    19. Emma (Jane Austen, 1815)
    18. Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989)
    17. Howards End (EM Forster, 1910)
    16. The Waves (Virginia Woolf, 1931)
    15. Atonement (Ian McEwan, 2001)
    14. Clarissa (Samuel Richardson,1748)
    13. The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford, 1915)
    12. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949)
    11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)
    10. Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848)
    9. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
    8. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1850)
    7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)
    6. Bleak House (Charles Dickens, 1853)
    5. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
    4. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)
    3. Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925)
    2. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927)
    1. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1874)